Amy Walter and Susan Page on U.S. alone at G-7, North Korea summit politics

Judy Woodruff:

We turn back to one of the most consequential overseas trips for a U.S. president in recent memory, a historic summit tonight half-a-world away, on the heels, as we heard earlier, of fallout from another summit with U.S. allies.

John Yang begins there.

John Yang:

Judy, that's topic A for Politics Monday.

To talk about that and more, we're joined by Amy Walter, national editor of The Cook Political Report, and Susan Page, USA Today's Washington bureau chief.

Susan, Amy, thanks so much for joining us.

As Judy said, it is the tale of two summits this weekend, sitting down tonight with the — one of the most longstanding adversaries of the United States. He met with some longstanding allies over the weekend, Susan, and it didn't seem to go so well.

What do you think happened?

Susan Page:

It didn't go well.

That iconic photograph that shows the President Trump sitting surrounded by leaders, other leaders looking at him with great askance, it's like the worst Thanksgiving family dinner ever, right?

(LAUGHTER)

Susan Page:

I mean, these are — these have been our allies for 70 years.

It's been part of — since 1975, we have had the global economic system held together by these G7, G8 meetings. And this was — basically, the U.S. role was blown up by President Trump. President Trump is not interested, I think, in having these alliances, having the U.S. be the first among equals, the leader of them.

Instead, we see the alliance united, and we see the United States standing basically alone.

Amy Walter:

And yet this is exactly what then Canadian Trump said he was going to do as president. I alone can fix this. We are not going to do things the way that we used to. The system isn't working anymore. This — whether they are alliances, whether it is our trading system, it's not working. It's not working for a bunch of people in this country. You elected me to shake it up. And that is exactly what I am going to do.

I also think what is fascinating to see is the role that Congress is, or in this case is not, playing in issues like trade and potentially — we will see what comes out of North Korea — but if there is a final deal there, will Congress get a say, or will we be continuing what we saw a lot under the Obama administration, which is sort of an executive move, right, the executive makes policy, whether it is TPP or Paris, the climate accord, or the Iran deal, that Congress doesn't codify?

And so we have these policies that are in place for one president, only for them to get overturned, potentially, when the new president comes in place. I don't think that is a really great way to do policy. And members of Congress can do something, and thus far they haven't done anything.

John Yang:

Well, that's sort of the backdrop as the president prepared and went into this meeting tonight.

And he tweeted about it earlier. He said, "The fact that I'm having a meeting is a major loss for the U.S., say the haters and losers. We have our hostages, testing, research and all missile launches have stopped. And these pundits who called me wrong from the beginning have nothing else they can say. We will be fine."

Well, pundit Susan Page, what…

(LAUGHTER)

John Yang:

What is the president doing here, do you think?

Susan Page:

Well, I think the president is saying it's a victory just to have the meeting.

And I think a lot of Americans would say better to have a meeting talking to an adversary than threatening one another with nuclear weapons. I think a lot of American would agree with that.

But you also want to look at what you get out of the meeting and what you gave up to hold the meeting. And the fact is, for Kim, this is also a big victory just to have the meeting. It is a — it makes his regime, this terrible, brutal regime that has been an outlaw for so long, it gives him legitimacy and standing that he didn't have before.

And so that has been part of the calculations. That has been one of the reasons previous American presidents have refused to give him this prize.

Amy Walter:

And it is also interesting.

I was looking through a poll that FOX News came out with last week. And they asked people who approved of the president or disapproved of the president why it is — give me your number one reason why you do that.

For people who already approve of the president, a quarter of them said, not surprisingly, it's because of the economy and jobs. And only 4 percent noted peace with North Korea or foreign policy.

For people who disapprove — again, you are not going to be surprised — it's his temperament, it's his divisiveness. And so I think it gets kind of to the heart of what is going on in both of what we are saying from that tweet and what we saw at the G7, which is the things that his base likes to see are exactly the things that people who already dislike him dislike him really about, right?

That is what they don't like about him. It is not the policy as much as the way he is going about it.

John Yang:

And succeed or fail, it is not going to make much difference to either his supporters or haters?

Amy Walter:

That's right. That's right.

So, depending on what success is, I think if you already support this president, whatever he is doing, you are going to find success in that. If you don't like this president, unless there is something really dramatic that occurs, it is not going to change your opinion of this president.

Susan Page:

Although, I think with summits — we have found, with summits in the past, that you don't know right away whether that is a success or a failure.

Amy Walter:

That's right.

Susan Page:

And there has been successes.

The Iceland summit, 1986, that looked like a failure. And with the benefit of some hindsight, it was in fact productive in terms of U.S.-Soviet relations.

But you look at JFK and Khrushchev in 1961, that helped contribute to the Cuban Missile Crisis. So, we won't be able to make a snap judgment today, tomorrow, next week about the summit.

John Yang:

Quickly, I want to get to the U.S. Supreme Court decision today. They upheld Ohio's laws for purging voter rolls, some of the strictest in the nation.

Why is this such a political hot button, Susan?

Susan Page:

Oh, because it helps Republicans and hurts Democrats.

It is going to disproportionate affect young people, poor people, minorities who are less likely to turn out to vote, less likely to respond maybe to a mail solicitation. And it's going to encourage — Ohio is a swing state. It's going to encourage other states to look at similar laws.

Amy Walter:

Yes.

And a Reuters study found just that, that the places where the voters had been struck from the rolls were — there more of those in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods than in Republican-leaning neighborhoods. And, not surprisingly, a lot of those were in neighborhoods that were poorer or heavily African-American.

John Yang:

Amy Walter, Susan Page, we have got to leave it there. Thanks so much.

Amy Walter:

You're welcome.