double underline his comment about the president not having the stability he needs to be president. well, there s a sense in which mr. trump is a model of stability. that is, he s in this for mr. trump. and when he sees an opening to deal with other people, he will do so. he s not a stable republican, but to give mr. trump his due, he s never pretended to be. i think there s at least a 30% chance that if mr. trump runs again, he would run as an independent. that could be where the action is. there s the breaking news report tonight that steve bannon was on capitol hill today meeting with mark meadows, le leader of the conservative group of republicans in the house, talking about someone to replace paul ryan as speaker, and mark meadows has not foresworn this report. it says, several people close to bannon and meadows said on wednesday that the two men, who met on monday on capitol hill,
up with a plan when your president, supposedly your greatest ally in this effort, will just turn around and cut you off at the knees as they said. so i think it s a gut punch on a lot of levels and does put everything they want to do, including the tax cuts, in real danger. the way donald trump conducts business in the oval office, including today, has that crazy sitcom feel to it like a scene out of veep. the new york times reporting that mr. trump often invites his daughter, ivanka trump, into meetings to signal their conclusion or to keep his interlock yew tors off balance. when they entered the oval office toward the end of the discussion on wednesday, the republicans in the room reacted with expressions that two people described as astonishment. so, david, here s ivanka trump making her entrance into the room to break up the meeting, a meeting the republicans didn t want to end because they were trying no doubt to kind of put the toothpaste back in the tube and somehow come
and evalyn, president trump not meeting with u.s. ally after u.s. ally over this, and every once in a while says something provocative and nothing substantive. no. and the important thing to mention is, i think our president, unfortunately, has manufactured this crisis. it was a problem before, but he s raised it to our consciousness and made a bigger deal out of it internationally with his rhetoric. second but sos that north korea, right, with firing these missiles over japan. yes, although that s nothing new. they did that under obama and president obama and under president bush they were also provocative and going back further. president clinton froze their activities for about eight years. but our president has raised the international attention, has raised the pressure through his rhetoric. and then he hasn t come up with a plan. i think to what you and kier just said, there s no diplomatic effort.
president trump flew to north dakota today to give a speech that was supposed to be about taxes, but there wasn t much tax policy in the speech. as usual, it was all about donald trump getting out of the house and having fun with a microphone. and i have to say that you are all in favor of tax cuts, aren t you? absolutely. huh? and by the way, ivanka trump, everybody loves ivanka [ applause ] come up. should i bring ivanka up? come on. [ cheers and applause ] sometimes they ll say, you know,
japan tomorrow at an economic forum in russia where he is pushing for his own solution, a deal that would get north korea to stop its nuclear tests as long as the united states and south korea stopped their joint military exercises, an option both the united states and south korea have ruled out. yesterday putin said that north korea would rather, quote, eat grass than give up the nuclear program. and in his meeting with south korea s president today, putin said, we should not act out of emotions and push north korea into a dead end. we must act with calm and avoid steps that could raise tensions. should not act out of emotions. i wonder who putin is talking about. more on vladimir putin s moves to take control of the north korea negotiations next.