Didnt leak. The source added, its not like donald trump hadnt foreshadowed the possibility. Fair enough, but its unclear exactly what the president was trying to foreshadow in these remarks this morning. Mr. President , is the summit still off . Were going to see what happens. Were talking to them now. It was a very nice statement they put out. Well see what happens. No, no, well see what happens. It could even be the 12th. Were talking to them now. They very much want to do it. Wed like to do it. Were going see what happens. I dont know anything about it. John, everybody plays games. You know that. You know that better than anybody. And new reporting in the Washington Post suggests that any decision on north korea was borne more out of trumps concern for his own ego than carefully considered policy. The president told advisors he was concerned kim wan maneuvering to back out of the summit and make americans look like desperate suitors. Trump called it off first. Tony schwarz who coauthored the deal with donald trump, he scorched the summit to save his ego. Trump has a morbid fear of being humiliated and shamed, schwarz said. This is showing who is the biggest and the strongest so he is exquisitely sensitive to the possibility that he would end up looking weak and small. There is nothing more unacceptable to donald trump than that. But in reality, the stakes are much higher than a potential personal embarrassment for the president. Axios writing, the United States was closer to war with north korea last summer than is widely known. Sources close to the white house tell us, and now that same dangerous uncertainty is back. Lets get trite to our reporters and guests. Nbcs keir simmons joins us from st. Petersburg where hes covering a topic at the World Economic forum. Also associate press Reporter Jill Colvin with us at the table. The New York Times oped columnist. Mike murphy, who advised bush, mccain and romney. Good old days. Heather mcghee, an advisor to john edwards, now president of the Advocacy Group d. Mos action. All for us nbc analysts and contributors. Jill, let me start with you. What is the latest from the white house . I had heard that some of the backlash about how our closest allies didnt know and members of congress who are inclined to support this president on Foreign Policy were left out of the loop, that the reason for that was that they needed it to be final and they didnt want it to leak. What are you hearing today about where things stand . Reporter that is definitely becoming an increasing concern for this white house, theyre trying to tamp down on it. My colleagues are reporting out today really the president doesnt see this as the end of the road. The president doesnt see the summit now as being something that is never going to happen. They are still very much holding out hope that this is something that could take place, even suggesting that maybe that the june 12th date is possibly still on, even though logistically that seems like an impossibility. But really painting this as just another step in the president s negotiation with the North Koreans to try to gain an upper hand here. Jill, i want to ask you about that. We played that sound at the top, and the president said, quote, it could be the 12th. Are logistical steps still being taken for that summit to happen . Obviously large advance crews have been there. Theyd have to go back. Is that work ongoing or has that all been halted . At this point there is supposed to be a group of advanced staffers and other folks including the deputy chief of staff joe hagen supposed to be going there next week. It is unclear whether that trip is still planned. They actually havent been clear about whether thats going to happen or not. But, look, Senior Administration official briefing reporters yesterday described the number of days between now and june 12th as i think he said it was ten minutes. Its a very short period of time. There are very intense, strategic negotiations that need to go on not just from the logistical side where you need to figure out who is going to be where, the security situation here, which is very, very concerning for both sides. But also there is so much work that needs to go on in terms of exactly what the deal is going to be, what are they going to agree to. And you remember, you know, hagen and his team were in singapore last week and the fact is that the North Koreans stood them up. That was supposed to be a time when they sat down and they worked out a lot of those issues. If those conversations arent taking place, if the u. S. And north korea arent having those discussions right now, its very hard to imagine june 12th is very, very right around the corner. Keir simmons, we have been talking about the logistics because thats where this story has taken us, to all the things that broke down in the normal sort of consultation process and forming allies and people who can cover your back when Something Like this falls apart. Lets get right to what you cover, the substance. You know, you watch this president from overseas. And if you look at just the recent Foreign Policy events, pulling out of the iran deal, this backing out of the summit with north korea yeah. Pulling out of the paris climate accord. What does the picture of america under President Trump start to look like . Well, i have to tell you, nicolle, i witnessed a pretty damning demonstration of the world on President Trump because just visually, you had president putin, the leader of russia here in russia of all places, the leader of japan, leader of france, deputy premiere of china and leader of imf all on the stage together. One thing, nicolle, i was there as the news filtered through that President Trump had now said the north korean summit was back on. None of