The Duran Podcast - MSM stirring up trouble for Trump and Russia

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

MSM stirring up trouble for Trump and Russia

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the Washington Post article, which claimed that on Thursday, that's Thursday, Trump had a telephone call with Putin. Trump was at Mara Lago. The Washington Post did not specify who called who. They're working off of their anonymous sources. and they didn't really give many details as to what allegedly these the two leaders said. Trump told Putin about the U.S. military presence, according to the Washington Post in Europe, making it seem as if it was some sort of a threat or warning to Putin, but the Washington Post also claims that Trump told Putin not to escalate in Ukraine an interesting statement. I would say that it's more like NATO and the collective West that has been escalating. But anyway, and then it just kind of left it off at their looking to speak again in the future.

They're hoping to resolve the conflict in Ukraine quickly. That was pretty much all the Washington Post gave us, all from anonymous sources. The other interesting thing that the Washington Post said in their article is that Ukraine signed off on this. So we get the news that from the Ukraine Foreign Ministry, that Ukraine, according to the foreign ministry of Ukraine, through a statement that they did not sign off on any phone call between the United States and Russia between Trump and Putin. They didn't approve anything. They had no idea of anything. And even if a phone call was going to take place, the foreign ministry said we can't stop anything like that from taking place anyway. way so, you know, we don't have any idea what's going on here. That's basically what the

Farrad Ministry said. And then, then we get the news a couple of hours before doing this video from the Kremlin, Kremlin spokesman Peskov, who says that this Washington Post article is pure fiction. I think those are the words he used, fiction, fake news. Nothing like this happened. And when the Kremlin issues a statement like this, I would say that you should believe what Peskov is saying, because I've been going on X Alexander, and there are some posts saying, well, Peskopf is not the most reliable of sources and stuff like that. No. when the Kremlin comes out with this type of statement, this definitive type of statement, my opinion is taken to the bank. It looks like the Washington Post was fed some false information. I don't know.

Maybe Bezos should revisit that op-ed that he posted a week or two ago about the problems with the Washington Post because something is not adding up here. Anyway, I think that's a summary of where we are at the moment of recording. in this video, what are your thoughts? Right. The first thing to say about whether this call took place or not is that I completely agree with what you've just said about Perescoff. In fact, I would go further.

I think you can bank this one from Perescoff. Now, Perescoff has sometimes said being economical with truth, but this is a straightforward, clear-cut denial. And he's making it on the record. He's coming out and he's coming out and he's. He's saying it. He's saying this call never happened. The Washington Post article is based entirely on anonymous sources. A very good rule is if one source denies a story on the record and the other asserts it anonymously, then you should always go with the source that denies it on the record. I mean,

you know, they've actually gone on the record. Peskov is there. He said that this call didn't happen. Now, I'm going to say this. I read this article last night in London. And I immediately felt, and I, you know, I'm not trying to, you know, speak from hindsight here. I did feel when I read it that there was some really odd things about it. First of all, Thursday was the day when Putin made a massive four-and-a-half-hour speech and press conference at the Valdai Summit meeting.

Now, that would have happened obviously over the course of the day. It's possible you can just about see how in the late evening, which would have been in the late evening in SOTCHI, Moscow time, which would have been during the day in the United States, there might have been a call arranged between. between Trump and Putin. But on the face of it, doesn't seem particularly likely. What would have thought that Putin would not want to field calls after having done a massive press conference, taking up a huge amount of his time that way. And, of course, he's very, very busy anyway in Sochi, conducting the Valdai conference. So there were timing issues.

But then the real problem, the thing that really made no sense to me, was the conversation as it was being reported because we read that Trump asks Putin not to escalate. What does that even mean? What does it mean? Is he asking Putin stop the war, which is obviously absurd and Putin isn't going to accept that? Or is he asking Putin don't extend the war beyond Ukraine, which Putin has never showed the slightest interest or desired to do. And this business about bringing up the topic of American troops in Europe, what was that intended to convey? Was it a threat? I mean, as you said, I mean, it looked like it. It sounded like a threat. It didn't seem to me to be a good way of starting a conversation between Putin and Trump.

And it was, again, as if Russia doesn't know that their troops in Europe? Exactly. It doesn't know exactly what you are. That's what this whole conflict is about. Well, exactly. So the conversation, as it was described, really didn't make much sense to me. But there you know, it was the Washington Post. One wondered whether perhaps things hadn't been explained or described properly.

