March 11 - Trump Covers His Bets Ahead of the Summit With Kim Jong-Un; Our Reality TV President to Sit Down With the World's Most Ruthless Dictator; Trump and the Republicans Are Running Out the Clock on Robert Mueller

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the sudden summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un announced by Donald Trump that is to take place in May at a place yet to be determined. Already Trump has covered his bets by saying “I may leave fast or we may sit down and make the greatest deal in the world”. Sung Yoon Lee, a Professor of International Affairs at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University, joins us to discuss Trump’s claim about the North Korean’s that “I think they want to make peace, I think it’s time” and how much that seems to miss the point that Kim’s primary goal is the perpetuation of his family’s cruel and criminal regime. We will also speculate about the see-sawing diplomacy underway with an about-face from having Vice President Pence getting stiffed by the North Korean delegation at the Winter Olympics, to Kim Jong-un’s invitation for a summit with Trump delivered to the White House by South Korea’s National Security Advisor and the head of South Korea’s intelligence service after their recent meeting with Kim which followed the thawing of relations between the North and South on display at the Winter Olympics.   

Part 2

Then we examine further the fast-track war-to-peace change from Trump threatening “little rocket man” with “fire and fury” to quickly deciding to be the only prominent American, apart from Dennis Rodman, to meet with Kim Jong-un, an American who also happens to be the President of the United States. Kent Harrington, a former senior CIA analyst who served as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia, joins us to discuss the unusual approach to international diplomacy underway with a former builder of sky-scrapers starting construction on the penthouse before he has laid the foundations.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the growing legal jeopardy Trump has from his pre-election cover-up of an affair with Stormy Daniels and the $130,000 payoff his lawyer made to the porn star along with an NDA which could soon be broken. Nina Burleigh, the National Politics Correspondent at Newsweek joins us to discuss her article “Stormy Breaks Trump’s Favorite Legal Tactic: The NDA” and her cover article at Newsweek “”The Star-Mangled Banner: Can the American Legal System Survive Donald Trump?”