October 9, 2025 • 17 mins
In this episode of The Truth with Lisa Boothe, Lisa sits down with national security expert Fred Fleitz to break down the historic Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal brokered with major involvement from President Trump’s team. Fleitz explains how Trump’s decisive leadership and America First diplomacy helped secure the release of hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza—achievements that eluded past administrations. The discussion explores how this deal could revive the spirit of the Abraham Accords, reshape the Middle East, and reaffirm the importance of peace through strength in U.S. foreign policy. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we get
to the heart of the issues that matter to you. Today,
we're joined by Fred Flitz. He's the vice chairman of
the America First Policy Institute. He's also a former Chief
of Staff of the National Security Council and our President Trump.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
He's here to impact this.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Historic Israel Hamas ceasefire deal and announcing it, President Trump
said it's a step toward strong, durable and everlasting peace.
Now it's been broken with some key mediators, involving Trump's
envoy Steve Whitcoff as well as his son in law. Now,
this is the first phase of the agreement, which is
set to release all hostages and initiate Israeli trupe withdraws.
(00:38):
It sparked global attention, with so many people calling it historic,
even some of President Trump's foes, we'll call them. So
we're going to dig into the implications, you know, the risks,
could it break down, and what it means for lasting peace.
I mean, what could the Middle East look like at
the end of a President Trump administration. So stay tuned
(00:59):
for flights on this breaking historic news. Well, Fred, it's
great to have you on Big Big news out of
the Middle East, so looking forward at getting your insight
into all of it. So appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's good to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So I guess just basic initial reaction after Israel and
Hamas have reached this first phase of a piece steal,
which you know we'll have the hostages freed and then
Israel be withdrawing from most of Gaza. Kind of walk
us through initial reaction, where you think things stand now,
and just your your general thoughts on all of this.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, it's not certain that the other stages of the
agreement will go slowly. I think they'll be implemented. But
we can't over emphasize the significance of what was agreed
to here. That both sides agreed to immediate cease fire,
that Helmas agreed to release all of the Israeli hostages,
not to trickle them out was what we thought they do,
(02:01):
and frankly, some people thought they would never release them.
And that Israel agreed to a ceasefire and to withdraw
from part of Gaza, and that Hamas agreed to a
deal without Israel withdrawn from all of the strip. These
are all very significant concessions by both sides. And I
think they show that this is a very strong agreement.
It has very broad support. And the reason for this
(02:25):
is because of the leadership of President Trump. He didn't
take note for an answer. He sligged through a variety
of other plans that failed. While the Europeans were busy
trying to appease Hamas by recognizing a Palestinian state with
no concessions by Hamas, Trump's people were fighting hard behind
the scenes with Arab states, with the Israelis to nail
(02:48):
down something that everyone could agree to. And it's such
a good agreement, Hamas is nowhere else to go. The
Arabs are solidly behind what Trump wants to do. Even
the Palestinian authority, which supports these deals, it is behind it.
So I think that either Hamasa is facing destruction or disagreement.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Is that why you think Amas? You know, finally it
was playing ball or trying to negotiate?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Here is it? You know?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I mean, were they just up against a wall no
other options, or why do you think they finally decided
to capitulate.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I think they're up against the wall and they're being
put under enormous pressure by Qatar. In Saudi Arabia at
the same time, I think they're going to make trouble
on what their role will be. They shouldn't have they
shouldn't have any role in Gaza after the peace agreement.
They have to be disarmed. That was not part of
this deal in the first stage. It is part of
(03:42):
the agreement and subsequent stage how Gaza will be governed.
They have expressed objections to what's in the agreement, but
the priority was to save human life, to get the
hostage out, and to work on these portions of the
agreement later. I think the Israel and the Trumpdminstration is
confident that they will they will prevail these provisions, these
(04:05):
provisions of the agreement, but it hasn't been agreed to yet.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
If a Moss releases the hostages, as you know, we're hoping,
will happen, now, like what leverage do they have after
that point? Like what leverage do they have to try
to stay in governance and you know along the Gaza strip.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, I mean, one could argue they're losing leverage, but
on the other hand, these hostages won't be alive much longer,
so they're eventually they eventually won't have any live hostages.
