President Donald Trump's policies are actively hurting his own base, according to MSNBC's Claire McCaskill, but he's oblivious to their suffering.

The president's trade wars and threats against oil-producing foreign nations, along with his sweeping budget cuts and the ongoing government shutdown, are putting pressure on red states that swept him back into office for a second term, the former Democratic senator told "Morning Joe."

But she said Trump is living in a gilded "alternate reality."

"When you surround yourself with people that only say you're wonderful and you're in a position of political leadership, it's a very dangerous situation," McCaskill said, "and he has nobody around him that's doing anything except fawning over him.

"So there's an alternate reality that's set in. He's building a ballroom, having 'Gatsby' parties while he's starting wars, threatening to start wars with Venezuela and Nigeria. Meanwhile, red America is gasping. They are gasping, his people are gasping with tariffs, health care costs, by the way, per capita, more people in the smallest rural communities in America get food assistance through SNAP than they do in urban areas."

"He said they're Democrats getting food assistance. No, a huge percentage of his folks, his voters. I know these people, I know them. I've been in their homes, I've been in their communities. They are not happy with this guy right now, and he is not seeing it because he's surrounded by this fog of, 'aren't you wonderful,' and let's give you another gold crown."

Co-host Mika Brzezinski was stunned by the former Missouri senator's explanation.

"Wow," she said. "Incredible."

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