Next stop singapore. The president leaves t s g7 sum early. Its a onetime shot. And i think its going to work out very well. But is the president really prepared to deal with the north korean dictator . Plus, tardy trump, aliving late at todays g7 breakfast just running behind . Or sending a message . And turning up the heat. How does that new indictment against Paul Manafort factor into the russia probe. Hey, everyone, im alex witt here at msnbc headquarters in new york. The president is officially wheels up. Hes headed to singapore for the historic summit with kim jongun. The president pressure ofresh o meeting in quebec where he talked about tariffs and fair trade. And from the standpoint of trade and being fair to companies we are committed, i think they are starting to be committed to a much more fair trade situation for the United States. Because it has been treated very, very unfairly. And i dont blame other leaders for that. I blame our past leaders. The President Trump did not find his counterparts disagreeable. According to him, the tough negotiations were respectful. I will say it was not contentious. What was strong was the language that this cannot go on. But the relationships are very good. And on his upcoming meeting with kim, the president offered this prediction. He can take that nation with those great people, and truly make it great, so its a onetime, its a onetime shot. And i think its going to work out very well. Nbc News White House correspondent Kristen Welker is at the summit in canada with the highlights. Kristen, its been a busy morning. What more can you tell justice. Well, President Trump did make a range of headlines. You just ticked through some of them, alex. In terms of north korea, he did strike a confident optimistic note, saying that he thinks that kim jongun is serious about sitting down. At the same time, alex, he lowered expectations. He said, look, its possible that the best that comes out of this first meeting with kim is dialogue. So essentially saying we might not be able to get a deal in this first go round. He has said in the past there might need to be a second even a third summit. Take a listen to what he had to say this morning. I think within the first minute, ill know. How . Just my touch, my feel. Thats what i do. How long will it take to figure out whether or not theyre serious, i said, maybe in the first minute. You know, the way they say you know if youre going to like somebody in the first five seconds, you ever hear that one . Well, i think very quickly, ill know whether or not something good is going to happen. So, the president really touting his skills as he sees himself the dealmaker in chief. Alex, the mistakes, frankly, couldnt be higher. He leaves the g7 summit a few hours early, as you mentioned at the top. And he leaves after what was a pretty tense set of discussions here. He said they were in fact cordial and by the way, all of the optics looked very cordial when you saw him meeting with the president of france, the Prime Minister of canada, there were a lot of smiles. But behind the scenes some very deep differences. And he touched on those today, reiterating his call to have russia rejoin the g7. Of course, russia was suspended with crimea. Some leaders saying look russia continues to act illegally by invading crimea. Italy the only one ohm to tpen idea. And the strongest language yet, the president recently announces new steel and aluminum tariffs. Today saying essentially if countries dont lower their barriers they wont be doing business with the United States. A bit of an ultimatum there. Officials telling me, why is he leaving early . Because the stakes are so high. Hes been preparing and getting briefing from his secretary of state mike pompeo and when asked about preparing for this, he said hes been prosecuting all his life, alex. Chrkristen, thank you. Joining me White House Reporter for the wall street journal and john harwood. We welcome you both here. John, first here, im going to play a bit here from the president talking about suggestions he made with representatives of the g7 summit, here it is. You want tarifffree, you want no barriers and no subsidies. You have countries that are s subsi subsidyfree. Thats what you learn at the Wharton School of finance. Whether or not that works i did suggest it. People were i guess theyre going back to the drawing board and check it out, right . But we cant have an example where were paying, the United States is paying 270 . Just cant have it. And when they sent things into us, you dont have that. Is this a realistic proposal, john . Not at all, its not connected to reality. Were talking about a president who has pulled out of one arduously negotiated trade deal. The transpacific partnership. Who said today that the United States would be better off if nafta ceased to exist. And who, in fact, is raising tariffs on not only china, but the european union. Canada, mexico. In other words, our allies. And this is something that is going to have negative effects, economically, every economist across the spectrum believes that. And the president is he was trying to justify what he is doing and saying, well, im raising tariffs in order to lower them but it didnt make any sense. So, how is it that hes saying that, how is it that hes being advised to say that or is