Judging Freedom - [SPECIAL] Scott Ritter : Is Trump Unhinged?

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

[SPECIAL] Scott Ritter : Is Trump Unhinged?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com slash john. That's mintmobile.com slash john. Use your own phone with any mint mobile plan and bring your phone number along with all of your existing contacts. Up front payment of $45 required equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow about 35 gigabyte on unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for judging freedom. Today is Wednesday, August 6th, 2025. Scott Ritter joins us now. Scott, always a pleasure. My dear friend, thank you very much for accommodating my schedule. I know your own schedule is busy and I deeply appreciate it. You know that. I do want to talk to you about whether the President of the United States knows what he's doing in general in foreign policy. Our mutual friend, Colonel Karen Kutkowski,

referred to him as unhinged. But before we get there, are you aware of any public pushback against the statement made by General Christopher Donahue when he threatened a ground invasion of Kaliningrad? I'm not aware of any pushback by the Trump administration. And the reason why I believe there is, and I think Christopher Donahue was executing orders given to him to to posture as tough and self-confident. I think, you know, I have enough respect for General Donahue's resume, you know, former, you know, not just four-star general, this is a guy who was a Delta Force troop commander, Delta Force, Delta Force, and held senior J-Socq positions in addition to serving in Ranger a regiment, commanding a battalion, I believe,

You know, his resume is good. You don't get to do any of those jobs unless you're top-notch officer. So I believe that he's a top-notch officer. I believe he's a military professional. And I believe that he inherited a situation from General Kovoli, who told him, we have no capability. I mean, you know, Kavoli was honest enough to say that, you know, going into the war, the United States had no comprehension. on what high intensity, lethality was like.

And he said the level of destruction blew our minds and we're not prepared for that war. And we're not prepared for anything that's happening right now that's becoming even more lethal. There was a team of Ukrainian drone operators who were sort of taking number to the fact that people started to be critical of the Ukrainians. And these are guys who operated the drones

in the Procrosk front that were able to stop the Russian advance for a moment. And they came out, now they're not being able to stop it. And if they actually work, they die. And they came out and they told NATO straight up, if you fought in this war right now, all of you would be dead within a matter of days. NATO is incapable of surviving on this battle. Is the United States capable of doing what General O'Donohue boasted about? Not at all.

Not even close. One of the reasons why we're not is that what he was talking about can only exist in a vacuum. He spoke as if we're going to take out the A2AD bubble, which is area of denial. we're going to do that quicker than you can ever imagine. What he doesn't understand, or what he does understand, but what he didn't say is the first NATO ordinance that strikes Kaliningrad, Christopher Donahue and his command staff will be dead within an hour because they will have been targeted by Oreschenek and other systems, conventional or nuclear. Any base that launched anything against Kaliningrad will be taken out, not by systems in Kaliningrad, but by Russian system. Because to attack Kaliningrad is to attack Mother Russia, to attack the Russian homeland. And the Russians just won't put up with it. He left that out. But his job right now, having inherited a system that can't fight, and that's the other good news here is he knows he can't do what he's saying.

He knows that we don't have the guys to do what he's saying. Surrounded by NATO, that's funny because most of the Kaliningrad is surrounded by the Baltics. That ain't NATO. That's like they're claiming to be surrounded by NFL teams when you got, you know, you know, pee-wee football up north. And the best thing you got in the south is Poland, which is, you know, division four high school football. There's no NFL team going up against the Russians right now,

who are NFL Super Bowl champions. He knows this. And that's why there's no pushback because he didn't speak out of school. He's a responsible officer who was given a briefing and given a brief, and he said the brief. The Russians have pushed back, though, and they've said exactly what I said. He'd do this and he'll die. Well, so Secretary Hegseth, who I guess is the only person that could have ordered him to do that

or even the president, made him look ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how this White House functions. One would think that Heggseth would have been. But, you know, as the commander of NATO forces, you also have a state department entity, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have a play. It's not just a Pentagon controlled thing. You know, there's no national security advisor anymore.