And, well, the following morning today, as you correctly say, we get the news, the confirmation. both from the Ukrainians that they don't have any, they don't know anything about this call, and then from the Kremlin that the call never took place. Now, we have said, and both of us have done, each of us on our respective channels, and both of us together on the Duran, in programs that we've done here, that there is an enormous amount of fake information appearing in the media. We had a few days ago reports to Pompeo, and Pompeo and Nikki Haley and Tom Carton were being considered for posts in the forthcoming administration.

We now know that isn't true. Trump has flatly denied that his issued statements that that isn't true. We've had reports about two weeks ago. They appeared in the Financial Times that the Russians and the Ukrainians were once again negotiating about a cessation of attacks on each other's energy systems. And I expressed, and we discussed on these channels, doubts about that story. I said it didn't make any kind of sense. When it was first floated, this whole story was floated back in August.

I said, it entirely didn't make any sense to me. And the Russians categorically denied it. The Russians denied that story again when it appeared in the Financial Times, as I said, about two weeks ago. And we have now had further denials of the truth of that story from the Ukrainians. Zelensky has said it is not true. And his chief of staff, Andrea Jermak, has now come forward and has said, it is absolutely not true. There are no discussions about mutual cessation of attacks going on over the energy systems. We had reports about all kinds of peace plans that Trump is supposed to have endorsed,

plans involving deployment of peacekeeping forces, keeping Ukraine waiting for 20 years before it's allowed to join NATO and those sort of things. And again, we said none of these plans look like. they have any connection to Donald Trump. We discussed how they clearly neocon plans, neocon light, neocon plan light, neocon plan heavy to try to catapult Trump into adopting positions on Ukraine, which were completely contrary to his interests. We have a story today in the Daily Telegraph in London that Macron and Stama are plotting to get Biden to agree to launch missiles against Russia before Trump becomes president, a story which again, I don't believe,

and which is no way in the media. What all of these stories have in common is that they're trying to push Trump into some kind of confrontation with the Russians. Whoever is behind all of these stories, is trying to push Trump into confrontation with the Russians, and is trying to push the Russians into making all kinds of concessions in advance of possible negotiations that took place. These stories are being fed to the media by basically various NERCON groups in the United States and in London. Quite plausibly, the Ukrainians themselves are playing, or at least some people

in Ukraine are playing some kind of a role here as well. If you read or hear stories of this kind, treat them with extreme skepticism because my sense is that Donald Trump very wisely is playing his cards very carefully this time. He's saying as little as possible and probably won't say very much about Ukraine until he has been inaugurated president. He hasn't yet sorted out and filled all of the posts in his administration. He's giving clear indications that he's not going to go with the near cons this time. And Donald Trump, Jr. Speaking, I am sure, with actual knowledge of his father's thinking, is saying the same thing.

And I don't believe and don't expect that it would be any kind of substantial discussions between the Trump administration and the Russians until after the inauguration takes place. So be very, very careful about all of these stories. There is intense maneuvering going on, and there are two explanations behind them. One is Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential elections, which some people are worried about and I'll try to box Trump in, and the other is Russia's coming victory in the war, which again is making some people very, very worried, and they're trying to engineer some kind of negotiation process, which will force the Russians, as they hope, to limit their potential gains.

So this is what's going on in the media at this time. Yeah, look at what Trump is doing, not all of these reports, alleging what Trump is saying, or not even what he's saying, what he's thinking. They're not even saying that Trump is allegedly saying this. They're speculating on his thoughts, on his plans, which right there is a red flag. The two things that we've seen Trump do is he has said, no Pompeo, no Nikki Haley, which means that he's listening to the people. And no doubt about it for him to come out and say that means that he got the message.

No one wants Pompeo. No one wants Haley. And Trump Jr., who's his son, so there's no one as close to the family as Trump Jr. You're right. He's part of the family, the inner circle. He puts out the Instagram reel, which basically says that the money to Zelensky is going to stop. Yes. And then we have what Trump said.

Yeah. And Donald Trump, Jr., also said no warmongers. He's not going to have war mongers in the government. Exactly. He also said that, no war mongers in the government. And then we have Trump's own words on the campaign trail. Every single rally, he said, Zelensky is the best salesman in the world. He comes to the United States, gets $200 billion and leaves.

