PLEASE EXPLAIN

Trumpy Anchor Melts Down at President’s Suck-Up to Putin

CNBC’s Joe Kernen questioned the president’s embrace of authoritarian leaders.

Pro-Donald Trump TV news anchor Joe Kernen is livid over the president’s increasingly cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The CNBC Squawk Box host—who has gained a reputation for giving Trump, 80, a sympathetic hearing—appears no longer able to contain his frustration as the president faces global fury over his handling of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Kernen even invoked Gerard Baker, the conservative former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, as he questioned whether America could still be trusted under Trump.

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After Baker wrote that America’s intentions were becoming harder to defend, Kernen told his guest that Baker’s assessment had left him thoroughly depressed.

“Jerry Baker, who’s no left-winger, says, ‘The U.S. isn’t perfect, but it’s always been hard to doubt its good intentions, but that has changed,’” Kernen said to Council on Foreign Relations president Michael Froman.

“Cozying up to dictators like Putin and Xi when we know full well what their end game is, it’s hard to understand. And I need something to be explained on how that makes sense in this case.”

Kernen’s unusually blunt intervention came as Trump faces mounting criticism for easing pressure on Moscow while at the same time berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he has demanded should stand down.

Trump has agreed to release Russian diesel onto global markets and eased sanctions on Moscow—which Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has condemned—while Russia attacked Ukrainian energy facilities hours after the U.S. president claimed to have secured a ceasefire.

Trump later complained that Zelensky was harder to negotiate with than Putin, while reports of a possible Trump-Putin-Xi summit have raised fears that Ukraine could be sidelined—although Trump insists any meeting would focus on nuclear disarmament.

The administration has repeatedly claimed that Trump’s personal relationships with Xi and Putin give him a negotiating advantage, in an attempt to justify its approach to end the war and slash the current high American fuel prices.

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But with the war in Ukraine showing no sign of abating, Kernen appears increasingly unconvinced the strategy will fly.

“Is it possible that that works for the country writ large? Maybe it does. I don’t know,” he said. “Do we have to trust him?”

When asked for comment, the White House directed the Beast to an X post from the State Department featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying it was not “unusual for the three most powerful, nuclear-armed nations on Earth to have their leaders communicate with each other.”

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