The Duran Podcast - Trump demands European economic seppuku. Kellogg declares victory

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

Trump demands European economic seppuku. Kellogg declares victory

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the sanctions situation with Russia, connected to Project Ukraine, and Trump a couple of days ago put out his truth social post, his ultimatum to NATO, which was stop buying Russian oil and tariff China, 50 to 100%. And then he's all in when it comes to sanctions against Russia. And there will be major sanctions, he said, in his truth social post. Anyway, he's given various media interviews as well, and he's pretty much said the same thing as what he posted on truth social. We have Lindsey Graham, who continues to push the bone-crushing sanctions on Russia, and he says he has the support in the Senate to move forward with the secondary sanctions,

500% bone-crushing secondary sanctions on China and India. And you have Speaker of that, House, Mike Johnson, who a couple of days ago also said that he would only push forward legislation connected to Graham's bill calling for secondary sanctions on China and India and on Russia with the support of Trump. So basically, Mike Johnson's message was, unless Trump pushes this forward, we're not going to deal with it at all. I mean, we're at a point right now where Trump is basically signaling to, well, he is signaling to the Europeans. I'm out of this.

Or at least don't bother me about sanctions. Don't bother me about the sanction stuff. We've already resolved the whole ceasefire thing. The security guarantees, I think the U.S. positions are very clear on that as well. what's left for the Europeans? I mean, are they getting the hint? Are they getting the picture now of what Trump is telling them? The truth social posts that Trump made, which you are alluding to, I can absolutely guarantee to you, has had an absolutely electrifying effect around Europe.

It has shocked the Europeans profoundly. And the proof of that is the way it's been covered in the European media. It's been barely covered at all. It's like a wall of silence has descended. You would have imagined that a statement like that would be one of the big news media stories. But the European media, European governments, are not. talking about it. And the only explanation, given the unanimity of this, is that the word has gone out to all of the various media outlets, you know, the editorial offices and all of those things.

We don't want you to talk about this. It's too embarrassing. It's too difficult. So let's not do so. that that was an extraordinary true social post and it contained some really remarkable comments in it. First of all, it said that the Europeans talk about the war all the time, but they're not doing anything really that shows that they truly wish to win it because if they did win it, if they did think it was such an existential issue for them, as they are saying, obviously I'm going beyond the words, but that's the obligation of the true social post. then they would not be buying Russian oil and they would not be buying Russian gas

either directly from Russia or through third parties as they are doing and that calls into question their entire commitment to this conflict. And it was very interesting because when he discussed that he said that by taking that step

by continuing to buy Russian oil and gas and doing all of those things, you are weakening your negotiations. position. In other words, the Europeans' own negotiating position. He appeared to distance the United States from this. And then he called it Biden's and Zelensky's war. He didn't reference Putin or Russia, which is again extremely interesting. And coming directly to the point that you made, He said, look, unless you're prepared to do these things, don't waste my time. If you aren't prepared to do these things, you're wasting the time, energy and money of the United States.

So what he's basically saying to the Europeans is this, look, I hear what you say. You're constantly telling me to go down this road of not just sanctioning, Russia up to its ears, but also doing the same with other places. You insinuated that you support Lindsey Graham's bone crushing sanctions and all of that. You want me to impose these massive sanctions on the Russians. But unless you're prepared to do this yourself, yourselves, which you obviously aren't, then you're simply wasting my time because you're not really in this. You're asking me to commit the United States to do things which you yourselves are not prepared to do. So push off, basically.

That is what he was saying. I mean, it was pretty blunt, pretty direct. And through Johnson, and I think that Johnson gave a very interesting interview, by the way. And clearly he's been in discussion with people within the White House. Johnson is telling Lindsay Graham the same thing. He's saying to Lindsay Graham, look, you're coming up with all of these bone crushing plans. You say you've got 80% 80 out of 100 senators behind you. You're now trying this new trick of connecting it to the budget.

This is ridiculous. It's Trump who has to make this decision. Not you. If you're going to press on doing this, I'm not. putting it to the floor of the house and that's it. And clearly, this is something that he's agreed with Trump and basically it's Johnson telling Graham, now's the moment for you to back off. Now it's an interesting strategy, in other words, to offer to go down the route of bone

crushing sanctions against China and others, as well as, of course, Russia itself. as a way of basically calling the bluff of the Europeans, but it's not without risk, because we know how obsessed some people in Europe are. What if Stama, Macro, Ursula, Callas and Mets suddenly turn around and say, yes, we are prepared to do all of these things. We are prepared to put 100% tariffs on China and India. We are prepared to stop buying Russian oil.

We are prepared to throw Hungary and Slovakia and Turkey under the bus. What does they turn round and tell Trump that they are indeed prepared to do all of these things and to confiscate the Russian assets, which Trump is also calling them? them to do. What then? I mean, Trump has committed himself in that case to an economic war against China, India, most of the world, and it will be much more difficult to find ways to back out of it. But anyway, that is clearly what he's trying to do. Yeah, it's an interesting proposition from Trump, isn't it? Abliterate your economies, destroy yourselves, and then I'll commit to you.