Trump would have to be completely insane to, to, to, starts giving money to Ukraine or anything like that, after everything that he said about Zelensky during the campaign. So, I mean, there's a lot of reporting going on that I just don't believe any of it. No. And going to the Wall Street Journal article, everyone is attributing that plan to Trump now. All the analysts are saying this is Trump's plan. And I think we're one of the few. If one of the only channels, the only analysts that are saying, no, this, even the Wall Street Journal says in the first paragraph, we have no idea if this is Trump's plan. They pretty much say it. We don't know if this is Trump's thinking. They say it in the first paragraph, but everyone is saying this

is Trump's plan. What is the plan? It's a freeze. It's an 800-mile buffer. It's European troops, not U.S. troops. It's European troops that are going to police this buffer zone. And it's NATO in 20 years. We're going to put a pause. We're going to wait Putin out. And in 20 years, Ukraine gets into NATO. Stavridis, the former U.S. commander of NATO, he said it's three to five years. He pretty much said the plan is the same as what the Wall Street Journal is talking about. But instead of 20 years, it's Ukraine enters the EU and Ukraine gets into NATO in three to five years. None of this stuff is being said by Trump, not even being said by anyone in Trump's inner circle. No one is saying this.

Exactly. But everyone's attributing this to Trump. Exactly. And if it was Trump, we would not be reading it in the Wall Street Journal. That's the first thing to say. But the plan is absurd and it is wrong. And it makes absolutely no sense. The reason it makes absolutely no sense.

And it's not difficult to unpack this is because, of course, the Russians who are winning the war will not agree to this. And it's been suggested that the Russians are going to be coerced into agreeing to How do you coerce or force the Russians to agree to a plan like this? It is impossible. It cannot be done. Are you going to impose more sanctions on them? Have all the sanctions that they've tried up to now been successful?

Are you going to send more weapons to Ukraine? Are there any sanctions left to oppose? Exactly. Contradicting everything that Donald Trump has been saying. Are you going to send the European troops into Ukraine without the Russians agreement? Well, that was bloated a couple of months ago by Macron, and the Russians said they would attack them. The Europeans scut all the way.

The Europeans have said, they basically hinted, I mean, they said actually they haven't hinted that they'd only go into Ukraine if the US was there to protect them. Is the United States going to protect the European troops? if they go into Ukraine from the Russians, completely contradicting. I mean, the diametric opposite of everything that Donald Trump has been saying ever since the conflict in Ukraine began, not just over the last year. I mean, none of this makes any sort of sense in terms of his own thinking.

So it is absurd to believe that this is a real plan of Donald Trump's. Again, you can see what's happening. People are trying to create trouble between Putin and Trump. That's what all those reports about the call. Well, you know, the threat from Trump to Putin, the talk about Russia not escalating. It's trying to create the appearance of some kind of disagreement or conflict before even negotiations, real negotiations begin. And you float ideas like this, which are completely unworkable from the start, but which are, as we've discussed in our previous program, when we looked at these. plans is clearly set up to create again a crisis between the Americans of the Russians,

between Trump and Putin, that will lead us into a prolongation and, if anything, an intensification of the war. And I think Trump, by this point, is experienced enough to see through all of that. And if he isn't, which I don't for a moment believe, by the way, but if he isn't experienced enough to see through all of that, He's got plenty of people around him, Vance, Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbards, any number of others, Eldridge Colby, people, any number of others who are we telling him don't go, don't touch any of this. And he's just made absolutely clear yesterday that as for the real advocates of these plans, the neocons, he doesn't want them in his administration. He basically very politely slammed the door in Pompeius and Haley's face. Yeah, this is not, all of these plans are not plans.

They're their wishes because they know they're losing. They know they've lost. They want to stir up trouble between Putin and. and Trump. They want to stir up trouble for Trump. I mean, I believe at the end of the day, they want to figure out ways to get, yeah, Russia gates and Ukraine gates and phone calls between Zelensky and Trump with transcripts and bidmints testifying and stuff. I mean, they want to go back to that. They're trying to maneuver Trump into that type of situation, tried to bog them down into that type of situation that he had in his first term. But these are wish lists.

I mean, these are wishes, not even wish list. These are wishes because they've lost. NATO has lost. The collective West has lost. Everyone knows this. Everyone understands this. They may not come out and say it the way we're saying it. Maybe they go in a roundabout way and say that they've lost, but they have lost.

