Morning Joe - Trump continues threat to send National Guard to Chicago

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Trump continues threat to send National Guard to Chicago

This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker calling out President Trump over threats to send National Guard troops to Chicago. We'll have more of yesterday's back and forth between Pritzker and the president. You know, Willie, seriously, it's like, it's a Donald Trump. Trump is helping everybody that wants to run. He's like, okay, we'll give Gavin Newsom his time.

We'll give J.B. Pritzky. And they can all say, I fought Trump. West, Mom, Domney. No, no. But it's perfect. It's one of these things. It's, I think, Elton John's saying it's a circle of life. Oh. Right?

Donald Trump wins because their people are pissed off on the other side. The other side went. Just politically. Of course, never mind the constitutional stakes at hand. For the pure politics of it, everybody's a winner. You're a winner. You're a winner. You're a winner. And there's something about him. You guys know him well that enjoys that. It's almost elevating these people, taking a swing at him.

He gets a swing back. And then he moves on to the next one. But as you say, the consequences are very serious for these cities in the states. It's good that people are standing up for what is right. Well, and it's interesting in Chicago, we can talk about it a second. He seemed to actually have second thoughts and basically say, yeah, not going into Chicago if they don't want me, but boy, they need me. Meanwhile, President Trump says he is removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook,

but she's bowing to stay on the job, saying he has no cause to fire her. The question is, how will this play out in the courts? Plus, we'll bring you a live report from Jerusalem following yesterday's deadly Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza. which killed several journalists. Also, Ed, we'll take a look at President Trump's Oval Office meeting with South Korea's leader, including the president bragging about his relationship with North Korean dictator Kim John Moon.

Just don't understand that. The love letters last time, now he's touting that relationship while he sits next to the president of South Korea. It sits next to the people that North Korea said they're going, our allies. It's going to wipe off the map since the 1950s, and again, the most heinous dictator in the world and the most repressed people in the world. Also, on a much lighter note, Venus Williams turned back the clock, at least for a few hours last night. We'll show you the nice moment on the court in Queens for the 45-year-old superstar. Very nice.

And good morning and welcome to morning, Joe. It is Tuesday, August 26th, along with Joe, Willie and me. We have U.S. special correspondent for BBC News and the host of The Restis Politics Podcast, Katty K, and columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post, David Ignatius. And for all of our guests this morning, we're going to be getting you the new, branded. What? Morning Joe. I made an adjustment.

I need a Sharpie. MS now. Did I not do her a Sharpie? No. Hey, can we get a Sharpie? I don't even know what this is anymore. This is. This is high-class rebranding.

They said, Joe, Joe. Pull out all this stuff. This one. This one, Mika thinks this one's better over here. Yeah, my writing was a little. Yeah. So, yeah, there you go. Well, look at the excitement.

It's like, Jeb! Exclamation, boy. Yeah. MS. Now! Exclamation point. I'm excited. I think it's a really good opportunity for our company.

It's actually a good name. Yeah. I'm working on mine, Mika. I'll get back. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And make it all the mugs.

Bring all the mugs in. We can multitask. All right, let's get to the news. President Trump is continuing his threats to deploy the National Guard to Chicago. In the Oval Office yesterday, Trump called Chicago a killing field and criticized Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and city officials for their leadership. I made the statement that next year to be Chicago, because as you all know, Chicago is a killing field right now.

And they don't acknowledge it. And they say, we don't need them. Freedom, freedom. He's a dictator. He's a dictator. A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator. I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator.

I'm a man with great common sense. We want to go from here to other places, but I was telling some of the people that in a certain way, you really want to be asked to go. You know, I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians like a guy like Pritzker. He had to spend more time in the gym, actually.

Guy is a disaster. Gavin Newsom's a disaster. Are you prepared to order National Guard troops, though, into American cities if those governors don't request the federal deployment? I am, but I also think that, look, Chicago, everybody knows how bad it is. Everybody's standing there, and as we know, you don't have to be doing any studies. They should be saying, please come in. Priske should be saying that we may wait we may or may not we may just go in and do it

which is probably what we should do the problem is it's not nice when you go in and do it and somebody else is standing there saying as we give great results say well we don't want the military they need they need help badly Chicago desperately needs help well you know willie there are a lot of cities and we talked about this yesterday that need help a lot of red state cities if you look at most crime starts, seven, eight of the top ten, deadliest cities in America. Big cities are usually in red states. If you look at, you know, Gavin Newsom and the Speaker sort of had a back and forth this weekend, Speaker Johnson's home state of Louisiana, 400 times more likely. You're 400 times more

