August 18, 2025 • 30 mins
Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney makes his weekly appearance with Bo & Beth to discuss Trump's meeting with Putin and what we might see during today's meeting with Zelenskyy & leaders from Europe.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you want to be good or do you want
(00:02):
to be somebody who changes the world?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Can I be both? From News Talk eleven ten and
ninety nine three w BT.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I have been around a long time for this has
the makings of a team that can bring light from
the dark.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
This is Good Morning Beat with Bo Thompson at Beth Troutman.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It can be on the whekies far to get back
to you. Look for me Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You want to be there, honey, is something special? Chats
for years? Yes, all right, Monday morning, August eighteenth, we
beam the fifty thousand watch south all the way to
the southernmost bureau of Good Morning BT. That is where
(00:54):
we find the one and only Mick mulvaney. Good morning
to you, sir.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Good morning my friends. How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We are doing great. We hope you are lucky duck
being down there in the Key West bureau once again.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, we show the show on the road this morning.
We're out at one of the state parks down here,
and Pam is dolphin watching.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Oh. We always recommend dolphin watching while listening to the show. Yeah,
perfect combinations.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
My favorite thing, yes.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And the third the third thing world politics. Here we
go with a meeting that's scheduled in just a few
hours at the White House. Before we get to what
we are expecting or anticipating with Zelenski and all the
other world leaders, they're going to meet with President Trump
just around one fifteen today. I want to roll back,
of course, and get your take on what we saw
(01:44):
unfold in Alaska on Friday, because that was quite the
spectacle to watch, and you know, heading into the weekend,
it's usually I'm sort of done for the week and
kind of in that weekend mode, but there I am
glued to the news networks, just watching every little thing
you can sort of glean from body language and the
pleasantries before they actually even talked about what they did.
(02:06):
Mick mulvaney, what were your thoughts on President Trump meeting
with President Putin on Friday?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I thought it was exactly what Trump wanted. I know
he's taken a lot of criticism from a bunch of
different people. News for you, Donald Trump's going to take
criticism regardless of what he does. But I think the
meeting gave him what he was looking for, which is
a chance to sit and talk privately one to one.
Everybody focuses on the fact that they wrapped up early,
supposedly and left. I don't look at that from Trump's perspective,
having been in with his meetings before. The critical meeting
(02:34):
was the first meeting, which I think when an hour
or an hour and a half longer than they expected,
that was the meeting. And the fact that he's now
meeting with Zelensky right away tells me that he feels
like there's opportunity here to make progress. So I know
we're going to get all sorts of, you know, sideshow criticisms.
I know, his criticisms of how he walked down the
(02:55):
red carpet for good ess sakes, But when you look
at the actual merits of the big issue, which is,
you know, a possible peace deal in Ukraine, I think
you're closer to that now than you were on Friday morning,
and I think everybody would agree that's probably a good thing.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So one of the criticiss criticisms, and you just mentioned it,
was the red carpet itself. The fact that that a
red carpet was rolled out for Vladimir Putin? Did that
strike you when you saw it? If you had been
chief of staff, if you had been someone who was
part of organizing this particular meeting, would you have suggested
some of the niceties that happened, the gift that was given,
(03:30):
the red carpet, you know, riding in the beast together,
things that are being talked about on a Monday morning.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah. I think that the job of the chief and
of the staff most that's probably be driven by Trump,
right because I mean Trump, he's an entertainer and he's really, really,
really good at it. He puts on spectacle in ways
that that I would never contemplate, just not in my DNA.
The staff's job, including the chief of staff job, would
simply lay out for the president president, if we do this,
(04:00):
then it might be perceived as that, if we do that,
that it might be perceived as this as you sort
of lay out the options and just try to give
him the perspective that he might be missing. The ultimate decision,
obviously on how to handle things is his. I didn't
mind the red carpet treatment. This is a world leader,
is he? You know? Is he my favorite world leader
right now? No, he's not. He's still a world leader.
I thought the B two flyover was one of the
(04:21):
most I don't know if I could say this in
the radio or not ball or moves i've ever seen,
you know, get and you could tell that that Putin
was surprised by it. That's a that's a that's he's
sending a real, real powerful message, especially in light of
what just happened in I around about six weeks ago.
So I again, I thought it was one hundred percent Trump.
I thought he was going to be very happy with it.
(04:41):
And is he going to be criticized? Yeah, the man.