it's dual-headed by with Marco Rubio we don't know where the instructions came from okay i actually think it came from the white house not the pentagon because i don't think pete had seth smart enough to um i was going to ask you if army generals can say and threaten anything they want but you're telling us that this was done on command he's probably too smart to have done this on his own and did it because it was ordered to he he couldn't have had the command positions he had if he was a renegade in a rogue agent. He can't speak in public like this unless his comments have been standing on

but through the White House through the JCS. So every word that he said there was staffed through some sort of system. And he was told to say that everything he said was approved. And it was done for a reason. Okay. Do you believe Moscow is confident that it will achieve its military objectives in Ukraine

in 2025? I don't think Moscow will put a calendar date on it. They're confident they will achieve their military objectives in Ukraine. You know, the one thing the Russians have refused to do is let the calendar drive their operations. They let the outcomes drive their operations. That's why, you know, Chassev Yard took so long to fall. It's because the Russians, you know, didn't say we needed to fall by victory day.

therefore, you know, keep sending the troops in. They basically said, oh, Chassev Yard, they've stiffened up here. Let's go to the flanks. Let's attack the logistics. Let's find the soft spots. Let's exploit those. And eventually they got the Ukrainians in the position where they had to withdraw, and the city fell.

That's happening to Pekrovsk right now. It's not that the Russians are saying, oh, we need Pekroosk going to fall by this state or that day because Donald Trump's putting pressure. That's not how the Russian military operates. Percosk will fall when Pekovov falls, and it will fall when the Russians create the conditions conducive to its fall. And then every city, Russia, targets after that, will fall when Russia creates the conditions conducive to that falling.

And that will happen as the battlefield gets shaped by Russian actions, not, you know, influenced by political artificialities that are driven by a calendar. I have listened to Russian generals that I respect, and they are confident that something meaningful is going to happen in the next two months, that you're going to see, you know, the kind of collapse that I've been predicting for months now. I'm going to stay hands off on this one and say that, you know, when it happens, it happens, but I'm not going to put a timeline on it. Right. Have you followed these reports about two British colonels and an MI6 agent seized by the Russian military in Ukraine? And if you have, it's a...

Is it false or is it worth considering? I've been following it. I've read the reports that come out of it. At this point in time, if I were asked, you know, do we take action on this? I would say no. That this appears to be, you know, a propaganda. to pull the the only thing i would say is that for instance a while ago the there was a report that an american general is killed in mariople and you know they are captured and um you know a lot of people

were running with it they even put out a photograph they said looked like the general but all i did is i went and google the the general schedule and he was you know in italy uh you know attending a conference and there he was and i went well he ain't dead uh he ain't captured Um, you know, these are named individuals. And, you know, the fact that people haven't located them, they're not covert operatives. The MI6 guy, of course, is, you know, covert operative. But these are named individuals. Um, and nobody's come up and provided the, you know, the counter native saying, nah, the colonel's actually on vacation from general staff college or, you know, no, he, he showed up at work the other day here. Um, and so, the, you know, the, you know, he, he showed up at work the other day here. Um, and so,

That raises some eyebrows. I don't want to be totally dismissive of it. I appreciate your intellectual honesty. As always, I thought maybe you had some sources on it because I have sources saying it's true, and yet there are sources saying it's exaggerated and it's not true. It was AI crafted. Before I ask you more about President Trump, the New Republic reveals a new Heg-Seth leak.

and the Hegeseth leak is a position paper prepared by his brother, which states that the Defense Department plans to have troops on the streets of the United States for the remainder of the Trump presidency. How do American troops feel? Maybe you don't know, because I don't think this ever happened when you were an active-duty Marine. How do American troops feel about being used for ordinary law enforcement as they were in Los Angeles until a federal judge put a stop to it and the appellate court upheld it? Well, I was on active duty when the Roddy King situation went down in L.A.

