February 27, 2025 • 41 mins
In this episode, Lisa discusses the Ukraine-Russia conflict with Rebekah Koffler, a Russian-born U.S. intelligence expert and author of "Putin's Playbook: Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America." Koffler provides insights into the ongoing war, the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, and the strategic interests of the U.S. under President Trump. The conversation explores Trump's potential to broker a peace deal, the complexities of negotiating with Putin, and the implications of Ukraine's natural resources. 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
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
President Trump wrote the book The Art of the Deal.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Will he be able to strike a deal between Russia
and Ukraine? Also, President Trump is currently working on a
deal with Ukraine that would give the United States access
to natural resources in Ukraine in exchange for America's support
amid this war with Russia. So what does that deal
mean and why does it matter? We'll dig into the
(00:23):
details of that today on this episode.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Lastly, President Trump.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Has been critical of Ukrainian President Zelenski.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Is there a strategy behind that? What should you know?
We'll get into all of this with Rebecca Koffler.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
She's a Russian born US intelligence expert who served as
a Russian doctrine and strategy specialist in the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
She's also the author.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Of Putin's playbook, Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America. Stay
tuned for Rebecca Kaffler. Well, Rebecca, it's great to have.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
You on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Obviously, a lot of Ukraine news to cover, so I'm
looking forward to getting your input and what it all means.
So appreciate you making the time, of course, So I
kind of want to start out with, you know, just
big picture. You know, where does this war between Ukraine
and Russia stand today.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, the war continues.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Actually, the Russians keep on destroying Ukraine. Uh they recently
launched just a barrage of missiles. Wooden is not slowing
down because for two reasons.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
You know, he wants to.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Put pressure on the Trump administration to get the best
deal possible. And in fact, he doesn't even have to
to uh end this war because he has positioned himself
in a very good situation from the military standpoint. And
(02:02):
when I say in the good situation, I don't discount
the fact that the Russians have lost, you know, at
least half a million people. They have been going through
their weapons, arsenal and that kind of thing. But the
benefits outweigh the cost for the Russians. And the second
(02:26):
reason why Putin continues is that he wants to also
to demonstrate to Zolensky that Russia is not going to
relent until Ukraine either capitulates or Zolensky holds the elections,
because currently Zelenski is not a legitimate president of Ukraine
(02:52):
by the Ukrainian constitution itself, and Putin will not negotiate
with Zolanski. His term expired back in May and so
the war continues.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So the war continued.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
It tell us, what what does the Ukrainian constitution say
when when you say that technically Zelensky is not you know,
you know what he's doing right now, explain that a
little bit further right, So he's not a legitimate president,
is what I was.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
So he in uh term expired back in May uh
he had invoked like our version of the martial law
right which says that there cannot be elections right now,
that because Ukraine is at war, So he kind of
(03:47):
put himself in an a legal conundrum. He also put
another sort of law approved which prohibits government from.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Negotiating with Putin.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Not many people know that they cannot be elections right now.
Also because the only entity does hold the authority to
negotiate on peace or to make any kind of like
legitimate straight state craft actions is the Rada, the Parliament
(04:28):
of Ukraine. But Lensky controls the Arrada by virtue of
his vow winning the majority in the Rada.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
So it's kind of like a chicken and egg problem.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
And does Lensky as far as I'm concerned, and I've
been saying it for three years at this point.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
He's a con artist.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
I mean, he has built this image in the West
that he's a Churchill in a T shirt. But he's
a miniature putin what he was able to do where
the West with the United States, just like what President
Trump has tweeted out the other day or posted on
his true social he basically called them a dictator who
(05:13):
was able to manipulate Biden into giving him billions and
billions of US taxpayers hard earned money. So, and he's
continuing to sort of to drag us into this war.
He's continuing to put pressure on the Trump administration to
give Ukraine membership in NATO, which is a completely a
(05:36):
red line for Pool.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
He has been for years. That's why putting started this war.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Zelenski is even offering to step down. Well, these are
all games, right, He's just trying to stay relevant because
he knows the end of him is near and once
he's no longer president of Ukraine, he's going to be
an old one. And until he is, even if though
(06:05):
he's legitimate, he's still in.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
The news somewhere, you know, if you can potentially strike
book deals and this and that.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
So and we unfortunately, uh, the United States are dragged
in into this circus.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Would he win if he held elections? You know, do
we have.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Any sense of his popularity with the Ukrainian people?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Is there a good way to gauge.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
That Lensky's air too popularity according to intelligence assessments is
that four percent.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
However, the agency.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Has done the popularity polling in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Has been funded by the USAID.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
That agency has rated his popularity at about fifty low
fifty percent. But we all know that USAID basically has
been funding you know, leftist projects, So those numbers are
not credible. The fifty percent approval rating, So I go
(07:15):
with the intelligence assessments, and some members of President Trump's
team have actually revealed those numbers. So it is impossible
for Zelenski to win at this point. And that is
really because his low approval ratings is because people are
tired of this war. I mean, the close to a
(07:38):
million of Ukrainians are dead, fifty percent of Ukrainian critical
infrastructure is destroyed. They see no victory in this war.
In fact, this victory has been you know, mathematically impossible
from the from the very start. So they want this
to end the conundrum, another conundrum. In addition to the
(08:03):
legal conundrum that Zelenski boxed himself in is that if
you hold the elections, and President Trump is insisting.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
On those elections being.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Held in Ukraine because otherwise putting this simple and not
going to negotiate.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Right. The conundrum that everybody is concerned.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
About is that it's the Russian playbook to influence elections.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
And the concern both of the Europeans and.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Of the Ukrainians is that Putin's special services, the spy
agencies are going to run contestant operations to try and
elect a pro Russia person as president. But that is
just like how things are. Another piece to that is
(08:58):
Zelenski out lawed all of the opposition parties, right, so
technically no party right now that is opposing Zolensky can run,
you know, can put the candidate. So there's a lot
of moving parts, right And unfortunately President Trump, you know,
(09:22):
he has this very short timeline and his team is
pushing both Zolensky and UH and and Putin to UH
to strike this deal. But things just don't happen that
fast in Russia or Ukraine. And part of it, it's
not just cultural, but part of it is all of
(09:43):
these different, you know, nuances that have been created by
Zolensky himself.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So he probably wouldn't win reelection.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Absolutely not. I would say ninety nine point nine percent.