likely to be killed in Louisiana than you are in California. Certainly nothing you ever hear in the right-wing sort of blogosphere. They still have blogs, right? I think so. Are they newsletters or something? In the substax sphere, they keep moving the lines. I'm getting old. Come on. It's a podcast now. It's a talking blog. Yeah, the podcast, exactly. But also, specifically, the chances of being killed or having violent crime done to you or your family member is so much higher. The percentages in Monroe, Louisiana, which is right by the Speaker's District, Shreveport, Louisiana, which is in the Speaker's District, New Orleans, Louisiana, which is in the Speaker's home state. Little Rock, Arkansas, home, of course, Tom Cotton, and a very conservative governor. Bessemer, Alabama, right there in Birmingham, again, you know, what's Tommy Tuberville doing?

Why is crime so bad? Is crime going to get better when Tommy? The fact is that, first of all, crime rates at a 60-year low. And you say that, and suddenly the same people that are using crime rates to go, Biden sucks, or saying, oh, I don't trust the crime. I don't trust the crime stats, which is just pure garbage. But the second thing is, Chicago, while, yeah, there's violence there, and they need to take care of it, right? But you can't point to Chicago when there's 17, 18, 19 cities more dangerous than Chicago and say, we're going to go to Chicago, or the big laugh, or we're going to go to New York when New York, man, is the safest large city in America. Yeah, and you have people on television, Trump-friendly, people on television,

saying, please come to New York City, Mr. President. Why? Come save us. I don't think they're out walking the streets, perhaps. But you don't want to minimize what's happening in Chicago. It is a generational problem with gun violence. Been a problem. For generations, it is.

But you're right. Why Chicago? Why Baltimore? Why Los Angeles? Why is he picking these states and not Louisiana? You talk about New Orleans and all the cities through there. And I think... Hey, by the Memphis, Tennessee.

And Memphis, yeah. Really dangerous city. It is. And what you're seeing with the National Guard right now is they've been there, what, just over a week in Washington? And the president, they're declaring victory. We've had no murders in a week. It's because I've sent these troops in. There have been weeks this year, even, when there haven't been murders.

So it's a good thing that there are no murders. The point is you can't point to one week of the National Guard and say, that's the answer. Let's go do that everywhere. I think what these cities would love to hear and actually would partner with the president on is what we've talked about is give us some more funding. Let us hire more cops. Let's put people in the streets. We want to do that. We just don't need the federal government sending troops

and military fatigues in our streets. Yeah, I mean, that's the key. Partnership, partnership, partnership. Every one of these mayors, every one of these governors, all of them would love to have a partnership with Washington, D.C., and making their streets safer. That's a win-win. I know it's not as combative, and people on X may not love it as much,

but, man, a partnership would be... That's not what this is. Would be great. I know, but I'm just saying, if you want solutions, that's how you get solutions. Sure. And, yeah. So Governor Pritzker, speaking of Illinois and Chicago, he responded to those threats from the president saying there's no emergency that warrants federalizing the Illinois National Guard or sending active duty military into his state. This is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against.

And it's the reason that they established a federal system. with a separation of powers built on checks and balances. What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American. In the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say,

Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city? Instead, I say, Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here. That's Governor Prisker of Illinois. And we were just talking about New York City. Our NBC reporters are reporting this morning. There was a meeting yesterday between New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tish and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Pam Bondi, I guess, dispatched by

the president asked questions, Commissioner Tish saying, quote, we've got this. Our crime is at record lows and kind of walk through, said it was a good and productive meeting. Right. But made clear, we don't want the troops here. We don't need the troops here in New York City. And the governor called out, what, a year ago maybe, called out National Guard troops to go into the subway. Yep. And that's the way the governor uses her National Guard, go into the subway.

So that works. David Ignatius, of course, a key point here. is. And we're talking about the difference between New York and Washington. Are we talking about the difference? Yeah, New York and Washington, Chicago, Washington, you name it. We, yesterday we had a former Justice Department official and constitutional scholar come on and say, hey, listen, Washington is a four different thing. It's a horse of a different color. My word is not hers than Chicago, then L.A., than New York, than any other city, because there is constitutionally that partnership between the national government and Washington, D.C.

But when you start talking about Chicago, you start talking about Los Angeles, that's where my constitutional law professors would start grimly warning of a slippery slope. It is a slippery slope. You know, Washington is the federal city in the time I've lived in Washington. I've seen the waxing and waning of federal power oversight. There have been years, decades when home rule was essentially stripped away and then restored. So it is different. You know, I think the reasons for sending in the DEA chief as the temporary head of our police force were completely spurious.

