Judging Freedom - COL. Douglas Macgregor : 2025 Year End Review + 2026 Forecast

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

[LIVE SPECIAL] COL. Douglas Macgregor : 2025 Year End Review + 2026 ForecastSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And with Ollie's in-app on-demand health screenings, tap real experts whenever you need peace of mind. Visit ollie.com slash crossover and use code crossover for 60% off your first box. Thank you. Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, December 30th, 20205. Colonel Douglas McGregor is here with us for a year-end review and for what we expect is our final live airing for the year. Colonel McGregor, it's a pleasure, my dear friend.

A belated, Merry Christmas, an early happy new year to you. And thank you for joining us today. So it's a year-end review. I have all the hot spots I want to ask you about. But let's start with the breaking news. From your vantage point, have you seen credible evidence that the allegations that the Ukrainians tried to assassinate President Putin yesterday by sending 91 drones to his residence is believable? Well, they certainly sent the drones to his residence to his residence in Novgorod. That's pretty clear. I'm surprised that all 91 of them seemed to have either missed the target or being shot down. As to whether or not this was an assassination

attempt depends on whether or not the intelligence they had suggested that he was actually at the residence. You know, who knows? I mean, nothing would surprise me. Ukrainians have been assassinating people in Moscow left and right. There are recently a very senior officer. officer, and he's not the first general officer was killed. You remember, of course, Dr. Dugan's daughter, who was murdered, I guess, instead of reaching him, they reached her and blew her up. Right. We've had lots of these things.

I think what we can say is it was a definite attack on the residence. Why they seem to think that Putin was there is a mystery to me. Maybe they think there's a command center in the residence. Who knows? President Trump himself told the media yesterday that President Putin himself told President Trump that this happened. Chris cut number one. You know, told me about it. President Putin told me about it.

Early in the morning, he said he was attacked. That's no good. It's no good. Don't forget, you know, the Tomahawks, I stopped the Tomahawks. I didn't want that because we're talking about, you know, it's a delicate period of time. This is not the right time. one thing to be offensive, because they're offensive. It's another thing to attack his house. It's not the right time to do any of that and can't do it. And I learned about it

from President Putin that. I was very angry about it. And the Guardian reports that Russia has moved more Erashniks into Belarus. Does that surprise you? Oh, no. I think that was well underway. In any case, they simply pressed a button sooner. The Arrashniks are a powerful deterrent, and I think that's not just meant for the Ukrainians, it's also meant for the West Europeans, particularly in Berlin, Paris, and London. They need to understand that it's the dangerous talk

they've engaged in, the threats that they've made, even though the threats are largely hollowed. It doesn't make any difference to the Russians. The Russian population and its government are fed up with the entire enterprise. It appears that Foreign Minister Lavrov captured that impatience when he said, made these comments. It's brief, but it's pretty direct,

about the drones. Chris, cut number two. On the night of December the 28th to the 29th, in the year 2025, the Kiev regime with its aggressive intentions, deliberately carried out a heinous terrorist attack using 91 long-range strike unmanned aerial vehicles, specifically targeting the official state residents of the President of the Russian Federation located in the historic Novgorod region.

Such reckless and utterly irresponsible actions will most certainly not go unanswered. The precise targets and the exact timing for the retaliatory strikes by the formidable armed forces of Russia have been definitively determined and are now set in motion. The same day that this happened, and you commented about it to me in an email, President Putin appeared in military garb addressing his senior officials. Is this some kind of a message that he sends when he periodically appears in military uniform? Yes, unquestionably. Let me say a couple of things. first of all. This war, and there are two kinds of wars, for instance, that our friend Klausovits mentions, he talks about wars of decision and wars of observation or what we would call

wars of choice. For Russia, this is a war of decision. The matter is existential. Russia's life as a nation, as an independent sovereign state, is at risk. And thus far, we've had this thing called the special military operation. They still use those terms. But in fact, this war has changed dramatically. What started out as a limited special military operation designed to signal Russia's interests, its legitimate security concerns, has now become this war of decision, a war for the existence of Russia and its population. Ukraine is the instrument. And when I say instrument, I mean instrument. It is simply the puppet regime and the human capital that is being squandered on the battlefield on behalf of the globalist governments in Europe and Washington that want

