Judging Freedom - COL. Douglas Macgregor: Trump and Netanyahu At Crossroads

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

COL. Douglas Macgregor: Trump and Netanyahu At CrossroadsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, November 12th, 2024. Colonel Douglas McGregor will be here with us in just a moment on what do we expect will be the level of United States aid and compliance with the wishes of Benjamin Netanyahu in the Trump administration, and a little bit about how terribly things are going in Ukraine. But first this. We're taught to work hard for 35 to 40 years, save your money, then live off your savings. Unfortunately, there are too many threats undermining the value of our hard-earned dollars. The Fed's massive money printing machine is shrinking your dollar's value.

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Call Lear today at 800-511-4620, 800-511-4620, or go to learjudgenap.com. Colonel, welcome here. Much appreciated your time and all your thoughts. What do you think is the Kremlin's likely internal truthful reaction to the election of Donald Trump? Well, keep in mind, first of all, that the Russians understand even less of what goes on in Washington than we understand of what goes on in the Kremlin. So I think there'll be a large number of people who will see this as a wonderful development simply because it's not Biden. And President Trump has expressed a willingness to settle issues in Ukraine. I think, on the other hand, that President Putin actually does understand much more about us. And I think he's being very guarded in what he says.

And I think that's ultimately what the Russians will do. They'll wait and see. When the president-elect was a candidate as recently as 10 days ago and said he'll end the Ukraine war in 24 hours, I almost can't imagine what he was thinking could possibly happen in 24 hours. He's not going to threaten Putin. Zelensky is not going to give up. Biden is still sending military gear and cash to them until January 19th. And Zelensky still needs human beings, which nobody can really produce for him. Am I missing something? Well, I think the view from President Trump's vantage point and the people that he's appointing, obviously, collectively, is that we've wasted a lot of money on Ukraine.

And we need to end that as soon as it's practical to do so. That's the first point. But I see a desire to maintain or perpetuate hostility to russia and you have to look at these various proposals that have drifted out from inside the inner circle they're all predicated on the assumption that russia must be an enemy and that anything that results in a in a clear and unambiguous relationship with Russia that is not somehow or another, at least partially hostile as a failure. So I think that's a problem.

I also think there's an assumption, and this is a comment about everything right now with all of the people that are coming into the administration. There is an assumption that we are really in a place not very different from what President Trump left in 2020. And of course, that's fundamentally wrong. The world has actually changed very profoundly. And most of the world, quote unquote, is not afraid of us. I think there's this assumption

that we can still threaten and bully. we can still impose sanctions and tariffs and get our way and i think those days are absolutely over so it's it's hard to tell frankly speaking i think they probably want to dump the problem on the europeans at some point but i don't think they're willing to say look this was a mistake i think president trump's appropriate approach is to say i didn't start this war i don't want this war and i want to conclude it and i will support a proposal that meets to the extent that it can everybody's interests and needs and i think that would be wonderful but i don't see that happening i think he's going to come in with some sort of expectation that he's going to profoundly shape what happens. I don't think that's going to happen.

Russia is in charge. What do you think is the reaction, and we haven't heard a peep from them, at least I haven't, of the NATO and EU elites? I can't be very happy to President Trump's election. Well, of course not. But on the other hand, I think they're probably eagerly going into their various social media accounts and deleting all the nasty things that they've said about him in the past as quickly as possible. that make any difference probably not uh i think the truth is that the eu is crumbling nato is crumbling i think the eu will probably go under before nato does new governments are coming to power germany which is in total disarray is going to end up with a new government and that may be the first of several as we've seen in great britain

again you have to look at the economics of the situation. Look at the bond yields in Germany, the bond yields in England, the bond yields here. Despite everybody's efforts to suppress interest rates, those yields are going up. And the underlying fundamentals economically in terms of production, they're just terrible. So and the banking system is the other piece so our banks as a sys from a systemic standpoint are eight times worse off today than they were in 2008 you just have to listen to the financial analysts who tell the truth that are very open open about it you know people like nasimim Taleb I think Gundlach uh what's his name Druckenmiller

there are several others Michael Farber or father that all these people are saying the same thing they're right so that's the other elephant in the room is this enormous debt load in our weak position and the supposition that we can simply print money into perpetuity. All of that's going to come apart over the next few months. Well, I hope that whatever the outcome of the dispute between the, this is a little bit off our topic, but you've piqued my interest in it. Whatever the outcome of the dispute, the public dispute between President Trump and Fed Chairman Jay Powell is, and whoever the new Secretary of the Treasury is, the printing of

the cash will stop. I don't think that's going to happen. It's just a hope on my part. You know, you mentioned- Well, not only will that not happen, Judge, there will be no effort to cut spending. Yeah, right. Anyone who thinks so is delusional. And I feel badly for Brother Elon Musk, who very childlike is marching into this thing with the assumption that he's actually going to fundamentally change all of that. There's no chance.

