What A Day - Putin Cozies Up To Modi And Xi

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and held hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Beijing this weekend. Their talks came during the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, an event that marked the first time in seven years that Presidents Modi and Xi met in person. It also comes as the US navigates a rocky relationship with China, combats India’s frustration over President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and tries to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. To discuss further what Putin’s latest bromance with Xi and Modi means for his on-again, off-again relationship with Trump, we spoke with Tommy Vietor. He’s the co-host of Crooked Media’s Pod Save the World.And in headlines: The Trump family amasses billions after launching a new cryptocurrency, Americans are losing faith in hard work, and a postwar plan to turn Gaza into an AI-powered smart city is floating around the Trump administration.Show Notes:Check out Pod Save The World – www.crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-the-world/Call Congress – 202-224-3121Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Wednesday, September 3rd, my birthday. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what today, the show that has said that West Point is reinstalling a portrait of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Sad because Robert E. Lee was a loser. He lost a civil war, despite having the tremendous luck to fight against Union General George McClellan, who was an idiot. Why are we encouraging safe spaces and participation trophy culture for our troops? What happened to winning?

On today's show, the American dream is dying. And the Trump family reaps financial success from a new cryptocurrency. But let's start with foreign policy. Because while President Donald Trump spent Tuesday explaining how he enjoyed his very normal, very quiet Labor Day weekend... I did numerous shows and also did a number of truths, long truths, I think pretty poignant truths. Now, I was very active over the weekend.

also knew I went out to visit some people at the club that I own, pretty nearby on the Potomac River. And now, I've been very active, actually, over the weekend. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had a fun-filled weekend of meetings and handholding. They met at the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting. It was the first time in seven years that Modi and Xi met in person. And they were meeting at a time when the relationships between Russia, China, India, and the United States are complex. I mean, China and the United States have been global foes

on pretty much every front for decades now, battling over trade and most recently AI policy. But according to the New York Times, Indian leader Modi is upset with Trump because of Trump's tariff policies, and because Trump claimed that he had, quote, solved the long-running dispute between India and Pakistan and wanted Modi to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Donald Trump did not, in fact, solve it. in Russia? While the war in Ukraine has lasted for more than three years and shows few signs of stopping anytime soon, and Putin has shown markedly little interest in America's diplomatic outreach. Speaking to conservative pundits Scott Jennings on Tuesday, Trump said he was disappointed in Putin over the war, but also felt it necessary to bring up the 2020 election

because, of course, he did. I'm very disappointed in him. He and I always had a great relationship, very disappointed. Thousands of people are dying and not Americans instead of dying, but they're Russians and they're Ukrainians and there's thousands and it's a war that makes no sense. And it would have never started if I were president. And that's what bothers me even more because the election was totally rigged. And it's a shame. We'll see what happens. But I'm very disappointed in President Putin. I can say that.

So to talk more about Putin, Modi, Xi, and our maybe New World Order, I spoke with Tommy Vitor. He's a co-host of Crooked Media's Pod Save the World. Tommy, welcome back to what today. Great to see you. So let's start with Vladimir Putin's new, beautiful romance. Very friendly meeting over the long weekend with Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. I guess it's more of a thruple sort of situation, but I don't judge whatever they're

into. Anyway, they met in northern China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit. Can you give us a bit of context? What is the SEO exactly and what was the main purpose of this summit, if not romantic handholding. Yeah, now I'm just thinking of like a gigantic key party. So thank you for putting that in my head. I love giving you the worst possible mental images.

Thank you so much. So the SEO, it's this regional security cooperation organization. It was founded in the early 2000s by the Russians and the Chinese. And it's sort of their counterweight to Western alliances like NATO. And the focus of this whole weekend was a whole bunch of criticism of the United States, some thinly veiled, some not veiled at all. especially U.S. trade policy and tariffs. So we had a moment with Putin and Modi,

where they had a private meeting in the back of Putin's armored limo, and they were spotted literally holding hands on their way to the meeting with Xi. And Putin called Modi his, quote, dear friend and praised India. And Russia's, quote, friendly and trusting relations. This is all coming, as you point out, just days after the U.S. doubled tariffs on India to 50% as punishment for buying Russian oil, or arguably because Modi won't nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, which is the wildest possible storyline of many wild ones.

So is this a general statement of alliance between Russia and India, which isn't new? Or is this also just a fuck you to Trump? Yeah, this is a fun one. We should dig into this. So, I mean, Putin, as you know, is at his heart. He's a troll. Right. So everything he does is to fuck you to the United States or to,

Trump or to like Europe or democracies generally, like our entire system, right? And so, you know, he loves nothing more than to be at the center of the action on the world stage and let everyone know that you don't get to lecture him about human rights or not invading your neighbors or any of the things he doesn't care about. He's still here. For Modi, Modi has played a different game over the years and he sort of tried to straddle both worlds. He was Trump's good buddy for a long time. Remember those howdy Modi events? Yeah. No, that was. The very, I think, undercover story of like, you know, both 2016 and 2020 elections was Trump really going hard after Hindu Americans and Modi doing his best to help. Yes, there was this weird alliance between Trump's sort of authoritarianism and this Hindu nationalist movement. Modi essentially endorsed Trump in 2020. So you're right. There was this close relationship. But also, you know, Modi, he struggled both worlds. He tried to keep close ties with the Russians and the Chinese. Part of it was like just to be his own man, but also, you know, he wanted to show that he could buy oil and gas from whoever he wanted and just sort of like have this broader economics that.

