That nato is much stronger now than it was two days ago. Are you still threatening to potentially pull the United States out of nato for any reason and do you believe you can do that without congresss explicit support and approval . I think i probably can but thats unnecessary. Im very consistent. Im a very stable genius. President xi spent two days there, among the most magical two days ive ever lived. And i think were going to end up doing something good with china. I hope that were going to be able to get along with russia. Somebody was saying is he an enemy . Hes not my enemy . Is he a friend . I dont know him well enough. President obama allowed that to happen. That was on his watch, not my watch. People like to say oh, crimea. Lots to unpack here. Lets do it with jeff bennett back in brussels, what actually went on behind closed doors with President Trump and our allies . Some heads of state have come out and said the president does not deliver a threat or ultimatum and others are saying depends on how you heard it, right . Reporter a Senior Administration official makes clear the president was very aggressive in his approach. I want to see significant changes as it relates to defense spending and if he doesnt see them, well, then, we would go it alone. We would do our own thing. This happened in a session that was focused on the security of georgia and ukraine. Two countries we should mention that were invaded by russia but the president playing that role of debt collector, laid into allies for not spending enough on their own defense. His threats were viewed that ultimate up viewed by some people in the room as a threat and that language is really what triggered an emergency session focused on defense spending. The president says there were so many developments and things he talked about in the meeting and with World Leaders that he wanted to hold a press conference. That set about a little round of trumpian chaos. We got a note from the reporter traveling with the president , i dont know whats happening but people are rushing in the Briefing Room and the 3presiden says he deserves credit for a successful summit. That nato is stronger now than before. I can tell you that is not a universally shared assessment and as it relates to country spending more on their own defense, thats kind of off the mark too. We heard from Emmanuel Macron that member nations will not spend more than this agreed upon 2 , hallie. Jeff benbennett, ill see yo when you get over here. Much appreciated. Theres a lot to talk about regarding the News Conference and what the president had to say and a lot to fact check. There was plenty to correct. Lets talk about what he said about nato spending when it comes to how other countries contribute to the military alliance. Watch. Prior to last year, where i attended my first meeting it was going down, the amount of money being spent by countries was going down and down very substantially. And now its going up very substantially and commitments were made only five of 29 countries were making their commitment. And thats now changed. So President Trump not the first president to try to push nato allies to spend more on defense. Look at the headline, both of his immediate predecessors also did that. George w. Bush, nato sent troops to afghanistan after 9 11. What he said about contributions going down is not true. Under president obama the countries agreed to and did ultimately up their spending. Thats actually a decision that then president obama praised when he was leaving office. Youve also got what the president said on north korea. And two things to unpack. Watch. There have been no missile tests and no research and they have blown up a site i hear they are blowing up another missile site. Theyve taken down all of the propaganda. Somebody said theres no more music playing at the borderline. The music was going on for many years. They said recently that wow, theres no more of the heavy music and the propaganda. So heres the thing. If you watch this show, you know this, nbc news and other outlets are reporting north korea is actually increasing nuclear production. Intelligence officials tell us work is happening to enrich uranium for weapons and pyongyang expanded a key missile manufacturing plant and as far as speakers playing music, both countries did remove the propaganda blasting machines from the dmz but that was before the singapore summit. Seen as a gesture of good will, even when that summit between President Trump and kim jongun hadnt happened yet. There was an eyebrow raising moment when it came to crimea. President obama allowed that to happen. That was on his watch, not my watch. People like to say, oh, crimea, but the fact is, they built bridges to crimea and they just opened a big bridge started years ago. They built i think a submarine port substantially added billions of dollars. So that was on Barack Obamas watch. That was not on trumps watch. So the an nexation of crimea by russia did happen. While president obama was president at the time. Thats not in question. Nobody is disputing that. What is at dispute is whether president obama quota loued Vladimir Putin to annex crimea. He thinks obama em boldened putin because he kicked him out of the g8 and the bridge President Trump is talking about is a bridge putin built between crimea and mainland russia after the annexation. This was open two months ago. There you go on that. Because its not a real press conference, some might say until the president talks 2016, theres this. One of the states we won, wisconsin, i didnt even realize this until fairly recently, that was one state that Ronald Reagan didnt win when he ran the board the