We have our meetings scheduled. We have our meetings set. The location is picked, the time and the date, everything is picked. We look forward to have a very great success. In announcing his intention to abandon the iran deal and reinstate the highest levels of economic sanctions, the president also warned that he will come after nations who aid iran in their pursuit of a nuclear weapon. The fact is this was a horrible onesided deal that should have never, ever been made. It didnt bring calm. It didnt bring peace. And it never will. America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail. We will not allow American Cities to be threatened with destruction. And we will not allow a rejgime that chants death to america to gain access to the most Deadly Weapons on earth. Todays action sends a critical message. The United States no longer makes empty threats. In a moment, well be joined by former secretary of state john kerry, one of the chief architects of the deal. Until then, we want to bring you the latest reporting on the fallout from the president s decision. The New York Times reporting that mr. Trumps announcement, while long anticipated and widely telegraphed, plunges americas relations with european allies into deep uncertainty. They have committed to staying in the deal, raising the prospect of diplomatic and economic clashes as the United States reim poses sanctions on iran. Joining me now to discuss, some of the best reporters and friends of the show. From the New York Times, peter baker. And with us elise jordan, a former aide in the Bush White House and state department. Sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast. And steve schmidt. Peter baker, let me start with you. You and your colleagues have been on this all day ahead of the announcement. The last story i read on this, youve included the joint statement from president macron of france, Prime Minister theresa may of britain and Angela Merkel of germany urging iran to continue to meet its own obligations under the deal despite the america withdrawal. You quote them, we encourage iran to show restraint in response to the decision by the u. S. It sounds like we have a real policy dispute and split now with some of our closest allies. Thanch we have a big schism with the biggest allies we have in europe on one of the most important issues to them and the United States. Theyre saying that theyre still in this deal just because President Trump has gotten out and they want to find a way to salvage it with iran. Despite the statement, its going to be hard for europe to do. American sanctions will force european banks, European Companies to pull out of iran. They have a choice between doing business with the United States or iran, theyre going to pick the United States, of course, in their economic interests. While theyre not happy about it and theyre obviously going to protest it, in the end theyre not going to be able to block what President Trump is doing right now. The question becomes, what happens with russia and china, both of whom were also party to this deal and do not plan to follow along with President Trump. Theyre not really as vulnerable to american sanctions. Will they step in and fill that void in iran that europe will end up leaving. The president not standing behind the podium when he revealed that within an hour or so, according to him, his newly confirmed secretary of state will be landing in north korea to continue to work toward talks, laying the groundwork for what would be historic talks with north korea about giving up their nuclear program. Is it the unanimous view of all of the Trump Officials that youre covering that pulling out of the iran deal, breaking the word of the last president certainly strengthens the president s hand . Is there anyone who worries that might not be the case . No, thats not the unanimous view, although it is more of a consensus view. The argument has been for weeks by all sorts of veteran diplomats and analysts that if you get out of the iran deal, you weaken your hand for the north korea deal because it tells the North Koreans why should they make an agreement with somebody who doesnt keep their agreements from administration to administration. John bolton is saying this actually strengthens their hand because it shows north korea we will not accept weak deals. The question is whether theres any kind of deal north korea could agree to that would meet the higher bar that donald trump set today. They actually have Nuclear Weapons unlike iran, which only had a program. Its hard to imagine that they couldnt look at this and see a cautionary tale. But they are coming to the table and were going to hear soon about when that meeting will be and well learn soon enough, i suppose, whether or not this iran deal today will impact that dynamic. I want to bring you in and ask you to add any of your reporting to peters reporting today. Specifically on this question of, once again, whether that was planned or not, the president s comments on north korea, on mike pompeo being within an hour of being in north korea, it was not included in the scripted remarks. Whether he planned to say that or not, it is certainly even just in republican Foreign Policy circles, it is debatable whether or not the gaddafi example and now the iran example strengthen or weaken the president s hand in dealing with north korea. Its certainly a significant tell that he couldnt resist stepping away from the podium but still talking about north korea. West wing aides weve