The Morning Joe & Trump Controversy, Explained

MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are in hot water after traveling to Mar-a-largo to meet with President-elect Donald Trump (and maybe Elon Musk?). Many people, including Jon Stewart and social media personality Ron Filipkowski, have criticized Scarborough and Brzezinski's decision as being hypocritical and also for showcasing fear.

On Friday, November 15, Scarborough and Brzezinski decided to meet with Trump in order to encourage healthy communication between them. According to CNN, both television hosts were influenced to meet with Trump because of their own worries that the Trump administration would become antagonistic toward them, and even come after them legally due to negative comments they made about the president-elect in the past. A few days later, Scarborough and Brzezinski discussed their decision on MSNBC, stating, "For those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, why wouldn't we?" 

On an episode of "The Daily Show," which aired on November 18, 2024, Stewart jokingly answered Brzezinski's counter-question. "Uh ... Because you said he was Hitler." During the episode, Stewart, who has criticized the media's portrayal of Donald Trump in the past, continued to share his thoughts on Scarborough's controversial move, making some colorful comments regarding the bravery of Democrats. MSNBC commentator Katie Phang also seemingly expressed disapproval of the "Morning Joe" hosts' actions. "Normalizing Trump is a bad idea. Period," Phang wrote via Bluesky.

Another person who has been highly critical of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's meeting with Donald Trump at Mar-a-largo is MeidasTouch News editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski. On November 19, 2024, Filipkowski reshared a social media post from lawyer and activist George T. Conway III onto X. The reshared post stated that it seemed as though Scarborough and Brzezinski met with Trump because they buckled under fear. Filipkowski then threw in his two cents regarding the situation, stating that the "Morning Joe" co-hosts should no longer work for MSNBC if they give in to the president-elect's scare tactics. "If Trump has them that intimidated then they need to retire," Filipkowski wrote. 

While they have been met with a large amount of criticism, Scarborough and Brzezinski seemed to think their conference of sorts with Trump was supported by their followers. On November 19, Scarborough discussed how the reactions of social media users are very different from those of people in real life. "Yesterday I saw for the first time what a massive disconnect there was between social media and the real world because we were flooded with phone calls from people all day, literally around the world, all very positive, very supportive," Scarborough exclaimed on MSNBC (via Instagram). It seems that Scarborough and Brzezinski may not fully understand the weight of being on good terms with Trump.