he just doing this on his own, john . Well, i think this is a president who for several decades has had a sudden core impulse about the American Economy. I dont know what gave rise to the impulse in the first place but hes always expressed the view what were getting screwed by other countries, that were getting taken advantage of by other countries. And hes now expressing that in a fairly crude fashion as president by the approach hes taking saying you make a better deal with me. International trade is something that president s of both parties have worked on for decades. They built a system, stepbystep, has tried to intersect the worlds economies. Lower trade barriers. To the benefit of all. And the president has seized on he certainly did in this campaign, to get votes, using trade as the whipping boy for changes in the American Economy that left some americans behind. Trade may have been some part of that. But there are many factors in the Economic Transformation of the world. And he continues to, as he is under pressure, and as his popularity has diminished, with the broad segment of the electorate, hes trying to motivate that segment of the electorate that believes him by vin vindicating that impulse. Vivian, the president said it would be a mistake for countries to retaliate on trade. What do you think the response will be . It remains to be seen, but obviously, president Prime Minister trudeau of canada and president macron of france came into the summit speaking very tough against the president. Saying they ultimately have to look out for the interests of their own citizens so, we saw this war of words on thursday night, alady of the president s departure from washington, where they really went out, each of them declaring that theyre not going to be taken advantage of. And theyre not going to be bullied on the other side. Certainly, we expect theyre going to maintain that tone. But it was interesting to see after that exchange of criticisms on thursday night, the president going so far as to call Prime Minister trudeau indignant because of his pushback. Then the president came out and said the relationship was pretty good. He described it as a 10, very trumpy way of describing things. So that was interesting. He really wanted to temper down any suggestions that the relationship is not okay between these countries and that theyre not going to be able to achieve anything. I just want to point out something, alex, with all of this talk about the president coming out and saying he wants a tarifffree, barrierfree zone, there is an element, you have to taken it with a grain of salt. The white house is very much looking to paint this president as a free trader. But only when he achieves this sort of balanced trade partnership that he keeps on touting. And, so, this could ultimately just be a bargaining chip where he says, listen, im imposing these steel and aluminum tariffs on now now. But im open to having this free trade environment down the road. As long as you meet me in the middle. And that we balance this trade deficit that he keeps on insisting exists between these trade partners. Whether or not he really means it, or whether or not its just a way to get these guys to talk and to come to the table and pursue a deal that remains to be seen as well. Either way you look at it extraordinary tactics, thats for sure. Heres what the president said about china and north korea. Lets list ton that. I asked a top person in china, how did it get so bad . He looked at me and said nobody ever talked to us. A very similar thing, if you think about it to place with north korea. This should not be done now. This should have been done five years ago, ten years ago. Okay. Since the role youre playing in this interview, john, is that of the truth seeker, any validity to that statement . No and frankly, i dont believe a senior chinese official told him that nobodys ever talked toys before because quite obviously american diplomats have been talking to the chinese for a long time. Can i just tell you i had ben rhodes on in the last hour and he was talking about the conversation that president obama with xi jinping. And i thought that didnt make any sense. And president bush before that. Since we gradually pulled china into the global system ever since president nixon did his opening to china several decades ago. They were admitted to the World Trade Organization. The Bush Administration started the strategic economic dialogue that was continued by the obama administration. So, no, weve been talking for a long time. And the reason that we havent had a summit with kim jongun or previous leaders of north korea is not because we werent we didnt want to talk to them. Its because it was a rogue regime, and we were not going to grant them the concession of having a oneonone summit with the president , until we had some commitment that they were willing to do something. There was agreement made in the Clinton Administration. They violated the agreement. Subsequent administrations had been frustrated, flummoxed by the inability to make progress. But theres nothing that the president said that indicates in return for this meeting hes going to get progress. In fact, as you reported at the top of the show, what he said in the press conference was, well, ill be satisfied just to get to know him that is