been talking to say thats where his focus is right now. He believes that some sort of deal with kim jongun, that is sort of the ticket, replacing what he thought middle east peace could be. That that will be something that he could achieve that none of his predecessors could. Theres been some chatter as a noble pea nobel peace prize. This is another moment where it underscores how this president wants to sort of send the normal order of things upheaval. Whether it was pulling out of the paris climate agreement he had a multiday Charm Offensive from macron and merkel at the white house about both tariffs and the iran deal. Yes, they got a temporary extension on the tariffs, but that reprieve could end. Certainly now he ignored them on this. He is feeling like hes forging forward with his gut, hes trying to keep his Campaign Promises. He has surrounded himself with far more hawkish National Security advisors, bolton and pompeo. This obviously one of his other obsessions and we dont know what all the president s motives are, but ive also had some sources who say that he views a win on north korea as something that could help him tremendously in the midterms. Ma marry that with his obsession of undoing whatever obama was for and you have a pretty pathological picture of Foreign Policy making. We have something from obamas Statement Today. There are few issues more important to the security of the United States than the potential spread of Nuclear Weapons or the potential for even more destructive war in the middle east. That is why todays announcement is so misguided, walking away from the jcpoa turns our back on americas closest allies and an agreement that our countrys leading diplomats, scientists and intelligence professionals negotiated. In a democracy there will also be changes from one administration to the next, but the consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding americas credibility and puts us at odds with the worlds greater powers. I think the distinction is trump is voluntarily giving up things around which there was consensus as opposed to a war that, as it went on, caused our allies both the iraq and afghanistan starts with a pretty broad coalition. This seems to be the willful breaking up with our closest allies. This is what im having trouble grappling with. With your boss george w. Bush, there was a Foreign Policy doctrine. With trump, there doesnt seem to be an actual doctrine beyond if obama was for it, i am therefore against it. Thats why you have things like a sort of ambitious pursuit of diplomacy in north korea happening at the same time you are retreating from arguably the most intricate diplomatic break through of the obama years. These two things dont coexist in an idealogical cohesion. He had an opportunity to pull out of the Iran Nuclear Deal at sel several occasions prior to this. Why now . Arguably its a worse time to do it now because hes in those negotiations with north korea, but he did it anyway. The only thing that changed is that hr mcmaster is not there and john bolton is. And pompeo is tech tear of sta secretary of state and tillerson is not. It seems pretty clear to me they didnt think through the next steps that come after this. Well see how grave those steps will be. He also cited Israeli Intelligence as one of his proof points in his prepared remarks today that the iranians were essentially cheating on the deal. The two figures who are ascendant in the president s Foreign Policy inner circle, they are historically very close allies of israel, very trusting of Israeli Intelligence. Also i would add that our own american officials such as defense secretary jim mattis and also mike pompeo, the secretary of state emerged too. I think that we are going to look back on today as the most isolationist move made by a u. S. President in the postworld war ii order. I think this is a very huge move in terms of the United States literally going at it alone. You pointed out iraq, you pointed out afghanistan. There was multilateral support for those interventions, the aftermath notwithstanding. But this, we are truly just giving the middle finger to our closest allies. Let me pull the lens back a little bit and ask you to add to elises point the experience of traveling to europe and refusing to affirm our commitment to nato, the very public rebuke of the paris accord, which a similar coalition lobbied the president to not pull out but try to improve if there were things we couldnt live with. Can you add those two examples . Of course. With Donald Trumps unilateral abrogation of this International Agreement he has achieved a remarkable result of giving the high ground on issues of National Trust and credibility to the Islamic Republic of iran, the worlds number one leading exporter of terror, over the United States of america, isolating us from our allies on of all days v. E. Day, the anniversary of the end of world war ii where the United States in cooperation with its great allies saved the world from tyran tyranny. So we look at his pulling out of this. What he has shown is that the word of the United States in an International Agreement means nothing. Secondly, the breaker of this agreement is not iran, who has been compliant with it, but in fact our country, the United States of america. And lastly, this moves the world closer to war in this region. This is what Foreign Policy looks like when its concocted in the fever swamps of fox news and the alternate reality of Sinclair Broadcasting and the alternate reality of