Morning Joe - Trump blames Ukraine for record high diesel prices

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

September 14, 2026 – 6am:Lawmakers face growing calls for AI guardrailsTrump blames Ukraine for record high diesel pricesWSJ Opinion: Trump Lectures Ukraine, Not RussiaSen. Marshall is booed by crowds as he defends Trump’s tariffsThe Atlantic: ‘Empire of Grift’ by Anne ApplebaumNFL Week 1 To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Okay, what did the scarecrow need? Do you remember? He needed a brain. What did the tin man need? He needed a heart. What did the colorline need? You need a courage. And I had to laugh and I thought,

this is what's wrong in Washington, D.C. right now. We've got a lot of people up there. We've got a lot of people who have lost their minds. They're no longer using critical thinking skills to solve problems. They're not thinking for themselves. They're doing whatever they're present or their party tells them to do. That's not good for Kansas. I'm looking at Judy.

even the Marshall fans, you know the dangers to me. You got to listen. You listen to your people. And when you do, you find a heart because you see people suffer. You hear their pain. And he's got to do something about that. And I can't keep voting for things to take away 51,000 people's health insurance in the state of Kansas. How, a big moment from over the weekend in Kansas in the debate between the Democratic candidate, Reverend Adam Hamilton,

and incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall. That was something, Joe. Yeah, I really was. And the Rev is running an incredible campaign out there. It's a campaign that Republicans really don't know what to do with because they're so used to saying Democrats are anti-God and they're communist and they're this and they're that. It's actually when you look at what he's been doing over the past couple of weeks, in a race, it's much closer than anybody ever expected it to be. He's putting out ads that are showing that Senator Marshall actually going after his patients. Some of them in jail because they couldn't pay

thousands and thousands of dollars of medical bills, single moms being chased and thrown in jail. Basically, I don't know, a 21st century version of debtor's prison. And then yesterday, that clip started going around virally over this debate that went over on the weekend. I mean, it's just, You saw it throughout the weekend, didn't you, Mika? Whether it was Ted Cruz on SportsCenter, whether it was Mike Johnson, whether it was Roger Marshall, everywhere Republicans go out, man. They've got an audience that does not want to hear what they have to say. It reminds me so much of what Democrats faced in 2009 and 2010 before those midterms.

Yeah, I mean, the big, beautiful bill that these Republicans voted for is hurting the very people that they are elected to serve, and I think they're feeling it and hearing it from the crowds. We'll have more for you coming up. Also, President Trump, meanwhile, told reporters yesterday the war with Iran could end after the midterms. It comes as an effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz has stalled. We'll bring you the very latest from the Middle East. Also, head will go through new comments from Anthropics, CEO, responding to a dire warning

from a former employee that AI could wipe. out humanity. And good morning and welcome to morning, Joe. It's Monday, September 14th. Good to have you with us. Also with us. We have the co-host of our 8 a.m. Hour. Staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire, Bloomberg Opinion columnist and a contributing writer for the dispatch. David Drucker is with us. U.S. national editor and columnist at the Financial Times. Ed Luce joins us and columnist and associate editor at the Washington Post. David Ignatian. Jamesonius joins us as well. A great group for all the news that we have to cover this morning, Joe.

It really is. And David Ignatis, you can talk about a really great tennis match. It's painful. We're going to sort of a potpoury. Or you could talk about the end of humanity and AI. It's been fascinating watching over the weekend especially. Start with a great tennis. Okay, start with a great tennis.

I'll tell you why. Ben Shelton may not have won yesterday, but you can tell you. tell, this kid has an incredible future and he's going to be a champ one day soon. He is going to be a champ. He's got so much talent. Zverev is relentless. I was dreaming that Shulton would somehow break through. And my local DC player Francis Tiafo who went out in the semifinals, he's got a great future too, I hope. But it's amazing how the U.S. Open has become this sort of mega event, nothing in tennis quite like it, you know, part nightclub show, and just incredible intense tennis rivalry. But the great thing about the match yesterday was

that you know Ben Shelton will be back. And this is the next time I don't think he's going to be the loser. Yeah, and I've got to say the semi between Tiafo and Shelton was one of the most exciting tennis matches, I can recall, one of the most anticipated tennis matches I can recall in a very long time. It was fascinating. But on the AI front, David, we've been hearing, of course, from Sam Altman, an open AI, an anthropic talking about the end of humanity, that they're creating these tools that could end humanity, getting pushback from people like David Sacks, who runs AI policy for the White House, who's saying, wait a second, you guys have a duopoly. If you really think that what you're inventing, what you're creating, what you're developing is going to end humanity, you guys can slow it down yourself.

