Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson: Does Trump Understand Putin?

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

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Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, February 10th, 2025. In a moment, Larry Johnson on Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump and what do they understand about each other? Maybe a little bit more about the latest on Gaza. But first, this. Markets are at an all time high. Euphoria has set in. The economy seems unstoppable. But the last administration has buried us so deep in debt and deficits, it's going to take a lot of digging to get us out of this hole. Are you prepared? Lear Capital specializes in helping people like me and you grow and protect

our wealth with gold. Did you know that during Trump's last presidency, gold rose 54% to a record high? If that happens again, that puts gold at $4,200 an ounce in his next term. Don't wait. Do what I did. Call Lear at 800-511-4620 or go to learjudgenap.com for your free gold ownership kit and special report, $4,200 gold ahead. When you call, ask how you can also get up to $15,000 in bonus gold with a qualifying purchase. Call 800-511-4620, 800-511-4620, or go to learjudgenap.com and tell them the judge sent you. Larry, welcome here. Some breaking news. This is not what we had planned on talking about, but I must raise it with you. CNN reports literally, while we were airing the Lear commercial, Hamas has announced that the next hostage release scheduled for Saturday will be

postponed, alleging Israel has failed to abide by the terms of the agreement without reading this whole thing. Hamas is alleging that the IDF has failed to vacate Gaza as it's required to. This might be just the break that Netanyahu is looking for, huh? Well, they were anticipating that phase two wouldn't go through you know as Alistair explained earlier with your conversation there had been a secret codicil that Netanyahu had filed that the United States wasn't least signatory to none of the other negotiating states, Qatar, et cetera, were apprised of. But it was sort of the price that Netanyahu, in order to appease Trump,

to get the first phase done, but to assure his extremists, the Ben-Gavirs, the Smotriches, that it wouldn't go forward into the second phase. Of course, now this is, again, these kinds of games are, I think, going to blow up in that guy whose face, because having released hostages already, first the female soldiers, and they look good, followed by these last three gentlemen who were pretty gone emaciated that there's going to be pressure within Israel to secure the release of all these hostages.

But now what Netanyahu's vowing to do is to walk away from them, to sentence them basically to death. Does Netanyahu really care about the hostages? No, no. No. He doesn't think

about him he's concerned about netanyahu saving his own rear end and and that's what really makes him sort of so despicable you know uh in theory a leader of a country ought to have the welfare of the people as a whole at the heart of what they're doing, recognizing that they have a stewardship, a responsibility. But instead, this is all about self-aggrandizement. And, you know, not only the hostages be damned, but the Palestinians should die. And so that's what has led Israel into this condition of committing genocide. Larry, I don't know if there's anything you can do.

We're having difficulty hearing you. I don't know if there's a volume you can adjust or anything like that I hate to raise this on air but there's no other way to uh address this let's see what the let me look and see what the output is there I've got the is that any better it's a little bit better. Good. Whatever you just did. Okay, back to our subject matter. What is the, because I really want to talk to you about Trump and Putin, what is the Kremlin's view of the genocide in Gaza? Do we know? Yeah, no, they've condemned it. They've been very outspoken about it.

They also came out very quickly, along with China and condemned Trump's statement about enforcing a new Nakba, a new forced expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza. very much against that. So they are at odds with Trump on US policy towards Palestine. I'm going to guess that they haven't said anything publicly about Trump's stunt on owning and occupying. No, they did. They came out and denounced it. My God, has any country on the planet besides Israel supported it? No, no. I mean, this is just, it's such a bizarre statement that it's out of control on the part of trump now i think uh again as allister explained and as i have said before that this is very much this has more in common with like trump's appearance against man on the worldwide wrestling uh federation where you know he went in and threatened to beat up a guy who was physically bigger and stronger than him.