And I think President Trump has indicated that. Look, he's still talking about tax cuts, you know, for the upper, what, 10 percent or 20 percent. Trump loves debt. Trump believes that debt is an appropriate instrument to prosperity. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren might regret that view, but that's very much his view. You mentioned Germany. Trump is of the view, as are we, that the United States destroyed the Nord Stream pipeline. I wonder if that's going to come out. Everybody knows that Joe Biden is lying about this, caused it to be destroyed on his own. Now this might very well be a topic of debate because they're going to go through either a cold winter or a winter with a lot of

respiratory problems because they're burning coal instead of natural gas. Well, they are going to import a lot of coal and we've got lots of coal to sell them. And it's good coal. I can talk for hours about that since I'm involved right now with coal and biochar and rare earths and other things. It's not going to save Germany. Germany's problems now are far worse than that. What's happened over the last few years is that we've finally succeeded in implementing the Morgantau plan with Germany's support and assistance. We've de-industrialized it, turning it into a rural pasture, if you will, which was what Morgenthau tried to do under FDR. It's a catastrophe. The Germans are going to wake up. They're already beginning to understand what a terrible position they're in, and they know that

we're mightily responsible for it. But remember that Schultz and his friends have all followed us blindly down the path to hell. And that's their problem now. And I think that will be Trump's attitude, sadly. You know, the Washington Post reported that President Trump spoke to President Putin and asked Putin not to accelerate the war. Now, I could stop by saying the Washington Post reported and put in parentheses, and therefore the CIA wants us to believe this. Dmitry Peskov, who's President Putin's spokesperson, said absolutely not. There's been no conversation that took place. I can't imagine the conversation going much beyond any demand that Trump would make of Putin. Putin just wouldn't sit there and listen

to it. Well, right now, I'm afraid that Peskov has a lot more credibility than the Washington Post or, for that matter, anybody who has been repeating the CIA MI6 narratives about the war in eastern Ukraine. So I would dismiss all of that as utter nonsense. If Trump does something like that, I think he's the sort of person who would tell us. Yeah. How badly is Ukraine going right now? How close to achieving a publicly proclaimed endgame is the Russian military. Well, the Russian military is close to it, but put yourself in the position of the Russian general staff. What they don't want is a foolish discussion between President Putin and President Trump on the basis of more promises for which there is no evidence we will ever keep

and surrender anything that the Russians have gained through this war. So I think the effort now is to sort of clean up the battlefield. There are still some pockets where Ukrainian forces, small numbers, drastically reduced in manpower, independent brigades are being surrounded and then ultimately annihilated or they're surrendering. I think they want to do that. And they're pressing towards Dnipro. And I think if you're sitting in the Russian general staff, you're asking the question, where do we want to be by 21 January? And I think they want to be on the Dnipro River. I don't think they want to be on the Dnieper River. I don't think they want to cross it

because clearly President Putin has made it abundantly clear to everyone that he doesn't want to rule Ukrainians under any circumstances. This is why the myth of the great Russian threat to Western Europe or Eastern Europe is nonsense. He doesn't want to do that. He's a great follower and admirer of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who always argued that Russia should divest itself of all these various states and peoples, non-Russians, and it should

be a Slavic Russian state. Putin would like to do so. I see a big emphasis right now. Let's get to the Neapolitan River, and then we can decide based upon what President Trump and his representatives ultimately propose, whether or not we stay there or move further. I hope that...