You know, when it comes to style, there's no end
of criticism for Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
One of the reasons why I love having you on
the show and always have many reasons, but one of
the most important ones I've always felt was, you know,
you can ask a lot of people to analyze something,
but very few of them have actually been with the
subject behind closed doors, have watched President Trump when the
cameras aren't on, have been five feet away from him
(05:09):
for the better part of a year. You were his
chief of staff. So when I ask you, what did
you glean from body language? What did you think about
the looks on the faces and that type of thing.
Beth and I were talking about this earlier, and there
was a person on the text line that said, lol
body language hah, like like you can tell anything from
that basically that was the inference. Well for me, yes,
(05:31):
but from you, I think that's absolutely an important question because,
like I said, you know him better than most. So
what did you think Beth talked about the red carpet
and all, but just watching Trump's mannerisms and you know,
this is more so than most cases about I mean,
that's not the Trump spoke and so did Putin, but
watching them and you know, even just getting in the
(05:51):
car and sort of how they sort of reacted to
each other. What did you think about what you saw
based on what you've seen before?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, you talked about all the analysts and so forth,
and I was, I think on the news this morning,
at least on the internet, there's a story from a
lip reader who now is convinced he actually knows what
they said to each other and you know, in private,
which is just bizarre. But anyway, put that aside, like
I said, at the outset, sitting here watching her, watching
everything right, and mostly watching the actions afterwards, because I
(06:21):
think that's very telling when it comes to Trump. What
happens next with Trump and the fact that there's a
meeting today. Think about that, and maybe I'd just get
too deep down in the weeds on this stuff. From
my old job perspective. What they're what they are doing
is really difficult to do. I know that sounds sort
of inside baseball, and I guess it is. But you
(06:42):
don't have a meeting with the Russian leader in Alaska
on Friday and then have effectively a symposium with all
of the leaders of Europe including Ukraine, at the White
House on a Monday. That never happens. That's that's that's that.
That speaks an opera commitment to this is that blows
(07:02):
my mind? And why do I focus on that? Because
that tells me Trump feels like he's got an opportunity.
He got on the airplane after and said, look, we
need to have a meeting now in Washington with Zielenski
and the Europeans as soon as possible, and Monday would
be as soon as possible. Don't put any value in
this criticism or these commentaries saying, oh, these European leaders
(07:24):
are rushing to Washington to save Zelensky from Trump. You
don't get to invite yourself to the White House. Manuel
Mi chrome can't show up on the front door and say,
how can you let me in? That's not how it works.
Every single one of those world leaders received a formal
invitation from the White House to get here, and they
are dropping everything on their schedule to get here. So
look to the actions, not to the commentaries of lip
(07:45):
readers and body language experts. Look to what's actually happening.
What's happening seems to indicate that there is some opportunity
for a deal here, at least more so than there
was last week.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Okay, so when we come back, I want to get
into what happened today and what can be expected to
happen today. Of course, the backdrop is what happened the
last time Zelensky was at the White House. Now, last
time it was just Selensky and President Trump and his team.
Now you have a lot more people in the mix.
But we do know that the itinerary says that he's
going to meet with Zelensky one on one, and then
(08:19):
a good bit after that is when the other leaders
are going to figure into this based on the intel
that we've seen this morning schedule wise, But I want
to get you see what McK maldinney thinks is gonna
you know, what are we going to be talking about
by the time we're back tomorrow based on this meeting today.
More with Mick Mulvaney coming up. This is Good Morning
BET with Bo Thompson and Beth Troudman nine twenty one
(08:43):
on WBT. Bo and Beth here talking with Mick Mulvaney,
former White House Chief of Staff, South Carolina congressman, White
House Budget Director, and you see him periodically on News
Nation and other networks. Here's what we know about the
itinerary for today's meetings at the White House twelve noon.
The European leaders. There are at least seven of them
(09:04):
that will arrive at the White House. At one o'clock.
President Trump will greet Vladimir Zelensky, President of Ukraine. At
one fifteen. He will meet with Zelenski, assuming this is
President and his team, very much like the meeting we
saw last time Zelensky was there with And how much
of that gets televised we don't know, but that's going
(09:26):
to happen at one fifteen, and then three o'clock is
when the meeting with the other European leaders will happen.
At least that's what it looks like on paper. Right now,
Mick mulvaney's back with us on the phone line today
from Florida. So, Nick, we talked about what happened on Friday. Now,
what about your expectations today? How do you think this
is going to go down?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah, it was sort of just laughing to myself as
you read through the itinerary for the day, because my
guess is, there's a one in ten chance that's how
it's going to play out.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
We'll see, we'll see. You would know, you would know that.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
You know, it's the type of thing where he's going
to start a meeting and say, come on, just bring
everybody in, or you know, he might say a meaning's
going to go ten minutes and to go two hours,
so they're going to meet that. That's the bottom line.
