Judging Freedom - LtCOL. Karen Kwiatkowski : Does Trump Want Peace in Ukraine ?

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

LtCOL. Karen Kwiatkowski : Does Trump Want Peace in Ukraine ?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Don't let an expensive wireless bill disrupt your summer plans. As you map out beach getaways, backyard gatherings, and long weekends, your wireless bill shouldn't be a source of stress. With Mint Mobile, you get the reliable coverage and high-speed performance you're used to at a significantly lower cost. For a limited time, Mint is offering three months of unlimited premium wireless service for just $15 a month, while others are dealing. with overage fees and surprise charges, you can enjoy peace of mind and more money in your

pocket. Say goodbye to overpriced plans and hello to simple, straightforward wireless service. Every Mint mobile plan includes high-speed data, unlimited talk and text, and access to the nation's largest 5G network. Plus, you can keep your current phone number and contacts. Make the switch and get three months of unlimited service for just $15 a month. This year, skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get this new customer offer and your three-month unlimited wireless plan for just $15 a month at mintmobile.com slash freedom. That's mintmobile.com slash freedom. Up front payment of $45 required.

That's an equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited. plan. Taxes and fees extra, see Mint Mobile for details. You may know frontotemporal Degeneration or FTT as the disease that recently forced Bruce Willis to retire from acting. While it's the most common form of dementia for adults under age 60, many people, even doctors, aren't familiar with it. Uncharacteristic personality changes, apathy, and unexplained struggles with decision-making, movement, speaking, or language comprehension are the most common

symptoms. It is often misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder, depression, and sometimes just a midlife crisis. It's World FTT Awareness Week. You can learn more about this disease and the important steps you can take to preserve and maximize quality of life by visiting the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration at the AFTD. Find help, share hope. Go now to theaftd.org. Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025. Colonel Karen Kutkowski will be here on just a moment

on, does Donald Trump really want peace? 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. This year's focus is on Latin,

America, where opportunity is booming. Argentina is shifting to free markets. El Salvador is undergoing a dramatic transformation, and Panama and Paraguay are offering simple residency programs. A plan B is no longer optional. It's essential. Reserve your free ticket at expatmoneysummit.com, and if you want VIP access with special perks, including lifetime replay action, access and exclusive VIP panels, use promo code judge for 20% off your upgrade. That's expatmoneysummit.com promo code judge. Welcome here, Colonel Koukowski, always a pleasure, my dear friend. What is your take on the now near universal acceptance of the state of Palestine as a sovereign

entity. Is this a substantive or just symbolic? Well, it's not substantive because there is no action or ability or territorial integrity. There's no foundation for having, from meeting the definition of a Palestinian state. You know, you've got to have territory that you control. Well, Palestinians control no territory. And nothing's being done towards that end. And so it's very, you know, it's a demonstrative, and I think it is reflecting, you know, they're compensating for the fact that most of these countries have done absolutely nothing until, perhaps until recently to stop the genocide and to rein in Israel's activities in the region.

Well, what could possibly rain in Israel's activities in the region other than a president of the United States that had a a moral compass. Yeah, that's what we would need. And we don't have that. We don't have that at all. So, yeah, there's, I mean, I think what's more substantive is what you're seeing and what we've seen before this with countries deciding to stop sending weapons to Israel. You know, Spain did some things. I think different countries have done different things and promoted that.

Now, that is a substantive way to resist Israel's policies. So that's one thing. But of course, we are the big daddy of Israeli aid. So the little things that other countries are doing really don't make a huge difference. We are, and we'll actually compensate. I think the U.S., I think didn't Trump recently authorize another bunch of billions to go to Israel? Yes, yes. I mean, nothing, no recognition is going to stop the killing, only military force or the cutting off of their supply line.

And in my view, you're the military person, will stop the killing. I mean, what remains of the so-called rules-based order? What rules does Israel comply with? What rules do the United States comply with? Yeah. Well, you know, Israel is kind of like, I mean, they don't play bad anybody's rules, but Israel's rules, and that's been a long time that everyone knows that. But the United States, what has happened is we are a spectacle of, well, the United States itself has made a spectacle of any concept of a rules-based order.