You know, he's not he will not win.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
We've seen President Trump, you know, take some aim at
Zelensky and he's been on the receiving end of criticism
from Democrats as a result of that. You know, is
there a strategy behind that criticism of Zelensky? Is there
intentionality between behind that or you know, why do you
think he's why do you think the president is taking
(10:25):
some shots at Zelenski.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Two things.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
President Trump wants Zolensky to just shut up because Zelensky
has been speaking too much. President Trump has a very
specific strategy. He's a deal maker right in the Art
of the Deal, the book that he wrote and was
promoting it back in nineteen eighty seven, he said, I
(10:51):
like to make the deals.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
That's what I do and does.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Lensky needs to stay out of Trump's way and not
give interview undermining Trump's ability to conduct those negotiations. Uh,
Zelensky is refusing, you know, to make the ideal on
the rare earth minerals. He is telling you know, the Europeans,
(11:16):
that he still wants Ukraine to be part of NATO,
he wants security guarantees, he wants this, he wants that.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
He wants small weapons. Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
President Trump wants him to stay quiet and only come
if he becomes actually a legitimate person to conduct negotiations,
and at this point he isn't. And the second part
to President Trump's strategy is that Britain Trump is a
(11:48):
realist and he actually speaks the truth. When President Trump
says Zolensky is the dictator, he's actually being calended and honest.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
As I said, Lensky passed all of these various you
know laws, whether it's he outlawed all opposition parties, he
outlawed all the Russian language media. And remember twenty percent
of Ukrainian land and Dambas, the Russians lived there, and
(12:21):
they were not able during Zelenski's presidency to listen to
have their own.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Native language TV. I mean imagine that, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Saying Zolenski's intelligence service, the Sbu Slub speaking.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Ukraine, was grabbing Ukrainian men off the streets to send
them on the front lines because they're just running out
of people.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
The average age of the Ukrainian soldier is approximately forty five.
I mean, imagine, and those are not like American you know,
type forty five. These are men who are you know,
they look and act more like in their sixties because
they don't have the same healthcare that we do here.
(13:09):
You know, Alcoholism is rampart in Ukraine as it is
in Russia. And so this is the guy that that
you're dealing with. And President Trump is the only one
who actually is brave enough to say the quiet part
out loud.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
To call him out. He's not Trump is.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Not afraid of being called, you know, Putin's puppet, because
there's nothing you can do to him anymore.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
They've they've tried everything, they.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Called him, you know, the Russia Trump collusion, They've done
all of these things to him, and so there's nothing
that he's afraid. He's just calling a spade a spade.
At this point. He's the manipulator, he's the Connatistino Zelenski.
He's siphoned off three hundred billion dollars out of the Biden.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Administration. You know, well, and those are our money, right,
that is our money.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
And President Trump is trying to recoup some of that
money right now to make the American people's full that's
what he's doing.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That's his strategy.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
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booth b O O t E. A single heartbeat can
echo across generations. Why is Lensky untouchable?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I'm not sure. I'm not sure I understand the question.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Uh what do you mean? Why is he untouchable? Who
believes that he's untouchable?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Well, I would say the left and many in the media.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Because they have created him. I mean look at.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Uh so okay, So two parts to this. First, why
did this war start? And why did the United States
under the Biden administration engage in.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
This proxy war with over control of Ukraine.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Why did Europeans engage in this It is because the
Europeans did not want to spend money on their own security,
even though they knew about Putin's plans a decade ago.
I personally briefed NATO in September twenty thirteen, just months
(16:25):
prior to Russia's invasion of Crimea. I briefed in Brussels,
Belgium on Putin's mindset, his plans and intentions, Russian war
fighting strategy. Everybody knew what was going to happen, and
yet the Obama administration kept slashing US force pasture in Europe,
(16:46):
and the Europeans never at that point even bothered to
pay two percent of their JEDP towards the collective security
kitting right, only very few countries Poland and the Baltics,
led me Estonian and Luthenia paid their fair ship. So
(17:08):
once Puttain invaded, they woke up and decided, okay, we're
just gonna get some weapons to Ukraine, effectively throw Ukraine
into Putin's mad grinder, use Ukrainians as human shields by
having them fight Puden and deplete Russia's weapons arsenal Right,
(17:34):
this is what Lloyd Austin, the former Secretary of Defense
in a Bide administration, again said the choir part out loud.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
He admitted it.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
We are wanting to weaken Russia militarily and economically. And
that's that is why they want to keep Zelenski, you know,
because the Lenski did not want to stop the war.
He didn't he refused to negotiate. Right, That's why Boris
(18:03):
Johnson went over there when the Russians were trying. When
the Russians encircled Ukraine, one hundred and ninety thousand troops
putting put up there, right, before the war they were
trying to negotiate Zolenski. Hughes Johnson put pressure on them
because they wanted to protect themselves. They didn't care about Ukrainians, right,
(18:26):
and so the same about the left here and the
Biden administration. They did not want to develop a counter
strategy to Putin. They did not want to invest in
our modern weapons, arsenal rights such as hypersonics, such as
(18:49):
tactical nuclear weapons. Because remember the reason why we can't
deploy forces into the theater US forces not only because
Trump that want to, but the reason Biden didn't want
to because Putin gave in the United States made militarily
(19:11):
having developed escalate to de escalate nuclear strategy and having
transitioned his military industrial complex onto what I'm putting seven
years prior to the invasion. If we provided more weapons,
if the conflict escalated, Putain would go nuclear. And he
(19:32):
even demonstrated the hyperstonic missile capability and all of these,
you know, high tech things that we had no response to.