And Marines were mobilized to come in and assist that. And I can't speak for all Marines, but I will tell you that the Marine Corps as a whole, we obey the lawful orders given to us. by our command authority, but no Marine was happy about wearing a uniform and carrying weapon on American soil facing off against Americans, even though ostensibly the purpose was to bring about law and order. No Marine wants to be that. I was also on active duty when American Marines were on the order in Del Rio, Texas, and they shot and killed a teenager who was herding up goats because he was out there plinking with his 22 rifle, and he shot at the camouflage position, and the Marines believed they were taking effective fire.

and they shot and they killed him. It was a horrible day for the Marine Corps. We're not here in the business of killing American citizens. We're not here in the business of patrolling American streets. That's a law enforcement issue. It's also a constitutional issue. I can also say that if you go take a look at, you know, and you remember when the White House was sort of under siege

and the president made that famous walk across the lawn to the church where he held the Bible upside down, the American soldiers that were mobilized for that event, were confused. They didn't know what their lawful orders were. They weren't briefed properly. You can't account for 100% of the people. There are always bad apples in every cart.

And there's people out there who are just looking for violence and looking for any excuse to commit violence. And that's why you need good leadership to hold them to account and hold them in check. But the vast majority of American service members that I've experienced both while on active duty and talking to them afterwards do not want to be part of American law enforcement. They do not want to be deployed on the soil of the United States

facing off against American citizens. That's not why they joined the military. Breaking news, to some extent, President Trump on his truth social, this is just a few minutes ago, wrote, my special envoy Steve Whitkoff just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made. Afterwards, I updated some of our European allies. Everyone agrees this war must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I don't know, probably Trump boasting. The war is not going to come to a conclusion. Correct me if I'm wrong until the Russian objectives stated clearly, crisply, and consistently from the outset are achieved.

Vladimir Putin made this easy yesterday before Whitkoff showed up. He did a presentation in Russia, and he said, look, we can have a ceasefire right now if Ukraine commits to two things. They have to withdraw from Russian territory. That means all of Kersan, all of Zaporizia, all of Dernetsk, all of Lugansk. And they have to commit that they will never join NATO. This will get them a ceasefire right now as we speak. And then we can move on to negotiating the nuances associated with bringing about conflict termination. But if you will get them a ceasefire right now, as we speak, but if you want people to stop dying, it can happen instantaneously. Anything less than that, Russia will continue to wage this war until it has liberated the

totality of its territory. I can guarantee you, having made that statement before Whitkoff showed up, Putin reinforced that statement. And it's not going to change. It's not going to change at all. And I think you'll find once the ceasefire takes place, you know, Trump may have, you know, gotten something he didn't. one because the other Russian objectives aren't going to change out. Just because there's a ceasefire

doesn't mean that Russia is not going to insist on demilitarization. I just wonder if Donald Trump understands what President Putin said and what you just so nicely articulated. Who knows what Whitkoff told him that prompted him to write this thing? This is very optimistic, but I don't think it's realistic. Well, the Russians, they've never closed a door in diplomacy. And the Russians, you know, they're very honest about, you know, what they will do. And when they say they're going to do something, they're going to do it. And the consistency in their argument over time has even brought about begrudging respect by Donald Trump, who says they're tough guys. You know, they're stubborn people. The Russians have been.

never once yielded to any of the pressure put on earth threats made by Donald Trump. And I think Trump recognizes this in the most simplistic war. What he needed to hear was that there's a path forward. And I think what Whitkoff said is that we can get a ceasefire now. And that's all Trump cares about. I mean, Judge, I don't mean to be disrespectful here, but the president doesn't care about Ukrainian lives. He doesn't care about Russian lives. He doesn't care about the national security of the United States. He doesn't care about Europe, NATO, or any of that. He cares about

getting a Nobel Peace Prize. That's it. Listen to the statement he made the other day. I have stopped five wars. The sixth form I'm about to stop. And then he always says, I'm the guy for the Nobel people. He bribes the Cambodians to nominate him. This is all he wants. It comes down to this. This is the supreme narcissist. And because he wants to be seen as the man who brought and into the war. I think the president has heard from Whitkoff a scenario where the war can be brought to an end. Now the president needs to put pressure on Ukraine to accept a result that is inevitable. I mean, this war ends when the United States sits down with the Ukrainians and say, you're going to lose all that territory. There's nothing we can do to help you. You're going to lose

