Judging Freedom - Scott Ritter: Why Trump Exploded.

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

Scott Ritter: Why Trump Exploded.See 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 Monday, March 3rd, 2025. Scott Ritter is here with us on why Trump exploded on Friday in the Oval Office. 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.

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Before we get to your views on why Trump exploded and the likely ramifications of this and what led to it. Yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced after a cabinet meeting that the Israeli government would block the introduction of food, water, and medicine into the Gaza Strip, and contravention of the ceasefire, and in contravention of all international norms. And then, just a few minutes before we went on air, Haaretz reports that under pressure from the Trump administration, he has relented. So my first question is, what do you know from your sources about this? And where do you think all this is going? to, met with Netanyahu and told him to sit down and shut up and listen. Then he read him the Rite of Act and he said, there will be a ceasefire because President Trump's agenda is agenda of peace, not war. And we know what your track record is. The president hinted at it by retweeting

Jeffrey Sachs' condemnation of Netanyahu. Look, I know there's a lot of people out there that are unhappy with Trump. He sent billions of dollars of weapons. He did this, he did that, he did this, he did that, he did this, he surrounded himself with this, that, and the other thing. Um, until you can demonstrate that Trump is not advocating for peace, but in fact, secretly advocating for war, I don't care. That's all fluff. Um, Trump knows, I'm just going to state the straight up facts. If Israel continues to fight with the Palestinians in Gaza, the United States will not be able to extricate itself from the Middle East. It will be stuck there for another 20 to 30 years, spending trillions of

dollars of American taxpayers' money supporting wars that will never end. That's the exact opposite trajectory that Trump has said he wants to go on. It's also one that could lead to a war between the United States and Iran, which would be devastating to the economy that Trump's trying to build. So for all the people out there whispering that this is some secret Zionist agenda for war that Trump has sold out to Netanyahu, I'd just say sit down and shut up. Because the fact of the matter is Trump isn't looking for a war. Trump is looking for the opposite of a conflict. He's looking for a resolution to this conflict. And the proof is every time Netanyahu flexes his stupid little pathetic old atrophied muscles, he's told to sit down and shut up by Steve Witkoff, by Donald Trump, because Trump's not

looking for war. And I'll hold on to that position until which time we find ourselves in a war, and hopefully that never happens. But Netanyahu, of course, is looking for war. I mean, he foolishly made this announcement about cutting off food, water, and medicines at the cusp of Ramadan and two days before the Arab League is meeting in March 4. What do you expect them to be talking about tomorrow? The Arab League? Yeah. Talking about how foolish Netanyahu is, but hopefully talking about how weak they've been and how ineffective they've been and what role

they could possibly play to prevent this conflict that we all fear from happening. The Arab League is part of the problem, and they haven't been part of the solution. And so it's up to the Arab League to breathe life into the counterproposal that we have spoken about. Remember when Trump put out his insane plan to put 100,000 American troops on the ground in Gaza, forcefully evicted the Gazan population, and I said from the start, that's not real. What he's looking for is the counterproposal. And the counterproposal has come out, but now it needs to be fleshed out. And it needs to be fleshed out with money and political support from the Arab League. And hopefully that's what they'll be talking about, how to make this counterproposal a reality. Do you think that war is on the horizon in the Middle East the way

Colonel McGregor does? No. I mean, I respect Colonel McGregor and I think it's always important to keep in the back of your mind what the possibilities are, but I will just lead off again. Donald J. Trump has said he wants peace in the Middle East. Why don't we believe him? Why don't we trust him? Why, for instance, do we all jump on and say, we believe that he's looking for peace with Russia, but when it comes to the Middle East, it's all a facade. It's all a big game. He's a secret working with the Zionists to secretly do this and that. And the other thing, there's nothing secretive about Donald Trump. He's in your face and he's been in all of our face about wanting peace in the Middle East.

So as long as the president of the United States, who is the commander in chief, continues to articulate that he wants peace and continues to put pressure on Netanyahu in a humiliating fashion. No one's talking about the fact that Netanyahu backed down. How does that look? He's a tough guy. Why do you think Trump sent Moabs and 1,800 2,000 pound bombs to Netanyahu if he doesn't want him to use them? I think what you do is you mollify the Israelis by saying, you know, peace through strength. So here's your strength. But now we're going to seek peace. It's more difficult to get the Israelis to buy into taking a risk, taking a gamble if

they feel weak. But if the Israelis look in their arsenal and say, OK, we got some bombs now, we've replenished our stockpile. So if there was a need to go to war, we feel comfortable, we'd be able to do it. Therefore, we can take the risk to go down this path towards peace. I think that's what's happening here. It's basically the living manifestation of peace, you know, peace and strength. Does Trump's vision of peace constitute a Palestinian state? Because Netanyahu wants to eradicate the Palestinians totally and completely and inexorably. My advice to everybody who speaks about Israel going forward to understand that Netanyahu is a finite enterprise. He will not be forever.