But it is different. You know, Trump said it right. in the film clip that you showed earlier, it's nice to be asked. And he should wait until he's asked to intervene in these ways, to have J.B. Pritzker back him up, Governor Westmore in Maryland, speaking strongly and humorously. Governor Newsom trolling him out every day. You know, it's good to see people fighting back. My fear, Joe, is that he is setting the table for, a kind of real confrontation along racial and ethnic lines, along political lines, you know, getting his order of battle set. He's described yesterday having strike forces in every National Guard

prepared to move quickly to deal with threats that he sees. That's a very dangerous picture of where we're heading. People need to take it seriously and then resist it just as some of these governors are doing. Well, and when they cross the line to the complete militarization of the National Guard as, quote, strike forces or whatever, the exact language that he said, that's when the courts is, it is time for the courts to step in. And I suspect that they will. But it sure would be nice if you had the governor of Louisiana, say, we have four or five cities and towns in Louisiana that have the highest crime per capita or close to the highest. Hey, Mr. President, can you help us down here or the governor of Tennessee doing the same thing because Memphis is constantly up there,

Nashville, having some crime moving up as well. I mean, yeah, why don't we these red state governors, the governor of Arkansas, step up and say we have some of the highest crime rates per capita of any cities and mid-sized towns in America. All right. We're going to return to this. President Trump says he is removing federal reserve official Lisa Cook. from her position on the board of governors, effective immediately. In a letter addressed to Cook, which he shared on social media, Trump wrote, he has the right to fire her under Article 2 of the Constitution and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Trump also cited what he called a, quote, criminal referral from the federal housing finance agency director who accused Cook of mortgage fraud, writing in part in light of your deceit, and potential criminal conduct in a financial matter, I do not have confidence in your integrity. Cook, who has denied the allegations, pushed back in a statement that reads in part this. President Trump reported to fire me for cause when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy.

as I have been doing since 2022. Joining us now, the anchor of CNBC's Worldwide Exchange, Frank, Paul and Frank, how might the markets react to this standoff? And what else do you know about it? All right, good morning, Mika. Really a muted impact from the markets this morning. U.S. stock futures, they're lower, but it's very fractional. And just to put this in perspective, you know,

we've seen much bigger, much more dramatic moves following tariff announcements, the release of a Chinese technology called Deep Seek. And then remember back on Friday, just the hopes of a rate cut, we saw dramatic moves. So really muted. So the question is, what are investors thinking? Well, at least when it comes to the equity market, it seems to be some skepticism about if this is going to really happen. And also a sense of this is very politicized, that this isn't necessarily a firing if it does hold for actual cause. And Lisa Cook has made it clear that she plans to push back and she has no plans to resign. So right now, a bit of a stalemate,

at least in the present time. The one area we have seen a reaction is in the bond market. And we do know that this administration does react to big moves in the bond market, but we haven't seen a big move. We look at the 10-year Treasury. It's moved up about two or three basis points to the two-year that the Fed has much more influence over. That's moved down a few basis points. A lot of people apparently seeing this as a potential for a rate cut increasing with some of this pressure on the Fed. So going forward, I think the real question for investors and even for, you know, just the U.S. population is what does this potentially mean for Fed independence? When we look at this situation, if the president was able to remove Lisa Cook from the federal board of governors,

that would leave a potential majority or the setup for a majority for the president to have a majority when it comes to that federal board of governors. Also with the idea that Fed Chair J. Powell is going to not only step down from the chair next year, but he might leave the FOMC, the group of Fed governors that votes on rate cuts overall. So really the question is about Fed independence. Right now, it doesn't seem investors in the equity market or the bond market are taking this very, very, seriously, but we are saying a muted reaction. Downside moves when it comes to equities and bond yields moving to the upside, which sometimes is a signal of nervousness when it comes to bond investors.

All right. We will see in a couple of hours. CNBC's Frank Collin. Thank you so much. As always, we greatly appreciate it. And Willie, the lead story of the Wall Street Journal. President moves to oust the governor from the Fed. She says, I'm not going anywhere, and there's deep skepticism that he can fire her.

certainly not from a truth social post. Yeah, this could be symbolic, potentially, him sending a warning shot to the Fed. She's hired Abby Lowell, a well-known and high-powered Washington attorney to defend her here. We should point out that Lisa Cook has not been charged with anything. She's not been convicted of a crime. This is an allegation that's been floated out there, and President Trump using it as the pretext to get rid of her, at least try to. So, Caddy Kay, why is this important? This gets to the independence of the Federal Reserve.

has its own clear wall between it and the executive branch and the rest of the government so that it can make decisions based on economic indicators where the rates go up and down, not to be packed with loyalists to a president who then could manipulate those rates for himself. Yeah, and when the news was first announced yesterday, Willie, we did see the dollar fall precipitously, and people were suspecting that that was a reaction to the news about Lisa Cookham, whether the Federal Reserve was going to be independent. It's why there's been so much pressure over the last few weeks over pressure from the president on J-Pow. Now, presidents have always put pressure on the Fed.