And it was all, and then we're going to shave each other's heads. It is a showmanship thing. It's not really part of a serious negotiating strategy in terms of laying out this is an objective he wants to achieve. He's using it as a club, as as a threat in order to try to secure something so when trump says something like this that is impractical and probably impossible when he says i just spoke to putin and it apparently didn't happen when when he says Russia has lost a million men in Ukraine, which we know is very far from the truth, when he says Putin is ruining the Russian economy, which is very far from the truth, how does the Kremlin react to all of this? It's Trump. They just put it into his Trump. They recognize that he's a blowhard, that he's serious about negotiating, but he's got this peculiar negotiating strategy where the things he says in public are more designed to create an image for the public that then Trump can play off for his own political purposes. But when it comes down

to actually negotiating, a different guy shows up behind scenes. Now, I would note that within the last 24 hours, the Russians have finally admitted that there are contacts between the U.S. State Department and the foreign ministry, that they are now talking, that that avenue has now opened. It had been closed for at least the last two years, two to three years. Well, that is certainly a step in the right direction. It's not Trump and Putin, not yet, but it's baby steps toward that, I would imagine. Right. Sergey Rubkov, the deputy foreign minister, was announcing that. But one of the things he also indicated, he goes, look, here's what the United States is saying,

referencing some of the things that you just said about Trump or what Trump has said. And he says the West is going to realize those are not serious proposals. Those are not those are non starters. So Those are non-starters. So we're talking, and we're happy to talk and have actual negotiations, but it's got to be based upon the realities of, and they always say this now, what's on the ground? Well, what's on the ground? Russia controls Luhansk, controls the vast majority of Donetsk, is on the offensive in Zaporizhia and Kherson.

They're not giving those up. And those four former oblasts of Ukraine are now part of Russia. Russia is not going, they're not pawns that can be negotiated and given away. They are irrefutably part of Russia. Do you think that Trump and Sebastian Gorka and Mike Walz and Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, understand that? Because ropes, Russia's in a desperate situation, of course they're going to do what we demand of them because we're so strong and they're so weak and it's crazy. The Starmer administration in Great Britain, you guys take the leadership of the Ukraine defense group. And if so, what does that mean? Well, you chair it and then you're the one on the lead for trying to go out and shake everybody else down to cough up some money. So you're the chief sales representative now. And that, you know, I think that was pretty

telling on the part of where Trump stands with respect to Ukraine, because it is, you know, that's part of how you control the process. Chairing meetings, deciding who's going to speak, who's not going to speak, what's on the agenda, that puts you under control. And Trump just said a clear message, hey, the United States, we're no longer interested in being in control of that. You guys, Europeans, you guys take the lead. Is the, you and I have talked about this, I think I asked you the same question last week. Maybe the answer is the same. Maybe it's different. Is the Biden spigot of military aid still open, and is aid still flowing from the United States to Kiev? Yeah, I think there were some of at least the weapons systems are still in the pipeline.

And, you know, that's a bureaucratic process that started. The financial flows, though, to the government, that's been suspended. So it's a mixed bag. But, you know, it comes back to you send the equipment, you send artillery shells, you send tanks, you send armored vehicles. And who's there to operate them? That's the problem. Ukraine is suffering a serious shortage of trained, qualified personnel to man those systems or use them. What is the, if we know, Kremlin reaction to Trump washing his hands of this fundraising effort to support Ukraine and putting it in the hands of the British? I haven't seen no reaction from them.

I don't think they naturally care because it does not change. They'll take it on board as another intelligence indicator of what Washington's intentions under Trump are with respect to Ukraine. So they're able to see that no matter what Trump says in public about supporting Ukraine or standing with Ukraine, that what they're actually doing is shedding responsibility, shedding positions of influence where they could, you know, direct the process in a way that, you know, again, it'd be more of Washington's control. So they're really, you know, kicking this to NATO. And maybe it's even a way of Trump to try to demonstrate that NATO's a failure and shouldn't continue to exist.

Interesting, if that's the case. I want to get back to the Gaza Strip because my friends and former colleagues at Fox recently released a portion of an interview between Brett Baer and President Trump, which was not released last night prior to the Super Bowl. The whole interview had been taped last week. But this question and answer is very telling when Brett Baer asks the president, would the Palestinians be able to return? Chris, cut number five. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. Would the Palestinians have the right to return? No, they wouldn't because they're going to have much better housing, much better. In other words, I'm talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to better housing, much better. In other words, I'm talking about building a permanent

place for them, because if they have to return now, it'll be years before you could ever. It's not habitable. It will be years before it could happen. I'm talking about starting to build. And I think I could make a deal with Jordan. I think I could make a deal with Egypt. You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year. Before you respond, Steve Witkoff, the president's billionaire real estate developer friend from New York, who is his point person for Gaza and Israel, said last night before the Super Bowl

that it would take 10 to 15 years to do this. Okay, so where do we stand? Permanent, they're kicked out They can't return Israel will sell us the land Israel doesn't own the land Right well and notice that If you're going to move the Palestinians out