I think what David Sachs is arguing, what a lot of people in Silicon Valley who don't agree with Sam Maltman are arguing is these guys are trying to engage in a practice called regulatory capture. So they control the industry right now. They want the feds to come in, much like Ma Bell wanted the Fed. to come in, regulate it to such a degree that nobody else can get into it. So we on the outside, you know, I told a friend in Silicon Valley, he said, well, what's your opinion? I said, well, this kind of like in 2007, me trying to figure out exactly what the most advanced traders are doing on Wall Street with credit default swaps. We're just sitting out here looking through a glass darkly and can't really tell who's lying and who's telling the truth.

Joe, my sense is that this is not a mob bell moment in which an AI elite is trying to set rules for its own benefit. As I've watched this unfold, especially in the last several months, I've sensed that there is a genuine astonishment among the people who run these companies at how fast the models are improving and how quickly they're moving towards what they call general intelligence or, super intelligence in which machines begin to talk to each other and the something I call recursive self-improvement where they actually begin to write their own programs. Humans are not directing this in the same way that you, that you'd imagine. That came to the four in a really startling example in July where a test by OpenAI of some hacking tools led the agents, believe it or not, to organize in a conspiracy, there were 1,200 AI agents who found a bulletin board where they could exchange messages and then began to pursue their own strategy, began to cheat by the

definitions of the game they were doing, began to cover up the evidence of cheating, and never informed any human being about what was going on. And I think that incident, Joe, as people who really understand these technologies, looked at the details, scared the heck out of people. So you saw Dario Modi lead this new moment that we're in with his statement that he just is not sure that we're ready to maintain control over these systems. The systems may be in a position to control us, and we ought to slow down until we understand exactly what's there. And so I think that's where we are. We had an unusual agreement between the head of Anthropic, the head of Open AI and Elon Musk on the same approach, slow down. So that doesn't mean the government.

I will say. It does mean these key companies. Yeah, Elon Musk has been warning about this since 2014. He's been saying AI could bring the end of humanity since 2014. He's continued that all the way through 2026. Of course, you have Bill Gates doing the same thing. Other tech leaders been doing the same thing. I'm just curious though. Well, no, let me just say I'm just skeptical, Jonathan Lemire that this White House is going to do anything. The president, obviously, early on made it a key goal of his politically to get all the money, all the support he can get from Silicon Valley. It's worked out very well. You look at the hundreds of millions of dollars that Silicon Valley is pumping into these midterm elections, the overwhelming majority

for that and crypto going all to the Republicans. So a real question on whether President Trump's going to do anything at all about this, his attitude appears to be what his attitude always appears to be. Don't worry, everything's going to work out just fine. Yeah, that's his refrain. And it was striking. He was asked about this over the weekend in the wake of these extraordinary reports and, you know, borderline whistleblower type statements in terms of the concerns about AI and what it could lead. And he was very dismissive. And look, there is no out there is a rivalry with China, and he suggested that that was going to be front and center. He cared about that. I think we should also note the AI industry is really propping up the

stock market and the economy. I think he cares deeply about that, although I suspect it may not be a great morning on Wall Street after these fears were expressed. You know, Trump and China's Xi Jinping have a summit at the White House in less than two weeks. There's been some push from the outside that maybe AI could be front and center at that agenda. We'll see. see. But Trump, at least to this point, really downplaying these concerns. But I will say, Mika, I saw a number of gatherings of the last couple of days. This is all anyone's talking about right now, is these worries about AI. And we've already seen in extraordinarily rapid fashion, the political conversation about AI change over the last six months to eight months,

but it focused on data centers and cost and noise and how it's driving up bills and the like and fears about what could take my job. So already the American people really suddenly getting very skeptical about AI. But what happened in this last week is it went beyond that. Like this idea that this could threaten everything. And I think there's a real concern here that the government, the industry is calling for the government to help to lead. They may not. Well, we'll watch that. There's another thing to watch with the two major wars going on and some politics taking place here between them. President Trump is blaming Ukraine for record high diesel fuel prices. While speaking to reporters in Ireland over the weekend, the president said