to destroy Russia. He puts on the uniform at this point and shows up at a general staff meeting with the senior military leadership is a demonstration that this is now a war for the existence of Russia. And the patience that once existed, I think, is running out. And that is patience with us and patience with Europe. You know, I think that President Putin always tries to be polite. And he listens carefully to whatever President Trump says. And I think he believes President Trump is quite sincere, as he has said. But he has seen repeatedly that President Trump is unable to deliver on much of anything, that the United States Congress has a mind of its own, that the same people that are pressing for war in the Middle East and pressing against Venezuela are equally interested in destroying Russia.

And those people, whether they're the major billionaire donors or members of the Senate, it doesn't make any difference. They seem to wield more influence in power than President Trump. And that's, I think, the message that President Putin is saying. Thank you very much. We appreciate your kind words. We are now at war for our existence. And we are prepared to take this war all the way to Europe, if necessary. Our friend and colleague Larry Johnson suggested earlier today

that MI6 was probably involved in the delivery of, or attempted delivery of these 91 drones to President Putin's house. Would that surprise you? No, I think MI6 has always been in the lead. The British seem to be most interested in the destruction. of Russia of the various European states. When I say British, I'm not talking about the British people that don't have any interest whatsoever in going to war with Russia, but it's government.

So I think that's true, but we should not lose sight of the fact that regardless of whatever President Trump says, whatever directives he issues, the CIA is still heavily engaged in Ukraine. They continue to provide valuable intelligence through the NATO military structure, down to the people who are still trying to hold the regime together in Kiev, and I'm sure that we had at least some targeting information that we provided as well. This is what's so disappointing. President Trump says one thing on the phone, and as I said, President Putin recognizes that he's probably sincere, but things continue unchanging. It reminds me of his last year in office

in 2020 when he was telling everybody, I'm withdrawing our forces from Syria. And people in the chain of command, actually told him, oh, yes, they're out. And they were left. Right. Just before we move to a different topic, the Guardian is reporting of speeches on the floor of the Russian Duma this morning, Tuesday, December 30th, beginning the process of reclassifying. And from what you've told me, the wording means a lot to the Russian people and to the military, re-classifying this from a special military operation to an all-out war. Yes. You'll remember a few days ago that President Putin made some remarks at a press conference. And these remarks were very straightforward.

It was a warning to our European allies in NATO. If you press this thing and you truly want a war, we Russians are prepared for it and we're prepared to destroy you. Now, the Russians have done a number of things. I was amused yesterday. There was an announcement of another 135,000 draftees. Russia has a selective draft that are moving into the force. But what's much more important is that somewhere is between 650 and 750,000 reservists have been called up. Of that number, it's expected that three, maybe 400,000, somewhere in that range will be retained on active duty after this initial mobilization.

You have on the ground in Ukraine, what, 750 to 800,000, you add these numbers up. And now you're looking at more than a million men mobilized ready to fight. And you have them organized along multiple axes from Herrsson all the way up to the border with white Russia or Belarusia. Russia is getting ready. They're taking the statements that may have been made unsuriously, very seriously. if you talk to the soldiers on the ground who are rotating in and out of Ukraine, the Russians, my sources tell me not only is their morale very high, but they're very well informed. They understand exactly what is happening,

and they are making it clear to anyone who asks them that they're preparing for war against Europe. That needs to be understood. It doesn't matter that the British people, the German people, the French people have said, no, thank you very much. The fact is their leaders continue to talk stupidly about engaging in a war. They have no chance of winning and puts everything at risk in their countries. And the Russians understand that. They're prepared for it down to the lowest level. Every Russian soldier that you talk to says the same thing. We are preparing for war with Europe. Ukraine is not a side show, but it now shrinks to insignificance next to the larger fight for the very existence of Russia.