And so that is why both the Europeans and the
Democrats wanted to crop up Zelenski so that war continues,
(19:53):
so that we do not have to you know, spend
our money on our defenses and so that we don't
have to put our troops in let just Ukrainian. You know,
people keep dying in in in puting you know, meat
grind or even in his nuclear furnace, because that would
(20:15):
have happened if Strump, if Trump did not step in,
if Trump did not de escalate this, we were firmly
on a path to nuclear war in in Europe.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Well, because I just think that.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You know, viewing it clear eyed is the healthiest, and
that you know, obviously Putin is a dictator and you know,
not a great guy. But then I also think we
have to be honest about what's going on in Ukraine
as well, because you know, in order to try to
figure out how to end this thing, you know, you
have to have that realistic viewpoint which you mentioned, which
is the way I think that I agree with you
(20:51):
in the way that President Trump views the world, because
if you're looking at it through rose colored glasses, then
you know you're not gonna be able to solve the problem.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
To solve a problem, you have to, you know, fully
understand the problem and you know the different moving parts,
and the player is involved.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yes, not only you're not going to solve the problem.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
You are going to make your country poorer. We are
now three hundred billion dollars poorer, right and our weapons
arsenal is depleted.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
To dangerous levels, Lisa.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Some of the weapons systems is gonna take from five
anywhere from five to eighteen years to replenish. Okay, our
stock pile has dwindled in a major, major way on
on Biden's watch. And that's why that's another reason why
President Trump wants to put an end to this conflict,
because he wants to stop the bleeding not only of
(21:45):
Ukraine but of our own military hardware. Because we have China,
you know, on the horizon to deal with that is
getting ready to you know, secure control over Ukraine. That
has been their long term strategic goal. Right, So in
a year or two and we got no weapons, uh
to to to.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
To fight them with.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
And UH Secretary of State Rubyo today admitted on on
Fox News that that uh, China is able to build
you know, ten fighter jets and and and and ten ships,
while we're building just one barely because of our you know,
crazy procurement processes UH in the Pentagon. So yes, Trump
(22:32):
is absolutely a realist and uh.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Yes, Putin is a dictator. Nobody is arguing about that.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Uh, but look, the United States has dealt with dictators
for decades. We're dealing with the shi Jin king all
the time, and we are highly highly dependent on China.
And he looked at he he's as much of an
assassin as Putin is. Look look at what he's done
to h Wersu. We are dealing with it with the
(23:01):
thought is right. And those are the people who chop
up journalists and put them in the suitcases. Right, we
dealt with Mama Khadafi. I mean it's not I don't
know why they have like a potent derangement syndrome. They
left us. Putin is you know, he's capable of dealing
(23:22):
with the US on a transactional basis, you know. And
Trump doesn't care how Putin treats the Russians, or how Ukrainian,
how Zelenski treats Ukrainians, or she treats the Chinese. President
Trump cares about Americans. He wants to put our security first.
It's not already that we've been sending our men and
women into someone else's war to secure someone else's freedom. Well,
(23:46):
what about our freedom. So that's what you know, Trump
is doing. And he decided that it's time to enter
this war and to call Zelenski on his you know,
on his bluff, and to call for who he is,
which is a dictator, a Puddin like dictator, and a
con artist.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Let's talk about this before we go.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I want to get into the mineral deal that President
Trump is trying to get signed. You know, take us
through that. Why does it matter? You know, why is
it important? You know, kind of break that down for
the audience.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Sure, well, rare earth minerals very important because they go
into they are a required element in all kinds of
high tech industries and.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Especially in where.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
The artificial intelligence and it happens so that Ukraine, both
Ukraine and Russia have large deposits of rare earth minerals.
President Trump wants to secure those materials for two reasons.
(25:04):
He doesn't want us to depend on China. China is
for for example, look at like electric vehicles. Uh. And
why the Biden administration, uh, you know, with his regulations.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Put on the auto industry mandating that we all start
you know, buying those evs. Well, guess what.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
China is the country that controls most of the required
elements for the production of those evase. Uh. Well, Trump
does not want us to depend on anyone. He wants
to secure and and if we are to depend on somebody.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
It's better not be China. So he wants to secure
control of those.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
But I am not optimistic actually as far as that is.
And again, I love President Trump and everything, but the
Russians are not idiots. They are first the many of
those earth minerals are in Ukraine, but they are in
the Russian part. And so Zelenski is brandishing something in
(26:18):
front of President Trump, but he is trying to sell
something that he actually doesn't own.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
And the Russians are also securing the area. They are
forces that are in control of the area where there's
the largest you know, deposit of titanium.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Of lithium.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
And he's now trying to position himself as the one
who would deal with the United States on this rare
earth minerals. Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
He said, Russia is actually the one that has the
most rare earth minerals.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
It is willing to consider cooperating with the United States.
But I'm not optimistic that Putin would actually uh make
that kind of deal. Because his decades long line policy
line has been that the West is trying to rip
(27:29):
off Russia all of its natural resources and wants to
use Russia effectively as sort of a colony. That's the
culpful language that usually uses, you know, to galvanize the
Russian people against like Europe, who against the United States.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
And so what I'm concerned is that Putin is.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Going to drag you know, the United States team Trump's
team brandishing the this deal, but he's eventually he's not.
He's going to make it so hard to conclude that
we're going to just give it up, and and and
and so, because yeah, titanium, iron, uranium, the Russians have
(28:15):
all that, but they want their.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Industries uh to flourish.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
They don't want to be the seller of natural resources
because they're already uh the same situation right now, like
with with oil and gas, right, Russia is basically you know,
like some people say, it's a gas station mascuerading as
a country. I don't agree with that statement, but what
that statement captures is that, uh, it is highly highly
(28:45):
reliant on energy and not unlike manufactured goods, not on services.
And so they are not going to put themselves in
that very same conundrum that they are with oil and gas.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I don't believe he's going to release those earth minerals
to the US.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
So why go through the song and dance of trying
to get the mineral deal done?
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Then?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
If you're President Trump?
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Oh, because President Trump firmly believes, firmly believes that he
is able to do it.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
I mean, he is the master of the art of
the deal.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
And I mean, you know, Trump have discounted many many times,
and I am happy to be corrected.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
You know, I would love for Trump to make that deal.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
There's nothing in sort of in Russia's history or in
the way that I understand.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Hud or in.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
In my intelligence analysis that that leads me to conclude
that that deal is viable.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I can't get like, in Trump's head.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Trump is a very very different His brain thinks very differently,
and so.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Who knows, maybe he will put around it out of
a hat. You know Russia.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Did you know previously Russia did like for example, in
twenty seventeen, Russia supplied about fifteen percent.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Of all American aluminum imports.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Right, so there is precedent of that kind of transactional approach.
But what I and it depends on how President Trump
wants to structure that deal. If he just wants you know,
Russia and or Ukraine to commit to just like you know,
or to relin push and control of these materials to
(30:52):
the United States, that's not I don't see that happening.
