Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson : Trump Duped by His Own Advisors.

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

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Hi there, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, October 6, 2025. Lara Johnson will be here on just a moment. Is Donald Trump being duped by his own advisors? But first this. My friends, if you care about your liberty and your right to control your own future, you need to hear about this. From October 10th to 12th, Mikkel Thorpe, host of the Expat Money Show, is bringing together top experts from around the world for the expat money online summit, and it's completely free to attend. You'll learn how to legally protect your wealth, secure second residences, and citizenships, reduce your tax burden, and own property abroad, all to safeguard your freedom.

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including lifetime replay access and exclusive VIP panels, use promo code judge for 20% off your upgrade. That's expatmoneysummit.com, promo code. Larry, welcome here, my dear friend. And before we get into Trump and his advisors, I'm going to read an email I got from our colleague, Phil Giraldi, who got it from a friend that he trusts. I've spent the afternoon helping a young U.S. citizen after he was detained for walking on his own sidewalk on his way home when ice troops with masks and a camouflage pulled him to their unmarked vehicles demanding to see. his legal documents and proof of citizenship. No warrant, no telling him their name, badge, or other identification of the government authority they represent. He tried to cooperate. They refused

to accept his Illinois real ID driver's license. They asked for a social security card, which you didn't have with him, or his passport, which was home. A man walking on his own side, walked back to his home. That was not the end of the story. They beat him up, took him to a nearby train station, destroyed his cell phone some people who witnessed the abuse gave him a few dollars to take the train home why are federal troops doing that to Americans

in American cities yeah you know it's one thing to identify and deport people who are here illegally but you still got to follow the rules and you know but you know unfortunately Donald Trump

has set the precedent that you can use government force however you want without any regard for the law as he continues to attack boats that are allegedly carrying drugs and killing the people on those boats and blowing them up you know if if a police officer tried that with a drug deal going down in baltimore or new york city or washington dc they'd be criminally charged and should right so Yeah, this is, you know, examples like that, that's, those kinds of abuses are going to awaken a pushback in the American society where Trump did enjoy support or dealing with the, you know, the hordes of illegals that have flooded across the borders. It's been going to elicit a pushback against them on those policies. You know, Justice Kavanaugh wrote a concur. opinion in a case in which the Supreme Court allowed troops to ask for your papers saying, what's the big deal, show your papers? Well, it is a big deal. We don't show our papers in America.

You don't have to prove anything. The burden is on the government to prove that it has an arrest warrant, that it has the right to arrest you. You don't have to prove that you're an American citizen. You have the right to be on a street. That's a police state when you have to affirmatively prove. something in order to please the government. Yeah, well, it's just, again, it's a natural evolution. This didn't start with Trump.

So I don't want to just blame Donald Trump on this. This is, you know, it goes back, good Lord, 24 years with the installation of the Patriot Act. Right. Where we start encroaching upon civil liberties. We start dismissing the fundamental freedoms. Then people, they grow accustomed to it. They become numb. You know, Roger Waters' song, Pink Floyd, comfortably numb.

exactly what we've become the secretary of defense of course himself the secretary of war announced that they blew up another ship on saturday it's not a ship it's a boat boat boats so four speed boats we don't even know the numbers of deaths in international water so it's inconceivable an american crime that was being committed none of them none of the people on the boats had been identified, none had been charged, none had been indicted, no evidence had been sought just enough to satisfy the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States and now these people are dead and the evidence is destroyed. Something's going to happen to bring this to a halt. I don't know what it's going to be. Yeah. Well, what bothers me so much about it,

it'd be one thing if there was a U.S. Navy or Coast Guard vessel trying to detain that boat and the people on board that boat were firing weapons oh that's an entirely different yeah if that was taken place then yeah okay you've opened you know you decided to play that game to comply but that's not what's going on here and it's it's just well trust us we have intelligence well having worked in that field i don't trust a damn thing you're saying not at all in fact I don't doubt the ability to lie about these kinds of claim that it's drugs when it's not. You know, one of the things we saw right after 9-11 in Afghanistan, when they said, man, we're going to put out a, we're going to wrap up all the Al-Qaeda fighters.