second time. Didnt win wisconsin. He did. Thats not true. Ronald reagan did win wisconsin. Again, won it decisively. President trump only by one point. Fact separated from fiction. Lets talk about what happens here in the uk. With me onset, christopher dicky for the world beat and msnbc contributor and matthew doyle, political adviser to tony blair. In dv, evelyn farkas, now msnbc Foreign Policy contributors and National Security analysts and back in brussels, White House Correspondent for pbs news hour and msnbc contributor. Gang is here, even while were overseas. Gentlemen, let me start with you. Initial reaction to what you heard from donald trump this morning and what you expect moving throughout the day . So were going to see very difficult couple of days for the british Prime Minister theresa may when donald trump gets here, not just because of the big global issues we saw being discussed at the nato summit but also the way in which donald trump hasnt missed an opportunity to intervene in domestic uk politics when it komds to the debate about brexit and Prime Ministers own struggles going on at the moment. What well see is a british Prime Minister who has to walk that delicate line of maintaining the relationship which is supposed to be about people and values as opposed to engaging in a personal thing about somehow being seen to endorse donald trump personally. Theres also a lot of confusion about what exactly what went down at nato and what donald trump intends to do. He had talked about wanting to go it alone if he had to in these closed door meetings were told by sources. In the press conference, he was asked would you withdraw from nato and he says i dont think ill have to but i think i could. And thats not the kind of thing that inspires confidence. Really what we were looking at it in the press conference was the president coming out and taking the opportunity to say i won. This is a huge victory, other president s couldnt do this. Obama lost crimea and couldnt get them to increase the amount that they spend on defense and i did all of these things. Actually hasnt done any of these things. But thats an announcement he could make. And certainly his core supporters will think thats a wonderful deal. Let me pick up on that. She was actually correct me, you were in the News Conference and you were there with donald trump. I think you had a chance to ask one of the questions. Walk us through what those moments were like. He seemed weve seen this version of donald trump before, ready talk to the media, wanted to take questions from the Foreign Press and domestic press. Well, i was definitely in the room, hallie. It was an extraordinary President Trump has this reputation of being a showman and in this case like a big show was being put on. Everybody was rushing as White House Press corps was gathered quickly and rushed over and Foreign Press started following us in the room. When we got in the room and President Trump started taking questions, the thing that really surprised a lot of people, including foreign reporters, was that he went around the room. Some president s only go to the White House Press corps for two or three questions. Instead President Trump spoke for 36 minutes and he was taking questions from me, from other reporters, from reporters from georgia. And this was really President Trump taking a victory lap. There was a lot of talk his rhetoric had been hurtful to nato. I particularly questioned him on wlrnt he thought the stance was and then he gave the quote people have been using in a headline while answering my question. That was that i believe in nato. Hes saying that he liked the way he acted here and it was very effective for him to come in guns slinging to attack germany. As a result he thinks he got what he wanted and by the way he praised Vladimir Putin, people asking him whether or not he thought Vladimir Putin was a threat. He said when i met the guy we got along fine. Looking forward to meeting with him. And evelyn, i want your reaction, because the question was also questioned about Vladimir Putin as we look ahead to the one on one going to happen in helsinki a few days from now and taking the show on the road there. One thing that stood out to me, the president when asked if he would recognize that russia has recognized crimea, he didnt really answer the question. He said thats an interesting question. He referenced those bridges and then said hey, it was president obamas fault anyway. What did you make of that . I thought it was unhelpful. Clearly he doesnt understand the history or wants American People to get confused about the history. The bridge as you said was recently completed and an illegal bridge and in furtherance of the illegal occupation of crimea, its russias way of further increasing their military presence in the black sea, which is something that concerns not just the United States but turkey and georgia and ukraine and of course all of the countries, ro mania and bull gar i cant on the black sea. We need freedom of navigation, et cetera. The president is minimizing what putin has done and pointing the finger at president barack obama. Its inappropriate. And again, hes coming off a meeting at nato where he met with the georgian leaders and ukrainian president poroshenko and it frustrates me that he says ukraine was here. The country wasnt there the president was there. Can you please just say his name . Theres a lot of with style and substance thats essentially signaling i think to his base and other Republican Leaders that its okay to minimize what russia did in crimea and elsewhere. So, Vladimir Putin, evelyn, and you know this and chris and matthew, you know