My understanding is, and all the reporting is behind the scenes. That's what I've been told of fiery meetings between Federal Reserve chairmen and presidents about interest rates. But it's always been behind the scenes. The difference this time around is that it's public. And, of course, it puts the Federal Reserve in this position of a question mark over whatever they do around interest rates. Is it actually a reflection of the state of the U.S. economy or are they acting in response to pressure from the White House in order to appease political forces? And Lisa Cook's firing has been caught up in all of those questions about the independence of the Federal Reserve. But really the focus has been on Jay Powell in the past.

I think the firing of Lisa Cook, if it happens, is also going to play into all of those other questions about is the president targeting black leaders around the country? We've spoken about this in the context of black mayors. Lisa Cook is the first black female governor of the Federal Reserve. And I think that there'll be more questions from people who think that there is an element of this in the White House's policy at the moment about is this part of what we've seen around the targeting of black mayors around the country. All right. A lot's still ahead on morning, Joe. What we're learning about the Israeli airstrikes that killed five journalists and the demand for answers on that. Plus, President Trump signs an executive order.

requiring the DOJ to prosecute people who burn the American flag. But the Supreme Court has already ruled the act as a protected form of protest. We'll dig into the legal issues. This poses straight ahead on Morning Joe. And as we hit to break, a note about an event we have coming up in a few weeks here in New York City. On Wednesday, September 10th, Joe and I will appear at the 92nd Street Y, along with Ed Luce of the Financial Times, for a discussion on Ed's critically acclaimed biography of my father, former National Security Adviser Zbignev-Brasinski.

For tickets, visit 92.wai.org slash events. You're watching Morning, Joe. The exciting thing about this also is, Willie, you're learning to play ban show, Steve Martin's style. I'm going to come out. Will you? Yeah. You're going to have an arrow between your head. Yeah.

Harmonic. Are you going to do that? Will you have the balloons? Yeah. Animal bags. Morning Joe, we'll be right. And we're talking about Steve Martin's documentary when we get back. These 20 people, including five journalists, were killed in an Israeli attack at a hospital in southern Gaza.

There were two strikes yesterday morning. Journalists and emergency responders had rushed to the building just moments after the first. blast. Then, moments later, a second strike occurred. Most of the five journalists killed were freelancers. Some of them worked for the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and Reuters. In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack a tragic mishap, adding that investigation will be conducted. But Reuters and the Associated Press are demanding more answers. In a letter to Israeli officials, the news outlets called for a clear explanation for the attack. writing in part, we are outraged that independent journalists were among the victims of this strike on

the hospital, a location that is protected under international law. Unfortunately, we have found the IDF's willingness and ability to investigate itself in past incidents to rarely result in clarity in action, raising serious questions, including whether Israel is deliberately targeting live feeds in order to suppress information, Joe. Yeah. And, you know, Jonathan, yesterday when you reported this news. You had an interview. You heard it was actually the strike was on a stairwell, the second strike, where journalists, our reporter said, where journalists usually went so they could get a signal to send out their stories. And to that point, so Reuters had a live feed from the hospital after the first strike. It, of course, went dark when the second rocket hit. Molly Hunter

from NBC brought us that news from Jerusalem yesterday, saying that, yes, First of all, let's remember, of course, that outside journalists not allowed into Gaza. The IDF has not allowed the eyes and ears of the world to be there. Other war zones, Afghanistan, Vietnam, the like. There's always that outside media presence not being permitted here in Gaza. So therefore, outlets have to rely on local journalists, freelancers, like those who were killed yesterday. And after the first strike, a number of them, as well as, we should say, rescue workers came to that hospital and were there when the second one landed. And we have now had, Mika, well north of 200.