It's basically what Trump is telling them. Yes. And so what if they do say, okay, we will destroy our economies, we'll do it, but the United States has to commit to us, which means that the United States has to place major sanctions on Russia, which we don't have any details as to what that is. Obviously, Trump didn't spell it out what the major sanctions would be, and then the United States would embark on some sort of secondary sanctions against the United States. China and India, as will the Europeans, right?

Absolutely. 50 to 100 percent secondary sanctions on China and India. So I mean, you know, Trump would basically be saying, okay, if you want me to go down this route, then I need to at least know that Europe is 100 percent beholden to me. Yes. They're going to buy everything from us. They're completely at our disposal, like at our disposal, Europe. If I'm going to go down the route of ruining the progress that I've made with Russia,

at least in terms on a business level, say, you know, Witkoff and Dimitriev and talking about perhaps resuming energy cooperation, maybe talking about doing business in the Arctic, if I'm going to completely sabotage that, if I'm going to get mixed up once again in some sort of a trade dispute with China again. If I'm going to do all of this, then I need to know that Europe is completely busted, broken, and you're going to give all the money that you have, whatever money you have, whatever money you can put together, whatever you can pay for in energy is all going to go to me, to the United States, all of it. I mean, that's pretty much what the deal is. That's what's on the table. Well, absolutely. Now, of course, there has already

been pushed back. The Wall Street Journal says that the Europeans have said no to this. They said no before this true social post appeared because they understand perfectly well that this would be economically suicidal for themselves. And of course, Trump was careful, I noticed, to address this to NATO rather than to the EU. So that means in theory, and he made it clear that all NATO countries must agree to this. So amongst the people who would have to agree to this would not just be Orban and Fetzer, but Erdogan as well. Yeah. And, you know, Erdogan is most unlikely to put it mildly to agree to something like this. But your question is interesting because you highlighted the big three, right? Mertz, Macron, Stamer. Yeah. What if they, yeah. I mean, your point is,

what if they decide to play around with Trump? Because that's what they would be doing. If they say, we'll do it, Trump. What are you going to do now? Yes. You know, in a way they try to call Trump's bluff on all of this. Trump's not going to be happy if they do that. And that is why, as I said, I think this strategy is not without risk. And it's not unlikely, given how obsessed these people are.

Mertz, Macron, Stama, Osce, Kallas, how obsessed they are, they could say, well, look, we can't do this in the NATO format. We can't even do this in the EU format, but we might be able to do it, for example, in the G7 format or something like that. And given that we are far and away the biggest Western economies, you only need us in the G7 to agree. And if we all agree to do this together, then it will hold and it will have an effect. and it will bring the Russians to heal exactly, as you say.

As you rightly said, it would be a catastrophe for Europe if they went down this route. But as I said, are you really gambling on the rationality of people like Kayakales and Ursula von the Lion and Friedrich Metz? I mean, they've acted in a consistently irrational way about this conflict up to this point. I think on balance this gamble, because it is a gamble. I mean, if you read the truth social post carefully, you can see that this is, this Trump really doesn't want to go there. When he says, you know, you're wasting my time. this is your war, not mine. This is you who are weakening your negotiation strategy,

not my negotiation strategy and the US is negotiation strategy. You can see that he's not really up for this. You can see from what Speaker Johnson said, that he, you know, that the Trump administration, the Republican leadership in the House are not really up for this. But nonetheless, Trump has made that commitment now, that public commitment.

It's there in his own words, if these people come round and do exactly what you said, call his bluff, because this is a bluff. It's a poker game. He's playing poker with them. But if they call his bluff, then, as I said, he's in Trump. Well, he could tell them to go ahead and do it. And they'll never do it, right? I mean, the EU, Germany, I mean, how difficult would it be for them to actually go ahead and place 50% tariffs on China, for example? Well, it would be a, it would be devastating.

They have to run it through their parliaments. They have to, I mean, so I mean, he could easily just, and he would completely blow them apart. He could say, okay, great, he could write a true social post and say, my good friends, which he likes to play around with them and call them his good friends, right? You can say my good friends, Black Rock Bert's, Flip-Blopper, Bacron, and Kirstammer have decided to place 100% tariffs on China and stop buying Russian oil. I welcome the decision. And once this takes effect, the United States is there to join you. Yes.

I mean, that would be catastrophic for all these people. I mean, we can go back and forth with all of this. We can. We can. The end result is that Russia. continues to stay focused on winning the war and executing the objectives of the SMO. Absolutely. My concern is simply this.

I mean, I always think personally, and I've been involved in many negotiations in my time, that if you yourself bluff, you always run the risk, your bluff will be called. I would have preferred a simple clean break. Trump simply coming out and telling them sanctions have gone as far as they can go. this doesn't make any kind of sense. I would have thought that Trump could do the same with Lindsay Graham and should have done the same with Lindsay Graham back in April, saying, you know, what exactly is this that you're proposing?