He can still cross that river into Odessa. There's nobody to stop him. Right. I hope that President Trump doesn't appoint people, and he seems to be leaning in that direction, who have argued for this absurd domino theory that Joe Biden articulated that, I think I'm quoting the president now, once he takes Ukraine, nothing will stop him from turning towards the rest of Eastern Europe. He has his eyes on Poland. This is absurd. I have heard this from Republicans. I have heard this from people whose names are being touted as potential nominees. It'll be crushing for those of us who have hopes for a more sane, more peaceful, more rational, more realistic foreign policy if these neocons, if we go from one group of neocons to another? Well, you know what President Trump could do, which would be a much more reasonable

and rational approach to the Russians who don't want to be our enemies, who would very much like to do business with us, is to simply say that he will host a discussion or a peace conference or a negotiation between the various parties, primarily President Putin and the East European states. In other words, the people that border Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, all of them, Poland, come sit and talk directly to the Russians, sort this animal out. However, the precondition for the talks is that the United States accepts neutrality for Ukraine, not a term of neutrality that allows for something else in 10 years or 20 years. That's absolutely unacceptable. There will be no peace in Eastern Europe, let alone Ukraine, unless Ukraine,

what remains of it, is neutral. If he did that, I think this could come to some sort of closure relatively quickly. But I haven't heard him say those things. We get rumors. So we have to wait for what President Trump actually says. But back again to this notion that we're the great superpower and we can weigh in and force or push the Russians to do anything is nonsense. to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I met Mr. Dermer many times. He was born in Miami, educated in the U.S. and Great Britain, had joint Israeli-American citizenship, renounced his American citizenship to comply with Israeli law that allowed him to get into Netanyahu's inner circles, visited Moscow secretly.

What do you think that's about, Colonel? We know that Israel is on the brink of economic chaos, and we know that it is surrounded by enemies with whom it has picked fights that it can't seem to win. But what would Dermer be looking for from the Kremlin? The truth is that Israel is on the path to war with Russia, as well as Iran, Syria, and potentially any number of other countries, including all of the Arab states in the peninsula in Egypt. I suspect that he went there hat in hand with some sort of attempt to get forgiveness for having launched airstrikes against Russian facilities in Syria and hoping that the Russians would tell them, you need not worry, we will not attack you.

And I don't think he got that. As far as economic assistance is concerned, why would the Russians give them any and help bankroll them since they become, from the Russian standpoint, a menace to stability and security in the region? We're financing Israel right now and keeping its society and economy afloat, but I don't think the Russians have any interest in that. Bottom line is I don't think he got much. Do we know, Colonel, if Russia and Iran signed a mutual defense pact? No, I can't confirm that there was such a thing. There may be, who knows. But frankly, I don't think it's very meaningful to concern ourselves with it. Iran is this enormous country of almost 100 million people. It is a

major powerhouse in the region. Russia is not going to allow Iran to be pulverized and reduced to rubble by us because that's the only way it could happen if we intervene directly on the side of Israel, which looks increasingly like it will happen. So bottom line is, this is a terrible situation. If I would say anything about the collective appointees right now, Judge, I would say that the announcements of all of these people thus far are interpreted, certainly in Iran and the rest of the Muslim world, in Arabia, the peninsula, Egypt, and elsewhere, that war is now imminent and it's inevitable. And so everyone is quietly preparing for that inevitability right now. And I think we will see this war blow up in a major way before Inauguration Day.

Colonel, if you look at the voting records of the people reported to have been appointed when they were in Congress, and they're all still in Congress, that is a rational conclusion. And if you look at what they've said on the floor of the House and the floor of the Senate without mentioning any names, that is a rational conclusion. You and many other people on this show have concluded that for a variety of American domestic, political, and financial reasons, Prime Minister Netanyahu has a lock grip on the U.S. government. Will he have the same lock grip under Donald Trump? Can he just do whatever he wants under Trump and still expect 100% of what he asks for,

as has been the case under Joe Biden? I think that's very probable. I don't see any evidence to the contrary. I would take everybody back to the Republican convention when a large sign with an Israeli flag was behind the podium, and it said, Israel first. And a gentleman whose name I don't recall walked out, and he had some cheers.

He also had people that watched with incredulity. Some people, you know, folded their arms. But I think that was the message. This is an Israel-first administration, period. End of discussion. And that's where we're headed. Now, what happens, that will depend a great deal on the initial collisions and who comes into the conflict.