I believe almost 250 journalists killed in their enclave since the beginning of the war. So we have information about the five journalists killed in Gaza. Merriam Daga was a visual journalist working as a freelancer for the Associated Press and other news outlets. She had been with the AP since the war started in October of 2023. According to the news outlet, Daga based herself at the hospital where the strike occurred reporting on starving and malnourished. children. She was 33 years old. Husam al-Mazri was a contracted cameraman for Reuters. He was near a live broadcasting position when the first strike hit. Moaz Abu Taha was also a freelance journalist for Reuters. Muhammad Salama was a cameraman for Al Jazeera. He had been with the organization since the

start of the war. According to Al Jazeera, Salama was engaged and was planning to get married after the war. And Ahmed Aziz was a freelance journalist who filed dozens of reports for the news outlet, Middle East Eye. Mike Barnacle, this war just continues. And it's a war that continues a year after Israel's own military experts and generals were saying there's no need for this war to continue. There is no reason. There are no more political. Our military objectives to reach. There are no more intelligence objectives that we can reach. It's a law of diminishing returns. And yet this continues. Journalists continue to be shut out of this, this area, international journalists. So people that will defend Israel, no matter what Israel does,

can say, oh, well, those are just, you know, reports from Hamas, or those are just reports from quote, health officials. No, no, no, they're not. There are reports from the International Red Cross, from the United States. nations from other organizations, doctors without borders, other organizations that have been allowed in there. And yet here you have people that were working on the ground because the IDF and Israel, Netanyahu's government, are barring the press from going into Gaza. And this happens. Joe, in addition to the enormous human tragedy that we're talking about right now and that occurred just a couple of days ago.

This is a tragedy for Israel as a whole. Yes, it is. A global tragedy for Israel. Israel needs friends. It is always needed friends. But under Bibi Netanyahu and the conduct of the IDF in waging this war against Tamas, Israel is winning no friends. It's losing friends rapidly.

And the idea that the IDF is continuing to wage war, war against Hamas under the goal of, as Bibi Netanyahu is pointed out, eliminating Hamas. You're never going to eliminate Hamas. It's not going to happen. And the reason it's not going to happen is because of the constant warfare against Hamas in Gaza. You've earned another generation's contempt of Palestinians toward Israel. Beyond, beyond, beyond contempt. And you talk about losing an entire generation, John.

Jonathan, a generation of American support is being lost. This is not, you know, people can't say, oh, the Sandy Semitism, oh, this because people later, no, no, America has been Israel's steadfast ally. You look at the data, the strong data, and look and see what's happened. And those numbers are changing dramatically every day. Older people like us, I'll just speak for myself. born Israel supporters will remain Israel supporters, but again, deeply critical Israel supporters because I know and so many other my friends know, all of this is bad for Israel's long-term

health. It's bad for their standing in the region, for their standing in the world, and most importantly for Israel, for they're standing with their most important ally, the United States of America. Yeah, that's right. It was obviously a flashpoint during the 2024 election, polls since then have shown Americans, both parties, growing less and less, you know, willing to ally themselves with what Israel is doing and support for Israel. And as a final note, Mary Mdaga, we mentioned the AP journalist who was killed her byline just a couple of days ago about the malnourished children being taken to that very hospital. So that is, those are the stories that we wouldn't know otherwise. It's because of work of people like her who were killed yesterday.

Terrible tragedy. Let's go to Israel where we find NBC News international correspondent, Molly Hunter, live in Jerusalem. Molly, what more do we know about what happened at that hospital yesterday? Willie, I just want to start by saying that I'm really proud and I really respect Mika just running through all five of those names. These are our colleagues. These are our peers. And it is important to not only put their pictures, their stories, but their names on screen for our audience. I also want to make a note. And Jonathan just did this really well, is that we are not allowed. into Gaza as international journalists. And it's not for lack of trying. We have raised hell. We have signed petitions. We have repeatedly asked the Israeli military. You heard Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even two weeks ago say that, yes, he thinks that he is going to allow international journalists

at some point. And that has not happened. And so the result of that is that we rely very heavily, entirely on independent journalists who are in Gaza. And specifically the AP and Reuters, of course, NBC News, like many big international news organizations, are subscribers. And so the only reason We have so much video, Willie, Jonathan and Mika and Joe, of yesterday's attack is because there were journalists there, because there was a Reuters live feed trained on that staircase after that first strike. And the other thing I want to make, the other point I want to make about these independent journalists working, and they have been tirelessly for 22 months, is they're not immune from these struggles and the risks that the rest of the Ghazan population faces? It's not like

there's a special safe area that they can go to work. It's not like there's a special stash of food that they have access to. So these guys are starving, are working around the clock, are looking for food and safe places like this staircase attached to a hospital to send video to get that reporting around to the rest of the world. And we have a lot of respect for all of those journalists who are still doing that. You guys, the only other point that I want to make after going through the Israeli press this morning and reading all of the military reporters kind of using leaks in their government reporting and how it's being framed here is that it is being framed as a massive mistake. And you guys already put that joint letter from the AP

