The Duran Podcast - BRICS united as NEOCONS take over US foreign policy

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

BRICS united as NEOCONS take over US foreign policy

All right, Alexander, let's talk about Witkoff and his trip to Russia, which was supposed to happen on Sunday. At least that's what they were saying. Wittkoff was on his way to Russia after being in Israel and visiting Gaza, and he was going to then travel to Moscow. But it looks like something happened. and now Trump is saying Wittkopf's going to be in Moscow either Wednesday or Thursday. We don't really know the day,

but Trump made it out to be as if Wittkopf is being invited by the Russians. He actually told the media of Russia is asking for Wittkopf to go to Moscow on Wednesday or on Thursday. And of course, it comes a day or two before the August 8th

tariff, 100% secondary sanctions, tariff, whatever you want to call it, deadline, which Trump also says he will enforce. Yes. So your thoughts on everything going on here? It is very, very strange. I mean, it's conceivable that what's held Wyckoff up is some of the other work he's doing in the Middle East. But you would have thought that this business with Russia is so important now, that that's

why he would be going. And I'm not sure why he didn't go over the weekend. I absolutely do not think it was the Russians who invited him, by the way. I see no evidence of that. There's nothing that's coming from the Russians to suggest that they did. The first person to speak about Whitkoff coming to Moscow was Trump himself some days ago. And my sense is that he was sending Whitkoff to see if he could talk the Russians round. They're not going to change their position.

I mean, I think Putin made that perfectly clear in comments that he made to the media two days ago when Lukashenko visited Russia. And I suspect that the Russians are not really very interested in what Witkoff is bringing with him because it doesn't seem as if he's going to come with anything new. and I wonder whether Trump himself has been dizzering and has been indecisive about this and whether he's now basically sending Wittgoff to Russia, last-stitch effort to meet Putin, and he's going to, Wittgoff basically, is going to try and present Putin with something that's going to be couched to some kind of ultimatum. It's the only concept I can think of.

an ultimatum which the various countries, not just Russia, to which this ultimatum are directed, are already rejecting. India's making it clear that he's going to continue to buy Russian oil. China's made it clear that he's going to continue to buy Russian oil. Brazil has already been antagonized. They do apparently trade in oil with Russia, which surprises me because they're an oil producer. But anyway, they're going to stand in solidarity with the Russians. So none of this makes any very great sense.

And it increases the sense of a president who is losing control of the process. There was a really disturbing article, by the way. I see disturbing, disturbing for Trump, that the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is controlled by friends of Mitch McConnell, is now moving forward with a package inserting, I believe it's about a billion dollars of financial aid for Ukraine as part of the defense budget. In other words, they want to continue to supply Ukraine with weapons for free. Despite the fact that Trump says that from now on, all weapons supplied to be to Ukraine would be supplied through the Europeans, through NATO. So you could see that he's losing control. He's blinked in terms of the McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Neocon wing of the Republican Party.

And they are taking advantage. And I wonder whether this is partly also partly what explains. sending Wittgolf, not sending Wittgolf. Maybe there's been complaints about the fact that Wittgolf is going from the McConnell and Lindsay Grand Wing. You know, I wonder. Yeah, I think the Senate has him. Yeah.

No doubt about it. The Senate controls him. But that's my view of things. And the way I'm looking at, it's actually, from what I read, $55 billion is the entire package. Yes. And they're talking about the Russian frozen. and then stealing that money as well, which would be a disaster for the United States to do such a thing.

But the way I'm looking at it is that Trump is on board with this or he sees this coming and he just doesn't have the strength to stand up to Lindsey Graham or McConnell for whatever reason. I can't explain it. But his way of trying to, for lack of a better word, to trick the America first supporters into into the belief that his campaign promise of no of no free free weapons to Ukraine, no giving of weapons to Ukraine. He's going to have to now walk back that campaign promise and the Senate is going to give

weapons to Ukraine not sell weapons to NATO, none of that stuff. Weapons will be given to Project Ukraine. Trump is going to sign up to this or he's on board with this. And so the way I'm looking at it is that over the past couple of weeks, Trump is trying to find a way to justify this to the America first base by saying that he's disgusted with Putin, that he tried to negotiate a ceasefire with Putin, that Whitkov made many visits to Moscow, but you know what? There was just no dealing with Russia. It's impossible to talk to them. They don't want to come to the peace table. They're a nuclear threat now as well,

