MS NOW host Mika Brzezinski appeared genuinely stunned by President Donald Trump and his latest lapse in decorum. She held her head in visible disbelief Friday before regaining her composure and saying into the “Morning Joe” camera, “I’m embarrassed for the country.”
Her co-host, Joe Scarborough, was similarly shocked — and even briefly speechless.
The moment in question came Thursday during a formal meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. A Japanese reporter asked Trump why key allies weren’t told before he launched the Iran war.
“Well, one thing, you don’t want to signal too much,” Trump said. “You know, when we go in, we went in very hard and we didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? OK? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”
Takaichi was born 20 years after Japan bombed the U.S. naval base as a faction of the Axis powers during World War II. Trump’s attempted use of humor drew scattered laughs around the Oval Office.
“Yeah,” Scarborough said Friday during a temporary loss of words after playing a clip of the exchange. “Yeah, that’s … that’s something you wouldn’t see from any other president because usually presidents are trying to be nice to allies.”
His co-host needed a little more time to process the moment and literally held her head as Scarborough shared his reaction. When she eventually perked up, Brzezinski was unable to describe the exchange without likening it to the heightened reality of a sketch show.
“That was like, I mean…,” she said. “Almost felt like I was watching ‘SNL’ or something.”
Trump was torched for his quip by late night comics and social media critics alike, as his war on Iran increasingly threatens to jeopardize U.S. relations with allied countries — and the quip was aimed at a nation the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on.
Japan has now been a U.S. ally for more than seven decades.
Scarborough noted that Trump has been distancing himself from longstanding global relations, however, previously citing his threat to annex NATO ally Greenland and senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller calling for a return to might-makes-right imperialism.
“You know, you almost felt like you were watching a follow-up of him going on and on, insulting France’s leader a month or so earlier,” Scarborough told Brzezinski on Friday. “So it’s interesting, you know, this is really the time when we want allies on our side.”
He continued, “I’m not talking about that quip just by itself, I’m just saying, you look what’s happened over the last month or two, and this president is doing the exact opposite of what presidents in the past have done, as far as bringing the allies in a little bit closer.”
Brzezinski agreed: “Definitely not normal.”
While her co-host went on to argue American voters “got” what they “asked for,” Brzezinski seemed less keen on blaming her fellow countrymen. She stated simply, “President Trump, uhh … I’m, like, I’m embarrassed with those … I’m embarrassed for the country.”
