The Duran Podcast - Putin Valdai. Neocons set Ukraine trap for Trump

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

Putin Valdai. Neocons set Ukraine trap for Trump

All right, Alexander, let's talk about Valdai, the Valdai summit that takes place every year in Sochi and Putin's statements during his appearance at Valdai. He spoke in total for over four hours, statements, answering questions from the media, a marathon session from the Russian president, and he talked a lot about bricks. He talked a lot about Ukraine. and he also talked about Trump's win in the U.S. elections. He actually congratulated Trump on his election win. So let's start things off with what Putin said about Ukraine and how it's connected to the various statements from Trump. But more than the statements from Trump,

I believe there's a lot of analysis and plans and articles about speculation, I would actually say about how Trump is going to approach Putin and the conflict in Ukraine, his ideas as to how to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. Once again, speculation. No one really knows what Trump is going to do with Ukraine and how he was going to approach Russia. But there is a lot of talk and articles and analysis trying to understand what Trump is going to do. I would even say trying to influence. what Trump is going to do with Project Ukraine.

Anyway, let's talk about it. Putin, Valdai, Trump, Ukraine. What are your thoughts? Well, I think the first thing to say is that this was not just vintage Putin. It was in Fat Putin at his most optimistic, he's most cheerful, and he's most self-confident. And I think, again, it's a point we've made before, but I just bears repeating, this man's intellectual, mental. and physical energy is extraordinary. Just a few weeks ago, he was presiding over a huge conference.

He was meeting world leaders there. He's been busy doing all kinds of things. Every day meeting officials. If you go to his website, you see the intensity with which he works, the constant conversations he has with all kinds of leaders in all sorts of places, all sorts of officials he has in all sorts of places. And he comes along and he goes a speech and a Q&A that lasts for four and a half hours. And he never makes a mistake.

He's always there. He's always to the point. He's always direct. He's always very, very clear. And I don't know of any other leader anywhere at the present time who's able to keep up with this. And the fact that Putin is able to do it day after day after day, week after week, month after month, He's barely had a holiday this year. I mean, he usually takes time off in the summer, but he hasn't really this year.

And he says he comes fresh, active and full of energy. He's really quite extraordinary. But he was very, very optimistic. And I got the sense that he's very happy. So he's happy, the three reasons. Firstly, the war is going well. And I think this is a point which we probably want to come to. But anybody, everybody now admits.

this. The Russians are advancing in Ukraine. The economy at home remains strong. There's been problems with it on the inflation side, but he's taking steps to bring that under control. This is his governor of his central bank, Elvira and the Buehlin. That has gone well. Valdei, oh, sorry, Kazan went well. He had a successful summit meeting everybody talks about what a successful summit meeting. That has been. And now he has finally seen. of an administration in Washington, which, frankly, was a real problem for him, for Russia, not just for Russia, but for much of the world. And my overwhelming sense was that he's being extremely careful, obviously, he's giving nothing

away. He's making very clear that on Ukraine, his position is not changed and will not change. his spokesman Peskov confirmed that later, but he still believed and looks forward to a possible dialogue, a probable dialogue with the incoming Trump administration. So let's talk about Ukraine first. He's completely clear on this, who is to blame for the war in Ukraine. It was the West, the NATO powers, the Europeans, perhaps even more than the Americans. He's, he's, He is very angry with the way in which he feels they deceive Russia over the Minsk Agreement. He talks about the coup that took place in 2014.

He's talked about that many, many times. He repeated all of these things about the coup, about the support for the Maidan movement, about the support for political extremism or radicalism in Ukraine, about the attempt to create problems for Russia on its Western borders. He here is not withdrawing or changing his views on any of that. And he made it again very clear that when it comes to Ukraine, the issue is for the Russians, a question of absolutely fundamental vital security. So freezing the conflict for a couple of years in order to give more time for Ukraine to rearm,

to create the crisis all over again, is simply, not acceptable. It is not something that the Russians are prepared to look at. And what has to happen, and it's the absolute minimum for any peace, is that Ukraine must become neutral. You make that absolutely clear. There must be no thought of Ukraine entering NATO now, next year, in five years, in 20 years. the question of Ukraine's NATO membership must be once and for all and forever taken off the table. That was what he said about that. And the second is that he said that where the western border of Russia is now going to be, is going to be determined by the events on the ground, by the decisions of the people in the eastern regions of Ukraine.

