'He gets mixed up': Former Ambassador worries 'erratic' Trump unprepared for Putin meetings

Former U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul tells MSNBC he’s alarmed by how quickly President Donald Trump keeps changing his mind about Russian leader Vladimir Putin as he prepares to negotiate an end to war in Ukraine.

“I’m surprised by [his recent criticism of Putin] because if there's been one thing that Trump has been consistent with over the decades, really, it's been his admiration for Vladimir Putin,” McFaul told the crew of MSNBC’s ‘The Weekend’. “The whole first term was all about how great Putin was. But I'm also worried about the erratic nature of the president of the United States today.”

Trump is meeting Putin in Alaska to convince him to end his invasion of Ukraine in exchange for chunks of Ukrainian land. The meeting is off to a bad start because Ukraine has not agreed to hand over land, but McFaul said Trump appears unprepared for negotiation regardless.

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“So, he did say all those [mean] things [about Putin], and then his special envoy goes to Moscow a few days ago, and suddenly the whole tone has changed. … and I hope he won't roll into the meeting with Putin thinking that he's got a new relationship with him.”

McFaul said Trump “personalizes bilateral relations” with world leaders and makes the mistake of treating meetings themselves as some sort of end-game.

“He thinks that a good meeting is some kind of outcome,” said McFaul. “A good meeting is a means to some other end that is good for the American people and the free world. And oftentimes President Trump gets mixed up. I hope he doesn't get that mixed up in Alaska.”

MSNBC host Eugene Daniels asked McFaul if he believed Trump could outsmart Putin, but McFaul called Putin a “very savvy negotiator.”

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“President Trump had better prepare. He better not just wing it and think that it's all going to work out, because it will not,” McFaul said.

“Now, ambassador, do you really think Donald Trump is going to be out here preparing and reading big old documents and white papers?” asked Daniels.

“I do not,” McFaul admitted. “I hope that maybe a staff member might be in the room. How about that?”

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