We're going to offer $100,000 for every Al-Qaeda person that the Afghans turn over. Well, the ranks of Al-Qaeda swelled because, man, the Afghans with the nose for making. money showed up, you know, this guy, he's al-Qaeda. And they were grabbing taxi driver. I found out, you know, one of my classmates and friends, he was over there at the time. And he said, they brought in so many people who were actually innocent. But because somebody had a grudge against them or had something that they were, you know, something that they wanted, maybe they were a competitor.

They got them identified as the terrorists. In this case, so I don't doubt that that's what's going on here. here. Well, you answered my question before I asked it, and that's if actionable intelligence is trustworthy. Here's the mentality of the person operating on that intelligence, claiming he warned about, claiming he warned Pete Hague-Seth about Osama bin Laden when he wrote a book about Osama bin Laden, forgetting that when he wrote that book, Hegg-Seth was a 19-year-old sophomore at Princeton. Yeah.

Well, here's what he said to the Navy troops just over the weekend. Number seven, Chris. And history will never forget that it was the seals who stormed the compound at Osama bin Laden and put a bullet in his head.

Remember that. And please remember I wrote about Osama bin Laden exactly one year ago, one year before he blew up the World Trade Center. And I said, you got to watch Osama bin Laden. And the fake news would never let me get away with that statement unless it was true. But I said one year before to Pete Hackseth, I said one year before Wisby, in the book I wrote whatever the hell the title, I can't tell you.

But I can tell you there's a page in there devoted to the fact that I saw somebody named Osama bin Laden and I didn't like it and you got to take care of him. They didn't do it a year later. He blew up the World Trade Center. So we've got to take a little credit because nobody else is going to give it to me. You know, the old story? They don't give you credit. Just take it yourself. Well, listen, I don't want to dump on him needlessly. The book he wrote was called The America We Deserve.

It was published in January 2000. In January 2000, Pete Higg-Seth was a sophomore at Princeton. So the president is obviously confusing things. But what level of confusion operates in his mind when he gives the kill? order, Larry. Yeah, well, I will simply note that Milton and I wrote an op-ed in the New York Times

that appeared, I believe, was November 7, 2000. And in that, we specifically identified that because at that point, it was not clear who was going to be president, whether it was Al Gore or George W. Bush. But we identified that whoever was president

that they needed to focus on, if they were going to deal with the terrorism issues, that one of those was the rise of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. So, you know, Trump's just simply trying to take credit where there was really none to be earned. He could have, you know, he was reacting probably to the previous claims of al-Qaeda's role in the East Africa embassy bombings in 1998. But, Again, the narcissism of it is what, I mean, the insecurity on this guy is just terrible. Yeah. Tell me, I'm wonderful.

Tell me I'm great. Okay, you're wonderful and great. Can we, like, set some reasonable, realistic priorities? Why, I'm going to talk about the Gaza Peace Plan. Why would Hamas even negotiate with these people? Trump lured Iranian negotiators into a trap. Netanyahu murdered Hamas and Hezbollah negotiators. Why would these people even negotiate, much less come to an agreement with them?

Well, I think they're in a trust but verify. I remember that they were, Trump helped try to kill them, I believe, a few weeks ago in Doha when the Israelis launched that attack where the Hamas negotiating team was supposed to be. Right. But, you know, this, I still believe that this agreement's not going to go anywhere because Hamas, number one, Hamas is not the only group fighting the Zionists in Gaza. There are 14, at least 14 other Palestinian groups. Not all of them are Islamic either. There are some secular groups as well.

So this is more of a broad base about Palestinian opposition. They're not going to surrender their weapons. I think they know very well based upon what's happened in the past that neither the Zionists nor the United States are to be trusted with surrendering weapons. The other aspect is that they're not going to accept a Tony Blair arrangement where you've got Westerners with Jared Kushner sort of calling the shots for the government in Gaza and the West Bank.

