MSNBC host Joe Scarborough broke from other lefty pundits as he argued that it’s President Trump – not Russian President Vladimir Putin – who holds “the cards” in negotiations over ending Moscow’s war with Ukraine.
“You know, there are a lot of people talking about who has cards, who’s not playing cards …it’s Donald Trump,” Scarborough said during Wednesday’s show.
Scarborough’s assessment clashed with many of his colleagues who have blasted Trump’s handling of the Alaska summit with Putin as an “embarrassment.”
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said President Trump holds the power in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Donald Trump has the cards. He has the cards with, first of all, with sanctions. He can just say, ‘Hey, Lindsey [Graham], go ahead. Let’s pass the sanctions bill and let’s grind him down,’” Scarborough insisted.
“And the second thing is they were talking about a possible $90 billion military aid bill to Ukraine. Those are two things that would change the dynamics very quickly.”
Scarborough said that Putin’s bravado was simply a ruse to appear in-control of the situation.
“Vladimir Putin can huff and puff and say he’s gonna blow the house down all he wants,” Scarborough said.
“He’s not holding the cards. Donald Trump’s holding the cards right now. It’ll be very interesting to see if he’ll play them over the next 10 days.”
Scarborough’s defense of Trump came after the president over the weekend raged at liberals who labeled his Alaska meeting with Putin as a failure.
President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. AP“The Fake News has been saying for 3 days that I suffered a ‘major defeat’ by allowing President Vladimir Putin of Russia to have a major Summit in the United States. Actually, he would have loved doing the meeting anywhere else but the US, and the Fake News knows this,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.
“It was a major point of contention! If we had the Summit elsewhere, the Democrat run and controlled media would have said what a terrible thing THAT was. These people are sick!”
In particular, Trump blasted his former national security adviser John Bolton, who told CNN Putin had “won the summit,” and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who claimed “Putin got everything he wanted.”
Trump slammed both men as “stupid people,” arguing that it was “very hard” for Putin to come to the US.
