MSNBC’s Morning Joe cohosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, shocked their audience, as well as their enemies when they announced on Monday’s show that they had met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend. The hosts and Trump had fallen out with each other during his presidency, with Trump regularly ripping them on social media, and at one point even trafficking in the false conspiracy theory that Scarborough was responsible for the death of a woman who worked in his Congressional office 20 years earlier. (Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, recent reporting has suggested, turned Trump on to that particular theory.)
It’s often forgotten, however, that Trump had a warm relationship with Scarborough and Brzezinski early on in his political rise. During his first presidential run, Trump appeared on Morning Joe regularly and was often greeted warmly by the hosts. And one video was recently unearthed of Brzezinski fixing Trump’s hair, ahead of a Morning Joe appearance, as contributor Mike Barnicle is seen laughing in the background:
I’m too old to remember when Joe and Mika boosted Trump in 2015-2016 by regularly having him on their show with softball interviews pic.twitter.com/bDoNKqHuma https://t.co/jqfsBKILa8
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) November 18, 2024
It recalls another moment from that same election cycle, also on an NBC-owned network, when Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon also tousled Trump’s hair.
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What was Joe and Mika’s motivation for the Trump meeting? According to a CNN report, by Brian Stelter, the show’s hosts “were credibly concerned that they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration.” The CNN story added that within MSNBC, “there are a variety of opinions about what Trump and his allies might do.”
“According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Scarborough and Brzezinski were credibly concerned that they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration,” @brianstelter reports. https://t.co/q346YRhKo6
— Matthew Kassel (@matthewkassel) November 19, 2024
Trump long had a relationship with NBC, as host of The Apprentice, but the network cut all business ties with him in the summer of 2015, when he referred to immigrants as “rapists” during his presidential announcement speech. This also meant the network would no longer air the Trump-owned Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants.
Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News host who has also had ups and downs with Trump over the years — although she appeared at a rally for him near the end of the campaign — ripped Joe and Mika for meeting with Trump, referring to them as “dishonest jokes of faux journalists.”
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune media library.
