During Thursday’s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough opened by playing a clip of President Trump speaking to troops during a surprise visit to Iraq and while Scarborough praised the President’s trip as “very good and valuable uses of the President’s time over the Christmas holidays,” it did not take long for the Trump-bashing to begin.
Scarborough used his opening monologue to trash President Trump for holding the troops “captive” and offered an extensive criticism of the President’s foreign policy before arguing that America will not be great again until after President Trump leaves Washington.
According to Scarborough: “We should also be concerned that Mr. Trump once again used a captive audience of American heroes to push his unpopular domestic agenda; this time, the wall.” Unlike many of his counterparts at CNN, Scarborough did not attack the troops for having the President sign their #MAGA hats; at least not during his opening monologue.
Scarborough proceeded to take issue with Trump’s assertion that “we’re no longer the suckers” even though it was not directed towards the troops.
The former Trump pal then directed his comments to the President: “It just seems to me that we aren’t the suckers after all, Mr. President. You are. And you’re the sucker for believing that dismantling America’s most successful military operations across the globe will do anything other than help Russia, ISIS, Iran and our other geopolitical enemies, our threats.”
He then lectured Trump that his Syria decision “is not going to make America great again. It’s actually going to make us much weaker than we’ve been at any time since World War II.” Scarborough continued: “you know, actually, we were great long before Donald Trump entered the White House. And we will be great again after he leaves Washington.”
Eventually, he concluded: “Even in doing something right, he figures out a way to sow chaos. And in so doing, he creates more crises for our troops and for our diplomats and for our allies and they’ll be forced to deal with that chaos until the day that Donald J. Trump exits the White House for good.”
All told, the monologue indicated that Scarborough’s unhinged coverage of the Trump administration will continue well into the new year.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Thursday’s edition of Morning Joe is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Morning Joe
12/27/18
06:00 a.m. Eastern
PRESIDENT TRUMP: America shouldn’t be doing the fighting for every nation on Earth; not being reimbursed in many cases at all. If they want us to do the fighting, they also have to pay a price and sometimes that’s also a monetary price so we’re not the suckers of the world. We’re no longer the suckers, folks, and people aren’t looking at us as suckers and under my administration, we’re winning now. We’re not playing to lose slowly, like they’ve been doing for 19 years. We’re fighting in areas where we shouldn’t be fighting and spending hundreds of billions of dollars doing it. We want to fight where it’s meaningful. Your general understands. I just met with them. Your general understands it. We want to fight for the meaningful things.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Wow. That was the message from President Trump, who is now back in Washington this morning. But that was his message while visiting American troops serving in an active war zone for the first time as Commander-in-Chief. You know, the President’s trip to Iraq and Germany, they were very good and valuable uses of the President’s time over the Christmas holidays. And the troops he visited there were clearly happy to see him; buoyed by his presence. And I think every American should be grateful for that. But we should also be concerned that Mr. Trump once again used a captive audience of American heroes to push his unpopular domestic agenda; this time, the wall. You know, Churchill didn’t attack Attlee at Yalta. Ike didn’t blast Democrats when he was in Korea. Ronald Reagan didn’t try to undermine Speaker Jim Wright when he was standing at the Brandenburg Gate telling Mr. Gorbachev to tear down that wall. It’s all very becom…unbecoming and all very Bush-league. And you can bet 41 and 43 would have never treated the troops so disrespectfully. The President also lied about pushing through a huge pay raise for the troops. I don’t get it because it’s just, it’s not true. It’s, it’s not even close to being true and of all the people in the world to know that the President of the United States was lying about a 10 percent pay raise that he pushed through himself and he fought back against Democrats and he got this huge pay raise. The very people who would know that he was lying about their pay raise would be the troops themselves who were in that audience who opened their paychecks to see that they didn’t get that pay raise, not a 10 percent pay raise. But you know, worse than the President’s bizarre ticks, where he lies for absolutely no reason at all. I think more dangerous than that are his policies that will put those troops and really you and me and all Americans in greater danger. You know, we used to fight ISIS and terrorists in Syria and other places across the globe so we wouldn’t have to fight them here at home or in those soldiers’ hometown. But Donald Trump, he thinks that’s how suckers fight. He wants to fight here, I guess. Donald Trump now calls Americans suckers for fighting enemies like ISIS abroad and dismantling their terror networks abroad so we don’t have to fight them in our own schools or in our own churches or at airports. Remember that? Remember airports? Now, things are changing under Donald Trump. U.S. leaders once stood up to bullying threats from tyrannical thugs, from Turkey or from Russia. But now, it’s not even close. Last week, it’s sad to say, our President caved like a quivering coward to threats coming from Turkey’s thuggish leader, Erdogan. Donald Trump bailed out on our allies and he ran off his beloved Defense Secretary all in response to a threatening phone call from the leader of Turkey. Are you kidding me? And this week, the President has sat silently by as Russia is now threatening the United States of America, threatening us over Saudi Arabia, ordering Donald Trump not to press the royal family there to hold their murderous Crown Prince accountable for the slaughter of a Washington Post columnist and a Virginian resident. Donald Trump attacked Barack Obama’s foreign policy approach of leading from behind for years. But now we have a weak President who fears Russia and fears Turkey and he is in full retreat across the globe and he has gifted this Christmas season the Middle East, to Russia, to Iran and to ISIS. Now, it just seems to me that we aren’t the suckers after all, Mr. President. You are. And you’re the sucker for believing that dismantling America’s most successful military operations across the globe will do anything other than help Russia, ISIS, Iran and our other geopolitical enemies, our threats. That is not going to make America great again. It’s actually going to make us much weaker than we’ve been at any time since World War II. You know, actually, we were great long before Donald Trump entered the White House. And we will be great again after he leaves Washington. Unfortunately it’s just the intervening madness that we see every day, including yesterday when he did something right. But even in doing something right, he figures out a way to sow chaos. And in so doing, that creates more crises for our troops and for our diplomats and for our allies and they’ll be forced to deal with that chaos until the day that Donald J. Trump exits the White House for good.