Well, how reckless is NATO and how much longer can it survive without vast amounts of American support? Well, you know, this is a good question. When we say vast amounts of American support, what's really critical to them is the command control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance. That's very important. Their industries obviously are stretched to produce munitions and rockets and missiles for their weapon systems. But they are capable if they're willing to devote themselves to the prospect, and that seems to be the case in Germany, for instance, if they're willing to borrow endlessly putting themselves deeper and deeper into debt, operating with very fragile economies as much as we are, they're pretty

powerful. But keep in mind, regardless of what President Trump says, we continue to do everything we possibly can in support of this operation. Now, we're not sending as much money as we did. Most of the equipment that we've promised won't show up for years. But the point is, today, what is happening right now, whatever we've got, we've given, whatever intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance data we can provide for targeting and attacks we give, those things have not changed. that ending unless President Trump gets personally involved. And I don't think he has. I mean, quite frankly, it's astonishing to me that this man Radcliffe is still running the CIA. The CIA seems to be a rogue organization that does pretty much what it wants anywhere it goes, regardless

of what the president says. And that's huge. Of what value is NATO anymore? Well, listen, NATO should have gone away back in the early 90s judge. As soon as the Soviet state system collapsed, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved, Soviet forces were pulled out of East Germany, and that was the big concentration that actually posed the greatest threat to the West, was the group of Soviet forces in Germany. Once those things happened, once Poland was evacuated, and Poland was always critical as the logistical infrastructure for any offensive operations the Soviets wanted to undertake, it was over. We We should have taken the opportunity then and there to begin reducing our commitments to NATO,

not in the sense that we're going to abandon Europe altogether, but recognize the criticality of making the Europeans take responsibility for themselves. President Trump always understood that. He made that very clear in 2020. He understood the criticality of making the Europeans assume responsibility as their own first responders. It hasn't happened. hasn't happened largely because no one cared what president trump said or thought in other words the war machine backed by the various intelligence agencies and the congress continued to move in the

same direction as it always has and anything you hear from congress demonstrates conclusively i listened to uh the commander of indopacom whatever the hell that is i mean what an abortion as though we control the indian ocean and india it's absurd but nevertheless he came in there and listening to this man you would have thought it was 1989 i mean the thinking has not changed the machinery the bureaucracy in washington has not changed i think you have a similar phenomenon in britain france germany and sadly in poland and as a result until those things change the russians are going to have to assume the worst and that's what they're doing i only heard two members of the united states congress no surprise who they are

Senator Rand Paul, Congressman Thomas Massey, condemn the efforts by the EU to steal Russian assets from Belgian banks. Thankfully, the Belgian prime minister who understands private property and understands the banking industry prevented it from happening. But they tried to twist his arm to make it happen. And where was the American Congress saying this is absolutely? absurd, just two members spoke out against it. Well, the Congress, and unfortunately, I think this is true for the United States government,

does not recognize any law higher than themselves. I mean, all this lip service, we pay to the so-called rules-based order and international law. It's all nonsense. International law and the rules are whatever we say they are. Everything is about bullying everyone else to do as we say. And President Trump is caught in the middle of this, and I don't think that's where he wants to be, but he doesn't seem to know how to get out of it. He's also caught in the middle of Israel and Gaza. Colonel, more than 25,000 Gazans were killed, murdered by the IDF in 2025.

Doesn't seem to bother Donald Trump at all. No, you know, I assume that that's probably. true. I don't like to think of it as being true, but nevertheless, actions speak louder than words, and that would be suggested by his actions. The whole problem with the Gaza peace business is his name is all over it, and he is at the center of it. Now, he likes to be at the center of everything. He likes his name on everything. But this is an enormous failure. It's not going anywhere. The region continues to develop in ways that are very dangerous. Right now, you have a reviving Ottoman Empire in the form of modern Turkey under Erdogan. He has aspirations

and ambitions. Mr. Netanyahu is waging a war for Jewish supremacy over the region. Those are his ambitions. These two powers are going to collide, and they are going to collide in Syria. They're also going to collide at sea in the Mediterranean. I don't think people are paying attention to it. And the fact that Mr. Trump stands up there and says, well, Mr. Erdogan's my good friend, and Bibi Netanyahu is my good friend, and I'm very happy with my good friends is irrelevant. Interests, Trump, warm feelings, and affection. That's all nonsense in international politics.

