jonathan, let s talk about mick mulvaney and the decision to no longer host the g 7 at dor real doral. he still considers himself in the hospitality business, he wanted to put on the best show, the best visit that he possibly could, and he was very comfortable with that at doral and we were all surprised at the level of push back. we ll find some place else that the media won t like for another reason. you said he considered himself in the hospitality business, he is the president of the united states. jonathan, unpack this for us. when the president tweeted about it he said the media is not medical examin mentioning that i m not profiting.
our nbc news has the latest from both ends of pennsylvania avenue. we also have an analysis with someone who worked closely about the top senate republican. we re joined by aaron blake, senior political reporter for the washington post. hans, let me start with you. the president seems to be under fire from multiple front this morning. so does his acting chief of staff. reporter: acting chief of staff obviously had a difficult weekend where he in his own words could have been a little bit more clear. i just spoke to one official who said that mick mulvaney s job as acting is safe, but as safe as anyone s in the white house, because there s always the question, especially when you have acting preceding your title, on just how secure you actually are. now, the big reversal, was of course the president late saturday night talking about changing that decision to host the g-7 at doral. this morning he s on defense. he s explaining his decision. here is a quick tweet from him. doral in
i think we should put national security and foreign policy in a very different sort of bucket from everything else. syria in a different bucket than like the g-7. correct. . and i think you have to remember when barack obama became president, republicans fought tooth and nail against barack obama pulling troops out of iraq. so they have a lot of memory here, they have a lot of concern about the middle east and they think that if the united states pulls back there are going to be a lot of problems. and that s exactly what we re seeing here. it s also a little disconcerting for the republicans to hear that erdogan, the head of turkey, just in one phone call can just ultimately unilaterally change foreign policy. so that s the national security bucket. talk about the sugar coated satan sandwich with the g-7 and quid pro quo and ukraine. let s just start with doral. i sometimes think the president doesn t understand what it is that he s doing. he thinks, oh, this would be great.
was something that was one, didn t look good. two, wasn t legal. and three, would make it harder for republicans to stand up to him or for him. but you know, that was the message that was delivered on saturday after chief of sfaf mulvaney met with a lot of moderate republicans. and this is not the first time that the president has walked something back. often tooichlz ittimes it s a hastily thrown together nomination and the president walks it back and instead of taking responsibility himself of course blames democrats and the media. that was the same playbook this time. blaming the doral reversal on democrats and the media. but it does show you that on some level the president understands maybe it s a little bit after the fact, he should understand this ahead of time, but at some level he does get the message that he is going to need these republicans and on certain things it s best to back down. anna, we asked this question at the top of the show. the president s facing impeach
they stick together. you never see them break off. you never see somebody go out and that s why i respect it so much. republicans have to get tougher and fight. we have some that are great fighters but they have to get tougher and fight because the democrats are trying to hurt the republican party for the election. the president struggling to reset the narrative while saying it s quote a foregone conclusion he will be impeached. clearly, there s a line for republicans who have found it harder, in some cases, to defend the president. nbc news reporting, for example, that during a saturday meeting with moderate house republicans, trump was told that the majority of the room felt it was best for him to reverse himself on having the g7 at doral. and then he did that. the new york times reports that republicans were not eager to have to defend the appropriateness of the president s decision. but today, he wasn t backing down that the g7 should have been at his own property. it would