So I think their leverage, as limited as it is,
is that they could keep fighting and engaging in acts
of terrorism, and by agreeing to stop the fighting, you know,
(04:45):
that's that's what they're offering. And in exchange for that,
if if members of a mosque don't want to live
in peace and gaza, they'll be allowed, They'll be given
free passage out of guys. I have to say, I
don't know who's going to take them. Maybe Turkey. I'd
like to send them all to a but I don't
think the Iranians would take them either.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Which it really tells you something, right, you know, you
look at President Trump sort of naming and giving credit
to countries like guitar as you mentioned, Egypt and Turkey.
How much of this was made possible by President Trump?
Well one, obviously the Abraham Accords during the first administration,
(05:24):
but then during this administration as well, really spending time
in the Middle East and sort of fostering those relationships.
How much of this deal is predicated on that.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, let me put it this way. Trump was elected
on November fifth. On November twelfth, he named his midlely
Special Envoy Steve Whitcock, who immediately flew to Qatar. Trump
didn't wait to be inaugurated to try to stop this deal,
and whitcof negotiated a deal on January nineteenth, before Trump
(05:57):
was inaugurated. That Free thirty hostage is over three months
and resulted in a shaky three months ceasefire which later collapsed.
But this was Trump, right out of the gate, right
after he's elected, before he's even president, pushing on this.
Trump never gave up. He was hard on hamas, he
was hard on the Arabs, he was hard on net
(06:17):
and Yahoo. He was seeing as an honest broker. It's
unprecedentally said, that's why we got this agreement.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You look at just sort of the initial reaction. I mean,
even people who don't love Trump like praising this, praising
the historic nature of this. Why do you think President Trump?
You know, obviously we're still cautiously optimistic, but why do
you think he was able to do this when you know,
really no one else has been able to.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I think there's no question he's the strongest pro Israel
president in history. But Trump also hates war. I guess
we all hate war. But Trumps said repeatedly when it
comes to the conflict in God's the conflict in Ukraine.
He just wants to stop the killing. He'll negotiate other
aspects of agreements later, but the killing has to stop.
(07:04):
He's been stubborning arguing this for years, not simply over
the last year or since he became elected president. I
think he's made the point in net Yahoo, you can't
fight forever. We have to find a way out of this.
And look, there's concessions in this deal that net Yaho's
not happy with it. It proposes a role for the
Palestinian authority in governing Gayza in the future when the
(07:25):
Palestinian authority and the Palestinians are deradicalized. It provides a
pathway for a Palestinian state when the Palistinians are de radicalized.
Nyahu hates those ideas. He says they're never going to happen,
and frankly, they won't if the Palistinians don't actually de
radicalize and stop teaching the people as children to kill
and hate Jews. So maybe it's a distant aspiration, but
(07:48):
Trump succeeding getting a deal that the Israelis agreed to
that had this in it, and that is why it
has universal Arab support.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You know, I guess that's that's the broader concern here
of you know, one, disarming Hamas and then too, you know,
what role in governing do they have in the future.
I mean, if you're Israel, you know, how how can
you really live alongside people who slaughtered you know, twelve
hundred of your citizens. What do you think you know
(08:20):
hammering out some of these bigger and very important details
like kind of talk us through, give us some insight
and how like those deals get worked out? Like sort
of what what are these? You know from you being
inside the room in the past with the Trump administration,
kind of what does this look like in the days ahead?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Here, well, we had wid Coffin, we have Jared Kushner,
who have enormous credibility, and Kushner for negotiating the Abraham Accords,
working with Arab states who are in intermediaries with Hamas,
trying to press them to make the concessions they have
to make to move forward. And you know you mentioned
(08:59):
disarming him us. That is still a sticking point. I
haven't heard Hamas agreeing that it's going to give up
its weapons and destroy them. It has said at once
to keep defensive weapons and I mean we also have
to be realistic, Lisa. These radical Islamis, terrors who hate Israel,
They're not going away. Israel has to keep its guard up.
It has to assume there will be terrorists who will
(09:20):
try to attack it again. This may, hopefully long term,
maybe temporarily address the terrorist threat for Hamas, but look,
Israeli leaders, they're not fooling themselves. Hamas has proven itself
to be liars, treacherous liars. Hopefully this is going to succeed,
but at a minimum, at a minimum, it's going to
get the Hossas out of Gaza. Boy.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I meant disarming as sort of a broader ambition that
was obviously laid out in the broader like twenty point deal,
and obviously something that Israel would like to see. It's
got to take a quick commercial break and more thread
On the other side, what do you think the Middle
East could look like at the end of a Trump administration?