So that means at the very least that the four regions plus Crimea must be acknowledged as being part of Russia. And of course, putting it in that way opens up the possibility that if the war continue, and if the Russians go on advancing further westwards and more regions, which are Russian speaking, decide to join Russia, then of course the border could start to move further westwards as well. So he was absolutely clear in what he said. All of the objectives of the special military operation, the ones that he announced back in February, 2022, when the special military operation were launched, must be fulfilled. Anybody in Washington, you absolutely write this, an enormous amount of jostling and maneuvering, lots of people trying to influence Trump. The neocons, and there are still neocons on the republicans.

inside, still trying to push Trunk towards making demands of the Russians, which the Russians are not going to accept. All of these plans, all of these ideas, they're absolute non-starters. As far as the Russians are concerned, they won't accept them. Putin has made very clear what his terms for ending the war are. And either the Americans or the Ukrainians, come round to acknowledging them, or the war continues. Special military operation will continue. I think this is something. I've said this already in various programs, and I think we've discussed it on this channel. People in Washington and in Europe need to understand that the Russians are going to win this war. The war was effectively won.

by the Russians in the first six months back in 2022, when the Russian economy did not collapse, when the Russians were not defeated on the battlefield, when the international allies or friends of Russia continued to stand by Russia. From that moment on, the Russians were able to start thinking about how to win the wall. They started mobilizing troops, building up. their economy, cranking up more and more tanks and things of that kind. Russian public opinion rallied behind the wall. Once it became clear that there was not going to be a collapse in Russia or a regime change there or that the public, the Russian population would not support the war, once it became clear that none of that was going to happen, it became clear that the Russians

would win, and we are very close to that point now. The only way that can be held back or reversed is by taking risks which could take us straight into World War III. And I don't think Donald Trump wants that, and the American people certainly do not want that, as they make clear in the election. So, given that this is so, I don't see any reason why Putin should make concessions on Ukraine, and he is not doing so. And if anybody in Washington is serious about ending the war quickly, they need to, or at least America's involvement in it, they need to recognize the actual facts

and adjust to those realities. Coming up with plans that don't take that fact into the account, into account is a fool's gang. I don't think they even care what Putin says. the people that are writing up these analysis and plans about how Trump is going to wind down the company of Ukraine. I don't even think they're listening to what Putin is saying. But before we get there, I want to discuss that a bit. But before we get there, you mentioned that the starting point for Putin, at least with a negotiation on Ukraine is Ukraine's neutrality.

Yes. What does that, does that mean neutrality from NATO, but does that also mean the European Union? Does that mean a change in the government in Kiev? Does that mean something in the, in the Constitution? What about the security guarantees? He just kind of left it. He left the door open to a lot of speculation. The statement that he made was if Ukraine is neutral. Pretty much what he said. He didn't get into very many specifics. It is a door that's open to Trump if he wants to take it. And my sense is that if Trump acts on this quickly, then perhaps you can get to the situation that you're talking about, which is a neutral Ukraine.

I'm asking you what that means, but let's just say a neutral Ukraine. and just the four new regents. And it would most likely stop there, I imagine. But Trump would have to act very quickly. He's going to have to act very quickly indeed because, yes, there is ambiguity. Putin didn't spell it out. But of course, with every day that passes, with every month that passes, that ambiguity

is going to diminish in one particular direction. And I think this is a point again to make. The Russians back in April 22, even though they insisted Ukraine out of NATO, no NATO troops in Ukraine, no NATO bases in Ukraine, no Western links with Ukraine security guarantees, which would require Ukraine to only permit foreign soldiers into Ukraine with the agreement of the Russians. The Russians are not going to withdraw from any of that, but still leaving the door open for Ukraine to join the European Union. I think people need to understand that that is now living,

that now continues by a thread with every single day the passes, the situation on that will change. Because what Putin made very clear at Valdai is that when he talks about Ukrainian neutrality, he means that for real. He doesn't mean a situation such as we had previously, say, before 2022, where Ukraine was outside NATO, but basically aligned with the West. And not only must the West completely disconnect in military terms of Ukraine, but I suspect that before long, the Russians are going to say, look, the European Union is also more than just

an economic association. It is also a geopolitical bloc. Ukraine cannot be inside that either. They haven't gone quite to the point of saying that, but they're getting closer. They're getting closer all the time. Putin's comments about the Europeans were extremely angry and very bitter. was very, very betrayed over what he sees as the double dealing of the Europeans over the Minsk agreement. So that's one thing to say. So yes, there is still that ambiguity there, but you're absolutely right. If Trump wants to work on it, he needs to move quite fast.

