Leaders. This is the 30th time that Prime Minister abe and President Trump have talked and the eigh time that theyve met oneone. This meeting though is particularly critical because it kicks off a whoknowswhatwillhappennext in world policy. 24 hours out, the g7 is already off to a rocky start. President trumps new tariffs on americas closest allies are not going over well, and he could get a frosty reception from Justin Trudeau, among others, as the french finance minister already called this the g6 plus 1 as if america wasnt coming in pass a true ally. The Washington Post reports that President Trump says leaving the trip is a distraction from the singapore summit. Shinzo abe wants assurances the u. S. Will safeguard japans interests, even as the administration attempts to strike a deal with north korea. How much will the president care . The japanese invited for the meeting . Will you be meeting with everybody . When it comes to north korea, how much will statements like these from the president s lawyer matter . We said, well, were not going to have a summit under those circumstances. Well, kim jongun got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in. But other questions today about the president himself. When it comes to north korea, what matters more . Preparation or attitude . And this is Peter Alexander in the rose garden at the white house. Nick christoff is columnist for the new york times. Peter, the president said it is more about attitude rather than preparati preparation. Do you know about any preparation that is happening behind the scenes . I was in the oval office a short time ago, he said it is more about attitude than preparation. He does say he has been prepared for this for a long time. We can report based on our conversations with officials here the president has been receiving what they describe as daily briefings for a series of days, perhaps more than that, even weeks, in advance of this summit. His secretary of state, mike pompeo, largely taking the lead in that effort. Hes over my shoulder right now. He will be here in the rose garden when the president speaks alongside shinzo abe a short time from now. Then he notably will be briefing reporters and americans later this afternoon, about 3 45 eastern time. It will be interesting to hear his perspective on this given the fact that he is the american liaison, the kimjongun, the man thats met with the north Korean Leader twice so far. What struck me about our conversation in the oval office a while ago, i asked the president about how long he will stay. He said one, two, maybe even three days. He said this, most importantly, was the start of a Good Relationship between kim jongun. This is certainly the rolling back of the initial expectations. The president saying this was a summit to try to nail down denuclearization. He says if they dont agree to denuke, then the sanctions will continue to be in place , as thy are as we speak. The exchange to the president about whether abe would be allowed, whether any of americas allies in that region perhaps president moon or shinzo abe would be allowed in the meeting. The president made it clear no, this is oneonone, face to face between him and the north Korean Leader. Politico is reporting that National Security advisor john bolton has yet to convene a cabinet level meeting to discuss President Trumps summit with north korea. They write, quote, since trump agreed on when to meet with north Korean Leader kim jongun on march 8th, the white house summit planning has been half structured. Trump has driven preparation exclusively on his own consulting little with his National Security team beyond secretary of state mike pompeo. This just reflects indifference to facts and to substance and to actual knowledge that has already got the administration into trouble. President trump initially got in trouble because he didnt understand that by denuclearization north korea meant Something Different than what he thought he meant. Anybody who was following north korea back to the beginning of 1992 would understand when that word was devised, it was a euphemism for something much different than what the u. S. Might think. The president s team might argue, listen, weve gotten this far, were getting them to the negotiating table. The difference may be Donald Trumps attitude. Attitude obviously matters. But when you deal with substance, then it really helps to have substance. Knowledge of that substance. One of the problems is, to think a president might be able to get by if he were surrounded by people who really knew the area, mike pompeo is is in general a smart guy but mike pompeo is the one who didnt know kim jonguns last name, referred to him as chairman un. John bolton, to his credit, is very knowledgeable, knows the process. But he wants to blow up any deal. His demands are far from what the president is trying to go out there and negotiate. And the state department in general. To some degree the intelligence dmu community are really robbed of a lot of smart people on this issue. We are waiting for the president and Prime Minister, shinzo abe, to come out. Hallie jackson having a slight interaction with mike pompeo. Lets see if he answers her. Maybe not. Also joining us, a former cia analyst and south Korean Foundation chair in korean studies at brookings institution. John, thank you very much. North korea when they come in to this, how much is it going to be about attitude for them . Well, kim jongun is a oneissue kind of leader for north korea, the u. S. Is it. So kim has been preparing for this type of meeting since he was young. This is a meeting with a sitting u. S. President that his grandfather and father wanted. And kim 3. 