it all. But this is not Joe Biden's war anymore, and the president is sending military equipment they're at the same rate at which Joe Biden was. Donald Trump has become a neocon. Yeah. Well, it becomes a narcissistic neocon, which means he puts his own narcissism ahead of neocon principles and ideologies, which I don't think he can even articulate. The problem is he surrounded himself with neocons. And so he's getting just horrible advice, horrible advice. You know, the United States needs to find a way to get a team B assembled, trained up, and brought before this president to show him alternatives. Whitkoff is a breath of fresh air. But again, it's very difficult for Whitkoff to have any credibility left because as a negotiator, remember, he was

undermined by the president in the Iranian negotiation, where he was telling the Iranians that there was going to be a fifth round of negotiations, we're moving forward. And then Israel bombed them with America's blessing. So from the Russian perspective, you know, they got to take Steve Whitkoff with a grain of salt. But I do believe that the Russians are very honest and very sincere about having a ceasefire as long as they get all of their territories. And if the if the president can't guarantee that, if Ukraine's unwilling to do it, then this war doesn't stop. And I think that's the point that Putin made to Whitcock. This war doesn't stop unless these conditions are met. But look at the simplicity of the conditions. There's only two things now. Get rid of the, get out of the

territory and no NATO. Now you have a ceasefire. As opposed to, if you remember, the Russians were saying, And there's no reason why we can have a ceasefire until all the root causes of this conflict are addressed. This is a major shift on the part of the Russians. Correct. They've taken 25 moving parts, and now they have two moving parts to get the ceasefire. That's why I think Trump's excited. So I want to play for you a clip from the great Alexander Dugan, Professor Redugan, who wrote a book. He gave me a copy in the autograph.

And unfortunately, I didn't realize that the copy he gave me it's in Russian, so I can't read it. However, it is quite laudatory of what he expected of Donald Trump at the outset of the Trump administration. I spent a lot of time with him. You know him, you met him, and I spent a lot of time when I was with him in Moscow. He's a brilliant philosopher. He's known as Putin's brain. He has changed his mind on Donald Trump and now says Trump has become a neocon. Chris, cut number 12.

Trump has abandoned his MAGA strategy. for the time being. I don't know if there are still any elements of that strategy left in him or not. It seems like there aren't any at all. He's simply taken the position of classic neo-conservatives and gone back to what Biden was doing. That is, unconditional support for the Nazi junta. The drive to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia

and apply pressure by all means, including the threat of a direct nuclear conflict with Moscow. It's like Scott Ritter, including the threat of a direct nuclear conflict with Moscow. What do you think? Well, first of all, I think that came back to bite the president in the butt. This president, we've had this conversation for about the irresponsibility of directing the movement

of a high class submarines through central media posting. look how quickly the president backed away from this because I think he was read the riot act by people who are supposed to read him the riot act and not Heggseth because Hexeth is just a bootlicker but the Joint Chiefs of Staff not raising Kane because he's a bootlicker but the rest of the generals who got bypassed by Kane came to Kane and said

no this isn't how it works they had a strategic command this isn't how it works this can't happen and the president backed away. And then the other thing that happened is the Russians now have done a repeat of the deployment of the SS20 missile in the 1970s. When the Russians first field of the SS20 Roadmobile intermediate nuclear missile, intermediate range nuclear missile back in the late 1970s, they totally fundamentally altered the balance of power in Europe and created a crisis that resulted in the United States being compelled to deploy its own INF systems.

But even then, the Russians had the event. The Ereschnik is a game changer in every way, shape, and form. It's now in serial production, and the Russians are now deploying it. They've said we're no longer held by the moratorium that's been this deployment. The Russians have, overnight, changed the entire strategic calculus in Europe, and even the president who is simplistic. This is not a hard thing for him to understand. and I do believe that he is being briefed on the consequences of this.

Remember, he's the one who pulled out of the INF Treaty to begin with. He created this problem, but this is also a new calculation. So I think what's happening is the president hopefully is waking up to the fact that he's just getting bad advice from people. And maybe he'll start asking questions. And those questions will lead to him seeking solutions from other people. Maybe Whitkoff's star will rise. Whitkoff is ably assisted here. He has Kirill Dmitriev, who is a brilliant, you know, banker investor with experience here in the United States and some of the big banks. He knows the American economy inside and out. And he's very optimistic about the potential of good relations between Russia and the United States that are economically viable music to the president's ears. So you notice that Mr. Dugan said, for the moment, has lost to him. Correct. Correct.

