The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: After Trump-Putin Summit, Where Does War Go From Here?

Starting point is 00:00:00 At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today.

Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk. Business. Trump met Vladimir Putin and Anchorage, Alaska last week. Remember the last time American diplomats to the Biden administration met with the Chinese, Jake Sullivan, and Anthony Blinken, they were humiliated and nothing came of it. Trump thought he could get a ceasefire. It was an outreach not to Zelensky or Ukraine or the Europe, but to America. They think Donald Trump is a strong leader, but also he is more malleable about seeking a peace settlement

Starting point is 00:00:58 rather than whatever it takes attitude of the Biden administration, so he can appeal to Donald Trump to put an end to it on Russian terms. And if there is a peace settlement, it will be the work, whether the left likes it or not, of Donald Trump, the one world leader among the three that has nothing to do with this war. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska last week for the much anticipated summit, I guess we would call it.

Starting point is 00:01:43 Anchorage in Anchorage, Alaska. Remember the last time American diplomats of a high-ranking, Jake Sullivan and Anthony Blinken, the respective Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to the Biden administration, met with the Chinese. They were humiliated, and nothing came up. Trump thought he could get a ceasefire. After three hours, both Trump and Putin came out to give statements to the press. There was no question and answer.

Starting point is 00:02:10 Putin gave a long harangue. How would you characterize it? It was mostly a recital of Russian grievances and the need to be friendlier to America. It was an outreach not to Zelensky or Ukraine or the Europe, but to America. And it was in line with Russian strategy that they think. think Donald Trump is a strong leader, but also he is more forgiving or at least more malleable about seeking a peace settlement rather than whatever it takes, attitude of the Biden administration. And he also believes that the Europeans are tired after three and a half years that Ukraine is

Starting point is 00:02:54 exhausted, and so he can appeal to Donald Trump to put an end to it on Russian terms. What are the terms? Well, Trump didn't outline them in his portion of the post-summit report to the media and to the world. He wasn't depressed. He didn't say, we should have had a ceasefire. He just said that there were a lot of elements that were more or less concluded successfully between Putin and Trump. But more importantly, for the big sticking points, he would have to talk to the Europeans, as was noted. and President Zelensky.

Starting point is 00:03:32 And we know what the outlines are, don't we? We've talked about them. Ukraine will not be a NATO. They don't have the military wherewithal. They have the moral edge and the moral right, but they don't have the military wherewithal, nor does Europe and the United States want to go to that link to give it to them against nuclear Russia

Starting point is 00:03:54 to reclaim the Donbass, all of the Donbass are Crimea. So what the sticking point is, right now these two armies are locked inside the Donbass, basically 50 to 100 miles on an undulating line from the Russian borders. And there could be a DMZ like the one in Korea. And then that could be the basis for a permanent border. But the problem is that Putin has not got the entire Donbass and the regions around it. it and the Ukrainians are stiffening. Both sides are worn out. There's been a million and a half

Starting point is 00:04:32 casualties that wounded, dead, missing captive, but Russia has greater reserves than does Ukraine. So there's a desire on both sides to have a armist. The sticking points is that the Constitution does not allow Zelensky without an assent from his parliament to give away land to a foreign interloper and Putin does not think at this point he has ground down the Ukrainians enough or acquired enough of their eastern territory to justify the full-hardy invasion that's cost probably a million Russians but here's what I want to get to very quickly there's a lot of criticism of Donald Trump because he didn't blast Trump he didn't blast excuse me he didn't blast Vladimir Putin I don't quite understand that.

Starting point is 00:05:24 Just remember that during World War II, Joseph Stalin had killed 20 million of his own people. He had invaded Free Poland, along with Nazi Germany. He had attacked Free Finland in 1939, 40, and annexed 10% of it. He had helped Germany from September 1st, 1939, to June 22nd, 1941. He was our enemy. And then suddenly, and only when Germany turned on him, did he come to us? And we accepted that alliance on the principle that he was useful. And we gave billions of dollars in aid.

Starting point is 00:05:59 30% of the wherewithal Stalin came from the British Empire of the United States government. So, you know, FDR met with him at Yalta. He even called him Uncle Joe. This is a man who killed 20 million of his own people. In 1972, Richard Nixon went to China. And he tried to have a reboot of the strategic global order. and play off Russia against China to the self-interest of the United States. But the point was he sat down with the greatest mass murder in history.

Starting point is 00:06:31 Mousa Deng, who was responsible for 70 million people dead, was Donald Trump not to meet with Putin? Or was when he to meet with him, was he to employ the vocabulary of Joe Biden? You're a murderer. You're a thug. You're a criminal, as Biden said of him. And we're going to do whatever it takes.

Starting point is 00:06:50 Does he have support for that? an unlimited blank check to Ukraine? No. So he's trying to get along with a killer in a way that past presidents have reached out to mass murders. The other thing is very quickly, while there is the contours of a peace settlement, Donald Trump is not responsible for this war. He's the most powerful man in the world. He wants to help Ukraine get a just settlement. He's working with the Europeans, he's beefed up NATO. But remember this. In the last four administrations, Putin has invaded Georgia under George Bush. They invaded Crimea and Donbass under Barack Obama. They tried to take Kiev under Joe Biden. It didn't go anywhere under Donald Trump. Donald Trump was not the author of the

Starting point is 00:07:42 failed reset. Remember the 2009 Geneva debacle where Hillary Clinton pushed that reset button? And we were supposed to be friendly with Russia. And basically what we did is we said, you should be Democratic, you should be Democratic. You've got to be Western. You're going to have to have a liberalizing while they didn't back it up. So they were loud but carried a twig rather than spoke softly with a club. Donald Trump had nothing to do with the Victorian Newland and all of that earlier effort to put Ukraine and NATO and to interfere in the government of Ukraine. He had nothing to do with that.

Starting point is 00:08:22 He did his children. He, none of them, went over to Ukraine and tried to shake down the Ukrainian government to pour money into a presidential family. And then, as Joe Biden did, went over there and fired the prosecutor on threats. And he used our money to threaten the Ukrainians. He has no history of that. He sent offensive weapons to Ukraine that Biden had embargoed. He was pretty tough on the Russians in a way Biden never was. He said, don't do the Nordstrom pipeline, Nordstrom 2 pipeline, Germany.

Starting point is 00:08:59 Don't do it. He killed a lot of the Wagner group. He got out of an asymmetrical missile view. But he had no fingerprints on the Ukrainian war. He didn't say, as Joe Biden did when he came into office, our reaction is America will be contingent on whether it's a minor invasion. Think of that. That was a green light to Putin, as was his suspension of offensive military arms to Ukraine. So what am I getting at? The summit was about what we could expect. Putin wants to win over America, so then America will back off from Ukraine, and so it can get some more mileage westward and further deteriorate or erode or detrit the Ukrainian military.

Starting point is 00:09:47 The Ukrainian military is pretty tough. It's hanging in there. It wants enough aid to leverage Putin. And between those two polls, there will be a DMZ. And if there is a peace settlement, it will be the work, whether the left likes it or not, of Donald Trump, the one world leader among the three that has nothing to do with this war. Didn't start on his watch. It wasn't a result of his policies. And it surely. was not his responsibility that Vladimir Putin found himself inside Ukraine and threatening to destroy the independence of the Ukrainian people. That was not Donald Trump's doing, but it may well be as doing to stop it. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansson.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: After Trump-Putin Summit, Where Does War Go From Here?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.