(10:02):
And you know, potentially if like JD. Vans or someone
like minded gets into office. I know, you know, when
he went over to Saudi Arabia a few months ago,
he said the future of the Middle East is through commerce,
not chaos. You know in a hopeful way, like what
could the Middle East look like by the time he's
done in office.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I think we could have an expanded Abraham Accords, maybe
the Sally's joining, maybe Olman joining. These states want peace
and commerce. Trump was exactly right. They don't want to
deal with terrorism. They don't none of them like Hamas.
As you said earlier, there's a reason that no state
wants to take Hamas members or people from Gaza, because
when have Palestinians left for other states in the past,
(10:46):
they try to overthrow governments and commit acces terror against
other governments, the governments that were hosting them. I think
it's very significant if this deal succeeds, all that succeeds,
I think it's going to give Trump enormous leverage to
solve the war in Ukraine. It's going to make him
a very prominent, incredible neutral arbiter, and I don't think
(11:07):
it's going to be easy, but it may really give
him the leverage he needs to get Putin and Zelensky
to strike a deal.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I just sort of giggle back looking back to the
twenty sixteen presidential election, because as you remember Hillary Clinton's
line of attack, I think there was even did ads
telling us that like Trump couldn't be trusted with the
nuclear codes, and like he was going to be reckless
and like, you know, and then inevitably like he is
the only one that seems to one piece around the world.
(11:38):
And so it's just sort of funny, you know how
wrong all of that was about him. You know, it's
interesting because you know, he didn't have a foreign policy background,
right you look at Steve Witcott. I mean, these are
business guys, these are outsiders coming in. I guess what
does that kind of tell us about some of the
like foreign policy establishment, and you know, sort of these
(11:59):
outsiders coming in and like turning everything upside down a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think it tells me that we need to have
outsiders as president who are not a part of the
foreign policy establishment, who are not neo cons who simply
will to engage in bureaucracy and have interagency meetings and
frankly do nothing. Trump's attitude is get this done. Oh
oh so they won't agree to this peace deal, go
(12:23):
negotiate another one. He wasn't taking no for an answer.
He's a businessman. He doesn't do things the way businesses
do them. I respect that. And he came out of
his first term with the Abraham Accords, which every neutral
observer has recognized as a very significant diplomatic achievement. But
this one will be so much more significant.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
We talk about peace through strength, but I don't think
any of this would have been made possible if you know,
that's not how he had been governing, right, because you
look at Biden, you know he said don't and then
other country you know, their enemies, did you know President
Trump is demonstrated when he draws a red line, you
know he means it. So when he gave him ass
(13:04):
this deadline, they knew that he wasn't messing around, that
he was being truthful kind of walk us through just
the importance of peace through strength. And then also, you know,
drawing red lines and our enemies and friends and allies
knowing that it's a true red line.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I believe in America first approach US national security means
a strong and decisive president with a strong military, and
a president who used military force when necessary, but keeps
our country out of unnecessary wars. And I think Trump
has proven that across the board. But when you have
a present like Biden, who is seen as weak and incompetent.
(13:43):
His foreign policy priority was climate change. There was a
disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was seen as so incompetent,
so weak, that our enemies had a field day. They
all took advantage of his weakness. Russia invaded Ukraine. There
was this Hamas massacre against Israel. These things would not
have happened if we had a strong and decisive president
(14:05):
and Biden surrounded himself by people who were even more incompetent.
I don't think he wanted to have officials who would
outshine him on foreign policy. It hurt our country, it
hurt global security, and good writtenance to Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Why do you think some of these Middle Eastern leaders
seem to respect President Trump in a way that you
know they didn't with Biden or Obama.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You know, they respect strength, and they also respect a
president who understands that you have to have good relationships
with other nations. You know, the Saudi royal family and
Biden hated each other. Biden insulted them before he became president.
But what did Trump do in his first official foreign trip.
