At G20, Trump Jokes With Putin, Has Breakfast With MBS, Invites Kim Jong-un To Meet At DMZ; U.S. & China Agree To Restart Trade Talks, New Tariffs Put On Hold
CUPP: In THE RED FILE tonight, the President is, for a great many of us, in a terrifying place. He's on the world stage. Trump is currently in South Korea for a state visit after attending the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. A two-day annual economic conference of world leaders from 19 countries and the EU. And in usual Trump fashion, the summit was a whirlwind of meeting with dictators, deal making allegedly and calculated photo-ops. The President joked with Russian President Vladimir Putin about not meddling in the U.S. election, haha. He had a breakfast with the Saudi Crown Prince, MbS where he said he brought up the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and then defended the Crown Prince against our own intelligence reports implicating him in the murder. And he invited by tweet, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to meet him at the DMZ for a quick handshake and a hello, because why not? With me now CNN National Security Analyst, Sam Vinograd. Sam, I think we're all a little numb to this stuff by now, but we should take this opportunity to remind people that this is not how any of this is supposed to go. How crazy were the last couple of days?</s>SAM VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, foreign travel isn't supposed to be a National Security liability, right?</s>CUPP: Right.</s>VINOGRAD: I mean, President Obama used to travel or meet with foreign leaders. We viewed it as an opportunity to advance U.S. National Security. At this point, whether it's at the G7, the G20, the NATO meeting and what have you, President Trump's trips aren't just a waste of taxpayer dollars. They create more work to the National Security team back home. You take any number of these meetings, let's start with the Putin meeting. President Trump made very clear that Putin is his paradigm. He wants to emulate President Putin's treatment of journalists.</s>CUPP: Yes.</s>VINOGRAD: Joking about Putin's treatment of the media and how he wishes he could treat the media isn't funny.</s>CUPP: He's getting rid of them. Getting rid of them.</s>VINOGRAD: Exactly. Exactly. President Putin imprisons journalist. He targets his opposition and he engages in gross human rights abuses. We shouldn't want to have that in common with President Putin.</s>CUPP: Right, nor should we joke about it. Let's go through some of the others, the Kim meeting which Trump announced by tweets. Like I'm going to swing over because it's nearby.</s>VINOGRAD: Hop skipping a job.</s>CUPP: Finding the neighborhood. What do you make of it?</s>VINOGRAD: Well, first of all, he's undercutting his own team. His team has been trying to get a meeting and get talks going with Kim Jong-un for weeks. Secretary of State Pompeo said this publicly and he has a special representative for North Korea, Steve Biegun, who has been trying to work with the North Koreans. He said he didn't know where Kim Jong-unon is. Well, talk to the intelligence community maybe they could help. But the broader question is why does he really want to shake hands with Kim Jong-un. The only explanation, S.E., is that he's desperate. He is desperate to keep Kim Jong-un engaged in these diplomatic negotiations which are a highway to nowhere from a denuclearization perspective. But they do allow President Trump to say things are better than when I started because Kim is not doing nuclear tests and long range missile tests. We should just acknowledge the President Trump's goal is not denuclearization. President Trump's goal is being able to say that he's doing things better than his perceived rivals would have done. That is his benchmark for success at this point.</s>CUPP: Well, I think he also just - I mean, he likes the publicity moment and he knows that if he gets a photo of shaking hands with Kim Jong-un on the DMZ, he's got a moment. Less reported was Turkey's decision to purchase Russian missiles after a failed deal with the U.S. Now, Erdogan is saying that Trump pledged no sanctions. Is that a big deal.</s>VINOGRAD: It's a huge deal. The law and order president is willing to let President Erdogan break the law. These sanctions would be triggered under something called CAATSA, the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which penalizes any country that buys weapons from Russia because of Russian invasion of Crimea and other illicit activities. President Trump using Erdogan's talking points said, "Oh, they were pushed into this by President Obama." Regardless of why Turkey would be purchasing Russian goods, they are breaking U.S. law if they proceed with this weapon purchase and President Trump is saying he doesn't care. He's going to issue this waiver because it's Obama's fault. This really opens up a floodgate, S.E. It probably won't stop with Turkey. Turkey is a NATO ally. There will be NATO repercussions if this purchase goes from forward. But India is also looking at buying Russian arms as does Saudi Arabia.</s>CUPP: Yes. Very, very scary. Finally, on China, Trump announced, again, tariffs are on hold. What's going on there?</s>VINOGRAD: Well, the devil is in the details. It appears that there is a trade war, truce, tariffs won't go forward on additional Chinese goods. That's a good thing for the global economy. The question I have from the National Security perspective is what did Trump have to give up to get the Chinese to agree to this truce other than the tariffs. He said something about Huawei and allowing Huawei to purchase more U.S. products.</s>CUPP: Yes.</s>VINOGRAD: Just weeks ago, Secretary of State Pompeo threatened to cut off their intelligence partners if they continue to do business with Huawei. Now, President Trump is saying, "Nope, we're going to move ahead with some of the Huawei business and it really begs the question of whether National Security is a focus here or just getting China to buy more of our agricultural --</s>CUPP: Right. Sam, thanks so much for breaking all of that down.</s>VINOGRAD: Yes.</s>CUPP: Complicated stuff and a lot of moving parts, I appreciate it. The dynamics of the Democratic primary have shifted after this week. So for some candidates, it might be time for some self reflection, just saying. I'll talk about that next with my panel.