this too. Vladimir putin tried to undermine nato before. President trump every day. Wants countries to boost to boost how much they spend on their own military spending, something we talked about yesterday on the show as one of the planes goes overhead, forgive the audio, to boost how much they spend of their own budgets on military spending. He wants them to get to 4 . One diplomatic source is telling us that is unrealistic. It would be a gross militarization of europe. Let me ask you this because the nato secretary general was also discussing whether President Trump realm really did make theo 4 . Heres what he said. We have a commitment to spend 2 . The importance now the importance now is that we need to invest more and to get more money and the good thing is that since very much because of that clear message from President Trump on this meeting, i think that allies understand that theres a need to do that. Pretty noncommittal there, chris. I think theres a hidden message there, including there will be an increase in defense spending by a lot of European Countries precisely because they have no faith in the United States anymore. This is the beginning of the end of nato it isnt the United States coming out and saying we support it and were behind it 100 . Its coming out and saying, if you pay enough money, well think about supporting you and thats not what you call the atlantic alliance. That existed more than 70 years and not kept the piece in europe or stability in the world. So well see how that goes. But basically many people in europe have said, this is like a protection racket. Your envelope is not heavy enough, im not going to protect you. Theresa may is engaged in these conversations and also as you mentioned at the top of the show here matthew, really dealing with her own hot mess here in the uk. Stepping into this country and stepping into it right at this moment when this country feels a little like a tinder box when it comes to brexit. For an american audience, walk through what the Biggest Challenges will be for the president as he meets with not just the Prime Minister but more ceremonial way, the queen. Whats interesting about the nato press conference, you did see the president make an explicit link senly because the nato defense issues and issues of european trade, which is a linkage that normally isnt made. For the president what hes going to want to do is obviously try to make the most out of this trip. The opportunity for theresa may is other than Donald Trumps caddie in scotland, shell be the last world leader to speak to him although the white house hasnt confirmed he is playing golf when hes in scotland. Sure. Im sure he may visit his golf course and not play a round of golf. But the fact of the matter is there is an opportunity for britain here. Has traditionally played the role of being a bridge between the u. S. And europe. But that is obviously far more complicated at the moment and Brexit Process under way. It means that britains ability to kind of play that sort of broker role is massively undermined and instead the domestic worry for theresa may, shes going to look kind of desperate trying to get something out of a visit that a lot of british people are deeply skeptical about. Does this mean donald trump needs to come out in the uk and say forcefully he backs Prime Minister theresa may even with concerns there could be a vote of no confidence . As ever, an endorsement for donald trump is a double edged thing in terms of whether you want that and if donald trump supporting you is not going to help with domestic politics here. But whats certainly true is that what theresa may needs to show, britain actually can still have a proper negotiation here, that we rrnarent so weakened t were going to have to take whatever america offers us and instead what theresa may wants to show on this what is a working visit rather than a state visit and thats an important distinction because its about recognizing the pragmatic nature of the relationship rather than saying were just rolling out the red carpet for the president. You are going to be with me for the next 50 minutes or so as we continue to cover this. I want to give evelyn farkas. The last word on the meeting today and then the meeting on monday, how these two relate and the mission that the president has. Thank you for asking that. I really want to say the big picture thing that people need to focus on, leaving aside the blajer about 2 and whos paying what is that what donald trump did yesterday and today was to air the dirty laundry and differences that we have with our allies in europe or he has with our allies in europe. The differences that the europeans have amongst themselves yesterday when he talked about the gas pipeline not an issue that relates to nato directly at all. Those things airing that dirty laundry just made nato look weaker and thats exactly what Vladimir Putin wants. Vladimir putin wants the public to see hes the strong guy. Natu nato is weak. If Vladimir Putin truly believes nato is weakened, it weakens our deterrence. That is to say that the countries that live on the border that are afraid every day that russia might either conduct a conventional attack or some kind of sneak attack, theyll be less they will be more nervous and less certain that nature toe wi nato will come to their assistance. The bottom line, President Trump helped the kremlin yesterday and today and he did not help nato. Thats that. Evelyn farkas, thank you for your perspective. Ill see you on next leg of the trip when we get to finland. Appreciate you both joining us, ill ask you to stick around because while all of this is happening here and were ov