new numbers is our national political correspondent, steve karn kornacki at the big board. steve? brian, maybe a different way of looking at the poll numbers, everybody has seen the headlines. these are the four out in the last day or two. as you said hovering around 40%. if i didn t tell you who the president was, and i just say a first-year president, these are the numbers in the middle of the first summer, we d say, that s a disaster. as you can say historically that s what what it looks like at this point donald trump lowest numbers of any of the modern press sesors, basically by far. this is terrible terrain to be in, if you re a president, except, is this really what we should be comparing donald trump to? here s what i mean. one year ago tonight, july 17th, 2016, when it was candidate donald trump, we, right here at nbc news and wall street journal, we had a new poll come
nuclear deal and there is great reporting in the new york times that says he had a fight in the white house with his national security advisers. trump wanted to pull out of the iran nuclear deal basically scrap it and h.r. mcmaster and relevant tillerson were able to convince him to stay with it. that must be compounding frustration, his sense he is not getting things done he vowed to do. and the overall image of impoetens shrouding the white house. you wake up on a monday morning expecting that white house to want very much to turn the page on the donny junior meeting last week which could not have dominated the news more mp instead they open a new book with the president tweet saying most people would have taken that meeting. this white house from day one has been unable to get ahead of this story. it has been a constant drip,
vehicle for money laundering. it was one of two buildings in new york city where anonymous people could use shell companies to buy condominiums. is there a squid versus a pro quo. with trump being accused of being so transactional? is there a long debt this reason to bend over backwards to show russia and putin the benefit of the doubt. what is the action, extortion, compromise threat you have found? in the early days it was a matter of money laundering. and trump sold a lot of condos and didn t ask questions. but things changed dramatically around 2002. and at the time, trump was still reeling from his massive expansion in atlantic city. he ended up owing $40 billion to
from arizona well. and i can tell you, we hope john mccain gets better very soon, because we miss him. he s a crusty voice in washington, plus, we need his vote. [ laughter ] and he ll be back, and he will be back sooner than somebody else would be back. he ll be back soon. the word he used there is crusty. it s the word in the white house transcript of the event. the president has had, shall we say, an interesting relationship with john mccain, the former p.o.w. in vietnam, long-time senate icon, former gop presidential candidate. in fact, it s two years tomorrow since trump said this about john mccain, and it was a jaw-dropper. he s not a war hero. he s a war hero. he s a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren t captured. remember how some in the moment thought that would be the moment that would end the trump campaign, two years ago tomorrow. we want to join the millions of
to harvard doing a fantastic job in business in the real estate business done an amazing job in his own right just incredible. well long before conferring upon jared kushner the title of senior adviser to the president, his father-in-law donald trump praised him as you saw regularly. jared kushner has now served a few days shy of six months with the most elaborate policy portfolio in the modern history of the presidency. he has been asked to streamline and overhaul the federal government. serve as the primary contact for more than 2 dozen countries reform veterans care solve the opioid ep dem and come wup a plan to create lasting peace in the middle east. and there are others. he has attracted a whole lot of attention and not all of it good. the question being asked font is, is he an asset or a liability at this point in the presidency. with us tonight to talk about this, rick stengel, former