those leaders none of them appeared to know that that was going to be a possibility, not two of americas closest allies, leader of japan, leader of france. The deputy premiere of china was least surprised, china least surprised by it. As you would expect, they were all pretty much unified in saying that they hope the summit did go ahead because frankly any sane person would want to try and see moves towards peace in north korea. But, you know, nicolle, on so many other subjects as you mention, what we saw was them being unified in criticism without naming President Trump. On iran, on climate change, on trade. Again and again, there was this criticism. Even from president putin who, as we know, is reluctant always to criticize President Trump in public, and he didnt directly criticize him, but joined the criticism. For example, suggesting that the rules of the world are being ripped up unfairly. President putin suggesting that intimating thats President Trumps fault. You know, keir, we have conversations around this table every day about the object lit ration of norms in this country whether its at the Justice Department or the fbi or the intelligence community. But we dont talk enough about what you see, and thats the object lit ration of norms in terms of our diplomatic relations with adversaries. Even russia finds this administrations conduct unsettling in terms of knowing where each side stands. Yeah. What i saw today was the leader of russia, president putin and one of the leaders of china together calling for trade rules around the world to be followed, for normal trade practice, if you like, around the world. And one of the worrying things about that, nicolle, is youre hearing from two people who dont who run i think if you like, you can at least call russia a quasidemocracy, china clearly is not a democracy. So there is that concern. In terms of President Trump, for example, just to give you an example, he was asked about the plane shot down over ukraine. We had reports in the last 24 hours that it was, according to the independent inquiry, a Russian Missile that was responsible for that. And president putin just denied it, just flatly denied it. That is well, its a lie honestly. And that is the person who at the same time is uniting World Leaders, who is picturing himself presenting himself as standing up for the world in a way the world should be run. And that gives you a sense of the deficit. I just want to say one thing. We dont know how things are going to play out in north korea. The trump strategy may well work. I dont think even those leaders on that stage know the answer to that, hence their kind of diplomatic hopes expressed that there will be progress there. But on many, many other issues, the world seems to be moving forward without america. Ive got two followups for you, keir. One, you used this another thing weve been talking about all week, that president putin was sort of putting something out there based on a lie. We spent the week talking about a Conspiracy Theory that the president of this country has about the fbis conduct based on a lie, that there was some mole planted in his campaign. I want you to pick up on the idea these two operate in some of the same ways. I want to read you give you a two for. I know its late there. Being reported here that critics said, trumps hasty jump into a poorly thought out summit process has left the United States in a weakened position and trumps personal daliance with kimmel vindicatesed the stature of kim on a world stage. I want to land there and ask if that is president impression the World Leaders have if he wittingly or unwittingly elevated kim jongun to places hes never been before. Thank you for throwing me that one. You can handle it. You know, i really think on north korea that weve just got to keep in mind this is a conversation you and i have been having over many, many months, particularly towards the end of last year. I think we have to remember how very dangerous it appeared to be getting, how dangerous the conflict in north korea is. Now, you had president putin effectively siding with kim jongun at this conference here today, suggesting that kim jongun had done everything needed. And again, as i mentioned, seeming to criticize President Trump, which is unusual. So, there is a strange there are strange bed fellows for you, both president putin and President Trump moving forward with north korea and perhaps a little side with the north Korean Leader in recent months. However, i do think that its worth what you saw with all of these leaders and remember, theyre from very different countries. You have the leader of japan, one of the leaders of china on the same stage. You saw them all saying, we do want to try and see diplomacy work on north korea and we know the reason for that. Its because the alternative is terrifying. So, i think it is that sense, i guess, we need to give President Trump a little bit of generosity in terms of how we assess how this is being tackled, being played. We just dont know how this is going to end. Pick up on that threat. We have keirs reporting from points abroad. We have jills exentitcellent reporting from the white house how this became consumed with some of the chaos and confusion around process. Take us back to the substance. Do you think the president is sufficiently steeped in the substance of what is in the Regions National security interest, this countrys National Security interest to pull this off in the end . No. You know, when i grew up, i grew up in a bipolar world. Now in middle age, i live in a bipolar presidency. With north korea you might say were talking about two bipolar situations. In the case of north korea they run hot and they run cold, but i will say at least in north korea they do it for