MSNBC panel busts Trump for going out of his way to have his picture taken with dictators and autocrats
On Saturday, a panel on MSNBC's "AM Joy" discussed President Donald Trump's behavior at the G20 summit with Joy Reid — and many of her guests agreed that his desire to grovel and spend time with
"I guess one of [the takeaways] is just the shamelessness," said British journalist and NBC international correspondent Keir Simmons. "I remember previous G20s when President Putin left early because he was shunned by so many leaders. You'll remember last year the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, shunned. This time President Putin, the crown prince, front and center. The crown prince standing next to President Trump at that family photo."
"Last piece, I guess, Joy, you know, you saw this deal with the Chinese today after the meeting with President Xi on trade, you talked about President Trump heading to South Korea hoping to meet with Kim Jong-un," said Simmons. "It seems President Trump's foreign policy is shifting a little as we heads towards the 2020 elections. He wants to wrap things up, I suspect, in many places he certainly is likely to not want a fight going into those — to that election. He's going to want to say he managed to achieve some things."
Reid then turned to former CIA analyst Nada Barkos. "The New York Times is reporting that Donald Trump's tweet of friendship to Kim Jong-Un actually caught his — the diplomatic core in Asia and his advisors off guard, particularly since the last meeting didn't go well. It ended as a disaster for both leaders. They got nothing"
"I'm old enough to remember the G20 meetings, the image, the picture was the President of the United States with our allies," added Reid. "So you would see pictures of him with the leaders of Britain and France and that sort of thing, and now with Donald Trump there, all the pictures are Trump with dictators, Trump with the Saudi dictator, Trump with Russia's Vladimir Putin, and Trump with the president for life of China. The image of the United States is the President of the United States surrounded by autocrats."
"Their response on Twitter is they haven't received an official diplomatic request and they are using diplomatic processes and norms that most countries engage in and that's their expectation, yet, Trump wants to negotiate all of this over Twitter, which I just find astounding," said Barkos. "That actually North Korea is the one that's saying we need to use diplomatic channels and processes in place. There are institutions that are useful and processes that are useful."
"As far as the G20, I'm astounded at Trump's response about meddling in the election," Barkos continued. "Trump criticized principles throughout the G20 meeting. Trump didn't say anything in response to that and made a sarcastic remark. That's dangerous. Putin's predecessors said democracy will collapse ... and Trump didn't say ensure it will be upheld by the United States."
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