0 has actually achieved this. I want to piggyback on what nick was saying about the policy processes. I was there for making helping to prepare for the policy meetings when i was at the cia and preparing my principals for these meetings and they are important for coordination and to find out what the equities are of the pentagon, of cia, of intel community, of state, treasury, and all of the functions of government who have a stake in these types of meetings. So the fact that the policy prophecy occurring is what im concerned about. Peter, this is just from my observations over the past few years and watching him not only in rallies but as we watch on camera and as you see in person the meetings he holds with his cabinet or the meetings he holds pretty much anywhere he goes, they often go wildly off script. The Washington Post had a transcript or audio about what trump was talking about the other day when he was there supposed to be talking about Hurricane Relief with fema. He went off on a tangent. But listen. He had a lot else on his mind, soliloquies on his prowess in negotiating airplane deals and his popularity, the republican partys fortunes, the vagaries of the Defense Department purchasing guidelines, his dislike of magnetized launch equipment on aircraft acarriers. His uneasing love of coal. Is there any worry that the president is going to walk in that room and Start Talking about his poll numbers with the leader of north korea . Yeah. Well, behind closed doors i think we will ehave to find out exactly what he says. Certainly this president as critics say lax dcks discipline. The president believes he is his best communicator. He is the author of the art of the deal that hes demonstrated over his success over the years, his ability to get a deal done. What i would emphasize is this president and his aides and friends have suggested to me is that what makes him most confident is his real belief in himself. Thats his biggest asset heading in to this. Obviously he projects confidence as we heard from him from the oval office today as he heads into any type of negotiation like hes never dealt with before. We have reported repeatedly over the course of the last 16 months or so about how often the president sort of sides with the last voice in his ear on decisions that he makes. It is clear that Prime Minister abe wanted to be, if not the, one of the last voices in his ear, at least to represent japanese interests, before that sitdown just a few days from now. If the president goes into that room and starts talking about the tangential things as he often does talk about in these closeddoor meetings, his prowess, poll numbers, success, et cetera, how are the North Koreans likely to respond to that . When President Trump goes into that room, it will be trump alone with his assumptions about north korea. And what is concerning to me is that he might have false assumptions about what kim actually wants. So while trump might have these types of ideas about what kim wants he wants to be rich, he wants his country to have status it seems to me that the North Koreans are turning that against trump to potentially use it against him in the way that kim jong cho when he visited oval reportedly floated the idea of casinos in north korea and about Economic Development and about a peace treaty that seems to resonate with the president. So while the North Koreans are doing their homework, there is much more information about how President Trump operates, whereas we have very Little Information about how kim is likely to approach this summit. Nick, you were studying the group of reporters and able to ask a question, what would it be . I think i would ask whether there has been any commitment from President Trump on two of the issues that Prime Minister and japan really care deeply about. One is those people who have been abducted by north korea, that they have not returned. And the other is the issue of missiles that are not intercontinental but could still reach japan and the fear that japan has i think it is a reasonable one is that the u. S. Will worry only about the things that can hurt it. Nick, thank you very much. John, thank you, as well. Peter alexander, appreciate it. Well bring you the news out of the conference and the news confleco conference itself when it starts. The president may also be asked today about new comments from his lawyer. Giuliani says there is no way President Trump had an affair with Stormy Daniels because, quote, look at her. Excuse me, when you look at Stormy Daniels, i know donald trum and women, classy women, women of great substance. Stormy daniels . Sound familiar. Here was mr. Trump two years ago. She said i made inappropriate advances. And by the way, the area was a public area. People all over the place. Take a look. You take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. You tell me what you think. I dont think so. I dont think so. Look at her. It seems to be the same playbook. A woman comes forward with claims about donald trump and team trump attacks her, calls her a liar and says shes essentially not pretty enough for donald trump. Joining me now, former republican congressman david jolly and susan delpercio, who used to work with Rudy Giuliani and now an msnbc analyst. Listen to a little bit more of what he was saying. I respect all human beings. I actually even respect krin criminals. But im sorry, i dont respect