Trump's premise Is that They're going to have these great houses Man they're going to be spectacular Condos with you toilets and platinum appliances. It's going to be fabulous. Why would they want to go anywhere else? Well, it's going to take time to build that too.

You have to build that first in order to then have something to, quote, entice the Palestinians to go there. The Palestinians aren't going there. And despite Trump's confidence, yeah, we give these guys billions of dollars. Donald, Jordan and Egypt may have behaved as prostitutes up to this point, but there are certain things they're not willing to do for money. Okay. up to this point, but there are certain things they're not willing to do for money, okay? And so this is not a transaction with, you know, let's call it geopolitical prostitution. That's not going to happen. They've made it clear that if they went down that road, both countries, the leaders in both countries would be at risk. It would probably spark off a civil war, both in Jordan and in Egypt. Last thing that they want. You know, I think

Trump has been riding a high for these first two weeks over what they achieved in negotiating the ceasefire. But now that Bibi is walking away from phase two, it's going to leave the hostages back in the news as not being rescued. And so Trump's, hey, Donald, you were celebrating this, man. You were going to get the hostages released. Well, they're not released. And now Netanyahu's pulled the rug out from under you. What are you going to do about it? So Alistair Crook reports that Mike Waltz, the national security advisor,

told Ron Dermer, the American-born senior advisor to Netanyahu, that Trump does not support, will not condone an invasion of Iran. what do you think Netanyahu reacted when Ron Dermer told him that probably breathe the sigh of relief that keep them from doing something stupid no I mean you know the look there's there's this talk that oh boy we're going to go show Iran we're going to we're going to whip them because they don't have any air defense, et cetera, et cetera. It's ridiculous. The only way that Israel could destroy Iran is if the United States foolishly decided to help facilitate such an attack. And listen, the United States cannot destroy Iran unless it wants to nuke the whole place. Okay? That's the whole place. Okay?

That's the only way. The United States lacks the military capability that lacks the troop strength that lacks the logistics to be able to launch an attack on Iran that would take control of Iran. Can we launch some airstrikes that do some damage? Yes. But that means Iran will be in a position to launch retaliatory airstrikes against U.S. bases that are still there in Qatar, in Al Udeid Air Force Base, and up into Syria. So, you know, this Trump at least, I think, is recognizing that's a non-starter. And so it leaves Israel with no option on that front. They want to destroy Iran, the American Jews who are Zionists, who are in the camp of, you know,

I can show you predictions they were making two, three months ago. Yeah, once Trump's in, he's going to get with Netanyahu and they're going to go wipe out Iran. Not happening. Notwithstanding what the Zionists want, notwithstanding what Netanyahu claims, notwithstanding what Trump himself has said, does the American State Department consider Iran to be a state sponsor of terrorism? Oh, yeah. They got the number one label. And so I published at Sonar 21 on Friday night, I took the State Department's annual report. It used to be called Patterns of Global Terrorism when I was there. It's now called Country Reports on Terrorism, and they've prepared a statistical annex. And so I've presented the statistical annex from the last nine years, since 2016.

And what it shows very clearly, it lists in the first 2016, 2017, 2018, it listed the top five groups that were most active in terrorist attacks. And then in the subsequent years, it listed the top 10. Only in 2023 did two groups, three groups actually, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis appear in the top 10. Well, everything that those groups did with respect to fighting Israel in this war of genocide that Israel is carrying out against the Palestinians, that got counted as terrorism. And remember, the definition of terrorism offered by Bibi Netanyahu, which I fully endorse, fully agree,

is the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. And by that definition, the number one terrorist group in the Middle East entity is Israel. But when you go back and look at those nine years, except for 2023, none of the groups listed in those lists are Iranian-backed. The groups that show up are all backed by the Saudis or people from Saudi Arabia or from the other Gulf states. ISIS.

