Dickerson: Some "bumpy parts" to Trump's first trip abroad
President Trump is back in Washington following his nine-day, 15,000 mile trip to the Middle East and Europe. CBS News' Errol Barnett discussed the trip -- and what's ahead for the president -- with John Dickerson, moderator of "Face The Nation" and CBS News' chief Washington correspondent.
Barnett kicked off the discussion by asking, "What did President Trump accomplish on his overseas trip?"
"He pretty much got the stagecraft of it right, some bumpy parts about his trip to NATO, but I'm not sure that as far as the White House thinks of it, and the president thinks of it, a little friction with NATO leaders is OK. But in Saudi Arabia, I think they launched what they saw as the most important part of this trip, which was to basically reorient the U.S. in concert with Sunni leaders to put pressure on Iran and on to extremists all across the region and the world," Dickerson said.
Mr. Trump may very well pull out of the Paris climate agreement, Dickerson explained the significance of the president's decision.
"Well, if the president pulls out of the Paris climate agreement it is obviously a signal to European leaders that this is a different kind of president -- he listens to allies but only so far," Dickerson said.
Mr. Trump is back to tweeting his unedited opinions this morning, telling people, among other things, "many of the leaks coming from the White House are fabricated lies coming from the fake news media."
Barnett asks are the president's supporters "still buying that same excuse?"
"His supporters that buy that line is a shrinking group. A lot of the things he's calling and has called fake news, are now things that have either been supported by officials and members of both parties. The things he said were fake and made up are now the subject of a special counsel investigation. It's hard to make the case that this is a fake set of inquiries," Dickerson said.
While Mr. Trump was on the trip, his son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner was put under the media spotlight because his contacts with Russian officials are under FBI scrutiny. Dickerson also weighed in on the Kushner's situation.
"Jared Kushner has said he willing to talk to federal investigators and also to congressional investigators, so going back and changing that would be a problem," Dickerson said. "But if he becomes someone that the federal investigators talk to about what the president may or may not have said about influencing or trying to slow down the FBI investigation, Jared Kushner has to worry about what he says to those investigators.
"Staffers who work for a president can get in jeopardy if they are defending the president in the way you might in a public kind of PR campaign versus the scrutiny and the rigor you have to maintain when you're talking to federal investigators," Dickerson said.