If somehow President Trump, and I'm just speculating here, I
don't know exactly the contours of the deal.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
That Trump is trying to make.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
But from the speculative standpoint, if let's say Trump.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Is willing to put some direct.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Investment in Russia and help them, without technology, use their
own production facilities to process those materials, that could be
a different thing. Back when I you know, originally from
the former Servinian as you know, and even during communist times,
(31:37):
for instance, the Russians couldn't even like have their own
duty free shops at the airport. The Russians could not
the Soviets manufacture their own toaster, their own microwave, right,
but they were really ahead of the United States in
missiles and nucleate college and all of their sas so.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
But even during.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Those times, they allowed the Irish to come in and
help them stand out a duty free shop as long
as the Irish promised fifty one percent ownership to Russian
and they had forty nine to the various.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Ways of striking those deals. And Scott beston who is
advising Trump on that?
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Who is actually you know, he's part of the team
of heavyweights who on negaging with the Russians. They might
slice that cat, you know, in a way that might
be palatable to Putin, and I'm hoping that they do.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
We've got a quick commercial break more with Rebecca Koffler
on the other side.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Before we go.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Will President Trump be able to end this war between
Russia and Ukraine?
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Gosh, that's really really a tough one, Lisa, So I'll
give you two skulls of thought. My assessment is that
it's going to be extremely difficult. Why is that because
Trump and haird it an untenable situation, uh from Biden. Biden,
(33:06):
by allowing Ukraine to use US lawn arrange missiles to
strike deep into Russia, effectively demonstrated to Pudin that Putin
was correct by invading Ukraine. Putin cannot afford, you know,
having Ukraine, which is part of russia strategic security Promadont,
(33:28):
which relied for centuries for its security to be on
the doorstep with that kind of capability. Right, So my
intelligent synasis tells me Pudin is going to drag these
negotiations and he is going to continue destroying Ukraine and
then eventually install a pro Russian Ukrainian leader, so he
(33:54):
has geopolitical control of it, and he gets the guarant
teas that Ukraine is not going to be part of NATAL.
That is his plan. Because Putin doesn't trust us. He
doesn't trust Trump either, right, he respects Trump, but he
doesn't trust He doesn't trust Trump. He said that once,
(34:15):
you know, a few years ago John Trump's worst presidency,
when somebody asked him, you know, do you trust President
Trump or he said, well, look, we are both representing
the national interests of our country. He represents his country
and I represent mine, and so Putin also, Trump.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Is a very unusual leader, un conventional leader.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
He basically has uphended the twenty five century worth of
US Russia policy.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
And Puttin is looking beyond Trump. You know, he understands
that US leaders change every four years, and you know,
a person something come after Trump.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
I'm describing Putin's thinking because, as you know, that's kind
of my expertise, and I wrote a book on him,
putting his playbook, so that's how he thinks. He doesn't
think like an American, he thinks like a Russian. So
he is thinking, Okay, you know, someone will come after
Trump and is going to flip that whole policy and
it's going to start, you know, pushing your gang into
(35:24):
na there again. So my assessment is that peace is
unlikely right now. Putin also said because we are now
pushing for a cease fire, because a ceasefire is a
lot easier to.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Achieve, you know than like a long lasting piece.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
Let's just say, uh, Putin said about a month ago,
a cease fire.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
We're not going to go for that, because.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
That would be considered from the military doctrine standpoint, a
strategic pause. What does the strategic pause do? Strategicas gives
a breather to everyone, you know, to all the forces,
the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Americans.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
And uh, the Natal alliance right now.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Is an excellent position from the combat potential standpoint, which
is calculated as a combination of armed forces, UH, military hardware,
defense economics, and the military industrial complexes ability to produce
sufficient armaments in order to prosecute the war. Uh. The
(36:35):
Russians now are producing in one month more missiles than
the entireet Natal alliance produces in one year. Let that
say a thing. Uh, he also mobilized. He prove that
is mobilized. H rather increase the size of the Russian
(36:55):
armed forces above the maximally allowed by the constitution to
one million and three hundred and fifty thousand. For comparison,
US forces including the National Guard is between like a
million and a million two hundred. So he can continue
this war until the last Ukrainian and until the last weapon,
(37:21):
both in US arsenal and in European weapons arsenal. Right,
Whodin believes that if he gives that strategic pause, we
can the Ukrainians can reap.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
We can start manufacturing more weapons, because right now we can't.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
We don't have the military industrial capacity to because the
way officially not on the war time putting and so.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
But we could change that.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
If time is given to us, to the United States,
to NATO into Ukraine, we can optimize our forced pasture,
we can optimize our weapons stockpile.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
And pud does not want to do.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
That's what he said, he said that, So that's why
I am not very optimistic on that deal. Does Putin
want to deal with the United States on a transactional basis?
Does he want to be seen as an equal with
President Trump, the leader of the free world?
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Absolutely. Does he want his sanctions lifted? Absolutely, So it's good.
It's it's a very complicated and a very long dance
with a lot of steps, you know, fentangle, I think,
and President Trump temperamentally, President Trump is different from Puli.
(38:46):
He wants things done very quickly, and putn't understands that.
He understands that a hot button and something that he
can push with Trump right. And and so if Trump
is not right, and if he starts blaming his people,
his team for not being fast enough, Putin is going
(39:08):
to use it against us. Putin wants to sew discord
and disorder in our team so that we are exasperated
and so we either conclude the deal that is not
the best deal for us, or you know, he can
just you know, we don't conclude the deal and he
just keeps going. So that's kind of the mass manipulator
(39:30):
that Pudu is. Team Trump understand that I don't know
who online team actually speaks Russian and understands how police thinks.
I don't know anybody. You know, General Kellogg. He's a
wonderful guy, but is he a Russia expert? Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
They need somebody who actually.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
Understands the guy and advises them on how to proceed
with these negotiations and interprets when Putin says something. Uh,
there needs to be not only a aguage interpret that,
but somebody who understands how Pulin thinks and how to
push his buttons because they understand how to push our buttons.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Very very well.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
They study us, you know, and they study President Trump,
they study Biden. They know how to deal with us,
and that's why they are able to kind of like
run circles around us, at least previously. Will they be
able to run circles, you know, Champ hopefully not.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
I don't think so. But we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
It's too early, all right, Well, we'll see if the
author of the art of the deal can be the
author of this deal.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Rebecca Coffler.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Always enjoy hearing your insights, and I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Of course, that.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Was Rebecca Coffler. Appreciate her for taking the time. Appreciate
you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday,
but you can listen throughout the week. Also want to
think John Cassio, my producer, for putting it together.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Until next time.