Exactly. And now the Biden White House is just trying to figure out how do I keep this going until January 20th inauguration when we can leave. And on January 21st, if Ukraine were. to collapse, if the Zeletsky regime were to collapse on January 21st, they would blame everything on Trump. The Biden White House, just get us past January 20th. That's what they're hoping to do. Get us past January 20th and they're gone. So I mean, these are, yeah, these are just, you know, just real quick, it just frustrates me that that we have

Putin's minimum for negotiation. It goes back to what Eve Smith said that they're just talking amongst themselves, but no one asks the Russians. And in this instance, you don't even need to ask the Russians because they've laid it out over many months

what is the bare minimum to begin negotiation. I mean, they've spelled it out. You don't have to call Putin. You don't have to ask Putin. It's all there in numerous statements from Putin, Lavrov, Sahara, Shoygu, Patrush, they've all spelled out, what is the bare minimum to begin negotiations?

That's all Trump has to reference. That's it, but they don't ask. They don't go to put in statements. It'll go to speeches. They just come up with their own little freezes and 800-mile demilitarized zones. And European troops, policing the bumper zone in Ukraine. Give me a break. It's ridiculous.

Exactly. Exactly. You're completely right. And as I said, don't pay any attention to this media commentary. That is the most important lesson of all that anybody should take when they read stories of this kind. I should say that I have never seen in any transition period so many false stories of this kind being floated in the media at the present, as we've seen now. Of course, if we're talking about the previous transition period, involving Donald Trump, the 2016-2017 one. You've got lots and lots of false stories. Again, all of them originating from within the US government of a completely different kind, those trying to pretend that Donald Trump was some kind of Russian agent, which, as we know, was absolute nonsense,

and which we said at the time was absolute nonsense. This time, it's been done in a different way, but these stories are also untrue. By the way, just on the Starma Macron idea, a story in the Daily Telegraph that they're plotting to get Biden to authorize deep strikes on Russia before Trump takes office.

I don't believe Biden would do that. I don't believe Sullivan would do that because, as you absolutely rightly say, the objective now is not to win the war but to prevent a Ukrainian collapse before January. launching deep strikes against Russia, all that is going to do is going to create an enormous crisis, which Biden and Sullivan would have to deal with before the inauguration, which is the

last thing they want, I would have thought. But in terms of Trump and Macron, I don't want to overstate the intelligence of these people, but I would have thought that even they understand the plotting against... Starmour in Macron. Starma, sorry, Starma Macron. Star Macroar, sorry. I don't want to hesitate overstate the intelligence of these people,

but I would have thought that even they understand the plotting something like this and tried to get something like this sneak through before Trump takes office would be absolutely catastrophic. Trump would be furious about this. He would certainly demand that he be consulted in advance. If they did it in that kind of way,

then whatever possible relationship that might be between Britain and the Trump administration, and indeed between France and the Trump administration, would be shot to pieces even before the inauguration took place. So I don't believe that story either. And it's only being floated in one article in the media in London. It's again the same people in London. It's again, the same people in London as the ones we see in Washington, feeding false stories to the media in order to manipulate and create a crisis so as to prolong the war. It's Professor Miff's sued, Alexander. It's Professor Mifson. Obviously, he's very busy. You're absolutely right. That's exactly who it is.

I forgot all about him. You're completely right. It's Professor Mithson, obviously. Yeah, so I mean, you know, Stommer's clueless, but I don't think he's that clueless. I agree to go forward with this reporting from the telegraph. Yeah, and the giveaway, at least when I was going through the article, is that they claim they're going to appeal to Biden's legacy. And that's why he's going to a degree light that missile strikes into Russian territory. I'm like appealed to his legacy. What are they talking about?

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. So, so what, let's end the video by, by, uh, Playing devil's advocate. Let's say Trump does take this plan. Yeah. And he does present it to Putin.

Let's say all the reporting is accurate. Yeah. All the anonymous sources are accurate. And Trump takes these ideas, these plans, demilitarized zones and stuff like that and freezes. And he calls up Putin and he says, this is my deal. take it or else, I don't know, whatever. What are your thoughts on that? Well, if he does that, then he's delivered himself into the hands of the neocons.