I believe that this president can be brought back to the principles. And this is, again, until we know the details, but I do believe that Vladimir Putin has delivered in typical fashion, diplomatic genius, because he's advised from some of the sharpest minds out there, you know, Lavrov, who you've met, and others. And I believe that he has put something on the table that has been specifically crafted to solve the political problems of this president. And if this president can find in his gut the intellectual and moral courage to move on this and act on this, I do think that the guns can fall silent soon. But the key is the Ukrainians have to evacuate these territories. Without that, there is no ceasefire. Just for a moment of levity for a moment.

What is a boot licker? That's the proper nice way of saying ass kisser. but I didn't want to a boot lick or somebody's going to spit shine your boots for you by licking them. Normally in the military, if I'm going to spit shine my boot,

back in the day, because today they issue these brown side out boots that you brush, but you just get issued these black leather boots, and you had to spend on godly hours shining those babies up. With spit. And somebody was going to get down there

and lick the boot for you, you know. Okay. I thought that That's what it was, but somebody suggested I should ask you that one last time. Why did, we know that Trump was reckless and now was backed off on the movement of the two Ohio class submarines. Did he also send nuclear warheads to Great Britain in the past two weeks? I mean, that's the story that he has, that we've deployed B61, 12 gravity bombs, nuclear gravity bombs to England for the first time in, in some time. You know, it's a, it's an interesting story because then the question is under what authority are these part of the NATO deterrent?

We already have 100 plus gravity, B61 gravity bombs deployed in five locations throughout NATO in Turkey, in Belgium, in Belgium, and, Italy and Netherlands, you know, is this new deployment as part of the NATO nuclear deterrence or is this a bilateral nuclear arrangement with the British that falls outside of the NATO nuclear deterrence, which would be very worrisome because then it implies for deploying bombs that could be loaded on the B-2s and used in a preemptive strike. And you combine that potential of a preemptive strike with pushing Ohio-class submarines closer to Russian ships. And you've just created an inherently dangerous situation that there's a spinning wheel i think back now um i want to remind people that um

what was i going to remind them before the internet went dead i don't know so i can't remind them i'm sorry okay okay one last subject matter before we go and I know you've been on a role here. Netanyahu's threats to occupy Gaza, is he now desperate? 100% active desperation. First of all, as he issued that statement, did you see, Judge, 600 former Israeli intelligence, military intelligence, Mossad, Shibet.

We're talking about the cream of the crop. It's not six. It's not 50. It's not 51. It's 600 came out and said that this, the Gaza policy is a disaster. And that is the consensus. That means there is an absolute consensus amongst the professional as Israel that this ain't going to happen. So Netanyahu saying this is not going to translate in the Israelis doing this.

It's just, it's an act of political posturing by a man who is increasingly finding himself boxed in by reality, both in terms of his own legal. domestic legal problems, which Donald Trump's social media postings can't undo. And the fact that Hamas is just kicking the crap out of the Israelis on a daily basis. The Israelis are taking casualties and are not achieving, you know, discernible outcomes. And Israel's reputation around the world is collapsing, the starvation of children, the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians seeking the food as they're being starved. This is, the world is turning on it. Or you got Europe right now just lining up, to recognize a Palestinian state unheard of. And so, you know, Netanyahu, you know, the only thing he knows is to counterattack

and he's threatening something that he won't be able to implement. Scott, thank you very much, my dear friend, from boot liquor to sophisticated diplomatic analysis. You're at the top of your game, man. I know you're having a busy day, and I appreciate you taking this time for us. We'll look forward to seeing you again next week. All the best, my friend. Thank you. Of course. And coming up later today on all of this, at 2 o'clock, Max Blumenthal, who does have a lot of insight for us on the desperation of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

And at 3 o'clock, Phil Giraldi, who has insight for us on the desperation of Donald Trump. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.