right? They're threatening us with the nuclear strike. And so I have no other option, but to also give weapons to Ukraine. And that's why I'm going to agree with a 55 billion Euro package. There's no other way that you could really explain any of this other than that Trump is going to have to explain this big package to Ukraine. Another big package to Ukraine. 55 billion is what the Senate is proposing, which is at the same level as Biden's 60, 62 billion package that he puts forward. Yes, which of course did not help Ukraine, by the way. They burned through that in like a year. In a year, exactly. But as I said, it doesn't seem as if this conveyor belt and assistance is ending.

And as I said, I don't get the sense that Trump is really pushing back on it. He's sending, as I said, Whitgolf to Moscow for no obvious purpose. Perhaps it's what you say. That it's just basically giving himself an alibi so that he can try and excuse what he's done. Excuse what he's doing to his base. Because one way or the other, we are ending up exactly where we're. We were where we started. I mean, the one thing that he always said, you know, this wasn't his war, that it was Biden's

war, that he would do everything he could to end it quickly. I always thought that was a mistake. I mean, that why Trump thought that he could end the wall as opposed to walking away from the wall? But as I said, he's ending up in exactly the position that Biden was, as far as I could see. it is no different except he's doing it against his campaign promises.

Biden was acting consistently with his campaign promises. I mean, Biden a very strong anti-Russian line during his election, the election which brought him to office. And of course, the point is that ultimately, and this is the key thing,

the McConnell, Lindsay Graham wing, don't trust Trump, whatever he says and does, even if he goes completely along with them, in the end, they're not his friends. And they won't become his friends simply because he's capitulated to them. They will simply see that they're dealing with a weak president who they can kick around exactly as they did during his first term.

Yeah, the weird part to all of this is that Trump is admitting multiple times. He's admitted that the sanctions, this 100% tariff sanctions thing, whatever you want to call it. This stupid thing that they're putting together is not going to work. I mean, he's admitting this, but he says it's not going to work. Russia's going to deal with it. Bricks is already pushing back in a hard way. He's actually bringing bricks closer together. He's bringing Brazil closer to China.

He's bringing India closer to China. He's saying it's not going to work, but I'm going to do it anyway. Yes. It's such a weird statement for someone to make. There's nothing rational about this decision at all. It's not going to work. Russia's going to deal with it. Russia's going to be fine.

Bricks is pushing back in a big way against this policy, but I'm going to do it anyway because, because there's no, just because. Because Lindsay Graham and Mitchell Connell want me to do it. That's the only thing. Explain that. Well, I mean, this is the president of the United States and he's going out and he's talking this way. I mean, it's ridiculous.

I mean, a strong president, maybe even a not so strong president would have come out and would have said this policy makes no sense. It is completely wrong. It is completely illogical. We are doing something that is going to work against our own interests. It is contrary to what the American people were promised during the recent election. If members of my party in the Senate vote for these things, I will resist them. Obviously, I will veto them.

If they override my veto, well, then it's clear who is responsible for this policy. isn't me. That would have been a politically sustainable position. But Trump isn't doing it. He's just, as I said, bobbing along. You know, he's like bobbing along on the surfing, the wave, if you like, not even surfing, because surfing requires some degree of intention and skill and control. But anyway, he's just floating along on the top of the wave as it crashes, presumably against the rocks, it's going to destroy his presidency, because he's just, as I said,

completely lost control of this process. It's very strange, and we can even put one's finger on the month when he lost control, which was in June. Something happened over the course of June where basically he lost the initiative. He let himself be basically,

captured by these people. And you can see, they sense it, they know that he's got it all wrong. The real president of the United States today is not Donald Trump, this foreign policy. It's not Donald Trump. It's not even Mitch McConnell, who is retiring, though he's playing a role. It's Lindsay Graham. He's more powerful in terms of the things he cares about than he would have been if he'd actually been elected president instead. Yeah, well, what happened in June? Well, who knows? Yeah.

