Book, the soul of america jon meacham. Rudy is confused again . Hes always confused. He gets confused a lot. Mixed up. Its interesting. Jon meacham, rudy will be the first to tell anyone who asks, he has been knighted by the queen of england. Thats right. Have you been knighted by the queen of england. No, you have not. I have not. Youll appreciate this, joe, there was a Police Commissioner in chattanooga when i was growing up when he was indicted and tried and found innocent and he ran for reelection on the platform that he had been found innocent by a court of law and no one else had a declaration of his innocence and i think he won. Hes smarter than you and you put together. All of us. I know it. And more accomplished any way. Jon should be knighted. I have not been knighted. Im available to be knighted. You are the soul of america, jon meacham. The soul of america. Lord meachum of swanny. That means something. Harvard of the south, right . I thought alabama was the harvard of the south. Ole miss people will be upset. Lets get to our top story this morning and stop talking about how smart rudy is. Might get to his head. Hes smarter than you, though. Here he comes. President trump says hes working hard to save jobs. Told you he would. Yeah. Well those jobs are in china. What . The president tweeted that president xi and i are working together to give massive chinese phone company zte, a way to get back into business fast. Too many jobs in china lost. Hold on. Hold on. Nick confessorry, im confused. Too many jobs in china lost. I thought he was campaigning i am also confused. Then he goes on and says, i will be ordering my federal government, the u. S. Government to help save jobs in china. He wants to save jobs in china. Thats not why we elected him to save jobs in china. Listen, i applaud his concern, but it does seem that somebody mixed up two of his standard tweets and mashed them up and put china for america. Its important to remember why we kind of move to remove that company from doing business in the u. S. Because of National Security concerns and where tho components are creating a risk. Im confused. Now, elise, last time i went to mississippi, nobody down there was saying, joe, you know what i think the biggest problem is, that there are too many jobs lost in china. Im worried about job growth in china. I am worried about china. But donald trump is saying, can we say trump, cohen, make china great again across the bottom, please . Yes. Boom. They already had it. So i dont think people in moss point are worried about making china great again. Its a globalist move anywhere. I wonder if breitbart is going to brand donald trump a globalist. He might go to cfr meeting before we know it. Look, one assumes seriously wrapped up into the larger trade negotiations. You had the u. S. Delegation went to china. It was a fiasco. Chinas trade commissioner is coming to washington this week. This is obviously part of that. Exactly what the details china is going to give the president remains to be seen, but this is part of that. Oh, so jon meacham, donald trump is learning a year and a half in that being president of the United States actually isnt as easy as it seems to be and sometimes there are tradeoffs that you have to make and its not as easy as just going out and throwing red meat into the crowd, saying were going to destroy china. Absolutely. I have to introduce a serious note here, but one of the things the country is going to have to figure out is the people who are skeptical of the way the president has conducted himself rightly skeptical and unhappy, is if he does demonstrate a capacity to do the right thing and does it, how do we talk about that . And what is the vocabulary, what is the ve vrnaculavernacular, t particular tasks, politics is the art of compromise, its not just the art of being donald trump, and if he does, in fact, if the entertainer in chief commands the commander in chief, what does that look like . Well, its pretty simple. We would say he thats good. That would be great. Yeah. We have time been doing something positive. We have time to practice. Richard, i do think that if donald trump didnt make such a habit of consulting our allies, then i do think there could be a really good conservative liberal debate around iran, for instance. And there has been. The problem is that everything, you know, every move whether youre talking about trade deals or whether youre talking about the paris accords or whether youre talking about iran, whatever youre talking about, there are ways to frame all of those decisions and all of those moves, but he does it by tweet, by insult. And thats part of the problem. Two things, one, we take all those things collectively. This is the United States abdicating its role as the foundation of the world order as we knew it. Look at darrell this week. You cant show the headline on Family Television the cover. But essentially a german saying this is the end of the Atlantic Alliance, the u. S. european relations. Theyve given up on donald trump. Youre right. If youre going to disagree, then you have to go the extra mile on process. We always disagree with our allies, but then you really have to work the process and the consultations hard. Whats so bad with this administration often is you disagree on the policy and they feel that they simply been ignored, not taken seriously and the combination of the two is so deadly. Jon meacham, Ronald Reagan had policies for eight years that not only our allies disagreed that 95 of the National Media disagreed with, the National Media was saying poor reagan, the duke. I remember the reports you would have thought that americas future was forever compromised by it while there were others of us who thought, no, thats the move the man had to make. You dont expect the liberal media to go along with you every time. But the one thing reagan always did, james a. Baker, iii would be over there explaining what reagan is doing. We would be working with always five steps ahead. Always. One of the things thats