How much leverage does the US president
have when it comes to trying to get this
war to end?
Yeah, I mean, Taylor, I would agree um
that President Trump is if there's a
single person who can put well, if
there's a single person who can put an
end to the war, it is Vladimir Putin
ultimately because he's waging this war
against Ukraine. Ukraine doesn't want a
war. They would put down their weapons
the minute you know Russia really is
willing to make peace. Having said that,
short of Vladimir Putin, the next person
with all the cards and all the influence
to make this war end is President Trump.
But of course, it requires us to put
more pressure on the Kremlin. And that
means sanctions. That means providing
more weapons to Ukraine. And I'm glad to
see that President Trump is threatening
sanctions again. Although I will say I
don't know why he's waiting two weeks
because President Putin has clearly been
playing for time to get his troops more
time on the battlefield and that is not
in the interest of the United States.
Evelyn, we have heard from Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
essentially that uh they have very
little interest in a meeting right now.
He was dismissive in an interview on
NBC's Meet the Press that will air this
weekend of the idea of a meeting between
Vladimir Putin and Zalinski. Yet Donald
Trump is signaling that he'd be willing
to give as much as two weeks to the
Russian leader. Is that too much time?
Should Donald Trump simply turn around
now and say, "Look, it's time to move on
sanctions."
Yes. and he should have turned around
and done that, you know, when the
Russian president refused his ceasefire
ultimatum, you know, at that meeting in
Alaska last Friday. So, you know, he's I
think our president is being way too
lenient when it comes to Vladimir Putin.
And we have all the power to make
Vladimir Putin afraid, so afraid that
when President Trump threatened
sanctions before, Vladimir Putin said,
"Oh, wait, wait, don't sanction me. I'll
come and meet you in Alaska." Well, he
came to Alaska again. President Trump
said, "You know, you need to give us a
ceasefire and start negotiating in
earnest." And President Putin said, "No,
went away." And I guess maybe he gave
President Trump the impression that he
would meet with President Zilinski
one-on-one. Those of us who know how
Putin thinks and understand kind of the
the mentality, the ideology that's
driving him know that he does not view
President Sullinsky as his equal. he
would never meet one-on-one with
President Sullinsky unless he was, you
know, defeated militarily by President
Sullinsky and President Trump insisted
on it. So, um, unfortunately, I think
the Russians have been misleading our
president and we really need to slap
those sanctions on as you said Tyler or
Mike rather immediately.
And for our radio listeners, we're
showing right now President Trump. He
was in the Oval Office earlier today
showing a picture of uh himself and
Russian President Vladimir Putin. And
one of the main uh threads that we've
been following this week, Evelyn, of
course, has been the idea of Europe and
the US trying to get something on paper
when it comes to security guarantees.
That really has been dominating the
conversation. There seemed to be
optimism at the start of the week, but
now we've seen these roadblocks emerge,
and our reporting indicates a lot of it
is coming from Russia wanting to have a
say in what Ukraine security guarantees
are going to look like. Uh I know that
you're talking about uh the US giving uh
perhaps more more uh weapons and support
here, but when it comes to long-term
guarantees, what is realistic to expect?
What do you think can actually get done
that would get a deal over the finish
line?
Well, that's a really good question
because what what is the right thing to
do, the smart thing to do may not be
realistic yet, Taylor. So, at the
moment, you know, I can say the right
thing to do is to, you know, give an
article 5 like agreement to Ukraine.
That means if Ukraine's invaded, the
United States will come to its military
defense in every way possible. And if
you one better would be to, you know,
include Ukraine in NATO. They certainly
have deserved it. They're now the
largest, most capable European fighting
power, you know, that exists because of
this horrible war that's been thrust
upon them. So, they would actually be an
asset inside NATO and certainly would be
horrible if they were on the other side
of the equation if if Russia conquered
them. So, you know, we are we that would
be the best case scenario. The
unfortunately the Russians they
sometimes seem to give President Trump
the impression I guess maybe last week
they gave the impression that they would
be willing to have European tripwire
troops on Ukrainian territory. Now the
Russians are saying no way. Um, at the
end of the day, the Ukrainians will want
foreign troops to guarantee that peace,
but they will also want that article 5
guarantee, the guarantee that if they
are attacked again by Russia, we will
come to their military direct military
assistance. And this is the thing that
Ukraine, as much as they want to stop
this war, they don't want to be
reinvaded by Russia. And they don't want
a ceasefire. That means that they have
to be on alert, you know, and they can't
live as free people because Russia's
going to invade again. And let me just
say one other thing. China is watching.
So this is not just about Ukraine and
Europe. China's watching. And I am
afraid that Vladimir Putin will try to
distract or China will try to distract,
you know, create more confusion by
trying to attack Taiwan or that Vladimir
Putin will conduct some sort of lower
level military action against a NATO
ally.
Evelyn, I'm glad you brought up China
because next week uh Xiinping is hosting
a meeting of the leaders of Russia,
Turkey, and India. And when we talk
about secondary sanctions, India and
China loom is the largest uh targets for
the US if Donald Trump were to proceed
in that direction. And yet doing so
would be at odds with his goals on trade
with those two economies.
Well, yeah, this is where it gets
complicated. putting more tariffs on
China when it comes to purchase of oil
and gas, you know, could be problematic
for the United States because we're also
trying to work out an overall tariff
deal with China. We don't want a global
trade war and the stakes are very high
when it comes to the United States and
China. So, you know, I think President
Trump will have to weigh that in the
balance. But frankly, I think if the
Chinese are are faced with that kind of
a sanction, maybe they would put
pressure on Russia to stop the war, to
make a deal. You know, that these are
the kind of things that actually
President Trump is equipped to assess
because he is willing to take on risk in
in a way that, you know, is different
from other presidents. And I I give him
credit for that because he he's not
afraid to say, "Well, I may put
sanctions on." And he put sanctions on,
you know, higher tariffs on India
because they were buying continuing to
buy oil from Russia, which was something
no one foresaw.