And it's not just Trump. You know, we did this under Biden, Obama, you name the president, we make our own rules. And we call it, once we decide what we want to do next week, we call that the rules-based order. And then if we change our minds, then we call that the rules-based order. And the whole rest of the world's nations and governments, anybody that has to deal with the United States, they already know that. And it's become so obvious that you don't even have to talk about it anymore. So we have lost, the United States has lost a great deal of respect over time. And now that has actually metastasized.

There is no coming back to a place where the rest of the world world will respect the United States. That respect has been lost, and it cannot get, it cannot come back. And a big part of that is we have ignored and the concept of a global rules-based order, and we have said whatever we want to do is the world's rule-based. That's just it. And the same with Israel. These are not accepted moral norms and these are not accepted rules of engagement. It's whatever the United States wants to do for itself or for Israel,

and whatever Israel wants to do for itself. That's their moral code. right yeah that's right and you know it's funny because it's not funny but you know a lot of what zionism and erets israel greater israel a lot of the justification they they like to say well you know it's in the old testament it's it's it's a biblical mission that we have and yet even that is shaped by whatever they want to do then you know tomorrow or the next week i mean they're not even bound by their own uh their own documents you know if you don't like what it is just call a new historian or get a new rabbi and he'll explain it to you how it's changed so it is a

spectacle it's a joke um does in your opinion does don't trump want peace in gaza or does he just want to netzniahu to get whatever he wants i'm sure that donald trump wants gaza to go away okay as an issue that he has to be criticized for um he at one point early you know early in the year early his second term. He wanted to try to make peace in Gaza. And I think we ended up with the 12-day war and some assassinations here and there. And he backed off of that because Netanyahu doesn't want peace. So I guess Netanyahu made it clear to him that we're not going to have peace in Gaza. We are going to exterminate the Gossans. And you're going to help us do that. So shut up. And I'm pretty sure that's pretty much what Netanyahu told Trump. And so he stopped talking about Gaza.

So he wants it to go away. If he cared about Gazans, if he cared about peace, if he cared about right and wrong, as the planet understands right and wrong. I mean, this transcends the great religions, you know, there's no disagreement about what right is and what wrong is. It's wrong to murder people to take their land. You don't do that. Whenever we've done that, we've said, you know, that was wrong. So why are we allowing or, you know, helping Israel do this? So Trump, he's not addressing that.

He wants Gaza to go away. And if that means Gazans die down to, you know, the last 100,000, I guess he doesn't care. Chris is going to run some clips of demonstrations in Milan, Italy. These demonstrations occurred in every major city in Italy yesterday. It actually shut down commerce in Italy, organized by labor unions. protesting the slaughter in Gaza. Now, I don't know if the Italian government has recognized Palestine, as you said, that's just symbolic. I don't know if the Italian government is sending any aid to Israel.

It certainly permits trade with Israel. And you can see that these demonstrations got sort of violent. People were throwing rocks. By the way, this is Milan. This is the most sophisticated, high-end western. oriented and wealthiest city in Italy, and you can see what's going on there in the downtown area. Look at the police. The police vehicle is going backwards as the demonstrators. I don't know what they're throwing, but they're pretty aggressive. Wow. Here's President Erdogan.

He should talk. It's all he does is talk, but he is very critical. of Trump who boasted that he would bring about peace in Ukraine and peace in Gaza and has done neither. This interview is with Brett Baer at Fox News, my friend and former colleague right here in New York two days ago. Chris cut number 17. Mr. Trump, you might remember he used a term when he said, I will finish the Russia-Ukraine war. Did it end? It still goes on. Similarly, he said, I will finish the war in Gaza. Did it not?