and Reuters up on screen. But the big question and the international outrage and criticism and the criticism, of course, from these news organizations that lost reporters and photographers yesterday is if it was a mistake, which is how it is being framed in Israeli media, excuse me, if that first strike was a mistake, why was there a second? And I think that is the question that will keep dogging the Israeli military until they answer it in the next couple of days. That's exactly right, Molly. And as those rescuers, as those journalists were rushing to the scene of the first strike, President, Prime Minister Netanyahu calling a tragic mishap. NBC's Molly Hunter in Jerusalem, thanks so much. You know, Caddy, we'll let you take it to David Ignatius here, but obviously this is the access, the lack of access of journalists to Gaza is one problem,

but also the targeting of hospitals. Yes, we understand Hamas is known to use hospitals in schools as cover. but this incident yesterday, especially galling when you look at the second strike as well. Yeah, and then the question is, where does the outrage lead to Willie? I mean, David, we've had outrage multiple times over the situation in Gaza. We've had it when we've seen pictures of children starving. We have it right now in a case that looks hard to explain them as a mistake when there are two strikes and the IDF knows full well that the journalists are going to that stairwell to try and get the feed out for their images, what pressure, what more pressure will the Trump administration,

will the international community be able to put successfully on Prime Minister Netanyahu to change his policies in Gaza? Because so far they don't seem to be able to have much success. So we just hope that the conscience of Israel, conscience of the international community will be struck by this. and that people will continue to tell the truth. I've been covering the Middle East now for more than 45 years. And what I'm seeing in Gaza, of all the tragic situations I've watched over those decades, is really the most painful.

I've been in Gaza. I'm one of the few Western reporters who's allowed to go there and to see the suffering of people, to see the destruction, to see the column of Palestinians as far as my eyes could see, desperately leaving Gaza City trying to find someplace that was safe. Most of us are not allowed to be there regularly. And again, to see these pictures that Joe and Mika showed at the beginning of the journalists who were there on behalf of the whole world risking their lives every single day.

I mean, this was a terrible, terrible moment, but it's dangerous every day for these people. We owe them an enormous debt of gratitude. this is a war, as Mike Markle said earlier, that should have ended a year ago, as Joe said. The military reasons for this war are well past. It's only making new Hamas recruits today. An attack like this, that's especially true. So you just have to hope that good sense and the values we all have as human beings can somehow prevail in this tragedy. And I'm hoping that Don.

Donald Trump can impress upon Netanyahu that this is a dead end because as a New York Times reported several weeks, something that we've been saying for quite some time now, these wars are continuing because Benjamin Netanyahu knows when the killing stops, when the bombing stops, his political career stops. And he's taking the most extreme views, not only in God's, but also in the West Bank, because he now has a government that's run by religious extremists, by the most hardcore religious extremists, who, of course, ironically say, we're not going to fight in your war, but continue the war. So I do wonder, though,

we look at the tragedy that's been visited upon the Gossans. What about the tragedy that flows out of October 7th and the hostages, the hostages that have been left there? I mean, Donald Trump, it was so telling, about a month ago, basically said to Benjamin Nasson, Netanyahu, get out of the way. If you don't care about the hostages, I care about the hostages, in so many words, and he negotiated his own deal to get rid of, to bring home an American hostage.

Netanyahu, I wonder what number these hostages are on Netanyahu's list of importance, because they don't seem like they've even cracked his top ten. Joe, in a litany. And the hostage families will tell you that. In a litany of tragedies, the hostages still remain number one. number one. And it's been going on now for two years held hostage. And now we're down to according to news reports, perhaps less than 20 have survived, less than 20. And you refer to this just now. I mean, the reason the hostages are still hostages, the reason the war still continues

is because Bibi Netanyahu knows the day the war ends, his trial begins in Tel Aviv. Right. And by the way, there are people out there that, well, Hamas could release a hostage. Yeah, they could release a hostage. They're terrorists. They're terrorists. And so, so when you know you're dealing with terrorists, you have to behave a certain way. And Donald Trump did it. Donald Trump was able to get an American hostage job. Why can't Netanyahu? It's, again, the hostage families will say his actions are only endangering their loved ones lives. And have been, have been for months. His behavior has been for months complicit in keeping them hostages,

keeping the hostages, hostages. All right. We're going to continue to follow this. We have a lot more news to cover, including a look at the other stories making headlines this morning. A massive dust cloud plaguing the West. We'll have an update on that. And a reminder, the Morning Joe podcast is available each weekday, featuring our full conversations and analysis.