President Trump wrote the book The Art of the Deal.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Will he be able to strike a deal between Russia
and Ukraine? Also, President Trump is currently working on a
deal with Ukraine that would give the United States access
to natural resources in Ukraine in exchange for America's support
amid this war with Russia. So what does that deal
mean and why does it matter? We'll dig into the
(00:23):
details of that today on this episode.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Lastly, President Trump.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Has been critical of Ukrainian President Zelenski.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Is there a strategy behind that? What should you know?
We'll get into all of this with Rebecca Koffler.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
She's a Russian born US intelligence expert who served as
a Russian doctrine and strategy specialist in the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
She's also the author.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Of Putin's playbook, Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America. Stay
tuned for Rebecca Kaffler. Well, Rebecca, it's great to have.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
You on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Obviously, a lot of Ukraine news to cover, so I'm
looking forward to getting your input and what it all means.
So appreciate you making the time, of course, So I
kind of want to start out with, you know, just
big picture. You know, where does this war between Ukraine
and Russia stand today.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, the war continues.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Actually, the Russians keep on destroying Ukraine. Uh they recently
launched just a barrage of missiles. Wooden is not slowing
down because for two reasons.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
You know, he wants to.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Put pressure on the Trump administration to get the best
deal possible. And in fact, he doesn't even have to
to uh end this war because he has positioned himself
in a very good situation from the military standpoint. And
(02:02):
when I say in the good situation, I don't discount
the fact that the Russians have lost, you know, at
least half a million people. They have been going through
their weapons, arsenal and that kind of thing. But the
benefits outweigh the cost for the Russians. And the second
(02:26):
reason why Putin continues is that he wants to also
to demonstrate to Zolensky that Russia is not going to
relent until Ukraine either capitulates or Zolensky holds the elections,
because currently Zelenski is not a legitimate president of Ukraine
(02:52):
by the Ukrainian constitution itself, and Putin will not negotiate
with Zolanski. His term expired back in May and so
the war continues.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So the war continued.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
It tell us, what what does the Ukrainian constitution say
when when you say that technically Zelensky is not you know,
you know what he's doing right now, explain that a
little bit further right, So he's not a legitimate president,
is what I was.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
So he in uh term expired back in May uh
he had invoked like our version of the martial law
right which says that there cannot be elections right now,
that because Ukraine is at war, So he kind of
(03:47):
put himself in an a legal conundrum. He also put
another sort of law approved which prohibits government from.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Negotiating with Putin.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Not many people know that they cannot be elections right now.
Also because the only entity does hold the authority to
negotiate on peace or to make any kind of like
legitimate straight state craft actions is the Rada, the Parliament
(04:28):
of Ukraine. But Lensky controls the Arrada by virtue of
his vow winning the majority in the Rada.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
So it's kind of like a chicken and egg problem.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
And does Lensky as far as I'm concerned, and I've
been saying it for three years at this point.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
He's a con artist.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
I mean, he has built this image in the West
that he's a Churchill in a T shirt. But he's
a miniature putin what he was able to do where
the West with the United States, just like what President
Trump has tweeted out the other day or posted on
his true social he basically called them a dictator who
(05:13):
was able to manipulate Biden into giving him billions and
billions of US taxpayers hard earned money. So, and he's
continuing to sort of to drag us into this war.
He's continuing to put pressure on the Trump administration to
give Ukraine membership in NATO, which is a completely a
(05:36):
red line for Pool.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
He has been for years. That's why putting started this war.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Zelenski is even offering to step down. Well, these are
all games, right, He's just trying to stay relevant because
he knows the end of him is near and once
he's no longer president of Ukraine, he's going to be
an old one. And until he is, even if though
(06:05):
he's legitimate, he's still in.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
The news somewhere, you know, if you can potentially strike
book deals and this and that.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
So and we unfortunately, uh, the United States are dragged
in into this circus.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Would he win if he held elections? You know, do
we have.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Any sense of his popularity with the Ukrainian people?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Is there a good way to gauge.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
That Lensky's air too popularity according to intelligence assessments is
that four percent.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
However, the agency.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Has done the popularity polling in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Has been funded by the USAID.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
That agency has rated his popularity at about fifty low
fifty percent. But we all know that USAID basically has
been funding you know, leftist projects, So those numbers are
not credible. The fifty percent approval rating, So I go
(07:15):
with the intelligence assessments, and some members of President Trump's
team have actually revealed those numbers. So it is impossible
for Zelenski to win at this point. And that is
really because his low approval ratings is because people are
tired of this war. I mean, the close to a
(07:38):
million of Ukrainians are dead, fifty percent of Ukrainian critical
infrastructure is destroyed. They see no victory in this war.
In fact, this victory has been you know, mathematically impossible
from the from the very start. So they want this
to end the conundrum, another conundrum. In addition to the
(08:03):
legal conundrum that Zelenski boxed himself in is that if
you hold the elections, and President Trump is insisting.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
On those elections being.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Held in Ukraine because otherwise putting this simple and not
going to negotiate.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Right. The conundrum that everybody is concerned.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
About is that it's the Russian playbook to influence elections.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
And the concern both of the Europeans and.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Of the Ukrainians is that Putin's special services, the spy
agencies are going to run contestant operations to try and
elect a pro Russia person as president. But that is
just like how things are. Another piece to that is
(08:58):
Zelenski out lawed all of the opposition parties, right, so
technically no party right now that is opposing Zolensky can run,
you know, can put the candidate. So there's a lot
of moving parts, right And unfortunately President Trump, you know,
(09:22):
he has this very short timeline and his team is
pushing both Zolensky and UH and and Putin to UH
to strike this deal. But things just don't happen that
fast in Russia or Ukraine. And part of it, it's
not just cultural, but part of it is all of
(09:43):
these different, you know, nuances that have been created by
Zolensky himself.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So he probably wouldn't win reelection.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Absolutely not. I would say ninety nine point nine percent.
