Arabia, and actually even when he was in israel compared to how he actually talks to our allies in europe. The president s policy was on full display in moscow, man handling the representative from montenegro. Look at this move. This is am missing. Gives a whole new meaning to America First. That is what some in europe would call the ugly american, that sort of action. He ripped off the poor president of france. Hes a young guy, macron. Pulls you in, right . Thats his move. Tried it on gorsuch. He was, no, ill stay right here. Welcome to morning joe. Done any is with us along with author of the book a world in disarray, haass. Also, Senior Reporter at usa today do you want it to be the morning joe pronunciation or Chris Matthews pronunciation. Lets just say morning joe here on forward. Heidi przybilla in washington, d. C. Whats the alternative. Przybilla i got a question for you. Its not quite that bad. Ive got to defend him a little. Of course its not as bad. Ahead well go live to montana where the guy who beat up a reporter for asking about budget scores actually won that state states election. Well pay his victory speech, apology and well see if he beat the hell out of anybody else. Never want to issue an apology at a victory celebration. Jimmy super fly snooker. Off the top rope. Yeah. Not like the guy was sticking a mike in his face saying i understand youve got a mistress in des moines and you have three families its not like they were going ep into the really person the Congressional Budget Office scored the Health Care Plan not again. You guys do this all the time. Richard, really quickly, well get to the news. We know what were supposed to do. Before we read it, what was your takeaway. We showed clips of how she was in saudi arabia versus how he was with the Democratic Leaders of europe. What was your takeaway. Saudi arabia he was, if anything, too slis us to, you would have thought that saudi arabia had nothing to do with the rise of groups like al qaeda and isis, bent over backwards to be solace tis. All this is against the backdrop of a campaign where he called a nato obsolete, differ on trade, russia, refugees. It was low hanging fruit yesterday, to send a message that an attack on one is an attack on all and he consciously didnt do it. What this does, it signals that what used to be unconditional is now conditional. This means this sets in motion history. For 70 years its been uncharacteristically stable. Think about the last seven years and the first half of the 20th century, we had two world wars. Europe has been stable for seven years. Why . Because the United States has beenunconditionally. Unconditionally. And when we have needed it, since 1945, when we have needed to go somewhere to a group of allies in a crunch, weve been there. Not as a favor them. The whole idea is were there for them as a favor to ourselves. Their stability and their security is an American National interest. That concept seems totally does not seem to understand, were in the doing what were doing for luxembourg. Were doing what were doing to protect this country. Jim mattis i love what jim mattis does. Looking through history, countries with great allies across the globe are countries that thrive. Countries that are isolated are countries that collapse. We need as many allies as we can possibly have, especially now. It seems the only ally donald trump is interested in outside of saudi arabia is russia. Stephen miller wrote that speech yesterday. Hes also the author of the travel ban. His Foreign Policy adviser, he has said over and over again during the campaign and as donald trump has been president , where he got the idea that nato is obsolete he got from stephen miller. Thats millers world view coming through on the stage. Now to say it as the leaders are standing there these are live pictures, by the way, at the g7 in italy right now. But to make that speech and give those campaignstyle comments in the presence of those leaders where he had a chance to be president ial to say, yes, we are committed to this. We are committed to the concept by the way, 20 little girls got blown up going to a concert in europe earlier this week. That terrorism could have been the center of it. Not the 2 by the way, i agree with him. I couldnt agree with him more. Barney frank and i the one think barney frank and i always agreed on when on the floor of congress and afterwards was we shouldnt carry europe on our back, they should pay their 2 . They should carry their load. They dont get to escape from history. I agree with that. But do not call them out. The entire world is watching and, of course, most importantly Vladimir Putin is watching. It seemed like yesterday was his love note to Vladimir Putin. It really did by, first of all, attacking the allies and then by not moving forward and saying they were going to do what weve always done and defend any country that was attacked. That was the stunning part, too, to your point, saying weve got to even the score dollarswise, but not go to article five, not send that signal to our allies, you strategically go why, what is the logic . Sometimes you can look at trump and go, hes sinister, but theres this kind of twisted machiavellian logic. Theres no there there. Youd probably agree with me. So many times donald is shooting his mouth off, and shoots his mouth off in complete and total ignorance. Hes never been interested in the history, in our history, in our constitution, our heritage, our civil the civil order. But i will tell you, this is a motivator of him. He is an isolationist. He doesnt believe the United States should defend our allies if they are attacked by russia. I actually think its