Memorial day edition of the lead. Im erica hill in today for jake. We begin with our world lead. What was supposed to be a show of unity between the u. S. And japan. Instead, President Trump contradicting his host, Prime Minister shinzo abe, not to mention his own National Security adviser. The president saying he was not personally bothered by north koreas recent missile test. Mr. Trump also siding with the brutal north korean dictator over a fellow american, former Vice President joe biden. Cnn white house correspondent, indicacaitlikaitlan collins, is with the president in tokyo. So, kaitlan, Prime Minister abe said he and President Trump were completely on the same page on issues like trade and north korea, but thats not what we saw. Reporter yeah, this was a heavily ceremonial trip that was meant to showcase and reinforce the bond between these two leaders, but, erica, when they got on stage and started taking questions from reporters, the cracks in those bonds over key issues became very obvious. Reporter President Trumps trip to tokyo was brimming with pomp and pageantry. The first lady and i will never forget this gracious invitation. Reporter but no red carpet could hide the sharp divide between the two leaders when it came to north korea. Youre not bothered at all by the small missiles . No, im not. I am personally not. Reporter putting him squarely at odds with his National Security adviser, john bolton, and one of americas closest allies in asia, who both agree that north koreas recent missile test violate u. N. Resolutions. My people think it could have been a violation, as you know. I view it differently. Invi i view it as a man, perhaps he wants to get attention, and perhaps not. Who knows . I doesnt matter. Reporter but it does matter to japanese Prime Minister, shinzo abe. Translator this is violating the Security Council resolution. Reporter the president is holding out hope kim jongun will eventually denuclearize north korea. He is a very smart man. He gets it well. Reporter and viewing it all through the lens of a real estate developer. Its located between russia and china on one side and south korea on the other. And its all waterfront property. Reporter the president is also refusing to back off his endorsement of kim jonguns criticism of his potential 2020 opponent, joe biden. Kim jongun made a statement that joe biden is a lowiq individual. He probably is, based on his record. I think i agree with him on that. Reporter trump brushing off concerns hes siding with a brutal dictator over a former american Vice President. I can tell you that joe biden was a disaster, his administration with president obama, they were basically a disaster when it came to so many thing things. Reporter now, the president flatly disagreed with his National Security adviser john bolton during that press conference and his assessment of north korea. But when the president was walking out and he was asked, do you still have confidence in john bolton, he said, yes, that he did. But erica, we should note, john bolton was not present at the banquet last night with the emperor. Kaitlan collins live from tokyo for us. Kaitlan, thank you. And now lets take a deeper dive. As we look at this, there is the question of the message, of course, that this sends. You have the president standing next to a leader who is supposed to be an ally, siding with north koreas dictator. What is that message . The message is that donald trump, once he likes you as a foreign dictator and once youve flattered him, he will have your back this is a guy whos always been very loyal to people who flatter him and will throw anyone under the bus the moment they dont. And the saudis and the russians worked that out a while ago. This is how you get to donald trump. And you have donald trump saying these kind of you saw just now in that tape, he says, i think hes a very, very smart man, at the same time he accuses the former Vice President of the United States being low iq. I know weve played this game before, but can you imagine in 2011 that barack obama said, oh, the Ayatollah Khomeini of iran thinks mitt romney is very low iq and im with him. They would be calling him a traitor and demanding execution. Youre right, we have played that game before, yet here we are. Whats fascinating as we listen to each of these in their own words. And i want to play a short part of what President Trump said about kim jongun. Take a listen to this. I view it as a man, perhaps he wants to get attention, and perhaps not. Who knows . Kit doesnt matter. Mary katherine, does it matter . Yes. Yes, it matters a lot. And to me, this week is trump playing into every argument that 2020 candidates will make against him in the democratic side in the most perfect way. Youve got immaturity, and volatility and one that is particularly concerning to me and always has been is the possibility of Foreign Policy via tweet by someone who is impulsive and doesnt make great decisions and often times doesnt have a real tuned moral compass when it comes to dictators. This is a real problem and its a problem that he and bolton arent on the same page and hes talking about that in public and overseas. And by the way, the pelosi stuff is stateside political pugilism. And you can say its out of bounds in certain ways. Overseas, on memorial day weekend, its just wrong, man. It is. You cant ignore the timing on it, Mary Katherine. And you are absolutely right. You did bring up, though, john bolton, and we heard from kaitlan. It was pamela brown who asked, actually, at the press conference if the president still had confidence in bolton. He said yes. Ron, though, do you think this relationship is in danger here . Well, look, they were never on the same page ideologically, to start with. And so, you know, im not sure that this really changes that dynamic very much. I mean, to me, what it and you know, and everyone kind of runs out their string with trump. Theres no one who works for him who you know doesnt share the last name, who is kind of like extended tenure. I mean, to me, the real point of this week was to underscore the dynamics of the relationship between trump and the north korean dictator. The president has gone so far out on a limb in insisting that his personal relationship is what can untie the gordian knot that frustrated so many previous president s and beyond, is hes in a position where he has to make this work. And what the north koreans realize is how fmuch leverage that gives him, because of trumps desire to show that he alone can solve this, is going to bend over backwards, as he demonstrated again this week, to for give almost anything the north koreans do. I think theres no question who is the pursuer and who is the pursued at this point in this negotiation. Well, you know, ron, to your point, too, that really puts in context what we heard from the president in terms of joe biden. Ill just play it again for folks who may have missed it. Kim jongun made a statement that joe biden is a lowiq individual. He probably is, based on his record. I think i agree with him on that. Thats a stunning statement, for a number of reasons. But in some ways, its not all that shocking that were hearing it coming from the president. I think it still is a stunning statement, because this is kim jongun were talking about. I mean, were not talking about, oh, the french