That's not going to happen. It's going to be Palestinian with the backing of Arab and Muslim countries. Those will be complete non-starters for Bibi Netanyahu. It remains to be seen whether Trump is going to try to force or compel Bibi to accept it. I doubt it. But there's always, you know, again, we can go back to his narcissistic behavior, his desire really to get credit for something big. He might be willing to do that if he's getting.

enough promises and insurances from the Saudis and the Egyptians, that this is the way that he'll go down in history as the greatest president if he makes this deal, one that will at least allow the Palestinians to remain intact. So, but as far as, you know, Hamas has got to surrender in 24 hours or else, we've had so many deadlines from Donald Trump that they're more abundant. why would Hamas surrender hostages and their arms

trusting that the IDF would leave Gaza? Who would trust them? Yeah, no, they're going to there's going to have to be movement of Israeli forces out of Gaza before that deal is consummated, number one, and that the Palestinian prisoners are being released. It'll be a simultaneous release. Again, there is a deal to be had here, and the Egyptians are trying mightily to make it happen,

but as you correctly note, the level of trust has been dramatically eroded as a consequence of both Israeli and U.S. actions over the last six months. Well, Axios is reporting when Hamas came back with a yes-but to press Senator Trump's Gaza piece proposal on Friday, Trump called Netanyahu to discuss what he saw as good news. Netanyahu felt differently. Beebe told Trump, this is nothing to celebrate and that it doesn't mean anything. A U.S. official with knowledge of the call told Axios, Trump fired back. I don't know why you're always so blanking, starting with an F negative.

This is a win, take it. I don't know where this is going to go. Yeah. Yeah, I think the major variable is who convinces Trump that he's going to be the greatest ever as a result of the decision that he makes. This brings us to what I wanted to talk to you about is he listens to whoever's been speaking to last, whether it's about Gaza or Ukraine. Yeah, his, I'm not impressed. with his critical thinking skills. We've seen with respect to the war in Ukraine. Trump, on the one hand,

has sort of washed his hands up it and dumped it into the lap of the Europeans. On the other hand, he has not reined in his government. And this recent article by Cy Hirsch, basically arguing that the war in Ukraine is a stalemate, There's no way that Russia can win it. Russia's got severe economic.

Where is Sai getting this from, Larry? He's getting it from senior officials either in the Trump administration and or the intelligence community. I mean, Sa has always had good contacts, both with DOD and CIA. And what's really alarming is that these people are not, they're not only telling this, but that's what they're telling Trump. So, you know, I can't entirely fault Donald Trump for not pushing back or having enough curiosity to try to ask them, okay, show me the receipts on this.

Where are you getting this? But the belief is settled in that Russia is barely making progress, hardly moving at all, that they've got so terrible economic problems because Ukraine is just destroying their oil refinery and the Russians are critically dependent upon oil revenue and therefore their economy is going to collapse.

And the army, they're suffering horrific losses. Now, all of that are, those are complete lies, misrepresentations about what's really going on. However, they believe it. This is what's so troubling.

Hankseth believes it. Kellogg believes it. Rubio believes it. And they got Trump believe in it. They think they're in a stronger bargaining position with the Russians. Meanwhile, they're not listening to Putin. And, you know,

if all of these dire predictions about Putin's and the state of Russia were correct, you would have seen a real nervous Vladimir Putin last week at Sochi at the Valdei dialogue. Man, he was relaxed. Right. He was making fun of Trump's paper tiger. He says, yeah, I hear that, you know, we're a paper tiger. Jeez, we've been fighting not just Ukraine. We've been fighting all of NATO now for three years.

and they haven't laid a glove on us. So if we're a paper tiger, what are they? You know, that kind of, you know, sarcasm. So it is, there's a real disconnect here. And it comes at a time that Russia is rapidly ramping up its military operations, launching 6,700 drone missile attacks like every other day. and crane Crane not only cannot stop them

we had Vladimir Zelensky whining yesterday about oh my God let's have a unilateral ceasefire on all these aerops you know I thought you guys were shooting down 90% of them yeah what's the story when

Trump and Netanyahu speak by telephone are is Russian Intel listening? They'll try. Chinese too. I mean, you know, look, any good foreign intelligence service worth or salt are going to try to penetrate those kinds of communications. Now, normally they would be handled in something that's encrypted. It's not to say that there's always perfect encryption. If man makes it, it can be broken or penetrated. So in theory, but don't

discount that the Russians also have intelligence assets within Mossad, within the Israeli military, because you've got roughly two million Russians that live in Israel, and it would not surprise me at all that they've got other intelligence access beyond just having to use electronic intercepts. Do the Russians have intelligence assets in the American intelligence community? I would hope so. as I would hope that we would, but I'm doubtful, candidly. Because I think, and I think the U.S. is similarly unlikely to have had any success penetrating the Russian intelligence service.