Those two states are on a collision course, and to this you have to add Iran, and he's made it very clear that war with Iran is coming. I don't see how else you could interpret the comments that he made. So the bottom line is this is. a very ominous situation in the middle east you have no end in sight in ukraine where else are we going ah well we attacked the land for the first time land in venezuela but before we get to that this is very disturbing this is jonathan pollard uh an american and israeli citizen who's also uh according to our colleagues on this show uh the most

dangerous spy against the United States in the modern era, whose sentence was commuted by Donald Trump, saying, well, I'll let you hear it. Israel will own all of Gaza. Cut number four. Our repossession of our biblical land in Gaza will basically set the stage for our future. Why? Because it will show our enemies that if you fight us, we will not. not only defeat you decisively, but we will take back our land as well, permanently, to make sure that they're safe and secure going forward. And the only way that's going to take place is if we have a Jewish Gaza, 100% Jewish Gaza. As far as President Trump is concerned, look, the man likes winners. There's no question about it. It's time we start acting.

like one. Rather than asking permission to be one, we should simply act like one. And this is why I firmly believe that just as America has a policy of America first, we should have a policy of Israel Richana, Israel first. Could this represent the attitude of Benjamin Netanyahu, who hugged and kissed him when he got off a plane when Trump commuted in Tel Aviv, when Trump Trump commuted its American sentence. Oh, undoubtedly. I think he's speaking for a majority of Israelis. The sad part is that we are not an American first administration.

I wish that we were. If we were in America first administration, we would not be involved in the vast numbers of things we are. He's talking about the extension of the policy of mass murder and expulsion. That should not surprise anybody. We've had a pause. why are we having a pause and why is that pause now about to end we've had to have a rebuilding of missile arsenals missile defense arsenals munitions and so forth in israel the same thing has

happened in iran which is why we're now once again on the road to war with iran the the various parties have largely recovered from the previous 12-day conflict that's that's the truth and what he's saying is not anything about america first i mean listen again i think we're in israel first administration in washington i see no evidence for anything that's roughly america first because our interests do not drive us into wars all over the world they simply don't exist particularly given our fragile economy but this is where we are judge you know and it's unfortunate to me that the man continues to retain some sort of American citizenship. I think we've reached the point in our history where the question is going to be, are you an American or are you

not? He's not. He's an Israeli Jew. That's his identity. We've got to start telling the truth. Who are you? What do you believe in and what do you want? And what he's stating is factual from his standpoint. And they don't care how many people have to die in the Middle East. for them to have their Jewish supremacy over the region. That's the fact. President Trump claimed last June that the United States obliterated his phrase, or his word, all of the Iranian nuclear capability, the Secretary of Defense, who calls himself the Secretary of War,

used the same word. I guess they're going to walk that back, if we're preparing to attack Iran with the Israelis. That was probably discussed at Mar-a-Lago yesterday. Remember that President Trump is a marketing genius. He's one of the world's greatest salesman. Whatever else he is, that's true. And whatever he does is always great.

Whatever discussion he has on whatever phone with whatever leader, it's always positive. It's terrific. It's super. So what was done the last time around was, amazingly effective. Anyone who suggested anything else was immediately shouted down and invited to leave the room. But it wasn't. It was another temporary ceasefire. The Israelis needed it. The Iranians were willing to go along with it for their own reasons. That temporary ceasefires at an end.

These things will be resolved with violence. That's the bad news. And we don't seem to understand that these things are not questions of an existential nature for us, but they are for Israel and they are for Iran. And increasingly, they are for the Turks. When you put these groups together, you're going to get massive killing. It's inevitable. The question is, what are we doing in it? How do we benefit? What do we get out of it? Now, let's be frank. I read just recently, the President Trump's personal wealth has tripled since he took office. I suppose that has something to do with his family, with Whitkoff and others and their children all running around in Qatar and then the Emirates collecting cash.