his administration has asked Ukrainian President Zelensky to stop targeting Russian oil refineries. Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he's causing a shortage of diesel. This isn't done by the Middle East. This is done by what's happening with Russia. and Ukraine. So we spoke to Mr. Zelensky about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don't hit diesel fuel because that's hurting. That's hurting the world. We don't want him to hit diesel fuel. Okay. Really important at this point to note, Ukraine did strike more than 20 refinery targets in Russia over the summer, but the main driver, as most people know, of the

higher fuel prices, has been the war in Iran, which has virtually closed the straight of Hormuz blocking about one-fifth of global oil exports. The Wall Street Journal editorial board has a new piece on this titled, Trump lectures Ukraine, not Russia. And it reads in part, quote, an armed Russian jet drone hit the engine of a passenger train in Ukraine near the Polish border over the weekend. Meanwhile, President Trump lectured Ukraine's president to stop hitting energy targets in Russia, go ahead, make Vladimir Putin's day, Mr. President. President Trump had nothing critical to say about the attack, which is part of Russia's daily bombardment of civilian and energy targets in Ukraine. Mr. Trump did find the time to warn Ukraine president for

Lodomir Zelensky against Ukraine's targeting energy supply depots inside Russia. So Russia can fire away at any and all targets in Ukraine. But, you can fire away. Ukraine must restrain itself in retaliating in Russia. Mr. Trump is clearly worried about the price of diesel fuel, but blaming Ukraine amid Iranian and Houthi attacks on Mideast oil production and transport is political excuse-making on a grand scale. It also strategically is misguided as Russia and Iran help each other in their respective conflicts. Mr. Trump seems to think he can put these wars into separate boxes.

Every time he does, he has adversaries in Moscow and Tehran smiling at their good luck. And Jonathan Lemire, the geopolitical malpractice aside, do you think people will truly believe Ukraine is the reason for their high diesel prices? They will not. And President Trump continues to mistake who the bad guy is in this conflict. This is a war of Russian aggression. Ukraine is fighting for its survival. It is striking back. It has proven to be adept hitting deep in Russian lines.

And that's not, though, why prices are high. The Strait of Hormuz is effectively shut. Now, the Houthis have claimed to more control of another important waterway in the Middle East. So prices are going to grow that much more. And yes, we're seeing the diesel, seems to what we're focused on right now. And there'll be ripple effects because if trucking companies have to pay more for their fuel, well, that's going to trickle down to so many other items of the economy. economy, Ed Luce. So first of all, I don't think that anyone is going to buy this, but also it shows, again, Trump's misplaced priorities where he's scolding Ukraine, not Putin. Russia, by the way, blew up a train right near where Boris Johnson and the top German national security advisor, we're in David Petraeus, who are all on a train from Poland into Ukraine, just narrowly missed getting struck by a Russian attack. We also have, of course, Trump refusing to warn China to stop

supplying Iran with mapping information that Iran has used to target American assets and allies in the Middle East. Once again, Trump comes down on the side of his favorite authoritarian leaders. He does. And by the way, that train, this is an annual conference that's called the Yes conference that's held in Ukraine. So it's on the schedule and the Russians know about it. If that train had been hit, you know, this would have wiped out sort of half the American, sorry, half the European and some of the Americans of national security elites. This is a follows on from President Zelensky's plane having a narrow miss with a drone a few days ago. Nothing from the White House about this.

The same conference, incidentally, that these people were taking a train to attend, was addressed remotely by Jared Kushner. And in keeping with this asymmetric Trump administration view of the Ukraine-Russia situation, Kushner said that there would be a peace deal if only Ukraine agreed to give up the rest of the Donbass. He didn't say there would be a peace deal if only Russia would agree to stop fighting to gain control of the rest of the Donbass. He presented Ukraine as the obstacle to the deal. So President Trump now presenting Ukraine as the cause of rising diesel and global energy prices in general.

I'm afraid this is all part of a piece where we have these sort of false dawns, where we think the White House has finally seen the light, that Russia is the aggressor and that Ukraine needs help. It needs Patriot Defense batteries. And these are false dawns. Trump does not deviate on this. He's sympathetic to Russia. and I think we delude ourselves if we think he's ever going to change his mind on this question.