And then, of course, people will probably, in many cases, get cold feet quickly. Right now, again, the worldview of this new collective coming into power, including President Trump, is that we're the sole superpower. We can do everything. We're masters of the universe. We know everything. Don't bother us with facts. Don't bother us with any advice. We know it. We have this. And we're going to prosecute this as we see fit. End of discussion. I think that's where we are. They don't even seem to understand that you can make nice noises to the Russians in Eastern Europe. And I'm sure they're going to go there with some notion of a grand bargain, which will include

a free hand in the Middle East in return for us recognizing Russian territorial gains. Well, that's silly nonsense. There will be no grand bargain. There will be no wedge driven between Russia and China. That's off the table. Right now, it's very obvious that if we go into the Middle East and attack Iran, we will be at war with Russia. Period. And China will back Russia 100%. And the three potential or likely nominees announced so far in their congressional careers have described themselves as hawks on China. They've been very bellicose toward China. We can't fight a war against Russia and China and expect to prevail, can we, Colonel? Well, obviously they think otherwise.

There's also a failure to understand the business with tariffs now and the usual American bullying tactics with sanctions. China's total business with the global south amounts to about 1.8 million. The rest of the world, which is really Europe, North America, you look at that and it's a fraction of 1.8 trillion. I think if you include all the Europeans and a few others with us, you might come into 1.4 trillion total, but then you take us out of that. We barely register. I mean, if you look at the bar charts, which were published, I think, in the Financial Times, you know, 90 plus percent of China's business is elsewhere. They don't need us. This is the great fallacy that we're the indispensable nation, which continues under this administration, and that we have leverage. Again,

leverage. What's the strategic leverage? It doesn't exist. We have none. But to admit such a thing is an expression of humility that is absolutely unacceptable to this administration, at least thus far. Humility is not a word that comes to mind when I think of Joe Biden or Donald Trump. But let's get back to Trump and Netanyahu. Here's what Prime Minister Netanyahu said yesterday. Yesterday. Cut number eight. In the last few days, I have talked three times with President-elect Donald Trump. These were good and very important conversations designed to strengthen the covenant made between Israel and the allied countries.

We see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in all its forms and the danger it poses. We see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in all its forms and the danger it poses. Now, I don't know if that's true, but he certainly wants us to believe that that is true of himself. Well, first of all, we don't know whether or not he's actually spoken to President Trump that many times. Correct. I mean, he's been deceitful in the past. I don't see any reason to take it at face value now. Again, I urge people to listen to President Trump when he speaks. speaks now his basic argument which goes back to naftali's characterization of the octopus

and the necessity of striking the head so that then you can clean up presumably all the little uh octopus arms all over the region that stands up to closer scrutiny and and I think that general proposition is well supported by this new administration. And we've already seen, what's interesting to me, I was talking to someone today involved with the bombing strategy against the Houthis. And I urge people to remember that in support of Saudi Arabia, we helped to kill about a half a million Houthis. Well, that certainly had a big impact, didn't it? No. And the Houthis aren't out of business. And we sent over, as I recollect, B-52s or B-1s to drop thousands of tons of bombs again. It hasn't made any difference. It's not going to make any difference. We can't bomb our way out of this

and Netanyahu can't kill his way out of it. Do you think Israel is on the brink of collapse militarily and economically? Israel without us would collapse. Let's just keep that in mind now how close are they internally to serious uh problems with their own population i don't know i'm not there i urge you to i i would always defer to someone like max blumenthal who has a much better grasp of what's really happening on the ground than israel and i do but from a strategic standpoint they are overreaching on an Olympic scale. But that's because of us. And now they have an administration that they are confident will do more for them than any other has. And I think there's a great deal of evidence to support their assumption.

The question is, once things get hot and we are at war, how long will we persist? Just how far are we willing to go? I don't think anybody knows that yet. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which you and I from time to time read, it reminds everybody that today is the 29th day of Joe Biden's 30-day ultimatum. The ultimatum was allow international assistance into Gaza or we will certify you as noncompliant and that might jeopardize our veto at the Security Council and it might jeopardize our continued distribution of military equipment and aid to you. I think that's nonsense. I'm sure on the 30th day, they're going to forget about it or extend it another 30 days.

Nothing else comes to mind that will be treated with greater irrelevance than the UN by this new administration. Wow. Colonel, thank you very much, my dear friend. Are we going to talk about all the good things? I was going to say, it's rather gloomy. Well, we're going to get an education soon, I think, when we find out about the plans to secure the border. What are they? How is it going to be done? And I note that Tom Holman, who is a very good and decent man, has been made the so-called czar in the White House. The only problem I have with this term czar is it has no relevance.