president thinks this of joe biden, and i agree with the french president. This is kim jongun. But on the other hand, you know, its not surprising in the sense that President Trump doesnt think about the things hes saying as sort of, what does this mean for the presidency, what does this mean broadly for diplomacy . What message am i sending as the president of the United States agreeing with the leader of north korea over, you know, his view of a former Vice President. He thinks, ah, great, kim jongun is on my team. We both agree that joe biden is a lowiq individual. How great to have another person in my corner. And President Trump, and this was true when he was a candidate, too, doesnt really care who you are or what you believe or what you think or what youve done in the past, as long as you are supporting him and you are vocal in that support. And this is one of these things that has not changed about him. And i would say, as an ally, it doesnt as an ally of the japanese, it doesnt help them to flaunt the fact that, oh, were much further away than the north koreans. So im not super concerned about it. Well, of course japans concerned about it theyre right there, guys i mean, not helpful. You know, in the flood of daily kind of outrageous and controversies from trump, there are very few that i could imagine making it all the way to 2020, but this as Mary Katherine was saying before, this so encapsulate the arguments that youre going to hear from democrats against them, that i can imagine this being especially if biden is the nominee, biden using this to kind of really encapsulate the case against trump. That he is willing to you know, that he is so focused on his own interests above the national interests, that hes willing to give credibility to a brutal murdering foreign dictator in order to score a temporary political point against an opponent at home. I think this is something thats actually going to last. And we will hear about it in the general election of 2020. Just on a substantiative point, can we draw for a moment on the idea that kim jongun and donald trump are the people who are going to decide who has and who doesnt have high iq . Yeah. Im not going to touch that one. But i do want to bring up, Mary Katherine, in all seriousness, i want to go back to one point, which is just piggybacking off of what ron was saying and you brought this up in the beginning, at the top of the hour here, in that, look, were used to President Trump ignoring the norms, doing things his own way. That is not surprising anymore. But there is still something to be said for a sitting president who takes the campaign overseas. Typically, what weve seen, if a president is going to run for reelection, the campaign stays at home when hes traveling abroad for the country. Right. And it should and its not a norm or a line i think hes going to start observing, although he should. If youre not observing it on memorial day weekend when youre having a press conference with an ally overseas and talking about kim jongun, im not sure when youre going to observe that. And i do think, look, that is one of the things, like i said, fighting at home is something that we do and that many have died for the great right for us to run our mouths at each other and insult each other on our homeland. But generally when you step foot overseas, youre supposed to keep it within the family. And hes not willing to do that. And it is something that i think that when it comes to more moderate voters, certainly those suburban and exurban women voters that he tends to lose, thats not something that will play great with them. And i agree with iraron, as a l of these things dont have staying power, but this may be something that does. But who knows. And he said that we wrote each other letters and fell in love. That itself should have been the moment that everyone went, what . a u. S. Republican president saying hes in love with the dictator in north korea . And the crowd just cheered and republican members of Congress Said nothing. Yeah, and you can right and you can very easily imagine how this can be taken from the other how democrats can come on from the other side in this. Again, basically making the argument that trump has climbed so far out on a limb that hes basically surrendered all too much or all of americas leverage over north korea, because they realize, he is so reluctant to in any way allow for the possibility that all of this was for naught. And that gives them a lot of leverage and puts him in a position of excusing a lot of their behavior that another president simply would not. Speak of democrats, President Trump now saying he would be willing to work with House Democrats, even while theyre investigating him. So the big question, of course, is what changed . Our live coverage is next. Look. Sprints going to do things differently. And let you decide for yourself. Theyre offering a new 100 total satisfaction guarantee. Try it out and see the savings. If you dont love it, get your money back. 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Rick blomquist thought he had comfort all figured out. But then, he laid on a serta and realized his life was only just sorta comfortable. Ive been living a lie. laughs the Serta Icomfort hybrid mattress. Not just sorta comfortable, serta comfortable. Save up to 600 on select Serta Icomfort sets at the memorial day instant savings event. I think that we will work with them. We have a usmca, a deal with canada and mexico that everyone wants. I would imagine that nancy pelosi will approve that. I would think it will be very hard not to, but well see. But certainly, as things get approved, i would love to sign them. President trump reversing course now, as you just heard. He said hes willing to work with House Speaker nancy pelosi despite ongoing democratic investigations. The shift comes on the heel of some stinging personal attacks last week, lobbed by both the president and the speaker. Cnns Phil Mattingly is live. One of the most striking things about the sudden legislative freeze declaration last week is what was actually happening behind the scenes. Just after the course of a couple of days prior. There have been ongoing bipartisan discussions with the white house that had broken some new ground on a budget agreement. There had been behind sustathe s discussion about Speaker Pelosi staffs. On the usmca, Speaker Pelosi had just told the trade representative that she was going to designate working groups to work with the administration on their outstanding issue. So there had been work going on and some progress made on a lot of those issues made before the president called for a freeze. I think the complicating factor here is the difficulty with both democrats and republicans on capitol hill, knowing exactly where the president is on these issues. These issues are all complicated, these issues are all difficult, and all of these issues are going to need not just white house buyin in on the whole, but the president himself to be involved, to be present, and to try to figure out a path for them actually to reach an agreement. Usmca is the one that they expect something to happen on if something occurs, but a reminder through the back and forth of last week, Speaker Pelosi decides whether or not the trade agreement ever comes to the house floor. And therefore the relationshi