The second point to say about neutrality and about all of this is that it is impossible to conceive, at least I cannot conceive, of any situation in which Putin will really believe that Ukraine is neutral whilst the present government remains in power. So again, since he's talking about a genuine, actual, real Ukrainian neutrality, that must by definition mean a Ukraine with a completely different political system to the one that exists today, one in which there are new election. elections, new parties are allowed to form where certain political groups are removed from the political process and where there is essentially a change of government.

In other words, regime change. And I think that is absolutely implicit in what he said. And I think it's implicit increasingly in what the Russians are also saying, that every aspect of the objective set out in February 2020 must be realized. And that means a complete change of the political system in Ukraine. So I think they've already reached that point about EU membership. I think we're gradually edging towards it. So the plan that we're reading a lot about,

or the two different, let's say two different plans that we're reading a lot about, whether it's in the Economist, the Financial Times, or the other day in the Wall Street Journal, is that on one side, There's a plan that people that allegedly are close to Trump. Once again, we don't really know who's coming up with all of these ideas. But there are people who are close to Trump who are saying that one of the plans is freezing the conflict and Ukraine remains neutral, not in NATO.

Actually, not in NATO is pretty much what they're saying. No NATO and neutral. Some people are talking about it. The militarized zone. Some people are talking about no U.S. troops in NATO, let the Europeans handle it. Other plans and ideas are talking about continuing to send weapons to Ukraine while Ukraine remains neutral. And it's neutral only for a certain amount of time for 10, 20 years. In other words, try to wait Putin out. And then when Putin goes, I guess you created today. So that's on the one side of the equation. The other side of the equation is what I like to call Pompeo. The Pompeo plan, which is you get Pompeo into the Trump administration. Pompeo has floated out various hawkish proposals like 500 billion lend lease to Ukraine, continued escalation, continuing to talk up Ukraine entering NATO. and just basically going full speed ahead to confront Russia.

And I think those are the two competing ideas with regards to Ukraine that they would like to get Trump to buy into. And you could see they're trying to influence Trump in a certain direction. To me, both of the ideas are a non-starter. But what are your thoughts on what do the – much of the collective West and the various factions via the collective West media, what are your thoughts on what they're trying to throw at Trump to talk to Putin about? You're absolutely right. These are the plans which they are deliberately feeding to the media and which they're

trying to pressure bounce Trump into agreeing to. The important thing to say is that these are both neocon plans. One is neocon light, the other is neocon-heavy. So neocon-light, freeze the conflict, continue to arm Ukraine, send NATO troops into Ukraine, and you don't call them NATO troops, and don't have American troops there, create some kind of buffer zone, wait Putin out, and then bring Ukraine into NATO, perhaps 10, 20 years time when Putin is no longer there. That's neocon light.

near conheve is the Pompeo clan, which is essentially do what the Biden administration has been doing, only do it even more. And escalate, give more money, $500 billion or whatever it is, strip away even more weapons and things of that kind, continue to arm Ukraine. Except, of course, that is no longer possible because if it had been possible, the Biden administration would have done it anyway. This is basically an attempt to scare and bluff Putin to backing down and agreeing to the original objective, which is to get Ukraine into NATO as soon as possible and to get the Russians to agree in effect to Western American demands about Ukraine, Neocong demands about Ukraine. So you're absolutely correct. These are non-statists. The Russians will not accept them, and they've made that absolutely clear. If Trump is drawn into supporting either of these plans, then he's going to get himself into all kinds of problems. That's the first thing to say. I would say that if Trump buys into any of these plans, his administration, his second term as president is effectively over.