All they can do, though, is they do have to watch with some puzzlement these things that Donald Trump says and does, and trying to figure out, are the Americans genuine about seeking a peace? Right now, despite the meetings that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have had, the frequent conversations with Steve Whitkoff, we've not seen really anything tangible yet in terms of normalizing diplomatic relations, reopening consulates, allowing direct flights from the United States to Russia and vice versa, returning property that was seized by Barack Obama

in the waning days of his administration from the Russians, getting the frozen assets of the Russian government released. None of that is, you know, the United States has not made that a priority. And so, again, the Russians have to look at what tangible things is the United States doing to signal that they want to have normal relations with Russia. All right, let me play you this clip. starts with Vladimir Putin and goes to Caroline Leavitt and ends up with the president and it has to do with Putin's suggestion that the START treaty limitations be extended.

I think it's number nine, Chris. After February 5th, 26, Russia is prepared to continue adhering to the central quantitative limits of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty for one year. Going forward, based on an analysis of the situation, we will make a decision if we continue adhering to these voluntary self-limitations. We believe this measure will only be viable if the United States acts in a similar manner.

The President is aware of this offer extended by President Putin, and I'll let him comment on it later. I think it sounds pretty good, but he wants to make some comments on that himself, and I will let him do that. President Putin offers to give limits on nuclear arms for one more years to then hopefully negotiate the nuclear crisis. Sounds like a good idea to me. Yeah, that's, so you get those, you know, it's hopeful.

We still can't forget that, and the Russians haven't forgotten, that it was Donald Trump that abrogated the intermediate nuclear forces agreement in 2018. So the fact that Trump is signaling a willingness to entertain that, great. You know, we've had, you know, throughout this period, this stormy period, we've had cooperation between the United States and Russia on the space program, particularly with the Russians playing a critical role in transporting U.S. astronauts to and from the space station over about a 20-year period. So there is a foundation there for,

for respect and for getting along. But, you know, Russia's got its interests, and once those respected, as well as, you know, willing to respect U.S. interests. But it's got to be a two-way relationship. Is Trump being duped by his advisors, or are they telling him what they think he wants to hear? No, I think they're deliberately misleading him. And Trump is going along and accepting it. He's not, you're not throwing the penalty flag on this claim that, you know,

Russia is in a weak position and, you know, it's on the ropes. You know, it can't sustain this much longer. This is, you know, the message that Cy Hirsch wrote about that was hearing from senior administration officials without, he didn't name the sources beyond that, was that what's going on in Ukraine right now is court a stalemate. and it's absolutely not a stalemate, not by any definition of stalemate. You know, it'd be one thing if, you know,

one day the Russians advanced five kilometers and then the next day, the Ukrainians advance five kilometers. And so at the end of the day, they haven't really moved the needle. That's not what's happening. Right now, for example, in this one sector of the battlefield,

Russia reportedly has up as many as 10,000 Ukrainian troops trapped they are up against a massive reservoir of water you know think think of something like lake michigan and uh so they can't swim across it the camp boat across it and the russians have them trapped on the flanks in the front wow rush is just shelling them relentlessly and they're dying in droves so that's the kind of thing is taking place across the front and you know maybe a year ago you could make the case that Russia was only succeeding in taking maybe one small village or town a week, maybe every two weeks. They're taking three or four a week now, and it's accelerating. Larry, thank you very much. Always a pleasure, my dear friend. And no matter what we're talking

about, whether ICE are beating people up or Trump's being lied to, your analysis is deeply appreciated. you know by me and certainly by the vast numbers of people that watch and listen to us. Look forward to seeing you with the Youngster McGovern on Friday. I'll be there and thank you for the very kind words. Sure, Larry. All the best. Have a good week, my friend. Coming up later today at 2 o'clock this afternoon, Max Blumenthal, at 3 o'clock this afternoon, Scott Ritter. At 4 o'clock this afternoon, Professor Jeffrey Sachs.

Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.