relationships. What is Trump's relationship with Modi going to look like now? Yeah, well, let's sort of start with this weird Peace Prize thing just for a second. Yeah. So if you remember, there was a flare up on the border between Indian Pakistan. There's a horrible terrorist attack. Yes. And it led to this exchange of fires that got really dicey for a while. That's a big deal because these two nuclear armed countries with, you know, decades of tensions in armed conflict. And so Indian Pakistan basically, they brokered a cease fire, and then Trump jumps the gun and tweets out that he had basically brokered this deal. Right, and that he had, quote, solved the India-Pakistan thing, which is like, I don't think you

solved a, what, 75-year ethnic and religious conflict in, like, two days. No, no, last time I checked, they still have militaries, they still have nukes. And so Trump comes out and says, I want to know about peace prize for this. The Pakistani side's like, yeah, sure, whatever, like freebie for us. And then Trump, in addition to ratcheting up tariffs on the Indian government for buying Russian oil and for other trade-related things, is like whining to Modi in a series of phone calls about how he'll never get the Nobel Peace Prize. And Modi's like, buddy, that's not what happened, first of all.

And also for him, I mean, he's got this strong man image. And for him to suggest that the U.S. had to come in as big brother in. broker a ceasefire between the Indian government and Indian military and a much weaker government in military in Pakistan was just a non-starter. So this was like politically impossible for Modi. And Trump's demand basically led to this unraveling of, you know, not just years of effort from Trump to put into the Modi relationship, but also like decades of presidencies. I mean, U.S. presidents have seen India as this counterweight to China, this, you know, growing economic engine that could be an important.

partner. And Trump just decided, you know, it's all about me. And I care about my Nobel Peace Prize and I'm just going to unravel all this. Well, the private car meeting between Putin and Modi happened just weeks after, obviously, Putin and Trump shared a similar moment in the U.S. presidential limo known as The Beast. That was during their summit to discuss a potential peace deal with Ukraine that they had in Alaska that feels like it took place 10 years ago. A billion years ago. Now, where does Trump stand now with Putin? And could that impact the larger relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Yeah, I mean, the double car ride photo sure seemed purposeful, huh?

Right. No, it really, a message is being sent. He's like, I'll ride around with whoever I want. Exactly. That's Putin the message the world. Yeah, so, okay, remember going into the Alaska summit, it seemed like Trump's focus was to get a ceasefire. That did not happen.

Nope. Putin somehow got him to walk away from his primary goal in that meeting, and so we came out with nothing. What Trump instead announced was that there would be, um, a bilateral meeting between the Russians and the Ukrainians, and then if that went well, a trilateral meeting that also included the U.S., where he would, I guess, triumphantly announce peace in the world. None of those steps have happened.

There has been no Russia-Ukraine meeting. There's been no scheduling of a trilateral meeting. So he's gotten nothing. Yeah. It seems like nobody's moving on that. Vladimir Zelensky obviously sees no reason ever to give up any of these territorial demands that Russia has wanted this entire time. So is it possible that Trump's just going to give up on the Ukraine war?

Sometimes it seems like he just gets bored of this stuff. You know, I mean, it seems like the similar things happened with Gaza. There was a moment where there was this acute interest in the horrible images of famine. Trump was like contradicting Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. Everyone thought, okay, maybe now he's going to push him to do something and then nothing. And it seems like that maybe is what's happening. in Ukraine. It's like Trump was focused on ending that war. He genuinely wants a Nobel Peace Prize, but he doesn't want to do anything to pressure Putin the stronger of the two parties.

And now we have two more players. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Beijing on Tuesday to join Putin-Gy and the president of Iran at a massive military parade. It's an event to commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War II. And as a World War II dork, I'm not going to get weird about this revisionist history. But anyway, a lot going on here. What do you make of this? Like, this is clearly a big, you know, these celebrations of the end of Second World War

are basically like military strength brates. That's what you do. That's what they've always been. That's what Victory Day in Moscow has been since 1945. Like, what is this? What are they doing? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, what I think about when I see events like that,

images like that is, I think early on, you would see me, meetings with Putin in North Korea or Iran. And it felt like, look at this rag-tag group of rogue states and kind of clowns. Axis of evil, I believe someone once said. Someone once said, I can't remember who. He said I'm on resistance Twitter now. But over time, North Korea became a huge source of shells, basically, weapons for the Russian

government they were using in Ukraine. The Iranians became an important source of drones and drone technology. So this kind of rag-tag group of rogues actually ended up having a lot of power. And I think, like, in summation, they all came together this week to remind us of this new alliance that they formed and how significant it is. Tommy Vitor, thank you so much, as always, for joining me. Thank you for having me next time. We'll just talk about UNC football. Perfect.