No. That means once we start analyzing the issue, there are prices to pay. And when we look at the hostage exchange, that was done. It goes on. Does he want war to end? in Ukraine. And if you say yes, why are we still sending or facilitating the sale of American military equipment in an utterly, profoundly losing cause? Yeah. Trump does not have the background that you might think a statesman would have,

because he doesn't know very much about American history, and he thinks that you can run the government like a business. And to some extent, you know, there are some similarities, but he actually sees his new position as, I think, CEO. And so as a CEO, he's saying, well, how do I return profits to my shareholders? That would be all of the citizens. And so he says, well, peace. They want peace so we can do piece. But yeah, if that's too hard, why don't we sell arms at a profit? Why don't we sell gas and oil at a profit? Why don't we create markets around the world that will put money back into my shareholders' pockets? So I think he views it that way. And that is kind of a, how else can you view it? What does he bring to the table except that kind of a perspective?

You know, to President Erdogan's point, President Trump boasted he would end the war in Ukraine before he became president, and the war in Gaza within 24 hours, obviously hasn't? They're both far more violent now than they were eight or nine months ago when he became president, and then told the UN today that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. He didn't dare mention the name of the person who nominated him for it because that's the only person who will speak to the General Assembly with less popularity there than Donald Trump. That's in Yahoo. Yeah, well, Trump's circle of friends is getting smaller, not larger, and this is domestically as well as internationally. And so he's paved that road.

I mean, he has chosen that path by elevating Netanyahu, by believing everything Netanyahu tells him, and by being not just submissive, but I'm sure that he is fearful and blackmailed by Netanyahu. And I, you know, it could be the government of Israel, but Netanyahu's been there long enough so we can just call Netanyahu the government of Israel. And so, you know, he, Trump is scared, you know, and he is not willing. you know, it's okay to be scared, but he's not courageous. He's not willing to say, you know what, this is risky, but I have to do the right thing. And Trump, at some level, knows what the right thing is. You know, he's able to talk about people, you know, his closing words to the UN talked about a big, beautiful world with peace, with prosperity, with a beautiful countries all over the planet everywhere.

where, you know, he has this ability to say, well, that would be good. Yeah, you're right. That would be good. So what are you doing about it? And what he's doing about it is nothing. He's being a coward. And also it's a shame because, you know, Charlie Kirk, I hate to bring it up, but, you know, Charlie Kirk is a young man, was a young man.

And he had expressed some fear about doing the right thing as he understood it to be. And he expressed some fear by other parties that wouldn't be happy if he did the right thing. And he was a young man with young children. There's a lot of reasons for a guy like Charlie in that situation to not take great risks. But there is no reason in the world for 79, 80-year-old guy who's at the top of every game he's ever played to be a coward. There's no place for that. So I don't understand why he is unable to learn because Trump is capable. of learning, but he seems incapable of dealing with the most obvious crime that's being done

that he is doing, he is assisting in this crime, and he seems unaware of it. Yeah, he's actually out of his mind to talk about a Nobel Peace Prize. And he continues to do that. Here's Brett Baer asking President Erdogan if he thinks the Ukraine war will end soon, Chris, number 16. Do you think the war end soon? I don't really believe that it will. And that's not a good thing for the world. It's not good news. And we're thinking about this in this manner is heavy on our hearts.

Just maddening that he won't do what he said he was going to do. He could stop the war in probably two weeks if he cut off a supply of military equipment, the Europeans don't have it. Soon we won't have it because we're giving so damn much of it away. Listen, I believe we're way over-militarized, but we obviously need some equipment in the case we are attacked or an attack is imminent, but giving it away to a fruitless, useless neocon cause, caused by him, caused by him giving away so much military equipment to Ukraine in his first term and caused by the government and its coup d'etat in 2014. I don't know.

You think he knows that? Do you think he knows the history of this? Do you think he knows that we started the war, not Vladimir Putin? I don't think he truly understands that. I think he did learn a little bit early on, and I think he learned a little bit from listening to Putin, explain things to. I'm not just in Alaska, but before that. So I think he was educated at that point, very late in the day. But again, Trump monetizes.