He went to the Gulf because he wanted to make
(14:50):
peace in the Middle East, and I think his meetings
with the Saudis and with Guitar they had a purpose peace,
to strength and commerce. It sent a message to them.
He wanted to work with them to stop this war.
He wanted to send a message also to Russia and
to Iran and China, America shouldn't have permanent enemies, make
a peace deal with us, and will all grow prosperous.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And well, I'm not destroyed.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
The good news is that you know Ron, you know,
nuclear ambitions have obviously been set back pretty substantially by
the decisive, decisive actions of President Trump. And then you know,
Hasbala and Hamas have been uh severely weakened as a
result of Israel's efforts as you as you pointed away,
they're not going away, any of these enemies, but they've
(15:37):
they've been set back at the very least.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That's exactly right now. Israel did a lot of this
when when Israel was attacked on October seventh, it took
out all the allies of Hamas that were also at
war with Israel and Israel in the United States dealt
a devastating blow to Iran's nuclear program. This was Aron's
fault or Ron decided to fire missiles at Israel, gave
(16:00):
israeln opportunity to respond and to test Iron's air defense
that found it was probably much weaker than anyone thought,
and destroyed the defenses defending its nuclear sites. And when
Iraq would not make a deal with Trump, he said, look,
you have fifty days. When Ron didn't do that, Israel
and the US took out the nuclear sites, including as
(16:21):
you know, bunker buster bombs by the US to destroy
their deeply buried nuclear weapon sites.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Well, and also all of this made possible without striking
a weak nuclear deal like we saw under a President Obama,
which we were told was needed to keep Iran from
obtaining nuclear weapons.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
That's exactly right, and I think there were efforts by
the foreign policy establishment to cook the books a little
bit and maybe deceive the president into greening to another
partial deal similar to Obama's. Trump didn't buy it, and
I give a lot of credit for that, because it's
tempting to try to split the middle here. Well, maybe
we'll let the run as rich a little bit. The
(16:57):
problem is that enrichment is own only for making weapons.
They have no reason in rich uranium and I'm so
glad that's the position the President took.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Very interesting. Fred Flights, appreciate I texted you last night,
so I really appreciate you jumping on and breaking this
down for us, this breaking news.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Good to be here, that.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Was Fred Flights. Appreciate him for taking the time to
come on the show. Appreciate you guys at home for
listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout
the week. I also want to thank John Cassio for
putting the show together. Until next time.
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we get
to the heart of the issues that matter to you. Today,
we're joined by Fred Flitz. He's the vice chairman of
the America First Policy Institute. He's also a former Chief
of Staff of the National Security Council and our President Trump.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
He's here to impact this.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Historic Israel Hamas ceasefire deal and announcing it, President Trump
said it's a step toward strong, durable and everlasting peace.
Now it's been broken with some key mediators, involving Trump's
envoy Steve Whitcoff as well as his son in law. Now,
this is the first phase of the agreement, which is
set to release all hostages and initiate Israeli trupe withdraws.
(00:38):
It sparked global attention, with so many people calling it historic,
even some of President Trump's foes, we'll call them. So
we're going to dig into the implications, you know, the risks,
could it break down, and what it means for lasting peace.
I mean, what could the Middle East look like at
the end of a President Trump administration. So stay tuned
(00:59):
for flights on this breaking historic news. Well, Fred, it's
great to have you on Big Big news out of
the Middle East, so looking forward at getting your insight
into all of it. So appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's good to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So I guess just basic initial reaction after Israel and
Hamas have reached this first phase of a piece steal,
which you know we'll have the hostages freed and then
Israel be withdrawing from most of Gaza. Kind of walk
us through initial reaction, where you think things stand now,
and just your your general thoughts on all of this.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, it's not certain that the other stages of the
agreement will go slowly. I think they'll be implemented. But
we can't over emphasize the significance of what was agreed
to here. That both sides agreed to immediate cease fire,
that Helmas agreed to release all of the Israeli hostages,
not to trickle them out was what we thought they do,
(02:01):
and frankly, some people thought they would never release them.
And that Israel agreed to a ceasefire and to withdraw
from part of Gaza, and that Hamas agreed to a
deal without Israel withdrawn from all of the strip. These
are all very significant concessions by both sides. And I
think they show that this is a very strong agreement.