Do you really want to close down the entire US car industry because we're not going to get rare earths from China? I mean, do you really think this is going to work? I always in these kind of scenarios prefer and unambiguous. clean and direct approach. We've been saying that from the beginning, but that's not... But that's not what Trump has done. And the thing to take from this is that it's now becoming increasingly clear that Trump

doesn't want to go down this route of sanctions and tariffs and all of those things. We probably are going to get some sanctions still coming. The talk is that they're now going to sanction. Russia's inter-bank payment system. Yeah. And are they going to say that banks around the world that work with it are themselves going to be subject to restrictions and sanctions? China, which is the country that matters, is already busy working out its own mechanisms

to get around this. Turkey clearly has done the same because mere cards are apparently now working in Turkey. So one way or the other, this isn't going to make the difference. difference that people say. But Trump clearly doesn't want to go down the route of the big sanctions. And he's signaling that and he's basically telling the Europeans to get lost. The language of the truth social post makes that perfectly clear to anybody who reads it. Yeah, from my understanding, the Europeans are the ones that want to sanction Russia's Swift, the SPFS, I believe is what Yes.

What it's called. I don't think the U.S. has said anything about it, have they? No, I've not. So this is a European initiative. Yes. Right. Who cares, right? I think that's going to be the reaction is who cares.

Yes. Okay. Kellogg was at the, let's move on and talk about Kellogg. He was at the yes conference, the Yalta conference, which takes place in Kiev. It takes place every year in Kiev. He said some interesting things about the conflict. He said that Russia is losing. They're not winning.

He said that NATO could kick Russia's ass. He said the UK and France, they have nuclear weapons, so they shouldn't be too concerned about Putin. He said all of these things. He said taking out China, if you could tariff China and stop them from working with Russia, then you've effectively won the war. He basically repeated a lot of the propaganda. and nonsense that we've been hearing from the Collective West over the past six months.

The one thing that came out from, at least to me, that came out of this interview of Kellogg at this event, is that he is, without a doubt, the person that has been advising Trump on Project Ukraine, and he is the one that has advised Trump into this corner on Project Ukraine. He talked about meetings in the Oval Office, where Trump would ask him, what's the situation in Ukraine, is Russia losing? Is Russia winning? And he would tell Trump, he said it. He would tell Trump, Russia, no, Russia's not winning. Russia's losing. They're only gaining X amount of territory. They've lost 1.1 million men. Kellogg is the person behind all of this stuff. He's the one that has led Trump down a terrible path with project Ukraine that is now causing the Trump administration to come up

with all of these elaborate, crazy schemes of sanctioning Russian oil and 100% bone-crushing sanctions. If you guys should do it in Europe and then we'll do it. So Trump is trying to figure out his way out of this. But it was Kellogg, without a doubt, that maneuvered Trump into this position. Of course, Trump is his president of the United States and he decided to listen to Kellogg. Yeah. That was his mistake. I think that's very clear now from the statements at this conference.

Absolutely. And I'm going to say something else. I think that it is Kellogg, who together with General Kane, who is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and who seems to be very close to Kellogg. He mentioned the two of them agree that the Ukraine is actually winning the war. And all of that, I'm pretty sure that it is they who are not only giving Trump these completely incorrect assessments about the military situation, but who are giving Trump these completely incorrect figures about casualties, which they're clearly getting from Zelensky. I mean, it's clearly this is where all of this has been coming from. So you're absolutely right.

It's what we see is the extent of Kellogg's influence on Trump, the extent to which Kellogg has led Trump into an extremely pro-Ukronian position. But also, I get to say this about, himself, you can see how the mask has gradually fallen. Because when he wrote his famous article back in April 2024, I mean, he was talking then about, you know, how we need to respect Putin and we need to understand him. And he tried to package his proposals as being somehow meeting the Russians halfway. I mean, it never seemed like that. that to you and me, but that was how a lot of people saw them. But now we can absolutely see

that he is an absolute committed supporter of Ukraine, O'Selensky, and that ultimately he's a pro-Ukrainian voice in the Oval Office. Yep. Kellogg's at fault for where the United States is today, where the Trump administration is today with Project Ukraine, of course, Trump is ultimately at fault because he is the president of the United States and he's the one that decided to appoint Kellogg and he's the one that decided to listen to Kellogg instead of listening to other parts of his administration. Yes. And Kellogg has admitted that. Yes. And Kellogg gets all his information from Ukraine. He's admitted that as well. Absolutely. Yes. Okay. So that's, yeah. I mean, that's that the picture is very clear now. It is very, very clear. I mean, Trump accepted Kellogg as the

expert voice on this. Yeah. And Kellogg is not an expert. He's not an expert voice. He's simply another advocate for Project Ukraine in Washington. I mean, that's all he is. Well, and with family connections. With family of Ukraine. Exactly. Exactly. That Trump should have known all of this. His administration should have known all this or people in his white house should have warned him about all of this. Or maybe some of them did. Who knows? Yeah. All right. We will end the video there, the Durant.locals.com. We are on X and Telegram and Rumble and go to the Duran shop, pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video. Update there's a link in the description box down below. Take care.