talk radio. Almost everything that the president represented was materially false. What a competent and responsible president would have done and i understand that there are many people who think that the deal did not go far enough. It didnt include the iranians Ballistic Missile program, it didnt include irans export and funding of terror in the destabilization of the middle east. I think those are legitimate criticisms. A competent president would have said i dont like this deal, i have my eyes on the iranians. Were going to be insistent that there be tough verification and enforcement. Theres no problem with this. But he has isolated the United States. Of course, every time he goes to europe and he equivocates on our obligations under the article 5 provisions of nato, he sends a message to Vladimir Putin to go ahead,test us, make a move in the baltics. Vladimir putin, if hes feeling gutsy on any day, looking at this president s equivocations and the degree to which he has asundered the alliances that are so essential to this country, does he make a move . We dont know. But the world got a lot more more dangerous today because of the incompetence of this president whose only Foreign Policy philosophy seems to be to nullify the obama presidency. If barack obama was for it, hes against it. And hes against it even if it means he makes american National Security weaker. Peter, on the role that pompeo played, you write on friday mr. Pompeo called his counterparts in europe to tell them that mr. Trump was planning to withdraw but that he was trying to win a two week reprieve for the United States and europe to continue negotiating. Mr. Pompeo suggested that he favored a socalled soft withdrawal in which trump would pull out of the deal but hold off on reimposing some of the sanctions. This has to go down as pompeos first policy failure as secretary of state. That is not what we got today. Thats right. It indicates the limits of his influence. Its interesting too because pompeo is considered to be a hawk. Hes not thought of as the moderate that Rex Tillerson was seen as. Yet in his role as secretary of state, hes obviously taken upon the traditional position of the state department, of the chief diplomat to seek more Diplomatic Solutions to things rather than potentially blow up alliances. His role now as the diplomat is to try to see if he could work something out with the europeans. There have been months of talks with the europeans. Brian hook, the state departments policy planning director, to look for a way to avoid a complete rupture over this, to find ways to address the criticisms, the Ballistic Missiles, the terrorism in the region and so on, particularly the sunset clauses that made parts of the agreement expire in 1020 years. He came up with some areas of compromise with europe. President trump didnt want to do that. He decided to go not just for a soft exit, not just for some sort of a side agreement, but for the full withdrawal. This is very trumpian. What i think peter just described and what the reporting seems to bear out is that there was a less extreme option on the table and he didnt take it. Weve also seen on full display, the curtain was pulled back on this but none other than Rudy Giuliani, whos in the middle of a mosh pit of chaos around the president s legal questions about his relationship with a porn star. Had a piece of paper, pretended it was the iran deal and spit on it. That was our high minded diplomatic preview of the president s Foreign Policy. Can you talk about all the high road and low road and all the president s impulses that steve just laid out for us and how our allies have to adjust to this incredibly unconventional and unpresident ial politician. Most of his impulses are going unchecked. Theres very few people around him who could stand up to him and say you should do this differently. There has yet to be that person in the room. James mattis, defense secretary, has at times been able to soften him or convince him. We know a year ago when they were talking about what to do in afghanistan, there was a grouping of tillerson and mattis and others who were able to convince the president to change his mind and maintain a true presence there. Those moments dont happen very often. This is a president who is going to more times than not not just go with what he wants to but do it in the most extreme way possible. Its a crass move that really would have been unthinkable under a previous president. Its almost a debus statiasing government role. And its this volume business. We went back and watched and sort of caught that off the cuff north korea moment, which wasnt the plan, but could end up being the most consequential thing i mean, its all built on drama. Even this announcement teased in a tweet that it was coming is built on drama. During melanias event. That was mean, i thought. If we think this moment was dramatic, i hate to break the news, but the forthcoming moments with respect to the iran deal are going to be far more dramatic. The most logical next steps are going to be that iran will not allow inspectors in to one of it sites. At that point in time, they will have unfortunately the moral high ground because we took the precipitating action. It becomes a little bit scary and uncomfortable to wonder what the president does at that juncture. Pompeo at his confirmation hearing said that iran still was adhering to the deal, and yet the United States pulled out anyway. That was just a couple weeks ago. That is one of the things we