It has no real authority. It is not a key appointed position that requires confirmation. Well, it doesn't have confirmation. It doesn't have a staff. And most of all, it doesn't have a budget. Yeah. And you're dealing with people whose focus is really external. The Israel First approach really could care less about what happens at our border

and what happens inside our country. They simply want use of the American military establishment. So I think Tom Homan is a good and decent man, as I said. I like him very much, but I'm skeptical of it i have also heard there was a dispute of some kind or maybe it wasn't a dispute somebody got their wires crossed a few days ago president trump said that rfk jr would be the secretary of health and human services which i think is a brilliant choice although having said said that, I'd rather have RFK Jr. as either vice president or secretary of state, but that's fine. Health and human service is something he

would do brilliantly. But then Howard Lutnick, who is ultimately leading this transition, announced that that wouldn't happen, that he would be, quote unquote, a health czar. You know, all this czar business goes nowhere, if that's true. All they're going to do is give speeches to these czars. Yeah, sure, of course. And ultimately, what's that mean? Well, it may mean that the pharmaceuticals have called everybody up and said, look, you put him over there, we're at war. I mean, you have the same thing with the Department of Defense. You're going to end up with a Secretary of defense who is not going to go into the secretary of defense office with the goal of fundamentally changing anything oh he may pick on behalf of president trump some replacements especially the chairman of the joint chiefs and maybe some of the

joint chiefs but that's not going to make much difference when you want to make really positive change you've got to go after structure as well as personnel. And we have huge problems with that, as we discussed before, 43, 44, four stars for a force of what, 1.18 million. It's ridiculous. I mean, we managed to win the Second World War for the most part with seven four for $12 million. It's a banana republic structure right now. It's also an old antiquated structure. If anything, we should have learned by now that we're living in a very new world, and that world has come to light in eastern Ukraine. We've got to make some profound changes in the way we do business in defense and then of course there's the defense budget issue

and the criticality of cutting spending it's going to become more obvious particularly once the war starts and we see the markets tank and the economy can't keep up because it's in terrible shape uh people then begin to say well where are we Well, we're headed into a storm of unbelievable proportions. You've got debt, financial crises here at home. You have millions of people inside the country who are not Americans, were not born here, have no real interest in becoming Americans. You have more Americans right now at risk of being killed or harmed by Venezuelan gangs than you do in the Middle East, at least at the moment. Nobody talks about it. Nobody's doing anything about it. What we hear

is, well, we're going to run the biggest deportation operation in history. Okay, fine. How? And nobody wants to go there. And these are very important things. And where does the American military fit into all of this? I want to get back to the military. Tom Holman is not really the man to command that kind of operation. That's a military operation. He won't have the legal authority or the financial ability to do that command. Do you think that the president or whoever he's going to appoint to run the State Department has the appetite for curtailing the 850 foreign military installations

that the empire has built and funds around the world? Probably not. No, I mean, just recently I listened to commentators in Great Britain who are not necessarily critical of President Trump personally, but have said this looks like a reactionary imperialist administration. And their argument was there's no evidence for disengagement from these overseas garrisons, no evidence for disengagement from the conflicts and crises themselves. If anything, they plan to jump in with both feet. I think there's some truth to that. Well, time will tell. We probably will learn sooner rather than later. In my world,

of course, you would be either the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense, but I don't have any say, just my own vote. I wouldn't worry about it. It'll sort itself out. Yes. Thank you, Colonel. A great treat to be able to pick your brain as always and hear you talk about all of this stuff. Look forward to seeing you again next time. One last point. I heard that they just announced that this Christie Noem, the governor of, what is it, North Dakota or South Dakota, is going to head up DHS? I was very hopeful, given President Trump's experience, that one of the first things he would do is get rid of the Department of Homeland Security. It's a waste of money. Same here.

Same here. Not needed. So anyhow. And he should do the same with the Department of Education. For up to me, half those departments would be gone. They're not authorized by the Constitution, but that's just me. Absolutely. Thank you, Colonel. All the best, my friend.

Thanks. Sure. A great conversation with a great man. Coming up at 2.15, we've moved it by 15 minutes, at 2.15 this afternoon, Matt Ho, at three o'clock. Karen Kwiatkowski, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.