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. Minutes before the top of the hour, let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. A pair of American lawmakers visited Syria yesterday was the first official U.S. delegation to enter the country in years. Democratic Senator Gene Shaheen and Republican Congressman Joe Wilson met with Syria's transitional leader who was once listed as a designated terrorist. the two lawmakers are pushing for an end to sanctions on Syria in an effort to usher in longer-term security and investments in the region.

And yesterday, Jonathan O'Meer, I believe it was the New York Times, talked about the quiet work, the Trump administration's been doing with Syria to try to move them closer to sort of the community of nations. Yeah, and it's a fragile moment there. The Trump administration has been doing work behind the scenes, you know, but it's unclear what that future is, where the country's future holds at this moment. You know, he is certainly the new leader has, you know, it's the terrorist in the suit. I believe one of our guests called him recently, you know, but he's trying to reform his

image and his country's image, trying to embrace at least some aspects of modernity. We will see what happens next if it can hold that path or if there's a backslide akin to what we saw in Afghanistan. Yeah, hear the music. More headlines now in parts of Phoenix lost power yesterday. So after a massive dust cloud rolled through the region. A powerful monsoon storm kicked up the wall of dust, stranding drivers, canceling flights at the state's largest airport.

Wind gusts were clocked at up to 70 miles per hour. That's like out of John Steinbeck. That's not been a CGI. My God. Speaking of that. I know this affected the day one, but. The mic was there. Let's ask you.

Anything happened, they empty into the ground. No, it was nice yesterday. until the windstorm. Stop. Okay. The power ball jackpot has soared past $800 million. After no one matched the winning numbers in last night's drawing, the massive prize is now the seventh largest.

In the lotto's history, the current jackpot has an estimated cash value of $367 million after taxes and deductions. The next drawing is tomorrow. Really take a bite out of that, don't they? They really do. with the 400 million. It starts at 800. It's not even worth doing it. I know. That's what we go to the dogs. That's right. It's more reliable over the long term. It really is. It's like T-bills. It's the T-bills. It's really serious. It is. Yeah, yeah. It's a rocky ride, but you got to just hang in, hang in.

If you look at, again, you look at T-bill, long-term. Over 20 years, how much money has we made it, the dog tried. I mean. Cost us some relationships, a lot of money, and are in the integrity, but other than that, it's been great. How about a little tennis action? U.S. Open here in New York. A mixed day for Americans at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens. On the men's side, number 17, Francis Tiafo cruised in a straight-set victory to join fellow Americans Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz in the second round. American women, however, not such a great day.

Australian Open champion Madison Keys, undone by 89 forced errors yesterday in a three-set loss. The first round upset makes Keyes, the first American woman. seated in the top 10 to lose in the first round at Flushing Meadows since 2003. Meanwhile, 45-year-old Venus Williams returned to Grand Slam competition after a two-year layoff. She's won seven major singles titles in her career, including a couple at the U.S. Open. She took her 11-seated opponent to three sets, ultimately losing 45 years old, though, playing kind of on and off in these tournaments to push an 11-seat to three sets. Amazing.

She still got it. How exciting. It really, the U.S. Open still, though. It's Medvedev's open. I mean, come on. Here's where he's throwing a racket in the crowd. And by the way, Emma Tocker, the editor at the Wall Street Journal. I mean, this is the sort of stuff she's doing now.

I mean, she's just, again, as I was noting, a logging fight in Alaska Risk, Steinway pianos, the plant in the story. It cleans a lot of fascinating stories there. Is he the new McEnroll? But I hope so. But 80. We had him here. He was a morning Joe guest. That's right.

I think you were like, you know, even killed. Fine. Fine. Okay. Kofi killed young man. Yeah. That's a kind of temperament we like around here. Exactly.

And also, really, 89 unforced error. Errors. And I mean, that's, I do that every morning. That's one show. Yeah. That's just one show. That's why you need to say you're sorry a lot. That's pretty good.

Did she win? Yeah. 18 years later. Okay. 89 unforced errors every day. Still here. President Trump says, his administration.

Intense to sue the state of California over its redistricting plans. We'll have the latest on those efforts. Plus, President Trump is mulling a meeting with Kim Jong-un after nearly six years after he, quote, fell in love with North Korean, the North Korean dictator. Does he like about the North Korean dictator? We'll have details about the potential reunion straight ahead of warning Joe. Would you go back to the DMZ to meet with the North Korean leader? I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy, especially Secret Service?

