'Kind of an insult?' CNN host mocks Trump over site chosen for 'self-defeating agreement'

President Donald Trump signed an agreement aimed at ending his war in Iran, but many noticed the symbolism of the location he chose to do it.

The 80-year-old president signed the so-called memorandum of understanding Wednesday during a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron in Versailles, the historic setting of the 1919 treaty that ended World War I, and CNN's Audie Cornish asked her panelists about his choice.

"This was signed at Versailles," she said. "Lots of things have been signed at Versailles. But usually when you call something a Versailles treaty, it's, in foreign language policy land, kind of an insult, right? It's a self-defeating agreement. What's your response to the critics out there who are making those analogies?"

Germany signed the original Treaty of Versailles under protest, and the severe penalties it imposed ultimately destabilized its government and led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the "CNN This Morning" panelists agreed the symbolism was strange.

"President Trump didn't have to sign that peace deal at Versailles today," said Middle East expert Sina Azodi. "He could have had an agreement in February before he decided to go to war. He was dragged into a war of choice that didn't have to [and] 13 Americans died, billions of dollars [were] spent. He could have taken the deal that the Iranians had offered, and it was a pretty good deal compared to the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], and I know that President Trump is very sensitive to the war and JCPOA and Obama. But that was a very good deal that he had on Feb. 26 in Geneva."

"Well, the hope is from the White House that 60 days from now, whatever they have will be much better than happened in 2015," Cornish added.

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