You know, he's not he will not win.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
We've seen President Trump, you know, take some aim at
Zelensky and he's been on the receiving end of criticism
from Democrats as a result of that. You know, is
there a strategy behind that criticism of Zelensky? Is there
intentionality between behind that or you know, why do you
think he's why do you think the president is taking
(10:25):
some shots at Zelenski.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Two things.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
President Trump wants Zolensky to just shut up because Zelensky
has been speaking too much. President Trump has a very
specific strategy. He's a deal maker right in the Art
of the Deal, the book that he wrote and was
promoting it back in nineteen eighty seven, he said, I
(10:51):
like to make the deals.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
That's what I do and does.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Lensky needs to stay out of Trump's way and not
give interview undermining Trump's ability to conduct those negotiations. Uh,
Zelensky is refusing, you know, to make the ideal on
the rare earth minerals. He is telling you know, the Europeans,
(11:16):
that he still wants Ukraine to be part of NATO,
he wants security guarantees, he wants this, he wants that.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
He wants small weapons. Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
President Trump wants him to stay quiet and only come
if he becomes actually a legitimate person to conduct negotiations,
and at this point he isn't. And the second part
to President Trump's strategy is that Britain Trump is a
(11:48):
realist and he actually speaks the truth. When President Trump
says Zolensky is the dictator, he's actually being calended and honest.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
As I said, Lensky passed all of these various you
know laws, whether it's he outlawed all opposition parties, he
outlawed all the Russian language media. And remember twenty percent
of Ukrainian land and Dambas, the Russians lived there, and
(12:21):
they were not able during Zelenski's presidency to listen to
have their own.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Native language TV. I mean imagine that, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Saying Zolenski's intelligence service, the Sbu Slub speaking.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Ukraine, was grabbing Ukrainian men off the streets to send
them on the front lines because they're just running out
of people.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
The average age of the Ukrainian soldier is approximately forty five.
I mean, imagine, and those are not like American you know,
type forty five. These are men who are you know,
they look and act more like in their sixties because
they don't have the same healthcare that we do here.
(13:09):
You know, Alcoholism is rampart in Ukraine as it is
in Russia. And so this is the guy that that
you're dealing with. And President Trump is the only one
who actually is brave enough to say the quiet part
out loud.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
To call him out. He's not Trump is.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Not afraid of being called, you know, Putin's puppet, because
there's nothing you can do to him anymore.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
They've they've tried everything, they.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Called him, you know, the Russia Trump collusion, They've done
all of these things to him, and so there's nothing
that he's afraid. He's just calling a spade a spade.
At this point. He's the manipulator, he's the Connatistino Zelenski.
He's siphoned off three hundred billion dollars out of the Biden.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Administration. You know, well, and those are our money, right,
that is our money.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
And President Trump is trying to recoup some of that
money right now to make the American people's full that's
what he's doing.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That's his strategy.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
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booth b O O t E. A single heartbeat can
echo across generations. Why is Lensky untouchable?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I'm not sure. I'm not sure I understand the question.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Uh what do you mean? Why is he untouchable? Who
believes that he's untouchable?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Well, I would say the left and many in the media.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Because they have created him. I mean look at.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Uh so okay, So two parts to this. First, why
did this war start? And why did the United States
under the Biden administration engage in.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
This proxy war with over control of Ukraine.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Why did Europeans engage in this It is because the
Europeans did not want to spend money on their own security,
even though they knew about Putin's plans a decade ago.
I personally briefed NATO in September twenty thirteen, just months
(16:25):
prior to Russia's invasion of Crimea. I briefed in Brussels,
Belgium on Putin's mindset, his plans and intentions, Russian war
fighting strategy. Everybody knew what was going to happen, and
yet the Obama administration kept slashing US force pasture in Europe,
(16:46):
and the Europeans never at that point even bothered to
pay two percent of their JEDP towards the collective security
kitting right, only very few countries Poland and the Baltics,
led me Estonian and Luthenia paid their fair ship. So
(17:08):
once Puttain invaded, they woke up and decided, okay, we're
just gonna get some weapons to Ukraine, effectively throw Ukraine
into Putin's mad grinder, use Ukrainians as human shields by
having them fight Puden and deplete Russia's weapons arsenal Right,
(17:34):
this is what Lloyd Austin, the former Secretary of Defense
in a Bide administration, again said the choir part out loud.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
He admitted it.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
We are wanting to weaken Russia militarily and economically. And
that's that is why they want to keep Zelenski, you know,
because the Lenski did not want to stop the war.
He didn't he refused to negotiate. Right, That's why Boris
(18:03):
Johnson went over there when the Russians were trying. When
the Russians encircled Ukraine, one hundred and ninety thousand troops
putting put up there, right, before the war they were
trying to negotiate Zolenski. Hughes Johnson put pressure on them
because they wanted to protect themselves. They didn't care about Ukrainians, right,
(18:26):
and so the same about the left here and the
Biden administration. They did not want to develop a counter
strategy to Putin. They did not want to invest in
our modern weapons, arsenal rights such as hypersonics, such as
(18:49):
tactical nuclear weapons. Because remember the reason why we can't
deploy forces into the theater US forces not only because
Trump that want to, but the reason Biden didn't want
to because Putin gave in the United States made militarily
(19:11):
having developed escalate to de escalate nuclear strategy and having
transitioned his military industrial complex onto what I'm putting seven
years prior to the invasion. If we provided more weapons,
if the conflict escalated, Putain would go nuclear. And he
(19:32):
even demonstrated the hyperstonic missile capability and all of these,
you know, high tech things that we had no response to.