Who knows? I mean, no doubt one day we will find out. What happens when he implements if he implements these tariffs on Friday? I mean, maybe he pulls back. Maybe he gives another extension. That's always possible with Trump. It's always possible with him. It's always possible.

But let's assume that he puts 100% tariffs on countries that are trading with Russia. All of this is directed at Brexit. We've talked about this video. Yes. What happens? Because bricks is not backing down at all. No, absolutely. There's no sign that they're prepared to do that.

I mean, in terms of trade with India, as it's on a relatively low level, but it has geopolitical significance. The Indians are already very angry with Trump because of various other moves he's done about Pakistan and all of that. And they will, they're already started to make moves. to patch up their relations with China. And I suspect that they will continue to do that. And they will accelerate doing that.

Brazil imposing most tariffs on top of the tariffs that Trump has already imposed is mostly superfluous, I suspect. So Brazil is now very angry. It's also going to deepen its involvement with Bricks. Russia, in terms of direct trade with the United States, has barely any anymore. It's still exports uranium. The loss of that uranium is going to be a problem for the United States. I don't suppose it's going to be a huge problem, but there it is. The big one is China.

If he imposes 100% tariffs on China, then the Chinese showed back in the spring that they can restrict exports of rare earths, that they produce lots of items. that are essential for the efficient working of the retail sector in the United States. If that does happen, then it will cause major economic problems in the United States come the autumn. At which point, of course, Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Tom Cotton, all of these people will blame Donald Trump. There are reports from the Wall Street Journal that China is already holding back. minerals that are needed by the automotive industry, by the military industrial complex. Yes.

Yes. Do you believe those reports? Yes, I do believe. I do believe those. In fact, I can tell you, I have no doubt at all that they are true because I understand that they're being reported also in Chinese social media. And obviously, this is not official media in China. And one has to distinguish between the two.

But they're apparently commentaries and discussions about it all over the place. I mean, I think something else which perhaps people like Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell and Tom Cotton and Richard Blumenthal and all of those may not realize is that there are some people in China who I'm not saying everybody in China. I'm not saying everybody in the government in China. But China has hardliners just as the United States does. And there are people in China who are spoiling for a fight. They feel that China has the advantage and this is their opportunity to put America in its place. I'm not saying they're right to think that, but I can see that this smash is coming. The neocons never think about the other side at all.

They never consider that when they come out with these stupid policies. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. How much of this do you think is connected to the collapse of Ukraine, the military situation, which we will discuss in a separate video, but do you think that the timeline coincides with the fact that things in Ukraine from a military perspective are going really bad? You know something? It's very strange. I'm not sure that it does in a kind of a way. I'm not sure how well-in-full. these people in the Senate and indeed Donald Trump himself really are about the situation in Ukraine. I mean, Trump came up with these bizarre figures about casualty rates that the Russians have had 112,000 people killed since the start of the year against only 8,000 killed Ukrainians. I mean, I don't feel that McConnell

Lindsay Graham, all of those people really do properly understand how critical the situation in Ukraine has become. And I think one of the reasons they want to send more arms to Ukraine and they want to do all of these, all of these things, is that they still believe that somehow the United States can prevail in this conflict. It seems strange, very, very strange. Of course, there are people in the Pentagon and in the intelligence community who probably do understand this. And some of this is probably being provided to the staffers in the Senate and places like that. And some of this may be creeping up to people like Lindsay Graham. You know, we've got to do something now because if we don't, the situation for the Ukrainians is going to get really, really, really bad.

But I think that these people in the Senate, and even Trump himself, perhaps think, you know, if we can just give Ukraine another injection of aid, somehow that's going to stabilize the situation over the next few weeks or months, and then we can pile on the pressure economically, and we can win after all. I say that because if you listen to Lindsay Graham, he gives no clue. that he really understands how bad the situation in Ukraine truly is. I think he knows. I mean, I can't believe that there are people in the Senate that don't understand how bad the situation is.

There are all people in the Senate who do. I'm just talking about this particular core of people, whether they understand. But you know, either the something else said. He doesn't care about Ukraine or the Ukrainian people either. I was going to make exactly that point. Ultimately. For him, for him, it's all about war. Are they even that interested?