He is not forever. He's highly unpopular in Israel right now. He's under trial for corruption, and there's several other trials waiting for it. He's dead man walking. He's holding on to political relevance right now by doing what he can with the levers of power that are available to him. But I think the reality is that Netanyahu isn't going to be the leader of Israel much longer. And when Netanyahu goes, Israel will have to reconfigure itself. It will be with a different political coalition that won't have the right-wing, hard right-wing, you know, policies that Netanyahu has put forward. I think the reality is there's going to be a Palestinian state. It's going to be a much diminished Palestinian state, one that, you know, to the

extent the West Bank is incorporated into it, it will be a West Bank of a smaller scope and scale. It'll be a Palestinian state that will be, I think, focused on a rebuilt Gaza and, you know, things of that nature. But I do think there will be a Palestinian state. I just don't think it's going to be something that the current supporters of Palestine, myself included, would like to see. I would like to see a genuine Palestinian state, not one that has been diminished by Israel. But the fact of the matter is I think Donald Trump recognizes that in order for there to be a lasting peace, there must be something, an entity physically called Palestine. And I think that he is positioning himself so that its center of gravity will be in Gaza and not in the West Bank. west bank well that would be truly remarkable truly remarkable utterly laudatory and worthy of the of the nobel peace prize because uh the israelis want to mow the grass that's the

demeaning term that they use when they want to slaughter kill uh or otherwise expel all the uh palestinians that there's something going on in Israel, right, Judge? I think everybody needs to pick up on. Sure. The truth-telling is starting to happen. I don't know if you remember when October 7th came around, the first thing I said is this is one of the most remarkable military raids in modern history, and that Hamas has achieved a tremendous victory

over the Israeli army. You did say that. You said it right here. Straight up. And that's because I'm a military analyst who actually knows what the hell he's talking about. But the political winds were not receptive to that message, and I was lambasted, attacked, whatever. Well, gosh, guys, the Israeli Defense Force has done its first initial take on October 7th. Let's see what their conclusion is. Hamas strategically defeated Israel. The Gaza division was defeated tactically, operationally, and strategically. In short, Hamas beat Israel, that this was a tremendously

effective military operation by Hamas, and they defeated the Israeli army in a stand-up fight. So the reason why I bring this up isn't just to pat myself on the back, although I'll take it. I brought it up because Israel's in the midst of examining the fundamental flaws in how it was governed, the approaches that were taken. this has to happen this is the first step that has to happen for israel to realize that they cannot continue to do business as usual this is the beginning of the deconstruction of the right-wing coalition that benjamin netanyahu has built the coalition that is steadfast against a two-state solution. And I think once you dismantle this coalition, once the Israelis realign to a pragmatic reality-based posture, the possibility of a

Palestine centered on Gaza becomes more and more likely. Why did Trump explode in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon? It was going to happen no matter what. I mean, this was a setup from the beginning. Zelensky has been sabotaging a policy that the president views in existential terms. I don't know how many times the president has to say, we're talking about World War III, we're talking about nuclear weapons, we're talking about the end of all life. So this isn't a game that he's playing. He realizes the stakes that are involved and he's trying to do. And I also want to bring up to everybody just to remind them that the European Union, NATO, Ukraine conspired, actively conspired with the Biden administration in the lead up to the 2024

election in November to put their thumb on the scale of the election to get the American people to vote against Donald Trump. Zelensky was the political enemy of Trump. J.D. Vance brought this up in the meeting. And I, again, as I have to say, the fact that J.D. Vance spoke and the words that he spoke was not a spontaneous moment. This was a rehearsed moment. He was, you know, like in the WWF tag team wrestling. He was waiting and Donald Trump went, tag, you're in. Boom, came in. Bam, down goes Zelensky.

This was preplanned because Zelensky is the enemy. He's the enemy of peace. Europe is the enemy. NATO is the enemy of peace. Europe is the enemy. NATO is the enemy. Trump knows all of this. Now, you have to be careful how you go about doing this. But this was ever since Donald Trump, ever since Steve Witkoff came back from Moscow, where he had a remarkable meeting on February 11th and 12th with Vladimir Putin and a guy named Kirill Dmitriev, the economist behind the Russian economic revival and the man who has put, you know, James Carville's words, it's the economy stupid and brought him back into, you know, political relevance here in the United States,