And so that is why both the Europeans and the
Democrats wanted to crop up Zelenski so that war continues,
(19:53):
so that we do not have to you know, spend
our money on our defenses and so that we don't
have to put our troops in let just Ukrainian. You know,
people keep dying in in in puting you know, meat
grind or even in his nuclear furnace, because that would
(20:15):
have happened if Strump, if Trump did not step in,
if Trump did not de escalate this, we were firmly
on a path to nuclear war in in Europe.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Well, because I just think that.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You know, viewing it clear eyed is the healthiest, and
that you know, obviously Putin is a dictator and you know,
not a great guy. But then I also think we
have to be honest about what's going on in Ukraine
as well, because you know, in order to try to
figure out how to end this thing, you know, you
have to have that realistic viewpoint which you mentioned, which
is the way I think that I agree with you
(20:51):
in the way that President Trump views the world, because
if you're looking at it through rose colored glasses, then
you know you're not gonna be able to solve the problem.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
To solve a problem, you have to, you know, fully
understand the problem and you know the different moving parts,
and the player is involved.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yes, not only you're not going to solve the problem.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
You are going to make your country poorer. We are
now three hundred billion dollars poorer, right and our weapons
arsenal is depleted.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
To dangerous levels, Lisa.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Some of the weapons systems is gonna take from five
anywhere from five to eighteen years to replenish. Okay, our
stock pile has dwindled in a major, major way on
on Biden's watch. And that's why that's another reason why
President Trump wants to put an end to this conflict,
because he wants to stop the bleeding not only of
(21:45):
Ukraine but of our own military hardware. Because we have China,
you know, on the horizon to deal with that is
getting ready to you know, secure control over Ukraine. That
has been their long term strategic goal. Right, So in
a year or two and we got no weapons, uh
to to to.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
To fight them with.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
And UH Secretary of State Rubyo today admitted on on
Fox News that that uh, China is able to build
you know, ten fighter jets and and and and ten ships,
while we're building just one barely because of our you know,
crazy procurement processes UH in the Pentagon. So yes, Trump
(22:32):
is absolutely a realist and uh.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Yes, Putin is a dictator. Nobody is arguing about that.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Uh, but look, the United States has dealt with dictators
for decades. We're dealing with the shi Jin king all
the time, and we are highly highly dependent on China.
And he looked at he he's as much of an
assassin as Putin is. Look look at what he's done
to h Wersu. We are dealing with it with the
(23:01):
thought is right. And those are the people who chop
up journalists and put them in the suitcases. Right, we
dealt with Mama Khadafi. I mean it's not I don't
know why they have like a potent derangement syndrome. They
left us. Putin is you know, he's capable of dealing
(23:22):
with the US on a transactional basis, you know. And
Trump doesn't care how Putin treats the Russians, or how Ukrainian,
how Zelenski treats Ukrainians, or she treats the Chinese. President
Trump cares about Americans. He wants to put our security first.
It's not already that we've been sending our men and
women into someone else's war to secure someone else's freedom. Well,
(23:46):
what about our freedom. So that's what you know, Trump
is doing. And he decided that it's time to enter
this war and to call Zelenski on his you know,
on his bluff, and to call for who he is,
which is a dictator, a Puddin like dictator, and a
con artist.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Let's talk about this before we go.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I want to get into the mineral deal that President
Trump is trying to get signed. You know, take us
through that. Why does it matter? You know, why is
it important? You know, kind of break that down for
the audience.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Sure, well, rare earth minerals very important because they go
into they are a required element in all kinds of
high tech industries and.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Especially in where.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
The artificial intelligence and it happens so that Ukraine, both
Ukraine and Russia have large deposits of rare earth minerals.
President Trump wants to secure those materials for two reasons.
(25:04):
He doesn't want us to depend on China. China is
for for example, look at like electric vehicles. Uh. And
why the Biden administration, uh, you know, with his regulations.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Put on the auto industry mandating that we all start
you know, buying those evs. Well, guess what.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
China is the country that controls most of the required
elements for the production of those evase. Uh. Well, Trump
does not want us to depend on anyone. He wants
to secure and and if we are to depend on somebody.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
It's better not be China. So he wants to secure
control of those.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
But I am not optimistic actually as far as that is.
And again, I love President Trump and everything, but the
Russians are not idiots. They are first the many of
those earth minerals are in Ukraine, but they are in
the Russian part. And so Zelenski is brandishing something in
(26:18):
front of President Trump, but he is trying to sell
something that he actually doesn't own.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
And the Russians are also securing the area. They are
forces that are in control of the area where there's
the largest you know, deposit of titanium.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Of lithium.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
And he's now trying to position himself as the one
who would deal with the United States on this rare
earth minerals. Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
He said, Russia is actually the one that has the
most rare earth minerals.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
It is willing to consider cooperating with the United States.
But I'm not optimistic that Putin would actually uh make
that kind of deal. Because his decades long line policy
line has been that the West is trying to rip
(27:29):
off Russia all of its natural resources and wants to
use Russia effectively as sort of a colony. That's the
culpful language that usually uses, you know, to galvanize the
Russian people against like Europe, who against the United States.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
And so what I'm concerned is that Putin is.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Going to drag you know, the United States team Trump's
team brandishing the this deal, but he's eventually he's not.
He's going to make it so hard to conclude that
we're going to just give it up, and and and
and so, because yeah, titanium, iron, uranium, the Russians have
(28:15):
all that, but they want their.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Industries uh to flourish.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
They don't want to be the seller of natural resources
because they're already uh the same situation right now, like
with with oil and gas, right, Russia is basically you know,
like some people say, it's a gas station mascuerading as
a country. I don't agree with that statement, but what
that statement captures is that, uh, it is highly highly
(28:45):
reliant on energy and not unlike manufactured goods, not on services.
And so they are not going to put themselves in
that very same conundrum that they are with oil and gas.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I don't believe he's going to release those earth minerals
to the US.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
So why go through the song and dance of trying
to get the mineral deal done?
Speaker 6 (29:12):
Then?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
If you're President Trump?
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Oh, because President Trump firmly believes, firmly believes that he
is able to do it.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
I mean, he is the master of the art of
the deal.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
And I mean, you know, Trump have discounted many many times,
and I am happy to be corrected.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
You know, I would love for Trump to make that deal.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
There's nothing in sort of in Russia's history or in
the way that I understand.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Hud or in.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
In my intelligence analysis that that leads me to conclude
that that deal is viable.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
I can't get like, in Trump's head.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Trump is a very very different His brain thinks very differently,
and so.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Who knows, maybe he will put around it out of
a hat. You know Russia.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Did you know previously Russia did like for example, in
twenty seventeen, Russia supplied about fifteen percent.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Of all American aluminum imports.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Right, so there is precedent of that kind of transactional approach.
But what I and it depends on how President Trump
wants to structure that deal. If he just wants you know,
Russia and or Ukraine to commit to just like you know,
or to relin push and control of these materials to
(30:52):
the United States, that's not I don't see that happening.
