Morning Joe hosts defend Trump Mar-a-Lago meeting after being mocked by media colleagues

The stars of Morning Joe have defended their controversial meeting with Donald Trump after being slammed by their media colleagues.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have received backlash from both conservative and liberal media figures after they revealed that they met with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago to 'restart communications.'

The MSNBC hosts dismissed the criticism saying it just proves there is a 'massive disconnect' between 'social media and the real world.'

'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, 'I understand what you did…' 'Scarborough said on Tuesday.

'But once in a while I would get a text or call from someone going, 'Oh, man, I hope you're doing okay.' I would call them back... I'd go: 'Are you on Twitter?' And he goes, 'I am.' I'd go 'Well I'm not so we've had a good day.'

'All of us will do the best we can do and we're all working towards a better America.'

The View's Ana Navarro was one of the media figures who unleashed a blistering on-air tirade in response to the pair's surprise visit to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.

The political strategist tore into the married MSNBC anchors over their trip to see  Trump, calling it 'opportunistic' during her rant. She asked whether the two had 'change[d] their stripes' because of 'who's in power.'

On the MAGA side, Megyn Kelly also went after Scarborough and Brzezinski, telling them to go 'f**k themselves.'

'Go f**k yourselves, you dishonest jokes of faux journalists,' Kelly said on Monday, reminding her audience that the Morning Joe hosts initially supported Trump's bid for president in 2016.

'It is nauseating, it's so stomach-turning,' Kelly added. 'They're so disgusting.' 

Kelly then claimed that Scarborough stopped supporting Trump after 'Scarborough found out he was not gonna be the vice presidential running mate.'

'He had been rejected for that position and they turned, they turned on Trump because access to power is everything to that small, little man,' the former Fox News and NBC News star said.

Former Republican candidate for president Nikki Haley said: 'Let’s be clear, Joe and Mika didn’t suddenly see the light, they saw their ratings. They realized they needed Trump for their survival.'

Amid the backlash, Morning Joe staffers have insisted the Florida meeting was 'f***ing worth it.' 

Trump, on his part, told Fox News that he took the meeting because in order to 'Make America Great Again, it is very important, if not vital, to have a free, fair and open media or press.'

Trump and the 'Morning Joe' stars have had a contentious relationship since the Republican entered politics - with Scarborough leaving the Republican party as a result.

During the 2024 election, Morning Joe repeatedly denounced Trump as a racist, sexist, fascist, and told viewers he did not deserve to be president. At one point, Scarborough said Trump was acting 'full-on Hitler' and Brzezinski condemned him for echoing the 'dangerous language of infamous fascist leaders.' 

Brzezinski said on Monday they decided to reach out to Trump for 'the opportunity to speak with the President-elect, himself' because their viewers and 'regular citizens' have expressed fear following Trump's election and his recent cabinet selections.

Scarborough continued, saying the three 'talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets.' 

Trump used to be routine contributor to Morning Joe, and Scarborough was an early cheerleader for the billionaire's maverick bid for the GOP nomination in 2016.

But relations soured as Trump pulled off a surprise victory in the Republican primaries and began to look like a serious challenger to the Democrats' Hillary Clinton.

The four-hour morning show became a bastion of the Democratic establishment after Trump's first term, with President Joe Biden routinely tuning in while doing his morning exercises to see his acolytes promote the party's talking points.

With Trump in the White House and Scarborough engaged to co-host Brzezinski he began cementing his show's identity as an outpost of opposition to the new administration.

The couple even recorded a Christmas album called 'A Very Drumpf Christmas' with children's songs portraying the president as Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

It eventually attracted the attention of the president himself, who delivered a series of withering put-downs, labeling Scarborough 'Psycho Joe' and his then-fiancée as 'low IQ Crazy Mika', while mischievously claiming she had been 'bleeding badly from a face-lift' during a visit to his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Brzezinski later confirmed she'd been recovering from cosmetic surgery during the trip.

And the feud deepened when the president revived long-debunked claims that Scarborough had been involved in the death of his former congressional staffer who was found dead on his office floor in 2001.

An autopsy found that Lori Bolterstein Klausutis, 28, had hit her head on a desk after collapsing from an undiagnosed heart-valve irregularity but Trump called for a fresh investigation into the case.

The allegations earned Trump his first rebuke from Twitter, which would eventually kick him off the platform altogether in January 2021.