not very much. Yeah. So, the takeaway from this g7 meeting the president saying it was very successful, vivian, do you agree . It depends who you ask. The president coming to the ming and leaving and insisting that the relationship is still good. And everyone kind of believes there is work to be done but ultimately, they will meet him at the table but we havent seen Prime Minister trudeau or any of the eu states backing down on threats to retaliation. And they insist for as long as steel and aluminum tariffs exist there are going to be contentious relationship between those Member States and the United States. And also pursuing the lawsuit at the World Trade Organization as a result. So, vivian, given that unscheduled News Conference that the president held, did he hold that to upstage whatever comes forth from other members of the g7 . He certainly wanted to get his two cents in. Remember, alex, today, he arrived late to the meetings. And leaving four hours earlier than planned. The white house announced on friday he would be doing so in order to get a head start on his meeting in singapore. But certainly, we werent actually sure who would be briefing exactly. We had been told throughout the morning that someone from the white house would be briefing us. Very late in the game, we were told that the president would be coming out to the mike. Okay ju obviously, he wanted to take the opportunity to add his two cents in before we hear from Prime Minister trudeau and others later today. Vivian, john, appreciate it. 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You know the way they say that you know if youre going to like somebody in the first five seconds, you dfr hear that one . Well, i think that very quickly ill know whether or not something good is going to happen. The president there saying its going to take five seconds to one minute to figure out the outcome, that is, the north korean summit with kim jongun j on tuesday. Lets bring in congressman, im curious to get your reaction. That hes going to tell in the first minute whether or not were successful here . Uhhuh. Alex, lets hope for progress and diplomacy here that is the best path forward because the world is better off if the korean finns is denuclearized. But lets also remember that weve been here before, both under the Clinton Administration and the Bush Administration. Where we had a framework of agreement Going Forward but before we put out the Mission Accomplished sign, lets remember what the standard is. And we know what the standard is because President Trump and National Security adviser bolton and secretary of state pompeo have told us what the standard is. And its complete denuclearization with a complete verification protocol then and only then, will we be able to proclaim success. And that is a difficult painstaking process to get to. And, no, alex, not for a second do i believe anybody is able to ascertain that in the first 60 seconds. And tell us how much you think the president is being briefed on this you know as well as anybody being on the intel committee, this president gets what they call a one sheet, which summarizes on one sheet, the amount of intelligence situations that the president needs on a daily basis. If hes getting things of this nature, while leading up to the summit, while this last week, on the multihour journey to singapore, how confident are you that the president is taking all of this in . Or do you think hes really relying on his gut here . So, im completely confident that the people around him are trying to brief him. Yes. Im completely confident that people around him are trying to get him reading material. And im far short that the president is consuming any of that. Hes already acknowledged frankly publicly that he doesnt much like to read. And the people around him have acknowledged that. And whether or not hes sitting and listening to that briefing, the oral briefing, i think remains to be seen. Look, i think theres something to be said that relationships matter, ones gut or instinct matters but it ought to also be combined with the thoroughly grounding and facts and details and nuances associated with something this important. And i dont have much confidence in that at all. Lets get to the g7 summit and what the president said. No tariffs no barriers. Thats the way it should be. And no subsidies. I even said no tear rivers, ultimately, thats what you want. You want a tarifffree, you want no barriers. And you want no subsidies because you have some cases where countries are subsidizing industries and thats not fair. No subsidies. I should think that should be coming as a surprise to ethanol producers as well that the president invokes . Listen, i think its important to observe both what the president says and what the president does. And what he has said is not reconcilable with other things that he has said. His rhetoric is, frankly, a bit incoherent. And simply not reconcilable when it comes to trade policy. What he has done, however, is impose tariffs on certain products such as steel and aluminum. And i think its important to step back here and remember the lessons of history. Trade wars can get out of control pretty fast. Trade wars lead to recessions and then depressions. And then they lead to shooting wars. If we learned nothing in the Great Depression in w