It's deeply baked in his worldview. Yeah, David, it just seems so grotesque. Donald Trump blaming the Ukrainians for a Russian invasion as Russians try to kill the president of Ukraine, as Russians try to wipe out a train that's heading into Ukraine filled with Americans and Europeans. and that he continues to ignore the fact that China is providing the mapping to the Iranians to kill U.S. troops. The Wall Street Journal reported that and also just ignoring what Russia is doing to help Iranians also kill U.S. troops.

David Ignatius, how should leaders in Washington look at this? What should Republicans in Congress do? And after David Ignatius, you respond to that. David Drucker, if you could jump in, I'd appreciate your thoughts. So, Joe, just briefly, what we're watching is, I think, a significant period of escalation in the Ukraine war, as nightmarish as it's been since February 22 when it began with this unprovoked aggression. It's getting worse. Russia is stepping up its bombardment of Kiev and other cities to almost 24-7 attacks, make it very difficult for people to go about ordinary life.

Russia is using new weapons that are much harder to stop. They're using jet-powered drones, where before they had propeller drones, that Ukraine has gotten pretty good at shooting out of the sky. They're innovating in their drone use on the front itself and pushing hard to move forward. Ukraine continues to be inspiring in its determination to resist and its technological innovation. But we're heading towards a really, really painful winter in which I think Putin is knowing that he's just, you know, getting ever deeper in this swamp is going to do everything he can.

Believe it or not, the casualty numbers, I was told by a European a couple days ago, for August, for Russia were 42,000 people seriously injured or killed. That adds up to over 1,300 people every day killed at the front. That's a picture of what this war is like, really. Imagine a bloodbath where 1,300 Russians are killed every day, and they keep moving forward. So that's the problem that Ukraine has. They're running out of interceptors to take down the,

missiles that are coming over their cities, they're running out of people. This war is being fought really electronically, but even so, everybody I know looks towards this winter with a sense of dread that this killing ground is going to get even worse, even bloodier. And I think, you know, Joe, part of the problem or part of the reason for the escalation and the concern that David Ignatius is talking about really twofold, right? I mean, one, Vladimir Putin hasn't been able to subdue Ukraine into submission. And so I think he's ratcheting up military options, as sort of scary as that sounds. There are certain things that he hasn't been willing to do. He's sort of been slow and steady, wins the race because he's got more personnel.

He's got more material. And in a sense, the belief has been that he can outlast Ukraine and outlast the West, right? And as Ukraine has fought heroically, but also technologically innovated to the point where they're now teaching us about drone warfare and helping the West in its ability to adapt, right? Vladimir Putin is looking at a time clock both for him and his ability to get this done and saying, okay, what do I need to do to finally win this thing, right? And the question then becomes, one, can Ukraine resist long enough, hold out long enough? Secondly, with the advent of the second Trump administration, there simply is no backstop in the American capital, right?

And there's a lot of criticism that I heard from Republicans during the Biden administration that they all agreed that Russia needed to be stopped, but that Biden was so concerned about escalation, he wouldn't provide Ukraine the weapons and material that needed to get the job done. And there was a belief just a few years ago that Ukraine could have turned a corner if the Biden administration would have been willing to give Ukraine more weapons, more material, and stop being so concerned about the escalation. Obviously, with President Trump, there is always going to be a deferral to Vladimir Putin. And I think that for people looking for ways to finally convince him otherwise, it's fine to try. You're not going to get. You're not going to

anywhere. I mean, going back 11 years this month as a candidate Trump started to flesh out his international foreign policy views, there was a deferral to Russia and a deferral to Vladimir Putin. I will never forget that one of the, as far as I know, the only article of mine he's ever retweeted was one in which I said that he felt very, he felt a kinship with Vladimir Putin, and that it mattered to him what Putin thought about him. And I remember being so nervous. Oh, my God. I'm saying the Republican nominee is essentially siding with Russia

and that the Russian president, the Russian strongmen, would prefer this Republican over the Democratic alternative. And he loved the story, and he retweeted it. And that is just the way he looks at this. And that is never going to change. Well, I mean, I think the first time he really said, something that I think shocked a lot of people in the press and also shocked a lot of Republicans was middle of December in 2015 when he came on our show and said that Obama was worse than Putin.