I mean, it seems to be that their priorities twofold. Firstly, to keep the checks from the donors still moving and moving in their direction. That is one thing. And the second is winning the war, the civil war within the Republican Party. They sense that there's a split in MAGA. at the moment that Trump is going one direction. Other people in MAGA are going in a different direction. From their point of view, this is the right moments to take advantage of that, to widen the

split even further, to get Trump signed up to supporting Ukraine. And, well, what happens in Ukraine? If Ukraine goes down, they'll probably be sorry at some level. But it's not something that they're going to lose much sleep over at the end of the day. Exactly. If you're looking at it from the neocon perspective, the Lindsay Graham perspective, you keep the money flowing, you keep the military donors happy. If Ukraine collapses, when Ukraine collapses, you're going to get none of the blame. It's all going to fall on Trump. And if you're at neocon, you never get elected out of office anyway.

So, I mean, there's, you know, the downside for them short term is, is minimal to none. Medium to long term, okay, the U.S. is getting crushed from these types of policies. It works against the United States. But if you're a neocon, you never think past one year. I mean, your timeline, your horizon is maybe six months to a year. You never think past that. Exactly.

So for Lindsey Graham, I can, okay, I can see how he looks at this and says, even, even when Ukraine collapses, all the blame's going to be placed on Trump anyway. So, you know, I'm good. As Lindsay Graham, I'm good and I'm going to win the election in South Carolina. At least that's how he's thinking about it. Absolutely. Which is what, which is very important for him, obviously. Yeah.

And the other thing is, you know, he's going to attach Trump to himself. So Trump's going to go out, as you said in a program. We did a few weeks ago, Trump is going to go out and who's going to campaign for him in South Carolina. He will. He will campaign for him. I think the weird part is the Trump White House part because there are people in the Trump White House. Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr., J.D. Vance.

And I'm sure there's many more people in the Trump White House who understand that Ukraine is going down and it's going to take Trump down with it. Absolutely. And in the Pentagon as well. And in the Pentagon as well. But you know, it's Kellogg, whatever Kellogg says and whatever Lindsey Graham says. Yes. That's the weird part.

And it's the Trump acknowledgement that nothing's going to work. He said it. He told Zelensky in the White House, you have zero cards to play. Things have not gotten better since then. Things have gotten worse for Zelensky since that exchange at the White House. Yes. So Trump knows you have zero cards to play. He knows that this 100% sanctions tariff thing is not going to work.

He said it multiple times. But he continues to just. move forward with this, knowing, knowing that the ship is going to sink, he just, he stays on board. Absolutely. That's the part that no one can figure out. I don't know. Absolutely. I mean, it's incredible abdication of responsibility and extraordinary weakness.

I mean, if he was supporting all of this out of conviction, if he really believed it would work, however misguided he was, Well, what could say this is his policy, but of course he's not doing that. He's actually saying it's going to fail and yet he's doing it anyway. Yeah, I think you're exactly right. At least with Biden, just to wrap up the video, at least with Biden, all his dumb decisions, he actually believed in his stupid decisions. He actually thought Biden actually thought he was a foreign policy wizard, as did his team. Blinken and Sullivan, they actually thought that they were the masters of the universe

and they were foreign policy experts. So they believed in it. Yes. Even though it was not sense. It was stupid the policies that they were pursuing. But you know, you listen to Trump and Trump is saying that it's not going to work. No. But he still goes through with it.

Yeah. Yes. Okay. Just a final question to wrap with the video, actually. Do you think that Russia told Whitkoff not to come? Well, that is a very good idea. That's a very real possibility. Who knows? I mean, they're not, they don't seem at all keen on him coming, presumably, because these senses have said that he's coming with some kind of an ultimatum.

It could be that they told Witkoff not to come and that Trump is insisting on him going and that this is the explanation of the delay, because it would make complete sense. At this moment in time, I was going through Putin's comments that he came. gave in that press conference. I mean, he seems very, very fed up, basically, with all of this. And he was certainly not in any mood to make any kind of concessions. So I think that another five-hour meeting with Wickoff, which is going to lead nowhere, is not something that he's looking forward to at all. So I wouldn't be surprised. Okay. We will end the video there. The durand.com. We're on X. We're on telegram. And we are

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