His agenda's over. And I say that because I believe that these plans are the gateway. to not only bog him down in Ukraine, but to also subvert and sabotage his term as president. I believe once they get him entangled in Project Ukraine, then I believe they're just going to repackage all of the stuff that they threw out him in 2016, the Russia Gates, the transcripts and phone calls and all of these things. That's my hunch. I don't have any information. I'm just going off of a feeling that I have, the minute he bogs himself down in Ukraine, which is what these two plans are designed to do, you know, that's when I think the wheels come off of his entire

administration. He gets distracted, the whole America First Agenda, everything that he has planned, drain the swap, make America healthy, again, everything gets totally derailed and then all of the various scandals, which will be pushed by the mainstream media. They have not given up, the neocons have not given up, the neocons, the neolibs have not given up. The neocons, the neo-libs have not given up. I think everything just goes out the window if he gets bogged down in Ukraine by buying into any of these two plans.

The Pompeo plan is World War III. I think that's obvious. The neocon light, it's a bit more deceptive, but it's escalation. Yeah, absolutely. It's escalation. There's no doubt about it, yeah. I mean, the idea, the idea on the neocon, on the neocon light plan, the idea that the Russians would ever agree to Western,

forces, European troops, NATO troops, in other words, entering Ukraine, should tell you immediately that they're never going to agree with it, and it is a non-starter. I completely agree with you. I mean, I've said this in many places. The greatest mistake Trump can make is to get bogged down into the details, plans and all of that about Ukraine. It will absorb all the time, all his time, all his political energy. It will pull him away from his base. It will open him up to all kinds of criticisms within Europe and the United States.

It will make him the prisoner of the neocons. And that is what these plans are about. They're not about solving the war in Ukraine. They're not interested in ending the war in Ukraine. When you said that these people are not listening to what Putin is saying, you're absolutely right. That isn't their concern at all. What they want to do is to make sure.

is to maintain the near-con ascendancy in Washington. And they see Trump as a problem, and they're trying to tie down Trump using Ukraine as a means in order to do it. So I completely agree. I think it would be the end. It would also create major divisions within his administration. It would probably put him at odds with his vice president, because J.D. Vance has made him very clear that he doesn't want to see.

support Ukraine anymore. It would create major fissures with his supporters in Congress. Many of them, you know, would be extremely unhappy. Marjorie Taylor Green and people like that would not be happy at all with a plan of this kind. And of course, it would set him at odds with his voters who have made it absolutely clear. I don't think there's any doubt about this. In fact, just to say, We've said in these programs that it is a misconception that foreign policy has played no role in the election that has happened. And we're starting to see that in the data that's coming out of the election. People when they voted and when they voted for Trump were bringing up the fact that they were concerned about war and that they wanted all of these wars to end. So if the president, they just elected on an anti-bought ticket, starts drifting into wars with

Russians, they will not be pleased as well. So it will be the end of his administration. I think you're absolutely correct. Should he call Putin? Yes. Trump called Putin? Yes, I think he should. Now, this is where, of course.

Before inauguration? Well, probably. But let's just unpack that. And let's look, first of all, on what Putin said, because this is actually quite interesting. So Putin reiterated the positions that the Russian foreign ministry have been saying that as far as the Russians are concerned, the destruction of relations between the United States and Russia was not of their doing. It was engineered by the United States. He, however, went out of his way to say that he's absolutely willing to sit down and talk with the Americans. and to try and find common ground and to move forward on their agenda together.

He did suggest that because it was the Americans who destroyed the relationship, it is up to the Americans to make the first move. Though he did lead open to himself, he did say, you know, it would not be dishonorable or inconsistent if he did actually. take the initiative to call Trump. And at the same time, as he said all of those things, he made all of those points about him being willing to speak to Trump, move forward with an agenda intended to restore relations. He spoke about Trump in very, very generous terms. He congratulated Trump. He's not sent Trump an official letter, but he gave very warm congratulations to Trump over the course

at the press conference. And he also spoke about Trump being a very, very brave man and said the extent to which he was impressed by the way that Trump behaved after the assassination attempt on him. So he spoke in ways that basically said to Trump, look, if you want to talk, I am prepared to talk. Just be realistic about what we can talk about where Ukraine is concerned. But we are not looking for further escalation.

We're not trying to oust you from your economic positions. And he again went over the same things that were said at Kazan, that Bricks is not an anti-American project, but it's not trying to destroy the dollar or anything at that time. But he did say, obviously, you've got to understand, we have our interests in Ukraine and we're not going to retreat from them. So he's keeping the door open and given how important Russia is in establishing security in Europe and by the way, the Middle East itself as well. And Putin mentioned that. He said, you know, you can't really afford to ignore us.