a larger issue with him. He looks at everything we do in the world and its almost to put it in business terms, our return on investment isnt big enough. We do so much in the world, it costs us too much. If you go back to the inaugural speech, he blames a lot of our ills on that. Again, its just missing the larger take. By the way, university of alabama fan. My entire the community down there in tuscaloosa, northern alabama, a lot of my friends that live there, their lives have been transformed because mercedes actually has built now i think its two lines that theyre building in northern alabama. Its completely transformed that communi community. Why do they do it . Because the germans find its the most productive and the most cost efficient factory of Mercedes Benz in the entire world. Ive got friends in greenville, South Carolina. Walk up and down the streets of greenville, South Carolina, on a friday night. Do you know what you hear . You hear people speaking german, and theyre speaking german because bmw, because of Carol Campbell and a lot of other visionaries brought in, not only bmw, but other German Companies to greenville, South Carolina. Our relationship is germany has transformed two southern communities in an extraordinarily dramatic way that has improved the lives of those people and those regions. Tennessee is the same, volkswagen. Tennessee is the same. Theres some dispute this morning, the your Company Commissioner said the translation of donald trump saying the germans are acting very badly might not have been quite correct and he was strong in what he said about germany. But i think generally the contrast we showed at the top of the show, saudi arabia on the one hand and these allies that weve had, as youve said, richard, for 70 years in europe, why the hostile tone to them . These are the people who have been at our side so many times through history. Why are we confronting them . Just look at these pictures. Willie, youre right about that. I was a german major. Boza is angry or disagreeable. Its not evil, the direct translation. The point stands, why is it necessary to use insults . If your goal if your end goal is really to try and rectify the trade imbalance despite all the german investment in our company, is it really necessary to use insults. That just speaks to the broader issue of how he conducts himself with all foreign leaders and just kind of the level of his skill in terms of rhetoric and not realizing the consequences of using insults. You look at the pictures were showing right here. Done any, on top you have lavr v lavrov, as john mccain said is an old kgb stooge, one of putins henchmen. Then below you have the most important democratic leader outside the president of the United States, and he wont even shake her hand. Not right, not good. What is he trying to get at here . Two points, to pick up on richard you used the term and i love this term, you call trump a day trader. Sometimes trump can literally only see an inch in front of his nose. As a guy who looks at a balance sheet, he sees, wait a second, were contributing to this to nato, the rest are only contributing that, versus three steps out of that. He can only look at that one balance sheet. The second point that i keep coming back to, theres only one explanation for all of this, and its all the other stuff that his ally, that his brethren, his cake is being buttered somehow with the russians. Everything that happens because i have said on this show, from everybody ive talked to in the intel community, everything ive heard, there is no right now, there may be letter, but there is no evidence of direct collusion between russia and trump. That said, everything that happened yesterday, richard feeds into the suspicion that there is, or that putin has something on donald trump. Yes was bizarre by any post 1945 diplomatic standard. It was bizarre to be that hostile towards americas greatest allies on the planet since 1945 versus his treatment of Vladimir Putin. No argument. Yesterday was another good day for Vladimir Putin when he sees this kind of disarray in the western alliance. I will say theres one other thing that donald trump has shown a consistent pattern of cozying up to strong men, erdogan in turkey, New York Times today has videos of his thugs beating up on people using their First Amendment rights. You have duarte a confessed killer being treated positively. He goes to the middle east and he embraces these guys, none of whom has anything remotely like Political Rights in their country and he goes to europe which is the most Free Democratic part of the world, and you have suddenly this chill in the air. That was my greatest takeaway yesterday, is that. Hes very comfortable around strong men, ought krats and people democratically elected make him very, very nervous. He respects authoritarians. Its very obvious, he respects auto kratz, leaders able to cut peoples heads off if they protest. He respects leaders that are able to shoot journalists. Hes very uncomfortable around Democratic Leaders and it was very clear yesterday, very uncomfortable around people that run democratic countries, willie. And what was the one relationship he had, the one interaction he had with our greatest ally, theresa may, her scolding him because of leaking intelligence to newspapers. The administration claims that behind the scenes merkel and trump now have a very Good Relationship, same with theresa may. They say just wait six months, youll see. But if thats the case, thats a secret that Angela Merkel and theresa may so far the only secret weve been able to hold. Exactly. By the way, we should go without saying. We have a Good Relationship with