And I said, well, but he kills journalists. Putin kills journalists. He kills politicians. He kills other people. And Donald Trump said, well, we kill a lot of people too, Joe. We kill a lot of people too. And there was always this moral equivalency, Mika. And it was shocking then. It's shocking now that, again, he continues to allow someone who considers the United States of America their sworn enemy. He continues to give him every benefit of the doubt, every break. And the question I'll have for David on the other side of the break is, why in the world won't Republicans in Congress do something about this, at least in the first term, they passed tough sanctions plans that were veto-proof. They're not even doing that now.

We'll get to that. Still ahead also on Morning Joe, House Speaker Mike Johnson is downplaying President Trump's pledge to send all Americans $5,000 if Republicans keep control of Congress this fall. We'll show you his new comments there. Plus the Atlantic's, Anne Applebaum joins us with her new cover story, Empire of Grift. It's a look at how far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain. And as we go to break, a quick look at the Travelers' Forecast this morning from Ackyweather's Bernie Rayno. Bernie, how's it looking? Mika, a beautiful Monday across the northeast of Accuether Travel Forecast.

How about 75 in Boston with sunshine? Sunshine in New York City. Nice day in Pittsburgh and Greece and Cloud, Chicago. A couple of showers in Green Bay. What an epic collapse in the fourth quarter from my Packers. We're going to get through that. All right. How about heat from Texas all the way across southeast, spotty thunderstorms in Florida,

and across the Texas coast? Other than that, it is dry. Maybe a delay or two in Miami. Other than that, smooth flying. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, download the Accuather app today. So we had, just like every other business, we had to, the common business practice, at the end of the day, turned some people to collections as well. That would be true for every hospital and every doctor.

But again, emphasis, only one out of five people we gave free care to as well. Those are common, common business practices. We would go a year before we would ever send somebody over. You know, tariffs are such a small, small portion of the picture here. I don't understand why people don't care about American manufacturing jobs. Look, you can't keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. So we're seeing that these, you know, talk about the tariffs, how they're helping out sports, that corn prices are now, we're $5 a bushel, wheat's over $8, soybean $13. Look, these tariffs are working.

We are expanding our export markets because of them. It protects the students, protects the student's ability to be compensated, to receive name image and likeness compensation. I think that's only fair. It's only right. They're producing enormous value and enormous skin. But it also puts reasonable rules in place. So, for example, every player gets one free trade.

All right, a lot of booze for certain Republicans over the weekend, including that welcome from Texas students for Republican Senator Ted Cruz, as he joined the ESPN College Game Day panel on 3, Saturday to promote his college sports bill. So, Joe, it, you know, I mean, especially with Marshall that we saw previously, he was making the case for tariffs and making the case for the health, I mean, rural hospitals? I mean, want to talk about hospitals? There were a lot of issues where it seemed people were really clued in. We're talking about Kansas here, the Kansas State Fair. This wasn't the Young Marcus League of Lower Manhattan.

We were talking about the Kansas State Fair. And David Drucker, I mean, let's face it. First of all, Marshall should win this race, but it's going to be a lot closer, most likely than it should be. You look at, he's talking about tariffs. Those are taxes for men and women. I mean, every conservative economists will tell you, tariffs, tax working Americans.

So he's up there defending tariffs. He's up there defending sending single moms to collection agencies over high health care costs. And in a year that, of course, Republicans have slashed health care spending with what they call a big beautiful bill. And then, you know, you've got the war in Iraq, the war in Iran that's causing prices to escalate, too. And then Ted Cruz goes to the center of what is American business. bro culture, right? College football game day. He's getting booed. It's, again, it reminds me so much of 2009 when formerly popular Democrats would go out to town-low meetings talking about Obamacare and get booed out of the place. I mean, our friend Claire McCaskill was one of them.

It was almost impossible for a Democrat to get behind a mic in 2010 without getting booed off the stage. That's happening now what the Republicans is. Yeah, it is, it is, Joe. And, you know, just, you know, we're heard on that 2010 cycle. Not only were Democrats getting booed, but people understood the details. I remember attending town halls in the Midwest. And people would show up and they had questions about page 210 subsection 10C of the Affordable Care Act legislation, right? So it wasn't just a general backlash. It was a very well-informed backlash. and I think that, you know, strikes me as a lot of what we're seeing right now. And you have voters that are unhappy and they know why they're unhappy.

