Frequent Trump critic Joe Scarborough praised the president Thursday for walking away without signing a deal with North Korea.

President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE ended his second summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un early Thursday morning after North Korea demanded an end to sanctions without agreeing to end its nuclear program.

The lack of a deal was a setback for Trump, who has put a lot of effort into seeking peace with North Korea, but he has received praise for not letting his desire to get a deal lead him to sign a bad agreement.

ADVERTISEMENT

"I would say at least for me personally, that seems like the best of all circumstances where the president continues to communicate with a country that we were close to war with a year ago, that most foreign policy experts gave us a 50/50 chance of having a land war in the Korean Peninsula a year ago," Scarborough said at the top of his show, "Morning Joe."



"And talked but didn't give away anything," he continued. "Which was the great fear especially after the [Michael] Cohen testimony yesterday."

Trump's former personal attorney Cohen offered critical testimony of the president to the House Oversight panel on Wednesday.

"Joe, I agree with you," said Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, a frequent guest of the program. "I think as President Trump said, sometimes you have to walk."

Heading into the summit that began earlier this week, Trump appeared to make an effort to lower expectations, saying on several occasions that he is in “no rush” to make a deal.



“Speed is not important,” Trump said Thursday. “What’s important is that we do the right deal.”

"Morning Joe" is a reliable place to find tough criticism of Trump, even though the president called into the show frequently as a candidate.

Relations between Scarborough, his co-host Mika Brzezinski and Trump quickly soured after Trump captured the Republican nomination in the spring of 2016. Trump has insulted both hosts over Twitter, and the two have responded in kind.