where the focus is on the economy, not on military solutions. You know, Trump had this phone call with Putin and that phone call changed everything because that phone call injected reality into this discussion. And then Pete Hegseth went off to NATO and J.D. Vance went off to Munich and their job was to be disruptive. And they did it. They threw little grenades into these rooms and got Europe in a panic, spinning amongst itself. That's what you do because this is, you know, political maneuver warfare, the OODA loop writ large. Your job is to get them to react to you and continue that cycle of action reaction until you shoot them down and then destroy them. And what we saw in the White House was the culminating moments of maneuver, political

maneuver warfare that was taking place that started in NATO, started in Munich and finished with Zelensky sitting in the White House, getting the knockout blow delivered. Zelensky will not recover from this. I think today there's going to be a meeting where some strategic decisions are made. Europe right now, and they went through the motions of rallying around Zelensky, but the reality is setting in. He is the problem. And they're saying that you must go back and you must beg forgiveness from the White House. I don't think the White House is in the business of receiving that begging plea. And they're not in the business of forgiving. They're in the business of winning.

And they're going to win by destroying Zelensky. I think Zelensky is on the way out. And by crushing the European Union and crushing NATO. All resistance. All these are the people that conspired together after Trump won the election to Trump-proof American policy. I'll say it again, to Trump-proof American policy. He is going to be the president, and these people conspired to come up with policies designed to shackle him, prevent him from doing his job as the commander-in-chief. Do you think Donald Trump forgets this or will forgive this? No, no, no, no, no. Donald Trump is in the midst of a revolution, a domestic revolution that we've seen manifested, the takedown of USAID, National Endowment for Democracy and others, and a foreign policy revolution where he's redefining our relationships, where we will no longer be held captive by entities such as the European Union and NATO that openly conspire

against the sitting president of the United States of America. That is intolerable and it won't be tolerated going forward. Here's somebody who did not learn the lesson that you just so nicely articulated. Secure Starmer yesterday in London. So on Saturday, met with Zelensky. On Sunday, met with Zelensky and other leaders of the European Union and here's what he said after the meeting cut number one our starting point must be to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position now so that they can negotiate from a position of strength and we are doubling down in our support yesterday evening the UK signed a 22.2 billion loan to provide more military aid to Ukraine, backed not by the British taxpayer, but by the profits from

frozen Russian assets. And today I'm announcing a new deal which allows Ukraine to use 1.6 billion pounds of UK export finance to buy more than 5 000 air defense missiles which will be made in Belfast creating jobs in our brilliant defense sector this will be vital for protecting critical infrastructure now and strengthen Ukraine in securing the peace when it comes. Will there be a Ukraine military left by the time those missiles are constructed? That is laughable. It's a comedy. First of all, if those plans go through, those missiles don't become built until 2030. Last time I looked at the calendar, that's like six years or five years from now. So, no, this is stupidity in the extreme.

You know, there's other things. Starmer also stuttered around saying that, you know, the UK is ready to back up the security of Ukraine with boots on the ground and planes in the air. But then he turned around and said, but we have to be backed up by the United States, which means it isn't going to happen because we're not going to back that up. France immediately ran away from that. So did Poland. So did everybody else. Starmer is sitting there alone. You know, you mentioned Starmer meeting with Zelensky on Saturday.

Let's talk about the meeting that Starmer had with Trump right prior to that, where Trump embarrassed him, humiliated him, not once, but twice. The first time when he interrupted him and said, you think you can beat the Russians by yourself? And the entire press room laughed because the UK is a joke, a literal joke. And then later on, when Starmer tried to intercede on behalf of Canada, Trump just shut him. I said, that's enough. That's enough. Shut up. You're done. And shut him up right there on the spot. Starmer's a nobody, a nothing. And he knows it. I mean, this is just political posturing that's taking place here. I'll put something else that Starmer

didn't mention. You know, the British signed this deal, a $100 billion deal or something with the Ukrainians about the minerals, you know, the same ones that Trump won the kind of deal for. You're probably asking yourself, how can the Ukrainians sign two deals? They can't. I will make this prediction. When this is all said and done, the British deal will be canceled in totality. And whatever is the Ukrainian government will sign a mineral deal with the United States with Donald Trump. The British are a joke right now. They're actively trying to

sabotage everything Donald Trump's trying to do. And Donald Trump is a counter puncher. He's also a man with thin skin and he's very vindictive. I mean, that's not necessarily the best of traits, but when you know those traits exist, why insult the man knowing that he's going to counterpunch and come at you personally? This is personal for Donald Trump. He will humiliate Starmer by the time this is finished. And if Macron's not careful, he'll humiliate him as well. This is why you see Giorgio Melani, the Italian prime minister, and Tusk over in Poland, both backing away saying, whoa, we think we want to praise Donald Trump. They're taking a page out of President Putin's book. What was the first thing that Putin did when Trump got

elected? He didn't pay attention to the idiocy coming from Kellogg or the stupidity coming from Trump himself. He said, Donald Trump is a great man, a brave man, a man who withstood fire, who stood the test. He said nothing but positive things about Trump. And that plays well to Trump. I mean, that means that Trump is like, I'm willing to listen to this guy, to talk to this guy. But when you come out, as Starmer has done, saying that Donald Trump is a stupid man, an idiot who Europe must actively conspire against, Trump doesn't forget this. He has a memory like an elephant, and he will not forget and he will not forgive. Europe is doomed, NATO is nothing. Without the United States, there is no security guarantee that they can credibly offer to Zelensky. No matter what Starmer says in public, no matter what Macron says in public, oh, Scott, and no matter what the king whispers to Zelensky.