I don't hope what the structure is going to look like,
but it sounds like he wants to meet with Zelenski alone,
at least for part of the time. I think that
is very interesting, and then he'll meet with the group.
(10:17):
But you know, whether or not it happens, like you
just laid out on that. On that with the White
House put outers, it's more sort of from the hip.
My guess is it doesn't really make any difference. Trump
thinks he's got the outlines of a deal and he
wants to run it by the Europeans and see where
they are and try and sell them on it is
what I think is happening here and what you know,
(10:39):
what the European what the Ukrainians need to understand is
that they really don't hold many of the cards. I
know Trump took a lot of criticism for using that
line the last time that that Zelenski was in town,
but he's right. You know, the Ukrainians they are providing
the people, there's no question about it, and it's a
tremendous sacrifice for them. But they cannot continue this war
without foreign support, specifically ours and the Europeans. So if
(10:59):
the Europeans want to deal on, the Americans want to
deal in, the Russians want to deal, there's going to
be a deal. And I think that's what Trump is
trying to tee up here, which is, look, there's a
there's a deal to be had here. Let's let's let's
take it to the next level and find how far
we can get.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Well, speaking of the deal, there are some who are
suggesting that that Trump is going to recommend that Zelenski
give up Crimea and potentially give up some other regions
that aren't currently being held by Russia, and also to
make sure that Ukraine does not join NATO. Do you
think those are the things that he potentially could bring
(11:34):
up when he's in the one on one with Zelensky
before he actually goes into the meeting with the European
Union leaders simply because they have they have suggested that
they they would not agree to the idea of Ukraine
giving up territory.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah, I mean, go back. We've had this conversation, Bet,
I don't know what eighteen months ago. Maybe I can't remember.
My position was, everybody knows. So the war ends, The
war ends with Russia taking some part of Ukrainian territory
in exchange for closer relationships between Ukraine and the West
that doesn't look like NATO membership but looks like something else.
(12:08):
I keep coming back, by the way, so that the
thing that doesn't get nearly enough attention, which is the
critical minerals deal that Trump negotiated, which is true genius
because what it is effectively is a security guarantee. Without
that allows the Russians to say face, it's a security
guarantee without a security guarantee, because everybody knows that Russia
won't invade Ukraine if there's an American mining company there.
(12:29):
So that's put that aside. For a second, Crimea is gone.
It just is Crimea is not coming back to be
part of Ukraine. And I hate to sound cavalier about that,
but no one really serious believes that Crimea is going
to become part of Ukraine permanently. Here. The real question
is whether or not it's going to be a de
facto sort of control by Russia or an officially sanctioned
(12:51):
and recognized control by Russia. But I think it bears
repeating that when Russia invaded Ukraine, what five years ago,
maybe eight years ago? That good. It's been a long time.
We didn't go to war. The Ukrainians didn't even go
to war. I mean, everybody knows Crimea is. That history
of Crimea is different. And if the Ukrainians aren't willing
to go to war to maintain their own territory, then
(13:13):
I don't think we're going to be willing to keep
going supporting them over that particular issue. The issue is
going to be Thembas and Denetsk, which is the eastern
part of the country, some of which the Russians control now,
some of which they don't. The Russians want all the stuff,
even the stuff they don't control in the eastern Ukraine.
I think that's going to be a negotiating point. But
Crimea is not coming back to part of the Ukraine.
(13:34):
And if the Ukrainians get up, as let's say, he
gets up at the table, banks the table and says
I'm not doing anything until Crimea comes back, he will
be on his own because I don't even think the
Europeans will back him on that.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Going back to Friday, just coming out of that particular
meeting with Putin, the reporters who were there, and I'm
talking about reporters like Peter Alexander from NBC and the
Fox News correspondent Jackie Heinrich talking about the body language
of Caroline Levitt coming out of Steve Whitcoff coming out
that they looked ashen, that they looked wide eyed. And
(14:08):
then Donald Trump, even when he addressed folks, when he
addressed the press, seemed more subdued. So people are wondering,
and I'm wondering your thoughts on this, that this meeting,
that he wanted this meeting to happen really quickly so
that he could regain footing in the negotiations, because people
like Jackie Heinrich from Fox said that they believed from
(14:30):
the way that people were behaving coming out of that
meeting that Putin might have steamrolled the meeting.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Again, I cautioned everybody on sort of reading into things
like body language and whether or not Carolyn Levitt was
ashen or wide eyed, which he came in to the
out of the meeting. I mean, granted that those are
fair data points, but and there's always value to being present,
to seeing people's face to you know, face to face
and so forth. I don't want to diminish it entirely,
(14:58):
but to read, you know, to go from oh, my goodness,
it was action wide eyed to oh, Putin must have
steamrolled Trump. That that's a connection that I don't make.
