Asia & the Pacific

President Trump's abrupt decision to bail out a major Chinese phone maker has been raising eyebrows, especially since the pledge came days after China approved money for a Trump project. Ambassador Nick Burns, Former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and Former Ambassador to NATO, joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss.

Donald Trump is right about North Korea, of course. It never made sense for the US to launch a “bloody nose” military strike against Kim Jong Un’s isolated country without having tried diplomacy first.

"There’s no track record here. Kim Jong Un hasn’t met with the Chinese leadership."

With no ambassador, few experts at State, and a team of West Wing advisers who only know “ ‘shoot’ or ‘don’t shoot,’ ” can Trump really change the game with North Korea?

Nick Burns tells CNBC that Trump should stick with sanctions and avoid military conflict with North Korea. "Right now there are no good military options beyond defense," he says. Burns also says the Trump administration could begin to impose secondary sanctions.

A look at North Korea's latest rounds of missile tests with David Ignatius of the Washington Post, David Sanger of The New York Times, Lionel Barber of the Financial Times, and Nicholas Burns of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

"One overlooked feature in this ongoing tragedy is that Trump isn't wrong about everything. Some of his critics won't admit it, but several of the themes he sounded during the 2016 campaign — such as the need to rebuild America's deteriorating infrastructure — were correct (if far from original), and some of his foreign-policy instincts were sound even if his command of details was not. A minimally competent president could have made substantial progress on most if not all of these fronts, thereby leaving the country better off and enhancing his prospects for a second term."

North Korea’s nuclear weapons challenge is as serious a crisis an American president has faced since the end of the Cold War. That is why President Trump should tread carefully and wisely before hurtling us toward conflict in Asia.