We are too big, we're too powerful, we're too important to the world economic system to be ignored in that kind of way. And he's absolutely right about that. Given how centrally important Russia is, I think Trump should work towards a meeting with Putin, a virtual meeting, perhaps a personal meeting, as soon as he can. though I think maybe given the back history, it might be best to wait until after the election before that is organized. In terms of a call, well, Trump has spoken to many leaders around the world. Seventy by some counts, so why not Putin as well? All right. The final question that I have is that there is some thought. analysis in Ukraine, as well as in the United States, that Trump may actually be better for the

Olensky regime than Biden. In other words, there are some people that believe that the Biden White House wrongly, absolutely wrongly, but they believe they're buying into the narrative that the Biden White House was afraid of Russia. They didn't want to escalate. It didn't do enough for Ukraine. They didn't greenlight the long range missile strikes. They didn't give Ukraine enough attackums, enough tanks, whatever. They've come up with a bunch of excuses, enough money. And they believe that the Biden White House put the brakes on actually helping Ukraine to win the war against Russia. And they believe that Trump, if they can influence him enough and get to him, then Trump would not be like Biden.

He would not be afraid. He would go full speed towards giving Ukraine whatever it needs to defeat Russia. And they see that as a way for the Oletsky regime to come out of this conflict with a win. They believe that if they can somehow influence, Trump to get him on their side, Trump will escalate much harder, much faster than Biden ever did because they're thinking is Trump. Trump is unpredictable and he has no fear. So we've got to get him to buy into our way of thinking when it comes to Putin in Russia and Ukraine. Do you think that that's realistic? And is there, is there a way? Let's say Trump.

did decide to side with the neocons. It's very possible. Pompeo enters the administration. Rubio enters the administration. Cotton enters the administration. Graham is floating around. That's four, four hardcore neocons right there. There's talk about this Brian Hook guy who's a big-time neocon staffing the State Department. Yeah. Let's just say Trump does say, okay, I'm going to put pressure on Putin and I'm going to go very, very heavy against Russia. Does that provide the Oletsky regime Ukraine with some sort of a path to victory or Trump's just going to be defeated by Russia? Right.

The end of the day. Right. What you've just outlined is people hoping that of the two plans that we discussed, Neocon Light and Neocon. heavy, Trump goes all abroad for neocon heavy. He adopts the entire Pompeo clan in all its details and all. It's not going to work. It's going to make the desire. And I just pause you there. He may go for neocon light, get turned down, and then get manipulated to say, okay, let's let's go for neocon heavy. Oh, absolutely. The two plans are not mutually

exclusive. In fact, you could probably, it's a reasonable guess that all the people who are proposing these plans are talking to each other. They are, after all, near cons. These are neocon plans. And the intention of floating neocon light is to draw Trump into neocon heavy. I mean, you know, obviously that is not beyond the neocons. Whatever else they are, they are formatively successful bureaucratic fighters. They understand. Washington, they understand that, you know, if you go for neocon light, you're halfway there to going for neocon heavy. This is quite plausibly what they intend. But of course, all that will lead to, I mean, if it does happen, and I can't, I can't say that it will, and I can't say it's

definitely that it won't. But if it does happen, it's, we get into exactly the scenario that you said, the collapse of the Magamuwa, the collapse of the Trump administration, an even more resounding defeat in Ukraine, always assuming, of course, that we avoid the ultimate disaster of World War III, which is quite plausibly where we would end up with that kind of scenario. Now, I have to say, my instinct is that Trump is going to reject all of this. He's never shown any enthusiasm for getting drawn into you, Craig. He's spoken about Zelensky as this salesman who turns up every so often in Washington

and walks off with $100 billion. He was at one point in time back last year. He was speaking about not providing further funding for Ukraine. It would be contrary. It will be inconsistent with what he has been saying over the last year for Trump to go down this road. So I hope he doesn't. And, you know, based on what he has said previously, I would have thought that he wouldn't. And there are people around him.