If Putin had steamrolled Trump, then I don't know why
we're having the meetings today because I'm not really sure
how Putin would steamroll Trump, and I'm not sure what
that would look like in any event, But why why call,
(15:20):
you know, eight world leaders to Washington to say, oh,
by the way, boys, I just got steamroll last week. Now,
what do we do that that that conversation doesn't take place?
That that's that is that is a that's not sort
of in the cards here today. So the beautiful thing
about working with Donald Trump is that you're gonna know,
you can watch you can watch the press of this
afternoon because there's gonna be one and you can make
(15:41):
up your own decisions. He's the probably singly most transparent
politician I've ever met. He's not going to keep a
lot of secrets.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
News Talk eleven ten WBT will continue with Mick mulvaney,
Bowen Beth here on a Monday morning. This is good Morning,
beat back at it here on a Monday morning, ninety
seven Bo and Beth here and in the in the
southernmost GMBT bureau that you can get. I mean, it's
we're talking about the Key West. It's Mick mulvaney calling
(16:11):
in this morning on the hotline. Thanks again for holding on, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Tolling, Beth, I think I do this segment from the
ocean itself. Can stand in the ocean and do the segment.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Well, you know, I mean, someday we're going to do
it there with you. That's that's the right.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I think you need to splash some water. Improve it
to us, Nick that you are in fact in the
ocean today.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
So as we're talking about the meeting that is coming
up today at the White House, you know, Beth was
mentioning before the news about some of the interpretations, you know,
based on what reporters had seen that we're in Alaska
on Friday, some were describing it as a possible situation
where could you say that Trump got steamrolled by Vladimir Putin.
That was the take of one or two of them.
(16:54):
Now there's also the notion that or the the idea
that perhaps by the time this is all over today,
that Vladimir Zelensky could be steamrolled by President Trump and
the rest of the people involved. Here, I want to
play a clip from Face the Nation yesterday. This is
Margaret Brennan talking with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
You know, there is concern from the Europeans that President
Zelensky is going to be bullied into signing something away.
That's why you have these European leaders coming as back
up tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Can you it is that's that's not true. But that's
not why why that's not true. They're not coming here
tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
They're they're coming here tomorrow to television cameras where President Zelensky.
You know how many meetings you're Oh, no, I know,
And I was just up one with Vladimir Putin where
red carpet rules rule.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
We've had more meetings we've had We've had We've had
one meeting with Putin and like a dozen meetings with Zelenski.
So that but that's not true. They're not coming here
tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied. They're coming here
tomorrow because we've been working with the Europeans. We talked
to them last week. There were meetings in the UK
over the follow the previous weekend, and they said as
early as Thursday. But you said that they're coming here
(18:10):
tomorrow to keep Zelensky for being bullied. They're not coming
here tomorrow. Oh, this is such a stupid media narrative
that they're coming here tomorrow because the Trump is going
to bully Zelensky into a bad deal. We've been working
with these people for weeks, for weeks on this stuff.
They're coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow.