It has very broad support. And the reason for this
(02:25):
is because of the leadership of President Trump. He didn't
take note for an answer. He sligged through a variety
of other plans that failed. While the Europeans were busy
trying to appease Hamas by recognizing a Palestinian state with
no concessions by Hamas, Trump's people were fighting hard behind
the scenes with Arab states, with the Israelis to nail
(02:48):
down something that everyone could agree to. And it's such
a good agreement, Hamas is nowhere else to go. The
Arabs are solidly behind what Trump wants to do. Even
the Palestinian authority, which supports these deals, it is behind it.
So I think that either Hamasa is facing destruction or disagreement.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Is that why you think Amas? You know, finally it
was playing ball or trying to negotiate?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Here is it? You know?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I mean, were they just up against a wall no
other options, or why do you think they finally decided
to capitulate.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I think they're up against the wall and they're being
put under enormous pressure by Qatar. In Saudi Arabia at
the same time, I think they're going to make trouble
on what their role will be. They shouldn't have they
shouldn't have any role in Gaza after the peace agreement.
They have to be disarmed. That was not part of
this deal in the first stage. It is part of
(03:42):
the agreement and subsequent stage how Gaza will be governed.
They have expressed objections to what's in the agreement, but
the priority was to save human life, to get the
hostage out, and to work on these portions of the
agreement later. I think the Israel and the Trumpdminstration is
confident that they will they will prevail these provisions, these
(04:05):
provisions of the agreement, but it hasn't been agreed to yet.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
If a Moss releases the hostages, as you know, we're hoping,
will happen, now, like what leverage do they have after
that point? Like what leverage do they have to try
to stay in governance and you know along the Gaza strip.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, I mean, one could argue they're losing leverage, but
on the other hand, these hostages won't be alive much longer,
so they're eventually they eventually won't have any live hostages.
So I think their leverage, as limited as it is,
is that they could keep fighting and engaging in acts
of terrorism, and by agreeing to stop the fighting, you know,
(04:45):
that's that's what they're offering. And in exchange for that,
if if members of a mosque don't want to live
in peace and gaza, they'll be allowed, They'll be given
free passage out of guys. I have to say, I
don't know who's going to take them. Maybe Turkey. I'd
like to send them all to a but I don't
think the Iranians would take them either.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Which it really tells you something, right, you know, you
look at President Trump sort of naming and giving credit
to countries like guitar as you mentioned, Egypt and Turkey.
How much of this was made possible by President Trump?
Well one, obviously the Abraham Accords during the first administration,
(05:24):
but then during this administration as well, really spending time
in the Middle East and sort of fostering those relationships.
How much of this deal is predicated on that.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, let me put it this way. Trump was elected
on November fifth. On November twelfth, he named his midlely
Special Envoy Steve Whitcock, who immediately flew to Qatar. Trump
didn't wait to be inaugurated to try to stop this deal,
and whitcof negotiated a deal on January nineteenth, before Trump
(05:57):
was inaugurated. That Free thirty hostage is over three months
and resulted in a shaky three months ceasefire which later collapsed.
But this was Trump, right out of the gate, right
after he's elected, before he's even president, pushing on this.
Trump never gave up. He was hard on hamas, he
was hard on the Arabs, he was hard on net
(06:17):
and Yahoo. He was seeing as an honest broker. It's
unprecedentally said, that's why we got this agreement.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You look at just sort of the initial reaction. I mean,
even people who don't love Trump like praising this, praising
the historic nature of this. Why do you think President Trump?
You know, obviously we're still cautiously optimistic, but why do
you think he was able to do this when you know,
really no one else has been able to.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I think there's no question he's the strongest pro Israel
president in history. But Trump also hates war. I guess
we all hate war. But Trumps said repeatedly when it
comes to the conflict in God's the conflict in Ukraine.
He just wants to stop the killing. He'll negotiate other
aspects of agreements later, but the killing has to stop.
(07:04):
He's been stubborning arguing this for years, not simply over
the last year or since he became elected president. I
think he's made the point in net Yahoo, you can't
fight forever. We have to find a way out of this.
And look, there's concessions in this deal that net Yaho's
not happy with it. It proposes a role for the
Palestinian authority in governing Gayza in the future when the
(07:25):
Palestinian authority and the Palestinians are deradicalized. It provides a
pathway for a Palestinian state when the Palistinians are de radicalized.