There are people like his vice president who will advise him not to go down this route. But if I was to say definitely that he weren't, then of course I wouldn't be saying the absolute truth because I don't know. I don't know what Donald Trump is going to do. He's an unpredictable person. He has shown in the past that he can be influenced in self-destructive ways. But then again, coming back to things that he said on his campaign, he admitted that fact. He admitted that he'd appointed the wrong people and listened to the wrong advice.

And I hope that this time he understands that and acts more consistently with what he has himself said before and what I think ultimately he wants to do, which is to escape all of these entanglements and focus instead on the pressing problems that concern the people of the United States. But ultimately, the decision must be made by him. Yeah, but does the U.S. even have the capabilities to go hard against Russia and Ukraine? I don't even think the U.S. is capable of it, to be honest, at this point in time. Well, that's easy. I mean, you're always capable of a World War III scenario, but conventional.

Conventional. Yeah. Actually, I'm glad you've asked me that question because that is a very important and very good point, because, of course, these plans are not really about Ukraine, ultimately. They're not about winning in Ukraine because the war in Ukraine. because the war in Ukraine, as I've said previously, is already lost. The Pentagon knows it. The Pentagon knows perfectly well that giving Ukraine permission to launch deep missile strikes into Russia is not going to change the outcome of the war.

It is just going to escalate and endanger the situation with the Russians. They can't realistically do anything more than what they have already done. And they don't have the means. the capabilities to do that. If you follow, track what the Pentagon is saying, you can see it. They're saying this quite openly and quite straightforwardly. But the objective of these plans is not to win in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine is already lost. It is to subvert and destabilize the Trump administration. It is to tie down Donald Trump, to break up the Maga. movement, to create fissures between Trump and his supporters, both within the administration

and in Congress, and to leave the neocons back still in control. That is what the real purpose of these plans is, not to win in Ukraine, because that can't be done. And that's why I said it is important that people who are advising Trump, those people who have real good intentions and really want Trump to succeed, point all of that out to him. Yeah, they're trying to trap Trump in Ukraine. Yes, and they're using their friends in the media to do it. I mean, the very fact that we're reading about these reports in places like the Wall Street Journal and the economist itself gives it away.

By the way, Peskov, interestingly enough, the Russians said as much. He said that this is Putin's spokesman. He said, if you read about plans in the Wall Street Journal, plans that are floating around in Washington, maybe those plans have nothing to do with Donald Trump. Peskov actually said that. So, you know, but the very fact that, as I said, these journals, the Wall Street Journal and the economists that had been used to float these plans tells you that this is a major lobbying exercise. that the neocons are undertaking in which they're using their friends of the media to try to pressure Trump to adopt their thinking. And they're not, as I said, really thinking about Ukraine.

They're thinking about their own position in Washington. And if he falls for it, and he will get into real, very, very real problems. Big, big problems. And they're going to blame the loss in Ukraine on him. On him, exactly. All the blame on day. Exactly. Exactly. And And that leaves me with one conclusion. The best thing for Trump to do is to just stay as far away from Ukraine as possible. Call up Putin, talk to him, figure out what you can do. But don't get bogged down in it, stay away from it. Don't get into long meetings and trips to Europe and trips to Kiev and Zelensky in Washington and Macron in Washington and whoever's the way. going to be leading Germany and Washington talking about Ukraine. Don't get bogged down in any of that

stuff. Just try to reach out to Putin, try to solve it. I think it can be solved pretty quickly if you have the right intention and the right ideas. But don't get bogged out in it. Absolutely. Once he gets bogged down in it, he's cooked. Absolutely. The one European leader who he should listen to is Orban. And Orban, has just made some more statements about this. And that effectively is what he's saying. Orban is saying the Americans are going to stop providing money. We cannot provide money. And that means that we have got to sort out a look to achieve a peace in Europe with the Russians over Ukraine. Now, what Orban is doing is a very clever and sophisticated statements because, of course, he's also giving an effect.

Trump advice, he said, look, don't get yourself tied down with this. Let us in Europe, sort it out. There is now, now that you are there in the White House, the very fact that you are there and you're cutting off the funding to Ukraine gives us people like me, Orban and Fetzel and others, perhaps the new government in Austria once it sorts itself out. Anyway, it's giving us the political space, room where we can lobby for peace. And all we need from you is for you to stick to the positions that you have taken now. And I think that is the advice that he should follow. Keep away from Ukraine.