germany and britain. I hope so. Now to the news that a member of the president s family who doubles as one of his closest advisers is being looked at by the fbi in its russia probe. Multiple u. S. Officials tell nbc news investigators believe Jared Kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry. That does not mean they suspect him of a crime or they intend to charge him with anything. The Washington Post first reported last night a senior white house official close to trump was a person of interest but did not name the person. The official said kushner is in a different category from Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn who are formally considered subjects of the investigation. The post reports investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by kushner. In late 2016 kushner met with Russian Ambassador sergey kislyak. He also reportedly met in december with sergei gorokhov, the head of a bank the subject of u. S. Sanctions following russias 2014 annexation of crimea in support of separatists in eastern ukraine. Nbcs Peter Alexander joins us from the white house, the Washington Post came out with their reporting immediately afterward. The coauthor of the story, adam entis is also with us. Good morning to you both. Peter, just so its clear to everyone watching, what exactly is Jared Kushners role . What is the fbi looking at here. Lets just clear about why this is striking. This is obviously one of the most powerful men in the country because he may be the closest adviser in this country to President Trump and strikingly very few americans have heard his voice. The fbi certainly wants to hear from him. As you reported, multiple u. S. Officials are telling us he is now under fbi scrutiny, meaning they want to talk to him about significant information he may have, may be able to provide in their russia investigation. We are told he is not a target, he is not the focus on the probe in the way that individuals like Paul Manafort, the former Campaign Chair and former National Security adviser Michael Flynn are right now. What we dont know specifically is what activities in particular the fbi is interested in speaking to him about. We have heard from the attorney jamie gore relic, for Jared Kushner, she gave us a statement. She said mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with congress what he knows about these meetings, referring to the russia meetings you were talking about. He will do the same if hes contacted in connection with any other inquiry. Weve already reported to nbc that kushner volunteered to speak to the Senate Intelligence community in terms of their investigation right now. For now, whats relevant, they want to talk to him and the story goes right to the door of the oval office, to one of the people who is closest to this president. I wonder, adam, if thats why the fbi actually wants to talk to him because he is at the center of everything. He took all the meetings. Donald trump didnt have a secretary of state, so he was pretty much the acting secretary of state. So the guy had 50 meetings with saudis before going to saudi arabia. He had 50 meetings with the chinese. If anybody has information for the fbi, again, even though hes not a target, that would be the first person youd want to talk to, right . Theres no question. He is the point person that the president and at the time during the campaign and again during the transition, he was basically trumps point person dealing with the russians. So its very logical what was goingson here was the phish and National Security agency were listening to Russian Communications and hearing discussions about jared and mike flynn and others in trumps orb orbit. Based on what they were getting from that intelligence and other intelligence and the secrecy with which these meetings were taking place, they obviously, according to our sources scrutinize is a very nice way to put it. Theyre investigating jareds participation in those meetings with the russians, trying to get to the bottom of what was discussed and how does it relate to anything else. You have to understand, with fbi investigations this starts with counterintelligence investigations. If they, as part of that, pick up information thats criminal in nature, such as related to business interests, that can spin out of this. Right. And if this goes somewhere with donald, with anybody, im sure theyll be looking at Donald Trumps 20, 30, 40year relationship with russians, russian bankers, et cetera, et cetera. In this case, really quickly, im curious, there was a term it seems like the fbi made up here, person of interest. Theres great ambiguity around that. Im not sure why person of interest was used originally. You guys, though, have sorted through what that means. Hes not a suspect, but it las to do with, again, just the information. Why did the information put out that, quote, person of interest label on jared. Seems like a deliberately ambiguous label . My understanding is its not a term they put out. Its a term used occasionally to describe somebody who is not a target, which implies that the investigation is further along. I think the best way for people to understand this is just to understand that the investigation is focusing on a relatively small number of people, and jared is the person in the white house who is now a focus of this investigation, and hes a current official, whereas the others are no longer current in the sense that mike flynn was fired as National Security adviser, Paul Manafort was dismissed as campaign manager. Heidi przybilla has a question. Peter or adam, do we know how recent this actually is, that kushner has become a person of int