Nyahu hates those ideas. He says they're never going to happen,
and frankly, they won't if the Palistinians don't actually de
radicalize and stop teaching the people as children to kill
and hate Jews. So maybe it's a distant aspiration, but
(07:48):
Trump succeeding getting a deal that the Israelis agreed to
that had this in it, and that is why it
has universal Arab support.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You know, I guess that's that's the broader concern here
of you know, one, disarming Hamas and then too, you know,
what role in governing do they have in the future.
I mean, if you're Israel, you know, how how can
you really live alongside people who slaughtered you know, twelve
hundred of your citizens. What do you think you know
(08:20):
hammering out some of these bigger and very important details
like kind of talk us through, give us some insight
and how like those deals get worked out? Like sort
of what what are these? You know from you being
inside the room in the past with the Trump administration,
kind of what does this look like in the days ahead?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Here, well, we had wid Coffin, we have Jared Kushner,
who have enormous credibility, and Kushner for negotiating the Abraham Accords,
working with Arab states who are in intermediaries with Hamas,
trying to press them to make the concessions they have
to make to move forward. And you know you mentioned
(08:59):
disarming him us. That is still a sticking point. I
haven't heard Hamas agreeing that it's going to give up
its weapons and destroy them. It has said at once
to keep defensive weapons and I mean we also have
to be realistic, Lisa. These radical Islamis, terrors who hate Israel,
They're not going away. Israel has to keep its guard up.
It has to assume there will be terrorists who will
(09:20):
try to attack it again. This may, hopefully long term,
maybe temporarily address the terrorist threat for Hamas, but look,
Israeli leaders, they're not fooling themselves. Hamas has proven itself
to be liars, treacherous liars. Hopefully this is going to succeed,
but at a minimum, at a minimum, it's going to
get the Hossas out of Gaza. Boy.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I meant disarming as sort of a broader ambition that
was obviously laid out in the broader like twenty point deal,
and obviously something that Israel would like to see. It's
got to take a quick commercial break and more thread
On the other side, what do you think the Middle
East could look like at the end of a Trump administration?
(10:02):
And you know, potentially if like JD. Vans or someone
like minded gets into office. I know, you know, when
he went over to Saudi Arabia a few months ago,
he said the future of the Middle East is through commerce,
not chaos. You know in a hopeful way, like what
could the Middle East look like by the time he's
done in office.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I think we could have an expanded Abraham Accords, maybe
the Sally's joining, maybe Olman joining. These states want peace
and commerce. Trump was exactly right. They don't want to
deal with terrorism. They don't none of them like Hamas.
As you said earlier, there's a reason that no state
wants to take Hamas members or people from Gaza, because
when have Palestinians left for other states in the past,
(10:46):
they try to overthrow governments and commit acces terror against
other governments, the governments that were hosting them. I think
it's very significant if this deal succeeds, all that succeeds,
I think it's going to give Trump enormous leverage to
solve the war in Ukraine. It's going to make him
a very prominent, incredible neutral arbiter, and I don't think
(11:07):
it's going to be easy, but it may really give
him the leverage he needs to get Putin and Zelensky
to strike a deal.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I just sort of giggle back looking back to the
twenty sixteen presidential election, because as you remember Hillary Clinton's
line of attack, I think there was even did ads
telling us that like Trump couldn't be trusted with the
nuclear codes, and like he was going to be reckless
and like, you know, and then inevitably like he is
the only one that seems to one piece around the world.
(11:38):
And so it's just sort of funny, you know how
wrong all of that was about him. You know, it's
interesting because you know, he didn't have a foreign policy background,
right you look at Steve Witcott. I mean, these are
business guys, these are outsiders coming in. I guess what
does that kind of tell us about some of the
like foreign policy establishment, and you know, sort of these
(11:59):
outsiders coming in and like turning everything upside down a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think it tells me that we need to have
outsiders as president who are not a part of the
foreign policy establishment, who are not neo cons who simply
will to engage in bureaucracy and have interagency meetings and
frankly do nothing. Trump's attitude is get this done. Oh
oh so they won't agree to this peace deal, go
(12:23):
negotiate another one. He wasn't taking no for an answer.