ISIS and the Taliban consistently were listed as number one, number two. Is HTS in there? The people that just took over Syria? Yeah, in five of the last seven years, HTS is listed in the top ten.

And they, you know, we now find out that USAID was providing money, at least to the predecessor organization of HTS, which was Al Nusra. I mean, so this club of terrorism that the United States uses to brand somebody as, you're an evil terrorist. It's just a label. It's something that we're very flexible on because when we find it convenient, like HTS, who, by the way, Jelani, the head of it, he had a $10 million bounty on his head.

I don't know if you can see over my head. I've got a picture of the poster for bin Laden. We only offered $5 million for bin Laden, the U.S. government. And so we're saying that Jalani is twice as bad as bin Laden? And yet now we're giving him money. We're recognizing him. We took away the terrorist reward on his head. And we're giving him money. We're recognizing him. We took away the terrorist reward on his head. And we're dealing with him.

So this notion of, oh, we can't deal with Iran because they're the number one sponsor of terrorism. Well, they're not the number one sponsor of terrorism. That's just a bald-faced lie. Trump the other day said at a cabinet meeting, this is macabre, but he said it, if I'm assassinated, blame Iran and obliterate them. Yeah.

He said that right before Bibi arrived. Who knows if it was said to please Netanyahu or just one of those things he says that are thoughtless and baseless. The only country that's been assassinating leaders and top officials in the other country

has been the United States. And Israel. And Israel. But we assassinated Soleimani under Trump's orders. But before that, you had, as I recall, it was at least four nuclear scientists that were assassinated on their way to work in Iran. So this legacy of the United States supporting terrorist groups like the Mujahideen al-Qa'ab who carry out terrorist attacks in Iran. And yet, despite that, Iran has not retaliated by carrying out terrorist attacks in the United States. And what's really remarkable is some of these so-called experts.

I saw this one clown on television the other day, and he was talking about the Sunnis and the Shia. And the reality is, yes, Iran is a Shia, comes out of a Shia theology. They're not the ones backing ISIS, backing the terrorist groups that attacked the United States on 9-11. In fact, it was the Iranians with Hezbollah that went into Syria to fight ISIS. And ISIS had a pretty big body count around the world of carrying out extremist attacks to achieve their Sunni vision. But instead, we lambaste the Iranians. We make them the villains and coddle and enable the very ideological terrorists on the Sunni side that attacked us. It's insane. Here's what Trump said.

Iran and their proxies who have threatened to retaliate against you and your team by Here's what Trump said. did that, they would be obliterated. That would be the end. I've left instructions. If they do it, they get obliterated. There won't be anything left. There you go. Yeah. It's tough talk. The reality behind the scenes is Trump

is trying through Witkoff to get negotiations underway with Iran. We have also learned in the last 48 hours that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not interested, not interested in talking to the United States at least because they already feel that they've been betrayed by Trump, that Trump can't be trusted. Well, there is a basis for that from the last time around oh yeah no absolutely not but the that doesn't mean there won't be negotiations that means trump may have to

go through russia to get to iran and that uh any any deal cut with iran will be part of a broader deal with Russia. And maybe he's even spill over into China. This is, you know, Trump is, you know, he does, to his credit, he goes for the big idea. And he doesn't always explain that in public in a way that would be comprehensible to its people but he recognizes that if he can pull off a grand deal that secures that secures iran recognizing israel's right to exist that secures actually a state for the palestinians in accordance with what the saudis and others have demanded now, and that a peace with Russia that, you know, reduces the anxiety of NATO, that, you know, he'll be a shoo-in for the Nobel Peace Prize. That's what he wants. Great. Larry, great conversation, my dear friend. Terrific conversation. I realize we covered the gamut from Gaza to Kiev, but thank you very much for letting me pick your brain. And thanks for

all of your analysis. I look forward to seeing you with the youngster McGovern at the end of the day on Friday. I'll be there, Gamet Incorporated. All right. Thank you, Larry. All the best, my dear friend. Sure. Coming up later today at 4.30 Eastern this afternoon, the always worth waiting for on all of these topics, Scott Ritter. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.