strategic reasons. There is a method to north koreas madness of escalating a situation and then extracting concessions. In the case of the president , it seems to be drichlt ven entirel temperament and vanity and ego. Thats whats so potentially dangerous. Back to your original question, it strikes me instead of a coolly rational analysis of what the United States could offer north korea versus whats the most that they could possibly concede, what we had was a president who suddenly was watching fox news and hearing the word that he could be offered a Nobel Peace Prize and succumbing to that temptation, and then suddenly being faced with the opposite perspective or the opposite possibility of being humiliated and unmanned, if you will, by kim jongun. So, were not really dealing with an analysis of the situation. Were dealing with a question at a policy level. What is the outcome likelyest to flatter trumps vanity at any particular moment in time. I guess what were seeing now, heather, is this conflation of self with state. I mean, where is the United States interest in any of these conversations . You dont hear it from any of his surrogates. We hear about Donald Trumps interests. What was telegraphed by the president , what leaked out almost immediately was this idea he saw this as an opportunity to win a Nobel Peace Prize, that he was telling friends and allies that republicans could run on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and hold the house and the senate on that victory. He made the stakes so abundantly clear to kim jongun that they were do or die for him, that it seems like he gave up all of americas leverage out of the gate. That is exactly right. I mean, his program of America First has meant america alone, and most importantly, it hasnt returned any dividends to the country. Whether its getting tough on china and then backing out, whether its obviously the fact that we are now sacrificing not just a potential to transform our economy in a great way, but also the wellbeing of the next generation by pulling out on climate change. On issue after issue, he has not been able to say that America First, other than being a psychic boost to say, you know, we are still the best in the world, actually is going to redound to any benefits to the american people. The fear of this man being anywhere near the white house in 2016 was exactly this, that someones ego would be close to putting millions of lives at stake. And thankfully, this, you know, last crazy week starting with john bolton saying something that he never should have, and then oddly mike pence who is supposed to be sort of the serious states man in the room doubling down on that on fox news, thankfully hasnt immediately created any loss of life, but i think a lot of americans are scared. They dont trust him to have his finger anywhere near the button. You didnt make dissimilar points to the ones just made by heather during the campaign about sort of the fundamental lack of fitness for this aspect of the job, the commander in chief profile. Yeah, it is a hard complicated job. And figuring out north korea is particularly hard and complicated because you have big powers that want different things. The North Koreans are actually the easiest part of the equation because they just want to survive. The regime wants to survive and they get to do that, they want economic relief. I met a highlevel defector last week. His point of view is this is all a con job. Kim internally has to show some creeping progress toward their eternal strategy, which is misbehave, then be paid off to stop misbehaving. The problem is because i dont think donald trump knows anything more than anything than he does. He wont take any expert advice. Instead hes reacting emotionally. Hes a guy who wants to dominate any situation. The truth is from my point of view, anyway, kim could write the new edition of art of the deal because just having an american president agree to a bilateral summit without giving up anything, weve had 30 years of bipartisan policy to try to inch him along, sixparty talks, everything else. He already won. And then he got us to back off on a military exercise that had been normalized. Now a couple of adjectives thrown around in public diplomacy, and were throwing a fit. So, i do think from the breakup letter that will have historians laughing for 30 years, hes dying for a summit. He wants the photo op. He wants the politics. Eventually i think hell get one because for domestic reasons north korea wants one to inch towards economic relief. Jill, let me give you a quick last word. What the white house might say in response to this is they did secure the release of three americans who were detained in north korea. But at this moment, is that an accurate assessment of the accomplishments in their dealings with north korea . I mean, that is something that they accomplished here. And i think that they deserve credit, that is something that happened. Also, you know, you have i think it was yesterday, the day before, where the North Koreans did shutdown that nuclear facility. They had journalists there, of course, broke their promise of having independent experts there to verify their full capabilities have been destroyed. There have been moments of progress there. And this story is definitely not done yet. Jill colvin and keir simmons, were so grateful to both of you for your reporting. Were happy to have it. When we come back, donald trump spy fantasy. Its only real in his head but that didnt stop the white house from ordering the department of justice to brief congress on some of the nations most sensitive secrets and the identity of a confidential informant. Well do a Damage Assessment here. Also ahead, Harvey Weinstein in handcuffs in court, and facing criminal