If somehow President Trump, and I'm just speculating here, I
don't know exactly the contours of the deal.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
That Trump is trying to make.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
But from the speculative standpoint, if let's say Trump.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Is willing to put some direct.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Investment in Russia and help them, without technology, use their
own production facilities to process those materials, that could be
a different thing. Back when I you know, originally from
the former Servinian as you know, and even during communist times,
(31:37):
for instance, the Russians couldn't even like have their own
duty free shops at the airport. The Russians could not
the Soviets manufacture their own toaster, their own microwave, right,
but they were really ahead of the United States in
missiles and nucleate college and all of their sas so.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
But even during.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Those times, they allowed the Irish to come in and
help them stand out a duty free shop as long
as the Irish promised fifty one percent ownership to Russian
and they had forty nine to the various.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Ways of striking those deals. And Scott beston who is
advising Trump on that?
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Who is actually you know, he's part of the team
of heavyweights who on negaging with the Russians. They might
slice that cat, you know, in a way that might
be palatable to Putin, and I'm hoping that they do.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
We've got a quick commercial break more with Rebecca Koffler
on the other side.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Before we go.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Will President Trump be able to end this war between
Russia and Ukraine?
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Gosh, that's really really a tough one, Lisa, So I'll
give you two skulls of thought. My assessment is that
it's going to be extremely difficult. Why is that because
Trump and haird it an untenable situation, uh from Biden. Biden,
(33:06):
by allowing Ukraine to use US lawn arrange missiles to
strike deep into Russia, effectively demonstrated to Pudin that Putin
was correct by invading Ukraine. Putin cannot afford, you know,
having Ukraine, which is part of russia strategic security Promadont,
(33:28):
which relied for centuries for its security to be on
the doorstep with that kind of capability. Right, So my
intelligent synasis tells me Pudin is going to drag these
negotiations and he is going to continue destroying Ukraine and
then eventually install a pro Russian Ukrainian leader, so he
(33:54):
has geopolitical control of it, and he gets the guarant
teas that Ukraine is not going to be part of NATAL.
That is his plan. Because Putin doesn't trust us. He
doesn't trust Trump either, right, he respects Trump, but he
doesn't trust He doesn't trust Trump. He said that once,
(34:15):
you know, a few years ago John Trump's worst presidency,
when somebody asked him, you know, do you trust President
Trump or he said, well, look, we are both representing
the national interests of our country. He represents his country
and I represent mine, and so Putin also, Trump.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Is a very unusual leader, un conventional leader.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
He basically has uphended the twenty five century worth of
US Russia policy.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
And Puttin is looking beyond Trump. You know, he understands
that US leaders change every four years, and you know,
a person something come after Trump.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
I'm describing Putin's thinking because, as you know, that's kind
of my expertise, and I wrote a book on him,
putting his playbook, so that's how he thinks. He doesn't
think like an American, he thinks like a Russian. So
he is thinking, Okay, you know, someone will come after
Trump and is going to flip that whole policy and
it's going to start, you know, pushing your gang into
(35:24):
na there again. So my assessment is that peace is
unlikely right now. Putin also said because we are now
pushing for a cease fire, because a ceasefire is a
lot easier to.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Achieve, you know than like a long lasting piece.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
Let's just say, uh, Putin said about a month ago,
a cease fire.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
We're not going to go for that, because.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
That would be considered from the military doctrine standpoint, a
strategic pause. What does the strategic pause do? Strategicas gives
a breather to everyone, you know, to all the forces,
the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Americans.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
And uh, the Natal alliance right now.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Is an excellent position from the combat potential standpoint, which
is calculated as a combination of armed forces, UH, military hardware,
defense economics, and the military industrial complexes ability to produce
sufficient armaments in order to prosecute the war. Uh. The
(36:35):
Russians now are producing in one month more missiles than
the entireet Natal alliance produces in one year. Let that
say a thing. Uh, he also mobilized. He prove that
is mobilized. H rather increase the size of the Russian
(36:55):
armed forces above the maximally allowed by the constitution to
one million and three hundred and fifty thousand. For comparison,
US forces including the National Guard is between like a
million and a million two hundred. So he can continue
this war until the last Ukrainian and until the last weapon,
(37:21):
both in US arsenal and in European weapons arsenal. Right,
Whodin believes that if he gives that strategic pause, we
can the Ukrainians can reap.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
We can start manufacturing more weapons, because right now we can't.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
We don't have the military industrial capacity to because the
way officially not on the war time putting and so.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
But we could change that.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
If time is given to us, to the United States,
to NATO into Ukraine, we can optimize our forced pasture,
we can optimize our weapons stockpile.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
And pud does not want to do.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
That's what he said, he said that, So that's why
I am not very optimistic on that deal. Does Putin
want to deal with the United States on a transactional basis?
Does he want to be seen as an equal with
President Trump, the leader of the free world?
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Absolutely. Does he want his sanctions lifted? Absolutely, So it's good.
It's it's a very complicated and a very long dance
with a lot of steps, you know, fentangle, I think,
and President Trump temperamentally, President Trump is different from Puli.
(38:46):
He wants things done very quickly, and putn't understands that.
He understands that a hot button and something that he
can push with Trump right. And and so if Trump
is not right, and if he starts blaming his people,
his team for not being fast enough, Putin is going
(39:08):
to use it against us. Putin wants to sew discord
and disorder in our team so that we are exasperated
and so we either conclude the deal that is not
the best deal for us, or you know, he can
just you know, we don't conclude the deal and he
just keeps going. So that's kind of the mass manipulator
(39:30):
that Pudu is. Team Trump understand that I don't know
who online team actually speaks Russian and understands how police thinks.
I don't know anybody. You know, General Kellogg. He's a
wonderful guy, but is he a Russia expert? Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
They need somebody who actually.
Speaker 4 (39:49):
Understands the guy and advises them on how to proceed
with these negotiations and interprets when Putin says something. Uh,
there needs to be not only a aguage interpret that,
but somebody who understands how Pulin thinks and how to
push his buttons because they understand how to push our buttons.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Very very well.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
They study us, you know, and they study President Trump,
they study Biden. They know how to deal with us,
and that's why they are able to kind of like
run circles around us, at least previously. Will they be
able to run circles, you know, Champ hopefully not.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
I don't think so. But we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
It's too early, all right, Well, we'll see if the
author of the art of the deal can be the
author of this deal.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Rebecca Coffler.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Always enjoy hearing your insights, and I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Of course, that.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Was Rebecca Coffler. Appreciate her for taking the time. Appreciate
you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday,
but you can listen throughout the week. Also want to
think John Cassio, my producer, for putting it together.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Until next time.
Host
Lisa Boothe
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