The Russians will obviously say no. They will continue the war. They will go on fighting. They will go on winning, which is what they're doing. There will be further, there will be an intensification of the war in that case. And then Trump will be put in a position where either he takes Putin's no for an answer, which would be deeply humiliating for himself and would open him up to criticism in the United States as a weak and indecisive president who's not able to

stand up to Putin and enforce his own red lines. Or in the alternative, he is maneuvered into a situation where he starts confronting Putin, tries to gain leverage over Putin by army The Ukrainians imposes more sanctions against Russia and transforms into Joe Biden, which is also what the clear comes from. Yeah. So I can't believe this. Yeah. With what? How?

I know. Exactly. Yeah. That's my follow-up question. Even if he would want to become, even if Trump wants to morph into Joe Biden, how? How? How can you arm Ukraine more? How can you do this?

Without actually putting U.S. troops in Ukraine, how? Well, which to be absolutely clear is what some people on the neocons side would very, very much want to do. And in fact, it's not inconceivable that they would be urging Donald Trump to go to go precisely there. I don't believe it's ever going to happen. But if you did, it's the end of Donald Trump. I mean, I think that's the thing to say. I mean, it will be the end of Donald Trump. it would be the collapse of the MAGA movement.

If there was a decision made to send American troops to fight the Russians in Ukraine, there would be massive protests across the United States. After the election result, I do think anybody should be in any doubt about that at all. The question of the war and people's opposition to it came up repeatedly, we're told, in discussions that people had with people who voted for Trump. So if that were to happen, as I said, it would create a massive schism. It would create a crisis within the MAGA movement. It would be the end of Donald Trump's presidency.

He would become a president in name only. And the neocons would be back in control. Yeah. Stay far away from this. That's what my gut keeps on telling me when it comes to all of this, this stuff that we're seeing in the media for the Trump administration. stay far away from all of this stuff. And the report suggests, not just the reports,

but the action suggests that that is exactly what he's doing. He said no to Pompeo and Haley. He is not promoting neocons into his government. Donald Trump, Jr., has said what he said. We've had all of the comments that Donald Trump made on the campaign, and the very latest report I saw this morning, which I can't verify or corroborate, because I've only just seen it, is that in fact, Trump is going to focus on the Middle East

and leave anything to do with Ukraine to J.D. Vance, who's made his opinions about the conflict there, absolutely crystal clear. And I think it's a sensible and wise approach for Trump to take. And I'm confident that is the one he will take in the end. Yeah, I read a report, I believe it was in the Wall Street Journal, but I'm not 100% on this, which claimed that Yermak tried to call Vance. Vance didn't pick up, tried to call him twice. I'm not 100% on this. But I remember seeing something like this.

I believe it was in the Wall Street Journal. Yeah. But I'm not sure about it. It's very difficult to know what is true and what is not. And it may be that this story is true. And if it is, it's interesting. But all the indications are, all the actual, the real, concrete indications, the ones that are based on Donald Trump's actual words and the actions

he has taken since Tuesday, that he's going to see through his intention of distancing and ultimately ending the U.S.'s involvement in the war in Ukraine. And he's going to have a lot of support. People, you know, this is a thing that people again need to understand. It's not as if Donald Trump is acting against the unified, opposition now of the entire American political military intelligence and security establishment. The Pentagon is clearly indicating of the last two weeks and months that they've had it with Ukraine, that the Ukrainian demands are endless and cannot be satisfied.

They can see the way the war is going. The people at the Council for Foreign Relations, Richard has his people. they're still coming up with all sorts of ideas, freezes and that kind of thing. But they too basically understand that the US is over-invested in this. So this time, Trump is going to go with the flow. It's not as if he's got everybody lined up against him on this one. And of course, if you're talking about general sentiment amongst the people of the United States, well, 75 million people have made their feelings absolutely clear.

They do not want the United States further involved in wars, certainly not against the Russians, certainly not in Ukraine. No, he's received a mandate. The Republicans received a very strong mandate from the American people. Yeah, absolutely. This would also explain, just a final thought, this would also explain the panic, fear, anxiety, despair in Zelensky as well as in the EU leaders. they know what Trump is going to most likely do.

Exactly. Exactly. Again, another very important clue is that apparently lots and lots of European leaders have been calling Trump ever since he was elected or congratulating him, trying to get him to make commitments about Ukraine. And very, very cannily and wisely, he's a very, very much more experienced man again than he was in 2016. He has refused to be drawn.

He's giving them nothing, which is exactly what he should be doing at this time, and which is completely consistent with he's ultimately doing what we said. Yeah, all right. We will end the video there. The durand.com. We are on Rumble Odyssey, bitchy, telegram, rock, Finn, and X.

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