This whole thing is toxic. It will devour his administration if he lets himself get drawn into it. It would be a huge mistake to do so. Yeah, deputize Orban. Leave it. Leave it to his real friends in Europe. Even the Poles are now becoming disenchanted with this whole business. I mean, the Poles have just made some incredibly critical comments about Ukraine.

Notice the previous law and justice party in Ukraine got utterly, in Poland, got utterly frustrated and exasperated with Ukraine. And now we see that even the Donald Tusk, Radekzykorsky, access, are becoming exasperated. aspirated with Ukraine as well. So, you know, there are people in Europe who left to themselves will take this forward. The reason we got into this mess in the first place is because the Biden administration rallied the NIRCON supporters in Europe to the course and marginalized the voices of reasoned there. Now that the NICONs have been defeated in the United States, there's a chance that they will lose ground in Europe too. And we could have a peace and all that Trump needs to do is to sit back and let it happen.

Yeah, well, Tusk said some very nasty stuff about Trump. Very nasty. Denying it, but we have it on video. We open on video. No, no denying in time. They all- Korski is chief of New York Khan. Absolutely, absolutely. But, They have to take into account Polish opinion, which is also becoming deeply exasperated and frustrated with Ukraine. And that's why, if even that government is now shifting, you can see the sense that there is a movement in Europe, in Eastern Europe, at least. And as I said, Orban, who's always

been the most clear-sighted of all European leaders about Ukraine, I mean, he's essentially giving Trump advice, stop funding Ukraine, stop funding Ukraine, stop giving Ukraine weapons and things will sort themselves out. And that's not only the, yeah, he should do it. And he doesn't, he, Orban doesn't only provide Trump the advice, but Orban was smart enough before the elections to position himself as the only person in Europe who can talk to Trump, who can talk to the Chinese and who can talk to the Russians. It was Erban that made that trip. And everyone was ridiculing him in Europe. All of the All of the dummies, all of the dumb-dums in Europe were ridiculing Orban for his diplomacy.

But now look, he's the only person in a position to talk to everyone. Yes, yes. The most important thing for Trump to understand is who his friends are and who his enemies are. And the neocons, all of them, even those who, you know, affect alike him, are ultimately his enemies. And the point to understand about the neocons, I've said this many times. is that these guys take no prisoners. If you are, you know, if you give them an inch, they will take you over completely. If Trump has a very ambitious program, one which the American people support, he needs to focus on that. He needs to focus on the problems of the United States,

which are very pressing. He certainly should not get himself pulled into a long, complicated negotiation about Ukraine, which will only deliver him into the hands of the neocons. One final thought on messaging. Trump should probably get out the message that Ukraine was not his doing. I don't know how he's going to phrase it, how he's going to package it, but my thinking is that he should get out in front of this and say, look, yes, I'm going to talk to Putin. Yes, I'm going to try to solve Ukraine. Yes, I will solve Ukraine, whatever. I'm going to do it quickly. I'm not going to get bogged down in it. And then I'm going to focus on America because that's my number one goal. I don't want more money to Zelensky. I want the money to go to the American people.

He should say that. I want whatever money we have to go into the pockets of the American people, I'm not going to get bogged down in Ukraine. And he should also somehow put out the message, Look, Project Ukraine was not mine. This was Biden's adventure. This was Biden's pet project. This was his number one foreign policy issue. I'm going to try to clean it up or I'm going to clean it up and then I'm going to move on. I mean, what do you think about that?

I haven't seen that type of messaging from Trump, though. No, the closest has come to is when he said, which he's probably right about, which is that if he'd been reelected in 2020, there would not have been a Ukraine. war. And that is true. But he hasn't gone that extra step of saying that the reason the was a Ukraine war is because some people in Washington wanted it. And that's what he does need to say. He needs to make it absolutely clear where the responsibility for this disaster lies. It is not his. He doesn't own it. If he tries to negotiate an end to it, he does. And, you know, he, he, he, he really shouldn't, he should truly want to avoid that, any situation that he owns any part of it. This is entirely Biden's doing, and he should leave it to him, the responsibility entirely

that's right. No. Yeah, I agree. All right. We'll end the video there. The durand.com. We are on Rumbleaudit, secret shoot, telegram, rock fin, and X, and go to the Duran shop, pick up some merch.

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