And here's the thing, right? I mean, look, if Roger Marshall believes that the president's tariff agenda and the trade wars are working, that's all well and good, he wouldn't get booed, people wouldn't be unhappy, the polls wouldn't be where they were. People thought it was working. And they don't think it's working, of course, because it isn't working. But people can sometimes take a long view their not. not. And this has been spreading for Republicans like a brushfire. So it doesn't mean Marshall is going

to lose in a red state like Kansas that hasn't elected a Democrat to the United States Senate in over 90 years. I think 1932 is the last time that happened. But I always look at Kansas in wave cycles, in any cycle. If it's competitive for Democrats, then you know Republicans are fighting on an extended map and that they're going to have to scrape and claw their way to either defend the majority or win the majority. And that's where they are right now. Yeah. You know, when you have these massive wave elections, there's usually one state. I remember in 2008 seeing Indiana blue for Barack Obama. I was like, what? What's going to? That can't be possible, but Kansas could be that state this year, highly unlikely, but it could be. David Ignatius, I'm looking at these numbers. This is

the economist forecast a chance of winning in some of these states. I think some of these numbers are high, but, you know, they're smarter than I am. That's not saying much. North Carolina, Cooper, a 94% chance of winning. Georgia Democrat Ossoff, an 88% chance of winning. In New Hampshire, don't tell Pappas, who's trying to talk about how horrible things are for him so he can raise even more money. Papp is an 81% chance of winning. Jackson, a 77% chance of winning in Maine. Brown, a 65% chance in Ohio. El Cyanid is 64%. Tala, Tala, 52%. And then you have Iowa, Kansas, Florida, looking comfortably Republican. Again, you and I have been through enough elections to know that if there's a wave, all of this could happen, and you could actually see one or two other

states going Democratic. But we still are a 50-50 nation. Don't know how this is going to break, But, you know, you can make an election in the past about abortion or guns or gay marriage or trans athletes or trans convicts or all of these things when the economy is going pretty well. But when people are suffering the way they're suffering right now, they do not want Roger Marshall, a guy of vacations in Florida, for God say. The guy of vacations in Florida coming back to him and saying, hey, those tariffs, those are really important. but they're not that big of a deal. Don't tell that to farmers. Don't tell, you know, farmers at diesel prices aren't a big deal. Like people in Kansas, like people across America are really hurting economically right now.

You know, Joe, the irony is that Donald Trump may get just what he wants in that this November polling, people are going to act as if he's on the ballot. And he's not popular. He doesn't seem to realize that, but to the extent that he makes himself and his policies the issue that Republicans have to have to win or lose on, in this environment, that is not a good bet. And there's nothing on the horizon that's likely to change that. The Republican strategy, I think, has been mystifying to a lot of political analysts. Why is the president holding back so much money? Why is he insisting that this is about him?

If you looked at the, this so-called midterm convention last week, it was a strange kind of almost a cult-like celebration of the sitting president, didn't speak to the midterm issues of how to how to get Republicans to at least hold the Senate. So, you know, it's impossible for me to make predictions this far ahead. I just, I think the more this is an election, as Donald Trump insists it should be, about him and his standing with the public, it's going to be a loser for candidates like Roger Marshall. All right, joining us now,

staff writer for the Atlantic, Ann Applebaum, she's the author of the new cover story titled, Empire of Grift, in which she argues, our government has been overrun by far-right extremists who use American power for their own benefit. And Anne, this is writing about the motives really, of the leaders who are running America? And tell us what you found. So the argument of the article is that we have a false idea that Trump's foreign policy is

somehow isolationist, that the MAGA movement doesn't want to be in the world. It wants to focus on issues at home. Actually, in practice, this isn't true at all. There's a group of people both inside the administration and around the administration in the business community who have understood that you can use American foreign policy to benefit private companies in a very direct way, not to benefit the American people, not to create long-term alliances, not to bring peace to the world, but to create revenues for people who are friends of Donald Trump. And there are multiple examples of this all over the world. Actually, you were touching on one earlier in the program. So Jared Kushner and Steve Whitkoff, when they go to Moscow, they aren't just talking about the war in Ukraine and how to end it and how to bring peace and how to bring security to Europe. They're also talking about business deals that will be done by American companies with Russian companies. And they've openly said this and it's been reported by the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, some of the details.