a porn star as a career woman or woman of substance or a woman who has Great Respect for herself as a woman and a person and isnt going to sell her body for sexual exploitation. What do you make of it . Id like to see the Rudy Giuliani i worked with when i was working in his administration in new york city when he was mayor. Im very proud to have worked in that administration. This is a different type of Rudy Giuliani. I cant explain it. I think that he thinks in some ways were still in campaign mode. Maybe thats what the president wants from him. Campaign mode, what . I find it completely unacceptable what he said. There is no doubt about it. You showed that picture of President Trump or person trump, who would be candidate once we had the photo. He was just private citizen trump. With Stormy Daniels. So obviously he was pretty happy to be there. I dont think there is anyone who would question actually if he had the affair with Stormy Daniels. I think basically everyones kind of come to understand that and it is really just the payoff thats the question. Giuliani tries to say that she has no credibility because she is a porn star and she has no credibility because she says she lied. Again, we havent caught her in a lie because from all we know she said she had an affair and the president denies it but she maintains that she did have an affair. But talking about credibility, weve caught the president in quite a number of lies. Sure. Sure. A number of lies. Weve caught giulia in i ni in or maybe he wasnt being told the truth. One time saying the president didnt know about the payment, then walking it back. Another time the president didnt know what the payment was going for. Who lacks credibility here . Look, giuliani was truly trying to shame Stormy Daniels. He was doing so for his boss, donald trump and for Donald Trumps base. It is a good thing Rudy Giuliani is not the courtroom attorney for the president on this matter because it would not stand a legal argument for him to try to do that in a court of law. In fact the judge would likely instruct the jury that they cannot consider Stormy Daniels profession when it comes to litigating this case. The failure of giuliani and trumps team is there is legal credibility that Stormy Daniels and her attorney will have to address this court, just as there is from the president. At this point there are four or five different statements and documents out there. Was there an affair, was it denied. She did accept the money. It is why avenatti has sued to say she was misrepresented, that her previous attorney did not follow through on his duties to her as a client. These are civil litigation matters. Her profession is not going to be relevant to this case. Rudy giuliani either knows that or hes become a very bad attorney. Again, we are waiting for the plez and Prime Minister shinzo abe to come out. So far weve seen a number of the president s aides in the rose garden. Weve also just seen the japanese delegation come out so it looks like were going to be seeing the two leaders pretty soon. Meantime, i think i can only describe dual giulianis and th president s comments about women on the campaign trail as gross. They are gross. And it is wrong. And it doesnt matter that she is a porn star. You dont talk about other people like that. It doesnt matter what her job is. Mayor giuliani was basically doing what donald trump did on the campaign and made a comparison to a womans looks. That is just atrocious. It shouldnt happen. I think that this is another case of mayor giuliani kind of getting caught up if these conversations with donald trump. Im not making an excuse by any im saying this is how they are operating. This is what they want. This is what donald trump wants. He wants someone to go out on tv and say the things that he wants to say but cant. Is this not what revs up what Republican Voters think . It is. Giuliani is the closest thing to trump. There is one tactic and thats impugn the credibility of any critic of donald trump. If it is bob mueller, if it is avenatti, Stormy Daniels, if it is the mainstream media, giuliani is a puppet for donald trump trying to undermine any critics credibility. Former congressman david jolly and susan delpercio, guys, thank you very much. Again, we are still waiting for the Prime Minister, shinzo abe, and the president to come out and talk to reporters. I do want to go back to Nick Christoff because he is Still Standing by. We were talking a moment ago about japan and what they want. If the president doesnt sit down in the meeting with kim jongun and address the abductees, and if he does not address the missiles that can reach japan, how does abe react . Well, i think there is a general sense that abe has misplayed his hand with trump. Early on it seemed to be very successful. Then abe really used the north korea crisis for domestic political purposes. He wanted to have a threat, he is a tough guy, a hawk, so he manipulated him domestically. In the course of that he lost an area and lost to some degree his influence in washington. Trump is always very transactional. You know better than i. I think he hasnt have much to offer in this transaction. Allies who want to cozy up to him now find themselves in a position where that did not work. We see it with trudeau, weve seen it with macron, weve seen it with theresa may. Weve seen it with Angela Merkel. The only people the president seems to respect are the strongarm leaders. The juxtaposition right now over the next week of a president of the United States who is systematical