Leland Vittert on Trump’s Middle East Trip and Speech in Israel

NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor Leland Vittert joins us to discuss President Trump’s trip to the Middle East, including his visit to Israel and the global reaction to his latest speech. Vittert breaks down the political strategy, foreign policy implications, and what it means for the U.S. moving forward.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go straight to the hotline and bring in News
Nation Chief Washington anchor and host of On Balance with
Leland Vidert, which you can watch weeknights at nine on
News Nation. Leland Vertert is with us. You can also
check out his free Warnes newsletter at warnotes dot com,
and don't forget to pick up his new book, Born Lucky.
You can get it on Amazon now. Leland, thanks so

(00:22):
much for taking a few minutes to come on on
this really historic morning. What have you made of the
images that you've seen out of the Middle East so
far and President Trump's speech before the Israeli Parliament.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Ryan, I think this is one of those days that
twenty years from now or thirty years now, people are
going to still be talking about because of how it
has changed the Middle East. And when I live there
for four years as a foreign correspondent and for the
past fifty years or so, the construct of American foreign

(01:00):
policy in the world's understanding of the Middle East was
based on the idea that all problems in the Middle
East stemmed from the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Solve that and
then everything else will be easier. That was a complete
fallacy and Jared Kushner, to his credit, figured that out,
understood that, and then convinced President Trump of it. And

(01:22):
since they have been in power or in office the
first Trump term they turned that on its head, and
then the second Trump term they have doubled down on
that concept. And that is why you are seeing this
incredible change in the Middle East. And I think this
is just the beginning.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, I agree. I think it's going to be a
really interesting summit in Egypt. There were some reports that
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Dtya, who was going to be there.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
He's not.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
But just the fact that you have the president land
in Israel and get the Israeli Prime minister an invitation
to the summit after Israel and Egypt haven't been communicating
since the start of the war in Gaza, I think
that tells you a lot about where things could be headed,

(02:12):
assuming this peace plan continues on the track that it's
been on so far.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Fair. I think, once again though, we're maybe missing the
forest for the trees. The idea that in two years
Israel from the time of the attack Hamas and has
Blah are destroyed. Iran's nuclear program is in ashes Iran
is now the pariah state it should be. You have

(02:42):
the president of the United States who forced the Israelis
to apologize to the Katari's for the airstrike, and by
the time you go through all of that, you realize,
I think just how much President Trump has changed the
whole map of the Middle East, and that that is
something that is going to have long lasting effects. You

(03:04):
is this piece in the Middle East. I don't know.
Peace in the Middle East is a little bit like
finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
We've all talked about it, but it's never actually been
found yet. That's different, but the change to make it
a safer place is definitely happening.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Let's talk about something that you mentioned on your show.
With this announcement that there was a deal between Israel
and Hamas to end the war, you didn't see many
of the same people and groups who were protesting for

(03:40):
the end of the war come out and celebrate the
end of the war. What are your thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
I think it lays Bayar Ryan how the quote unquote
pro Palestinian protests war and are just antied you protests
and what we're seeing now in especially European capitals. But
we also saw it in New York on October seventh.
Is just the out and out calling for the killing

(04:11):
of Jews. Now, that really is what all of these
protests were. After October seventh, then I got you know,
I don't want to say a lot of trouble, but
I got slacked on social media and other places for
saying that you cannot sit around and pair it Hamas
talking points without being pro Hamas. And if you're pro Hamas,

(04:35):
you're in favor of a genocidal takeover of the Middle
East that kills all the Jews. And that's really what
all these people have been exposed as. And now I
think finally people are starting to admit it. But that
the amount of really awful violence that has both been

(04:56):
perpetrated upon and being called for upon Jews in you know,
the capitals of Europe and now in the United States,
I think it's something and it's from the left that
we are going to as a society, have to reckon with,
and that requires real moral clarity. It's going to be
interesting to see once now that sort of the pretext

(05:19):
of you know, Gaza is suffering is taken away. What
they will do. It's noteworthy all the pictures from Gaza.
Now everybody seems to be oddly found food in the
past twenty four hours. Nobody really looks all that malnourished,
and they all have new cell phones and are out celebrating,
and it's being broadcast the world through Wi Fi and
everything else. So I think we're learning how much the

(05:42):
propaganda of what we saw coming out of Gaza was
just that.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
News Nation Chief Washington anchor and host of On Balance
with Leland vittert which you can watch tonight at nine
on News Nation. Also, don't forget to check out his
free War Notes newsletter at warnoes dot com and pick
up his new book, Born Lucky on Amazon. Leland Vitter
with us this morning. Leland really appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Always fun Ryan The Ryan Gorman Show five to nine
every weekday morning on news radio WFLA