And this is now part of what Americans do. They're looking for deals. And of course, Putin knows that too. And Ed Luz, Ann goes on to talk. talk about in her piece, about how they don't care about not only building relationships, but about America's reputation necessarily. Yeah, I mean, that's clearly the last thing on their mind. They're looking for deals. I mean, and to talk a little bit more about the Wickhoff Kushner role here, because they are seen, or at least presented as Trump's chief

peacemaking envoys. But as you imply, they're really looking for deals. And the deal to stop wars in Ukraine and Russia or Gaza Strip or in the Persian Gulf is what is what they're formally charged with doing. But what they seem to be interested in is the promised bonanza that comes after these deals. And it's not really working, right? No, actually, you wrote about this recently. I mean, they have a, they have a misguided view of the world, but I think they're representative of a larger problem in the administration and around the administration in that, you know, most people at the end of the day are interested in making lots of money. And actually, these wars, whether it's in Gaza, whether it's in Iran, or whether it's in Ukraine, are not about money. And they're being

run by very brutal ideologues who now believe that they can bribe the Trump administration or they can bribe, you know, Jared Kushner, who has a, you know, who has, who has business deals all over the Middle East. And they can, they can pay money into the president's cryptocurrency funds, they can look for levers of influence inside the administration using money. And they now see that that's how you can use and manipulate the U.S. administration. So this is a very actually, you know, it's presented as a pragmatic way of looking at the world, but actually it's extremely naive, naive and almost silly. And it's a great piece.

Now, obviously, this sort of behavior has been conducted elsewhere in the world for a while. It's different types of governments than we associate with a Western democracy like the United States. But now that we have entered this phase, in this Trump era, how does it ever go back to where it was? Or are we going to be sort of looking at a new hybrid model of diplomacy for good and ill going forward? Of course, it depends who the next president is and so on. But we now have a group of business people in America who are really more powerful than the government and have their own theory of foreign policy and who are also acting independently. You know, in the crypto world, in the tech world, critical minerals, these are people who

are already beginning to cement new relationships. They intervene in foreign elections. They support different foreign leaders. They're beginning to play roles in foreign policy. And whoever is the next president, if they want to remain, if they want America to remain a country whose voters influence how their country behaves in the world is going to have to rein that group in. And if they don't, then, yes, I think we are looking at a hybrid policy that will last for a long time. The new piece is the cover story for the new issue of the Atlantic.

Staff writer Anne Applebaum, thank you, as always, for coming on the show this morning. And we'll see Anne at the Atlantic Festival taking place this week in New York City. and David Drucker of the dispatch and Bloomberg opinion, Ed Luce of the Financial Times and the Washington Post, David Ignatius, thank you all as well for coming on this morning. And coming up on Morning, Joe, we'll continue to discuss the growing concerns surrounding AI. The co-founders of Axiists, join us on that and their new book,

How to Do 50% More with 50% Less. Plus, we'll turn to sports with the first Sunday football of the season. Pablo Torre standing by will go through all the highlights plus the U.S. Open next on Morning Joe. They are just press man and let's supply some pressure. So they had many chats about James Dowlouffin zips it down field and it's head on. Lamar finds eight Flowers with tons of room to run. Flowers turns it into it. Here comes the pressure again for Lawrence. He's going toward the end zone. Caught. Second and 10 out of the timeout. It's picked a Take a shot.

Here it is. Here's your shot. To the end zone. And it's your shot. Those are some of the biggest touchdowns from the first Sunday of the NFL regular season, including from winning debut last night for our New York Giants coach, John Harbar, week one wraps up tonight in Kansas City where the chiefs,

Pablo Tori's pick for the Super Bowl. We'll host the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football. And with us now, let's bring in that Pulitzer Prize winning host to Pablo Tori finds out. MS now contributor, Pablo Tori, a couple things really quickly. Personal notes of privilege off the top. Bryceon is as good as Carolina Panthers' defense is bad, number one. And to the Falcons loss again.

So let's talk about New York. A good day. The Jets win. They are not eliminated yet from the playoffs. The Giants win. Maybe a new era starting up. And the bills held on against a pretty good. Jackson's team. Take us through the great state of New York, the Empire State, the three wins.