He feels like these wars are ways to increase capital. He doesn't understand the fundamentals that war of any type wastes capital. It destroys the machine that makes everything else wonderful. It is basically, you know, it's like gambling, you know. It might be fun for. a day, but you're not going to get that money back. And this is, he has a strange view of it. And I think it's because he has not studied American history. He's not interested in that. He doesn't understand the fundamental principles of how, you know, how humans work, how

governments work. He doesn't understand war. You know, he's never, he's never served. He doesn't have a lot of real military friends. He has, he has a few. But, He uses them for very niche type of input, like Flynn, right? He was friends with Flynn, but Flynn didn't advise him on other things. And, you know, McGregor, you have Colonel McGregor on this show all the time. He's wonderfully wise, full of excellent advice in a reasonable manner. Trump had him in the first term, but he refuses to be educated. Yeah, Trump never listened to Colonel McGregor.

If he did, McGregor would be the Secretary. of defense now. But then again, he wouldn't do all these things. But Trump says jump, Pete. Heggseth says, how high, sir? Not, are you sure you want to murder these people in a speedboat in the Caribbean? You sure you want me to do that? Whatever. Here's something else Trump didn't know. All of the uranium and plutonium that the United States buys from Russia. Cut number one. You've been calling on Europe to stop buying Russian oil. The U.S. has imported $755 million worth of Russian uranium and plutonium so far just this year. That's up from the Biden administration last year, about $100 million.

Can you ask Europe to cut off purchasing those kinds of products? Doug, do you know anything about that? Well, yeah, absolutely, but this goes back. Not only drill-baby drill, but we've got a mine, baby mine. We allowed ourselves to have fallen under dependence of both China and Russia for critical minerals. us, America buying uranium from Russia is not acceptable. And so we're working very hard, Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, myself, to make sure that we've got a plan so that the United States can get back into domestic and rich uranium production as quickly as possible.

Do you said that there's uranium in the United States? Where? Well, there's some in Virginia. In southern Virginia is a huge uranium mine. It's not even really being developed. And, of course, I think Wyoming. and some places out west we have it. Yeah, we have, we have uranium. But, you know, the future is probably going to be nuclear as far as clean energy goes. So, yeah, I can understand that. But, you know, Trump is such, Trump and his people around him, so do not understand economics. They understand moneymaking. They might, they understand monetization. But, you know, free trade is a good thing, right? I think Jefferson said that, didn't he? And all of our Greek

presidential free trade is a great thing. Both parties benefit. There is no sin in buying uranium or anything else from China or Russia or any other country. But their view, their worldview is so narrowly, I say, un-American in that respect. It's certainly that he supports an autarkic type of an economy. And that's never been, that's never been the American vision. So he's out of touch. He has no, no background. So you can't have this conversation with Trump because he doesn't know what the words mean. And he's not interested. So this is a shame. I think I feel sorry for the MAGA voters who really thought that he understood them and the kinds of things that they cared about making America great. There's nothing wrong with that. But you're not going to do it by

refusing to trade and engaging in and stimulating and lengthening wars that we ourselves are involved in. And the two that he hasn't ended are the two that we are still funding. So, you know. He could end them both the Israeli War. It could end with a phone call. The Ukrainian war would take a couple of weeks to wind it down. Look, there's still U.S. Intel showing the Ukrainians how to aim their weapons to kill Russian soldiers and there's still American military in Germany

doing the same thing. That he could stop. Oh, absolutely. Just like that. And he's probably as unaware of that as he was about who were buying uranium from. So it's a shame. It's a real shame. And, you know, he surrounded himself. He's very careful about loyalty is important to him. And that's not a bad thing. But he has surrounded himself by people who are equally unable to really grasp the importance of what's going on. And they're so far deep. They can't see the hypocrisy. I want a Nobel Peace Prize. I've ended all these wars. But the two that are killing everybody, you haven't done a thing about it. You're actually fueling those wars. And you won't even stop doing that. So I don't know. We thought we'd

get a strong president. You know, we thought, well, this president will go up against the military industrial complex. This president will stand up against some bad ideas that have been coming out of the State Department for like 25 years. But he hasn't done that. Connor Kortkowski, a pleasure, my dear friend. Your ideas are so crisp and clear and your thought process, so courageous. It's always a joy to be with you, Karen, going back to when we first met. Thank you for all your time. Absolutely. Thank you, Judge. Sure. We'll see you again soon. And coming up at 4 o'clock this afternoon on all of these topics, Scott Ritter, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.

Thank you.