so interesting about the universal acclaim that nearly universal acclaim that president reagan has in historical terms, most of the press thought that he was a combination of the mad bomber and ebenezer scrooge in realtime. Ive always thought and this is why the character is so important, ive always thought that we never fully appreciated that Ronald Reagans most significant Life Experience coming into the presidency was less his actual movie career and more his labor union career because he negotiated that contract for six, seven, eight years. Somebody once said whats it like dealing with the soviets. Hell, youve never dealt with jack warner. He was able to come out in the First Press Conference and say the soviets lied and cheat and wanted world domination. After he was shot, he writes a letter by hand. He gets a marvelous partner in gorbachev. By 1988, the man who calls him an evil empire is in literally in red square kissing babies. And that kind of won praise. I dont think there is a method to this madness, but we do have, i think, you have to have some hope that we stagger through. We do have prayers. Moving on, the wall street journal reports that Michael Cohen took an aggressive approach to profit from his relationship with donald trump. Who would have ever seen that coming. They report that cohen also offered Consulting Services to ford and uber, which both rejected his overtures. The journal and Detroit Free Press report that special counsel Robert Muellers office contacted ford requesting information on cohens outreach and has interviewed fords head of government affairs. The general reports that uber sited new york cohens taxi business as a conflict of interest when rejecting his offer and modified his approach to remind the company that he was, quote, the president s lawyer. Cohens overall pitch was blunt, telling prospective clients that they should fire whomever was advising them and saying i have the best relationship with the president on the outside and you need to hire me. According to a person familiar with cohens approach. So nick, this is not how business is usually done among lobbyists. I know people knock lobbyists, but there are rules even for consultants and a way to do things and a way not to do things. For people at home to think this is how it usually happens, it is not. This is irregular and it is wrong. Its a parody of how washington works in real life, right . So, yes, relations are important in washington. And lobbyists cloak these discussions in expertise and say im an expert on the process, on legislation. And theres some truth in that. Its rare to get the hard core play of simply i have a relationship and if you want in, you should pay me. He ran around in this really hand fisted way. I remember hearing about it in 2017 and saying i have the president s cell phone. Im his friend. I can get to him. You dont usually see it that baldly stated. In one sense its refreshing to hear the proposition stated so clearly. On the other, it runs counter to the way the lobbying community tried to cloak what it does for years and years. Particularly for somebody not registered as a lobbyist. Lawyer, fixer, whats the adjective, before . Bumbling lawyer, corrupt lawyer, bumbling fixer, corrupt fixer . I have this image of Michael Cohen going through linkedin and just looking at all the different businesses who have interest in d. C. And is like, oh, well maybe ill put out a feeler there and reaching out. It honestly is a microcosm for just the level of ineptitude. Yes, we should maybe be heartened that hes that inept at legalized corruption and trying to get in there as a lobbyist, but its a sad reflection on how everyone involved with the Trump Administration they cant even do the things that corrupt people have been able to manage. He gets caught. That takes us perfectly to our next story. Rudy giuliani kept up his rapid pace of comments this weekend, saying he was unsure when or even if Michael Cohen has stopped working as the president s personal lawyer. Quote, as far as we know, hes not. Hes not stopped okay. Were back to this. He told that to politico on friday. Wow. He added that the president s current legal team has never really determined a precise day when cohen stepped away. The president referred to cohen as one of my personal attorneys after the raid on cohens offices on april 9th. And then tweeted Attorney Client privilege is dead on april 10th. The white house has sidestepped questions on cohens status. The wall street journal reports that cohen bragged about his relationship with the president. A source said cohen told lawyers at the firm Squire Patten boggs he could call the boss at any time. But giuliani characterized trump being all about politics. Early on maybe about the russia investigation before cohen came under scrutiny. Of cohens business deals, giuliani says the president said to him, quote, i had no idea. He certainly never lobbied me. Here is the president late last month telling fox what he knew about cohens work. Michael is in business. Hes really a businessman. Fairly big businesses, i understand it. I dont know his business. But this doesnt have to do with me. Michael is a businessman. Hes got a business. He also practices law. I would say probably the big thing is his business and theyre looking into something having to do with his business. I have nothing to do with his business. I love how he writes one word or a phrase in front of him before every interview. Sometimes its no collusion. Were going to like the no collusion Christmas Tree, no collusion. Later no collusion. Noon, no collusion. So this time was business. Hes a businessman. Business. Michael has a business. Its a big business, i think. I dont know. But ive been told its a big business. Most of the stuff he does has to do with business. Hes a businessman. Not my business. His business, of course. I understand its a fairly Good Business. I dont know because i dont know what his business is. We got that from fox friends then we have rudy taking his medals off. Theres