Let's start with the late game because the Dallas Cowboys were a glimmer in the eye of so many hopeful NFL fans. Would this be different? Would this be different? And Jackson Dart gets to remind everybody that no. No, in fact, this is going to be quite similar. I was hoping Richard Haas might be here to crow about the New York Giants. I don't know how many opportunities, Joe. He's going to have to do that. But against the Cowboys in week one with John Harbo, as you mentioned, as their new head coach. Yeah, they feel pretty good. They feel pretty good. By the way, the Jets, just as a matter of accounting here, there are now some infants in America who only know an undefeated New York Jet Team. And that is something that they should hold on to because I don't know if it'll last for longer

than the next four or five days. But we have this moment. We have this moment. We have this moment across New York State. It's a rare thing to have all three teams and we'll go, of course, to the new stadium in Buffalo as well at some point. Opening up a new building and Josh Allen gets to feel like he's also welcoming people into an experience that will break a streak finally maybe at the end here. John? Yeah.

You know, because I'm an Alabama fan and I don't like any team. teams that have quarterbacks that beat Alabama. I've never been a Joe Burrow fan until Joe Burrow was out of the NFL for a better part of two years. John Lemire, it was great to see him back. The NFL is a much poorer place without the greatness of Joe Burrow. Great to have him back in this year. Yeah, he's had some injuries last couple of seasons. Bengals improved Bengals defense. Got a nice win against a decent Tampa team. One last note on the Jets. This is the, and the Giants. This is the first time the Jets and Giants have started 1 and 0, both of them 1 and 0 since 2009. That shows you how bad it has been for New York City football for a while.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a second. Are you saying they haven't both been 1 and 0 since the New York Yankees won their only new world series for this entire century? Has it been that long? It has been that long, but perhaps another good sign for the. the Yankees playoff hopes, as we know they're cruising their way to October greatness. Pablo, one thing I was struck by, so Mike Tomlin is the new edition to the NBC TV crew, and he made a really good point.

We look at some of the scores from yesterday's games. I'll just read a few. 41 to 23, 36 to 31, 59 to 37, 31 to 30, 33, 33 to 27, 39 to 32, 39, 22, points, points, points, a lot of overs. And Tomlin said the reason why is the NFL training camp now in the preseason, they're basically not a lot. Defenses are not allowed to hit anybody. And he's like, therefore, it's going to take a while for defenses to just simply get

into the rhythm of things like tackling and therefore we're seeing offenses run up and down the fields. Yeah. After week one, there is that whole like a disclaimer you get on investment advice. Past performance, not a guarantee of future results. This is something that your man's Bill Belichick has been saying, too. What is the preseason anymore? And so, yeah, these are teams finding themselves.

It's not just, it was funny. There's a whole news cycle. We spent so much time in sports media talking about how are the Niners and the Rams going to sleep. How are they going to adjust to the jet lag? There is a version of the biarrhythmic adjustment for every team in the NFL because it's, now it counts. Now it counts.

And that is a means very little. No sport is more drastically different from the preseason to the regular season than the NFL, well, where your body and your health and your sanity is on the line. So Pablo, what was your surprise? One or two surprises in the first week, and if you had to pick two or the three teams that fared better than the others, who would they be? I mean, I want to go and just take a second with Mika's indulgence, of course,

to look at the Baltimore Ravens. I love Lamar Jackson. I love him as a player to watch. This was an offensive tour to force, and the question, of course, is defense. But for me, in terms of what do I, like to see every Sunday. I like to see him run all over the cults.

I like to see him in bloom. And the Colts are, you know, they're not as bad as a, as being blown up by twice their score almost would indicate. But that is right up there. And I also want to point out that tonight show, we're going to get, speaking about the quarterbacks in this league, you mentioned Burrow, Lamar, this is that class. My old friend, Patrick Mahomes. is back tonight against Bo Nix.

These are two guys who were both guys who got injured to end their seasons early. And what is Mahomes going to look like? Are they a plausible contender? These are the things that I will be muttering to myself as I await the computer. The legendary computer of this show to finally give us some rankings for me to fact check. All right. These new concerns about AI, we have to think about that. At some point, I want to talk to you about the U.S. Open.

So hang around. Still ahead. We're going to continue the conversation on artificial intelligence. with the new comments from Anthropics CEO that the industry has lied about the risks of the technology. Morning Joe, we'll be right back.