He's a businessman. He doesn't do things the way businesses
do them. I respect that. And he came out of
his first term with the Abraham Accords, which every neutral
observer has recognized as a very significant diplomatic achievement. But
this one will be so much more significant.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
We talk about peace through strength, but I don't think
any of this would have been made possible if you know,
that's not how he had been governing, right, because you
look at Biden, you know he said don't and then
other country you know, their enemies, did you know President
Trump is demonstrated when he draws a red line, you
know he means it. So when he gave him ass
(13:04):
this deadline, they knew that he wasn't messing around, that
he was being truthful kind of walk us through just
the importance of peace through strength. And then also, you know,
drawing red lines and our enemies and friends and allies
knowing that it's a true red line.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I believe in America first approach US national security means
a strong and decisive president with a strong military, and
a president who used military force when necessary, but keeps
our country out of unnecessary wars. And I think Trump
has proven that across the board. But when you have
a present like Biden, who is seen as weak and incompetent.
(13:43):
His foreign policy priority was climate change. There was a
disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was seen as so incompetent,
so weak, that our enemies had a field day. They
all took advantage of his weakness. Russia invaded Ukraine. There
was this Hamas massacre against Israel. These things would not
have happened if we had a strong and decisive president
(14:05):
and Biden surrounded himself by people who were even more incompetent.
I don't think he wanted to have officials who would
outshine him on foreign policy. It hurt our country, it
hurt global security, and good writtenance to Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Why do you think some of these Middle Eastern leaders
seem to respect President Trump in a way that you
know they didn't with Biden or Obama.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You know, they respect strength, and they also respect a
president who understands that you have to have good relationships
with other nations. You know, the Saudi royal family and
Biden hated each other. Biden insulted them before he became president.
But what did Trump do in his first official foreign trip.
He went to the Gulf because he wanted to make
(14:50):
peace in the Middle East, and I think his meetings
with the Saudis and with Guitar they had a purpose peace,
to strength and commerce. It sent a message to them.
He wanted to work with them to stop this war.
He wanted to send a message also to Russia and
to Iran and China, America shouldn't have permanent enemies, make
a peace deal with us, and will all grow prosperous.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And well, I'm not destroyed.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
The good news is that you know Ron, you know,
nuclear ambitions have obviously been set back pretty substantially by
the decisive, decisive actions of President Trump. And then you know,
Hasbala and Hamas have been uh severely weakened as a
result of Israel's efforts as you as you pointed away,
they're not going away, any of these enemies, but they've
(15:37):
they've been set back at the very least.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That's exactly right now. Israel did a lot of this
when when Israel was attacked on October seventh, it took
out all the allies of Hamas that were also at
war with Israel and Israel in the United States dealt
a devastating blow to Iran's nuclear program. This was Aron's
fault or Ron decided to fire missiles at Israel, gave
(16:00):
israeln opportunity to respond and to test Iron's air defense
that found it was probably much weaker than anyone thought,
and destroyed the defenses defending its nuclear sites. And when
Iraq would not make a deal with Trump, he said, look,
you have fifty days. When Ron didn't do that, Israel
and the US took out the nuclear sites, including as
(16:21):
you know, bunker buster bombs by the US to destroy
their deeply buried nuclear weapon sites.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Well, and also all of this made possible without striking
a weak nuclear deal like we saw under a President Obama,
which we were told was needed to keep Iran from
obtaining nuclear weapons.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
That's exactly right, and I think there were efforts by
the foreign policy establishment to cook the books a little
bit and maybe deceive the president into greening to another
partial deal similar to Obama's. Trump didn't buy it, and
I give a lot of credit for that, because it's
tempting to try to split the middle here. Well, maybe
we'll let the run as rich a little bit. The
(16:57):
problem is that enrichment is own only for making weapons.
They have no reason in rich uranium and I'm so
glad that's the position the President took.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Very interesting. Fred Flights, appreciate I texted you last night,
so I really appreciate you jumping on and breaking this
down for us, this breaking news.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Good to be here, that.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Was Fred Flights. Appreciate him for taking the time to
come on the show. Appreciate you guys at home for
listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout
the week. I also want to thank John Cassio for
putting the show together. Until next time.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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