Steve Schmidt called President Trump a "de facto" agent of Russia who is promoting the Kremlin's strategic interests in an interview Tuesday night on The Rachel Maddow Show with guest host Nicolle Wallace.



"He is an agent de facto of Russia's foreign policy," Schmidt said. "The foreign policies he's advocating, the bipartisan consensus that existed pre-Trump between Republicans and Democrats would have recognized his foreign policy as clearly in the middle lane of the Kremlin's strategic interests. To see it being advanced by an American president is as disturbing as it is shocking."



Schmidt also predicted that the Democrats will take control of the House and that Trump is actually in favor of that scenario because somehow only the most pro-Trump Republicans would retain their seat.











"Now when the tsunami hits and we consider its aftermath, what will be left of the Republican party is not a chastened party. Not something that said, 'Well, we were repudiated and blown out by Trump.' Because the members that will be left will be in districts that are plus 25%, plus 30% Trump, it will harden the resolve of the party and its faithful to Trump, not away from him," Schmidt said.



"So for roughly 40% of the country, it doesn't matter what the intelligence agency says. What matters is what Trump says. Now, thankfully, it is a minority of the country but it doesn't change that in actual reality the country is more in danger because we had an unprepared ignorant president go over there with the same level of rigor that he would plan an 'Apprentice' episode with Meatloaf and Lil Jon," Schmidt said of Trump's meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.





STEVE SCHMIDT, MSNBC COMMENTATOR: I am shocked by it, that there are so few men and women of principle, that there aren't more Sally Yates's out there, that there aren't more people who say enough.



Particularly when we see the president of the United States going behind closed doors with Vladimir Putin agreeing to who knows what, saying who knows what, making who knows what guarantees to Putin, what promises to Putin, what promises to turn another eye of how Putin acts in the Baltics, or anywhere else on the globe.



He insults the Canadian Prime Minister. He attacks the British Prime Minister. He insults and attacks the Chancellor of Germany. He questions and assaults and degrades NATO. He questions the need for the European Union. He is an agent de facto of Russia's foreign policy. The foreign policies he's advocating, the bipartisan consensus that existed pre-Trump between Republicans and Democrats would have recognized his foreign policy as clearly in the middle lane of the Kremlin's strategic interests. To see it being advanced by an American president is as disturbing as it is shocking.

SCHMIDT: At the end of the day I would think the last thing Donald Trump wants is [House Intel Committee] Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) with subpoena power and that is exactly what he will have. I do think that the Democrats will take the majority in the House of Representatives...



Now when the tsunami hits and we consider its aftermath, what will be left of the Republican party is not a chastened party. Not something that said, 'Well, we were repudiated and blown out by Trump.' Because the members that will be left will be in districts that are plus 25%, plus 30% Trump, it will harden the resolve of the party and its faithful to Trump, not away from him.



As the Republican party is shrinking, as people like me are leaving, fervor for the leader is intensifying but the strategic problem is it is getting smaller. The smaller the party becomes, the more intense, the more extreme, the more devoted to its leader. But it's on a diminishing point of return on the curve. And that's Trump's fundamental strategic problem heading into 2020 is that overwhelmingly, the vast majority of Americans don't think he's doing a good job. They think he is a bad president. They think he is compromised by a foreign power. They think he's dishonest, which he is, of course. They think he's corrupt, which he is, of course. And thinks he's lawless which of course he is.

Schmidt: What Donald Trump proved himself to be was inexperienced, naive, and ignorant, and a fool on the world stage, and of course that was noticed by every other adversary of the United States. pic.twitter.com/VEdkXrf5RF — Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) August 1, 2018

Schmidt on a 'blue wave':