so many. So many from the queen. Sword. Sword. Yes, taking his sword. And then saying, oh wait, he can still be his lawyer. Maybe its not about business. Well, look, the entire problem for the president and for cohen is this question mark around his business and where it overlaps with the president s business. So cohen is a guy who is flipping realize in suspicious ways, he was buying taxi medallio medallions, being a fixer, setting claims for the president , paying off affairs for the president. Part of his big, big business was working for the president. And part of his big business was telling companies he could get to the president. Yeah, its not like theres this bright line between cohens business. He was going to companies that were in trouble with the administration and pitching himself as a fixer to them. And you know, its still unclear exactly who that money was for, who was getting paid. Was it lobbying, was it Something Else . We dont know. Richard, i have to say a year and a half in, the incompetence of all of these people, elise said, theyre not good at lying. You know, david quote, the clintons are unusually good liars. Well, donald trump and those around him unusually bad liars. And bad at corruption. Just so obvious. Its one crumb after another crumb after another crumb they leave laid out. I just wonder how a year and a half we have a president who said he would hire the best people, have nothing but the best people around him but really is surrounded especially in his personal dealings and his staffing around him at the white house with the most and history will prove this. With the most incompetent Staff Members around him in the white house in the history of the white house. Youve got incompetence and in many cases questionable judgment corruption. When jeb bush said he would be a chaos president , its ad hoc on steroids. You have the wrong people. We talked about iran the minute ago. An idea that a decision would be taken without an meeting, without organized consideration approach, pros and cons the various considerations. We have to fix your mike. By the way, the bhous cant give us clarity. Cant give us clarity on what he does. I mean, what cohen does. The schedule . Yeah, what cohen does. If they cant do that, then theres no reason for the press office. It changes everyday. Yeah. Thats a question they should be able to answer. But this is trump and giuliani sort of winging it. Its something that the staff has been complaining about for some time, jon meacham, that trump and giuliani get into the room and sort of wing it. They both live in their own alternate realities at times. Trump especially. And whats unbelievable is that nobody has sat down in a room and said, lets figure out what happened, when it happened. Even if they dont want to do the right thing, theyre not sitting down saying, okay, whats our story . What do we tell people . Giuliani has been just spitting out words now for the past two weeks contradicting himself everyday. This would be as if we talk about past administrations. This would be as if jimmy carter had billy carter as his personal lawyer. I think two tributaries are merging here. Theyre both used to being the principal, the biggest person in the room. They both think they know better. One became president by the most unconventional means possible. The other has been a worldwide celebrity knighted by the queen. Knighted by the queen he says. Unlike jon meacham. Also like donald trump, he says hes very smart, very intelligent. So speaking of i got one more rudy story for you. I know. But before we get to the last rudy story, what is it with both donald trump and Rudy Giuliani that they feel they have to run around telling people how smart they are. Do you guys know people that run around saying how smart they are . You should listen to this guy in the green room. Meacham has a tshirt that says soul of america. Its a golf hat. Its weird that these people run around going im so intelligent. Im smarter than everybody. Which tells you actually theyre not. Fear. The more you swagger, the more you swagger, the more insecure you are. And you protest too much. Somebody said ive heard last weekend and im not stealing the line because i cant remember who said it, in this washington there is the west wing and then theres trump and theyre not the same thing. Yeah. I think now you add giuliani and so you have a genuine three ring circus. Oh my lord. Thats going to keep going. Theres no intersection. It will just be the president i mean, when its all over, nixon had bbroboso, trump has his telephone. Thats it. This is the cell phone presidency. Its very lonely and i think thats why, you know, we see these erratic moments because he has no one else to have them with except all of us. Doesnt feel like it ends well. This is the final rudy story. Rudy giuliani created confusion about President Trumps role in the Justice Department move to thwart an 85 billion emergencier speaking about at ts 600,000 contract with Michael Cohen, giuliani told huff post, whatever lobbying was done didnt reach the president. He did train the swamp. The president denied the merger. They didnt get the result they wanted. After some got the impression trump had taken a personal role in the Justice Departments decision to challenge the merger between at t and time warner, giuliani followed up with nbc news, quote, i just want to be clear, the president did not intervene. I got to stop really quickly. I know. Can we show that picture of giuliani again with this quote. I think it was dan dressner, the instant juligiuliani tweeted ou look for clarification within the next 12 hours. I was going to say like that. Everybody was saying the same thing. It is so funny. Your former boss says im not going to vote for so and so. You know he is. Youre just waiting for him to come up with the excuse. No. Its happened. Its happened every time. Im not going to support this you know they are. Say, okay, whats going to be here with giuliani, time and time again, people are saying he will back