On Monday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough expressed surprising support for President Trump's handling of a potential peace deal on Ukraine But—Joe being Joe—he also managed to work in a Muy Macho moment.
- He brought in Mark Brzezinski, son of Zbigniew, brother of Mika, and appointee of Obama and Biden, respectively, as ambassador to Sweden and Poland, who said that if Trump achieves a peace deal, he would be entitled to "celebration" and "accolades" [Nobel Prize?]
- Scarborough noted how Trump's relations with European leaders have changed markedly for the better since his first term.
- Scarborough pushed back hard when John Heilemann claimed that Putin would get what he wanted from the deal: a part of Ukraine. Scarborough said he would only get "slivers," and that Putin definitely did not want a form of NATO Article V guarantee for Ukraine, something that seems to be on the table.
- Scarborough made a point of lowering the bar for what should be considered a successful peace deal. He mocked "screeching" from people claiming the deal would be "a huge defeat for Zelensky." Scarborough said that every Biden official admitted that Ukraine was going to have to give up land, and that whereas some said Ukraine would have to be admitted to NATO, "that was never going to happen." Rather, if the West grants a quasi-NATO-type guarantee, "that would be considered, I think, at the end, a win for Ukraine."
- Scarborough mocked people who said that Putin's body language at the summit indicated he felt like a winner. Scarborough pointed out that Putin is a KGB agent who was not about to look as if he had been beaten.
- Joe also did his Muy Macho thing, saying that if he ever met with Putin, and Putin had slouched in his chair, as he did in Alaska and also with Obama, Scarborough would have walked out, telling him, "Have fun. I'm going back to Washington." Not just Muy Macho, but Scarborough seeing himself as POTUS!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
8/18/25
6:12 am EDTMARK BRZEZINSKI: The Russia-Ukraine conflict has historical dimensions that if President Trump can broker a ceasefire very soon, would be worthy of celebration, because it is so historically rooted and so recently bloody. And to put something in place that stops that would be worthy of accolades.
. . .
JOE SCARBOROUGH: One other thing that's fascinating, a difference everybody's always saying, well, what's different in second term versus the first term? The first term, Vladimir Zelensky would not want any European leaders in with him because Donald Trump had horrible relations with all of them.
Now, there's very good relations with Keir Starmer. He's had very good relations with Meloni in Italy. He's got good relations with Macron in France. He's got good relations with the new Chancellor of Germany. It is very interesting that Donald Trump will be surrounded by leaders that he has close personal relations with.
. . .
JOHN HEILEMANN: What does Vladimir Putin take from this? Why did Vladimir Putin look so jolly the other night in Alaska? Is that in the end, I think it's hard to escape the message that you laid out there, which is, in the end, he's gonna have fought this war, he's gonna have lost a lot of lives, suffered a lot of casualties, but he's gonna end up getting what he really wanted, which was a piece of Ukraine. The long-term question --
SCARBOROUGH: Well no, no, no.! Actually, what he wanted was Ukraine. What he expected to have was Kyiv. The question is, will he get slivers of Ukraine, and actually have the United States guaranteeing the security of the rest of Ukraine? He did not want that.
HEILEMANN: That's 100% correct.
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: There was a lot of screeching this weekend from a lot of people acting like the deal was already done and it was a huge defeat for Zelensky. We don't know yet. The question is this. Will there finally be a stop sign? Will the West finally put a stop sign in front of Vladimir Putin, which they didn't do after Georgia, they didn't do after Crimea, they didn't do after Ukraine in 2014?
If the West, if Europe puts a security force in Ukraine with U.S. backing, if the United States is a part of rebuilding Ukraine. And we have Americans in there, business owners, contractors, and perhaps some military advisors. If they are in there, that is a tripwire. And that would be enough to actually put a stop sign up to Vladimir Putin.
The question is, will we get that far today? And if we don't, not today, but during this process, if we get that, that's something we haven't had since Putin became president of Russia.
. . .
Let's underline two things here. Just again, to set expectations, to be realistic. Even during the Biden administration, every Biden official, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, says they're going to have to give up land. They're not going to like giving up land, but they're going to have to give up land, number one.
Number two, they're not going to become members of NATO. There may have been people writing articles in the Wall Street Journal or elsewhere saying they have to be members of NATO. But you go around to every European leader, that was never going to happen.
But there was an idea of a quasi-NATO type guarantee. And they need that guarantee. And if they get that guarantee, if they have the guarantee that Putin's not going to reload and then come back in, that would be considered, I think, at the end, a win for Ukraine.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: On Friday, obviously, Putin, to John's point earlier, Putin had the body language of a winner on "Friday Night Summit," but that was only part one.
SCARBOROUGH: I heard that. He's a KGB agent! To people expecting to hang his head and go, oh, oh, poor me. No!
LEMIRE: He did the slouch thing. He always does the slouch thing in the chair. He always does that.
SCARBOROUGH: He does the slouch thing in the chair when, like, Barack Obama and other people are next to him.
LEMIRE: But to be sure, again --
SCARBOROUGH: By the way, if he did the slouch thing in the chair with me or you, we'd just get up and walk off.
LEMIRE: Yeah, you're right.
SCARBOROUGH: I'd be like, you're not going to pay attention to me. Seriously, while I was watching him and President Obama, I said, why doesn't Obama just get up and walk off?
Somebody acts that way in front of me to make a point: "You made your point. Hope you have fun. I'm going back to Washington. "