Good. That was my conversation with Tommy Vitor, host of Crooked Media's Pod Save the World. We'll get to more of the news in a moment. But if you like the show, make sure to see. subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What Today is brought to you by OneSkin. I'm a big fan of OneSkin. Known for cult favorites like OS1 Body, OS1 Face, and OS1I, OneSkin stands out for their science-first approach,

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younger for longer. For a limited time, you can try OneSkin with 15% off using code Wad at OneSkin.co. That's 15% off at OneSkin.co with code Wad. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Try OneSkin today, your future self. Well, thank you. Here's what else we're following today. Headlines. There's certainly a lot of legal issues that is raised by this decision, not the least of which is whether or not it's appropriate to appoint a commissioned officer in the military to these

positions, whether or not it violates the Posse Comitatis Act. There are some old Office of Legal Counsel opinions out of Department of Justice that indicate It is legal, but in a very narrow sense. And whether that narrow sense is met by appointing them as temporary immigration judges is yet to be seen. James McPherson, a former Undersecretary of the Army during the first Trump administration, spoke to PBS News Hour about the Pentagon's new immigration plans. The Pentagon announced Tuesday that it will authorize hundreds of its military lawyers to temporarily serve as immigration judges.

Why, you might ask, well, the administration needs some extra hands to process the massive backlog of cases facing the courts right now, thanks in part to Trump's arrest and deportation frenzy. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the Justice Department, which is nuts. The military services should choose the first round of attorneys, 150 of them, both military and civilian, by next week, according to a memo reviewed by the Associated Press. At the same time, more than 100 immigration judges have been fired or left voluntarily after taking deferred resignations offered by the Trump. administration. The Labor Union for Immigration Court judges said in July that at least 17 immigration

judges had been fired, quote, without cause in courts across the country. So once again, the Trump administration fired almost everyone who had the job and then put people who aren't in that job into those jobs. The Trump administration is considering a ludicrous plan to turn the decimated Gaza Strip into a high-end luxury resort after a, quote, voluntary relocation of Palestinians. That's according to a slide deck put together by a consulting firm and seen by the Washington Post. Per of the deck, landowners would be offered crypto to give up their property rights. The token could be redeemed for an apartment in one of the territory's new AI-powered smart cities. Are you fucking kidding me?

But really, should we be surprised by this? Trump literally told us his plans back in February with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side. As far as Gaza is concerned, we'll do what? is necessary. If it's necessary, we'll do that. We're going to take over that piece. We're going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it'll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of. Oh, and he also said this. I don't want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be so magnificent. And clearly, the authors behind the side deck were listening to Trump.

The deck's stated goal is, quote, A thriving Gaza at the crossroads of a new Abrahamic architecture. No thank you. Hey, speaking of crypto, I wonder if there are any connections between that plan and the fact that the Trump family keeps getting richer off weird coins that make no sense to me. The Trump's amassed as much as $5 billion after launching a new cryptocurrency Monday, which can now be purchased on the open market by anyone who wants to curry favor with the president in a shady kind of way.

Here's Bloomberg television talking about the tokens to view. Let's take a look at a two-day chart here of the market cap of WLFI. This is the cryptocurrency tied to President Trump and his family. It's issued by World Liberty Financial, that's the name, the ticker. It began trading yesterday and can now be bought and sold on the open market like a listed company's chair. Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., posted on Twitter, quote, this isn't some meme coin. It's the governance backbone of a real ecosystem changing,

how money moves. Sure. Reminder, Donald Trump owns many of these tokens, while former president Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm in a blind trust to avoid corruption accusations. On that note, Americans no longer believe that hard work leads to building wealth, according to a Wall Street Journal, Nork poll. That poll found that just 25% of Americans feel confident they can improve their standard of living, the lowest number since 1987. which older listeners might recall was the year of one of the worst stock market crashes in American history. So, not great. According to the polling, 70% of respondents said that the American dream,

work hard and you can get ahead, was either no longer true or maybe never true. 55% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats said that they were feeling negative about their prospects and those of their children. There's also new data showing that the middle class, which is usually categorized as households that make about 53,000, $161,000 a year is increasingly strapped for cash. According to the Wall Street Journal, while high earners keep buying flights and spending on retail, middle-class households are tightening their belts, spending less in general and looking for bargains wherever they can. And yet the first family made $5 billion over the weekend by creating its own funny money. I'm sure that will make American families feel just fantastic. And that's the news.

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Check it out and subscribe at crooket.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston. And you want more details? Like how Paul Simon's daughter grew up in that mansion? Or that she hates Richard Gear for buying that mansion? Or that she posted on Instagram at Richard Gear, quote, I hope my dead pets buried in that backyard haunt you until you descend into a slow and unrelenting madness.

Good times, everyone. What Today is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Four. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had a production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Sean Ali, and Gina Pollock.

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