Yeah, the king. Good luck with that one. I mean, I can't speak for Donald Trump, and I would never try to, but if you think he's going to take the invitation and go see the king after the king saw Zelensky, again, Starmer blew it. Just bad stuff all around. What I do know is that the British, the French, and everybody else were talking very big when they assembled this emergency summit about the need for an independent European security and military, da, da, da, da, da, da. And when they left, they're all going, we got to really sort of work harder to make NATO. We have

to pay our fair share. So the United States sticks with NATO. We don't want the United States to leave NATO. We need to work with America because the reality is once they all sat down there and, you know, and the cameras are off, they all turn around and went, y'all got a plan? I don't know. What happens if America leaves? We can't let America leave. America pays for this whole thing. We can't function without America. And then if we really irritate them, they'll shut our economy down. What happens is they put sanctions on us. Shut up, Ursula. You don't get to say a word because every time she opens her mouth, she says, we're going to counter-sanction. Really? Europe is going to counter-sanction us. That isn't going to happen. So they're all in a panic right now. They're desperate to keep the

United States in, but they've committed so much political capital to this Ukraine fiasco. But the hilarious part now is having them all say, you got to go back and apologize. You got to go back and apologize. And again, if I'm advising Donald Trump, I'll say, you do know that that's just superficial. That Zelensky, you know, if you're going to make Zelensky apologize, Mr. President, when he comes out of the car, he has to get on his knees. You strip him down into just white shrouds and he has to crawl on his knees, licking the floor up to your boots and then lick them. And then he can beg for forgiveness. And if you want to give it to him, but anything less than that, he's just playing you. It's just a, it's just a stupidity of him saying, oh, I'm sorry. Now, is his life in danger in Ukraine? If he even whispers the idea of a ceasefire,

he's a dead man walking. He's going to die no matter what. I mean, he shouldn't go back to Ukraine because he's in a lot of trouble right now. Arestovich, his former advisor, has now thrown his hat into the presidential ring. He says the first thing he will do is arrest Zelensky and everybody else. And that doesn't mean life prison. That means up against the wall shot kind of stuff. But he won't even get a chance because the right sector, Azov, Kraken, these Nazis that everybody in the United States wants to pretend don't exist. They're there. People tend to forget that in 2019, the Nazis went into Zelensky's office and said, if you

dare sign off on the Minsk Accords, we will take you out and we'll hang you from the neck until dead. He was the sitting president of Ukraine. And the right sector came in and said, we will take you out of the office right now, kill your bodyguards and because this is a man who ran on the promise of stopping war. I will get on my knees and beg Vladimir Putin to end this war, he said, if you vote for me. And they voted for him. And shortly thereafter, he held a war council in 2019, where he said, we will send our army into the Donbass, and we will defeat the Russians, and we will evict the Russians from the Donbass. He wanted a war in 2019. He was articulating a war in 2019.

And he is to blame for the war today. I can't resist because you said you almost want to feel sorry for Zelensky. That's the human side of you. Do you almost want to feel sorry for Netanyahu? No, he ordered the death of the man that I felt could save, just so people understand. I was a huge believer in Yitzhak Rabin. And when I first started my work in Israel as a UN weapons inspector, it was with the Rabin government who had the courage to back away from their stated policy of assassinating Saddam Hussein and to take this risk with the United Nations, a major policy

risk to say, we will work with the UN to disarm Iraq, to eliminate this threat so that we don't have to assassinate Saddam and go to war. This was an act of courage by a very brave man named Yitzhak who had been backed up by some other brave men, Yuri Sege, who was the director of military intelligence and others. And I was all in with that government. And Benjamin Netanyahu facilitated the assassination of this man. Benjamin Netanyahu is the most evil man on the planet. I don't feel sorry for him. And I know he's going to rot in hell when he dies. I only hope that his last days on earth are hellish too. Scott Ritter, thank you, my man. Everybody loves it when you're passionate, not least of

whom is your humble inquisitor. But thank you very much. All the best. I hope we can see you again next week. Okay, thank you. Yes. Coming up, remaining today at 4.30, the always worth waiting for on all of these topics, Max Blumenthal, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.