I felt safe because I have a great relationship with Kim Jong-law. I hope it stays that way. I think it will. I have a very good relationship. I understand him. I spent a lot of free time with him talking about things that we probably aren't supposed to talk about. And, you know, I just, I get along with him really well. I think he has a country of great potential, tremendous potential. Was it possibly you meet him this year or maybe next year?

Well, I'm meeting a lot of people. I mean, it's hard to say that, but I'd like to meet him this year. But it's a country of great potential because North Korea is perhaps one of those backwards countries on the planet because of that leader right there and his father. You look at satellite shots from space and conservatives, real conservatives, the type of people that used to be in the Republican party when I was back there would always say, look at the satellite photos at night of Korea, the Korean Peninsula. You have South Korea lit up like a Western power, and you have North Korea dark because it's backward and he's the most brutal dictator, one of the most brutal dictators on the planet, which leads to the question, Jonathan, Mayor, what is it?

What is it about Kim Jong-un that Donald Trump just can't quit? What is it about Kim Jong-un that has the President of the United States bringing up the dictator, the world's worst dictator, when he's meeting with our long-term ally and democratic country's leader of South Korea. Well, this shows you just how topsy-turvy the Trump foreign policy is. He spent the last couple of days, including yesterday morning before meeting the leader of South Korea, really bashing South Korea, suggesting that there was sort of that there was undue political and religious persecution there, suggesting the trip. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, in South Korea? And South Korea. And he's praising North Korea? This is the back. This is the

where you get fed through, like, to the dogs. Yeah, fed to the dogs, just just for the hell of it. don't like you? Yes, where there are mass executions of political foes and the like. But that's the backdrop here. Now, he ended having a seemingly a pretty productive meeting with the South Korean leader. The South Koreans were very relieved afterwards. But as part of that, it came up. And his fascination with Kim Jong-un has lasted more than a decade. It was that first summer in August 2017, where he threatened the fire and fury. And then that evolved to the point where I was part of the presidential pool two years later when he did step over the line at the DMZ and met Kim Jong-un. They had three summits over the years. No,

progress made. But it seems now, as we know, President Trump is casting about to try to find a way to get a Nobel Peace Prize. It seems like perhaps this is the new venue if he could broker some sort of perhaps reconciliation between North and South Korea as other conflicts like Gaza and Ukraine continued to boil. David, it was so interesting watching President Lee in the Oval Office with President Trump yesterday and watching all of these foreign leaders come through and they've kind of figured out what it is that they need to say. And there's President Lee saying he looks forward to the meeting between Chairman Kim Jong-un and President Trump, and he looks forward to a Trump

tower being built in North Korea. I mean, the transparency with which these foreign leaders have read the kind of translation guidebook on how to speak Donald Trump from foreign leaders. And we saw President Lee yesterday, desperately, of course, trying to salvage trade relationships, security guarantees, all of the issues that South Korea has to deal with with this big neighbor China right next door. It's a sort of play that's taking place with the leaders of the countries that used to be our closest friends and trading partners and allies, each of them offering more embarrassing and fawning praise of President Trump. This fascination with Kim Jong-un is remarkable.

It's been a fixation for Trump now for eight years. You know, you have the feeling that he is going to try to meet him. You know, it's the reality TV part of President Trump. It's the thing that would be so astounding. We'd meet with the very person who's allied with Vladimir Putin and sending troops in the Ukraine war. So, you know, with Trump, it's just he wants to astound us every day with a new part of the TV show.

And coming soon to a screen near you, a visit with Rocket Man. Can't wait. If you've ever been to Seoul, you understand that people there live 30 miles away from the DMZ. It is right there, and it's not a joke to them

that this guy, this dictator, threatens them with nuclear holocaust all the time. He doesn't have the ability to do it at the moment, but he could develop that capability. And it's that age-old question with Donald Trump. What is it about Kim Jong-un? What is it about Vladimir Putin? What is it about Orban that he so admires?

President Xi. that he so admires, well, it's their unchecked power. That's the through line with all of those people. And Mike, talking about leaders, knowing what they have to say, the South Korean president coming around, sitting down, looking around and goes, I like what you did to the office. All right. The dizzying tour of Trump World, though, capped off by Trump wants a Trump Tower in North Korea.

I mean, incredible. Trump Tower. Oh, South Korea. No, I think it wasn't it the South Korean? or does he want? No, North Korea. There'll be no lights in it because there's no lights in it. Well, yeah, no electric grid.

Yeah, bills are cheap, I guess. Okay, the Washington Post, David Ignatius, thank you very, very much.