We invited them to come. We invited them to come,
The President invited them to come.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
But the President told those European leaders last week that
he wanted to ceasefire. The President went on television said
he would walk out of the meeting if Vladimir Putin
didn't agree with one. He said there would be severe
consequences if he didn't agree to one. He said he'd
walk out in two minutes. He spent three hours talking
to Vladimir Putin, then he did not get one.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
So there's obviously something things happened during that meeting. Well,
because obviously things look Our goal here is not to
stage some production for the world to say, oh, how
dramatic he walked out. Our goal here is to have
a peace agreement to end the okay, And obviously we felt,
and I agreed, that there was enough progress, not a
lot of progress, but enough progress made in those talks
to allow us to move to the next phase. If not,
(19:09):
we wouldn't be having Zelensky flying all the way over here,
we wouldn't be having all the Europeans coming all the
way over here. Now understand and take with a grain
of salt. I'm not saying we're on the verge of
a piece deal, but I am saying that we saw movement,
enough movement to justify a follow up meeting with Zelensky
and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even
more time to this.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Okay. So that was CBS's face the nation yesterday. Rubio
went on three different shows, so he was the chosen,
you know, talking head of the administration to be out
and delivered this message on the Sunday before the day. Now,
Mick mulvaney, look, whatever you think is happening behind the
scenes here, I think everybody can agree. Even the President
(19:49):
has got it in the back of his mind as
to what happened the last time there was an official
televised meeting between Zelensky and Trump. We know that it
got explosive and he left the White House and it
was a pretty it was a spectacle. So there is
that backdrop, and I'm curious as to how much you
think that figures into how this goes today.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Not much, I think Marco, by the way, I'd read
about that interview, had not heard it until you just
played it. I mean Marco mentioned that, which is like, look,
we've had several meetings with Selenski since that meeting, and
so is it part of the backdrop. Is there a
data point that meeting? Yes, it absolutely is. It is
the only one. No, And I got to tell you,
you know, having formerly worked at CBS, I'm so glad
(20:29):
I don't work there. That's such. That is such horrible
journalism by Margaret Brennan. To say that the Europeans are
coming here is back up to Zelensky. There's no basis
for that. This is a reporter essentially making a judgment
call over Wystone's coming, a supposed asking why are these
people coming? You think that's a fair question to ask,
why are they coming? And the point that they can't
come on out being invited, I think bears repeating again
(20:52):
and again for all the journalists out there, all the
people out there, Oh, oh my goodness, the Europeans are
rushing here to make sure that Trump doesn't beat up
on Zelenski. They're not. They can't do that. Again, you
don't just walk into the White House. You have to
be invited, So that that narrative is entirely wrong. I
think what Trump wants to do is get everybody in
the room and talk. That's what he likes to do.
(21:14):
Why did he why did he meet with Putin? Because
he wants to meet face to face. Why is he
calling all these people to Washington to meet face to face.
What's lost on this, by the way, is that everybody's
coming to him. That Putin came to him and not
all beeing in Alaska, and now the Europeans are coming
to him. So I think that that that sort of
shows you where the where the center of power here
is in the negotiations. But look, I think Marco's probably
(21:36):
right that they're closer than you were last week, and
at least enough progress was made to justify the next meeting.
To Brennan's point about how well, Trump said he'd walk
away if he didn't get a ceasefire, and he didn't
get a seafire, So why did he walk away? That's
fair and that's Trump using his traditional sort of hyperbole
to say, oh, you know, I won't be afraid to
walk away. Look, I've been a meetings when he walked away.
(21:57):
We walked out of the meeting with Kim Jong un
because we couldn't get a d but Trump is not
going to be feel like just because he said if
I can't get a deal, I'm walking out in three minutes,
that he's going to actually behold the be held to that.
If he feels like he's making progress, he'll stay. If
he feels like he's not making progress, he leaves. That's
I've seen him do that a dozen times.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
You know, I'm gonna ask the question again because of
the fact that you know, Zelensky is coming to to
Washington and Putin did come to Alaska, that that the
these leaders are coming to Donald Trump, especially the fact
that Putin came to Alaska. Why do you think that
Donald Trump has not been able to get Vladimir Putin
(22:36):
to back down?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, that's that's that's that's a really good question. And
I think the answer is this is that Putin still
feels like he gets a better deal on the field
in battle than he does at the at the negotiating table.
That he looks his hand over and said, well, you
know what, this war is killing me. But the Europeans
aren't gonna they can't do anything because they don't have
(22:58):
any money or the or the political will to do it.
The Americans have the political will, have the political will
and the money, but they don't want to do it
because Trump doesn't want to get involved more in an
overseas war and so forth. So I think he's doing
the calculation It says, I'm still going to do better
in the field, which is why I don't want to negotiate.
What do we talk about last week in the show
re establishing credibility? That Trump has to figure out a
(23:20):
way to make Putin want to go to the negotiating table,
and I don't think they figure out how to do
that yet.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
If the negotiation leads to Ukraine giving up different parts
of their country more than just crimea, do you think
that that emboldens Vladimir Putin and then he ends up
ultimately invading other countries and wanting more because he's getting
his way with a war that he started.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
It's a risk, there's no question. And that goes back
to the conversation about appeasement and how we treated Hitler,
you know, in the nineteen thirties and so forth, when we,
you know, effectively gave him Czechoslovakia. So the parallels there
are not lost on folks who read and study history.
That being said, is a couple of different dynamics here.