But the American people don't benefit. There's nothing in it for us. That's the problem. It's a very serious problem. Here's President Trump yesterday confirming an American. American attack, he won't say if it was the CIA or military, and we haven't heard anything from Secretary Hegseth on this, confirming an American attack on Venezuela sometime last week. Chris, cut number three.

Do you say anything more about the explosion in Venezuela that you mentioned in radio interview? Did the military do that? Can you share me what he doesn't matter? But there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. they load the boats up with drugs so we hit all the boats and now we hit the area it's the implementation area that's where they implement and that is no longer around how significant in your view is this is this the incipient stages of an invasion well i don't know what we're going to invade with uh 15 20 000 troops uh is a drop

in the bucket in a country the size of Venezuela. We can't possibly control much. We'd be hard pressed just to control Caracas with that, let alone strong points along the coast. I don't know what the plan is there. I still think that there's been heavily, a lot of planning has depended heavily on the implementation, as the president says, of a coup to remove Maduro. That doesn't seem to have worked. You know, it's hard to tell. I think the president has put himself in a difficult position. He's talked about all the things he's going to do and the terrible price it will be paid and said that whatever Maduro offers, it's not enough unless Maduro agrees to leave the country. Not sure I see that happening. Venezuela is part of the larger bricks

process. They haven't joined it yet, but they're certainly on the road to that, which means the Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, the Iranians, everybody is watching this very carefully because they really see this as an undeclared war by the United States against them. And that's what's really dangerous about Venezuela. The whole drug business has never been taken seriously by anybody. This is all about not just the resources in Venezuela, but halting what appears to be an unstoppable advance by bricks, by this new alternative financial system to what we have in the West. Our financial system is crumbling.

They're building a new one. Theirs is backed by gold. Ours is backed by hopes and dreams and not much else. Colonel, is the American Empire collapsing? Yeah, I think you're in the late stage of, of an empire. And unfortunately, as your financial and economic wherewithal diminishes, it's historically accurate to suggest that the faltering empire turns to the use of military power to rescue itself or rest to decline. It's not going to happen, and it's a waste of

time, and it's counterproductive. But it's something that leaders, and President Trump is no exception, turned to out of desperation. And I also think he enjoys this. Remember, one of the things that's very clear with President Trump, he believes that bullying others works. Colonel, I'm going to guess that you are not optimistic for peace in 2026. No, in fact, I think 2026 is going to blow the doors off of the airliner. We call the United States. It's flying through very, very bad weather. And I don't know how it ends, but I still think we fail to look at the economy. We don't look seriously at our financial system. McKinsey put out an interesting report, talked about globally $600 trillion worth of wealth, and then made the comment that the wealth

is not real because it doesn't rest on a foundation of productivity. That's particularly true for us. But when you have this kind of inflated market, inflated assets, that benefits the top 1% enormously. And that's the problem. The top 1%, much like President Trump, is increasing their wealth dramatically with each passing day. The rest of the population is on the downhill slide.

into poverty or worse i think that's where we're headed and nobody seems to want to address that instead we we sort of tell ourselves fantasy stories oh trillions are pouring into the country everything is coming up roses everything's getting better but americans aren't stupid they don't see that and none of the military operations that we're engaged in are going to help us at all Colonel, thank you very much for your time this morning. We both thought we'd be silent for 10 days, but the two of us agreed. My audience needed to hear you one more time. And thank you very much for your thoughts on all of these subjects.

Thanks for everything you and I have done together, including the talks we gave together in Virginia and in Texas this past year. I hope we can do it all. Again, I think you know that judging freedom across the 100 million view mark for the second time, second consecutive year, and you are the superstar. Thank you very much for all your time, all of your analysis, and it's such a pleasure, professional and personal pleasure to be able to pick your brain. Enjoy what remains of the holiday.

We'll look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you, Judge. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you. And happy New Year to everyone watching us. Thank you. I had an enormous audience this morning. Thank you very much for tuning in.

Tomorrow at 10 o'clock in the morning on New Year's Eve, all you can get of Scott Ritter, eight hours of Scott Ritter starting at 10 o'clock Eastern Time, New Year's Eve, right here. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.