Ukraine is I think you could make the argument that
(24:13):
Ukraine is somewhat unique in that part of the world
in that it has the long term connections with Russia.
A lot of the people in the eastern part of
the country are Russian background and so forth, and it's
not a NATO country. You go to the rest of
the European countries that people worry about, Finland, the Baltic States, Poland,
(24:36):
those are all NATO countries, and an invasion they are
attacked by Russia into any of those automatically triggers a
NATO response. Ukraine has been different. They've not been a
NATO member. There were some agreements regarding them, the withdrawal
of nuclear weapons that we look like we haven't lived
up to, but no one seems to pay attention to that.
But it's not We simply don't have the relationship with
(24:57):
Ukraine that we do with the NATO or of our
NATI allies. Again, Ukraine is not an ally. They're a friend,
but they're not an ally and there's a difference there.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Understanding what you alluded to and what Marco Rubio essentially
said that there have been more meetings than the one
that we last saw that we remember where the blow
up happened. But we know how badly Trump wants this
to wants to close the deal so to speak here today.
We also know that do Lensky has pushed back some
even since this meeting on Friday. What do you think
(25:26):
the likely I mean, we know that both men can
have short fuses if they are drawn to that point,
and we saw it a few months ago. What are
you thinking of the possibility at all today that this one,
if it goes south, could end the way the last
one did, meaning the dramatics.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Well, I think it's a chance for that. I mean,
I think it's a chance of Trump goes in and says, look,
I got a deal. I think I think there's a
deal to be had here along the lines of Crimea,
Don bask and Denetsk. And you know, if the Europeans
and the and he thinks that's a fair deal. I
think it's a good deal. He believes that that that
putin will deliver or at least it's a verifiable type
(26:04):
of agreement. And the Europeans say no, we're in this
until until Crimea comes back, which I don't think they'll do.
But if they were to say that, Trump is completely
capable of standing up, washing his hands and says, boys
and girls, congratulations, this is now your war. I'm out.
This is it.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I'm done.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I gave you a deal, I gave you a possibility.
I think it was a fair deal. I think it
was an enforcable deal. I think it was a verifiable deal. Clearly,
you people are interested in continuing this war. I am not.
I'm washing my hands of it. Good luck. I don't
think that's going to happen, but you ask him it's
a chance. I think it's absolutely a chance that happens.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I'm going to wash my hands of this segment and
be done with it because we have to get over break,
so we will be back with one more, not just I.
I really enjoyed that said, but I do have to
move on because I'll get in trouble if I don't.
Boom Er von Cannon is tapping his foot waiting for him. Hey,
I'm loving it. To keep holding man came love it,
vot good segment. I love this. I don't say that
because I will. I know I love it. You do
(26:56):
it to it. This is good morning. Final moments here
on Good Morning BT Bowen Beth and Mick mulvaney who
joins us on the hotline today from Florida. And we've
talked a lot about the meeting that is coming up
in a few hours at the White House with President
(27:17):
Trump and Zelenski and seven other European leaders. But there's
another story I want to get to before we get
out of here.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
And we would be remiss if we didn't ask you
about this. We have you for a few more minutes now.
Governor Newsom of California has been making waves online and
with a press conference. Over the past week. His press
office has been sending out X posts that are similar
in nature to post on truth social from Donald Trump.
(27:45):
I'll just read one a little bit of one to you.
This is again from the Governor Newsom press office X account.
It says Trump just fled the podium with putin, no questions, nothing,
total low energy. The man looked like he'd just eaten
three buckets of KFC with vlad. Is he afraid the
press will ask about me America's favorite governor and the
(28:06):
fact that I stole the cameras this week with the
maps and of course Gavin Newsom is referring to the
special election that he has called for to get redistricting
done in California as a result of the conversation that,
according to reports, President Trump had with Governor Greg Abbott
of Texas that is leading to their redistricting and the
(28:26):
fact that Democrats left the state of Texas. It has
been a gigantic story on top of all of the
international headlines. What do you make of what Governor Gavin
Newsom is doing? By kind of you would I think
a lot of people would call it trolling the president
online by sending out x posts that look a lot
like President Trump's posts.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Look, you know, I'm not a big Gavin Newsom fan,
but I going to tell you if I'm just sort
of a disinterested third party looking at this, this is
a genius. It just is. First of all we're talking
about it, my guests, is that Gavin wants to do
a couple of things. He really wants to get under
Donald Trump's skin. That's absolutely going to do this. He's
trying to raise his, you know, sort of profile as
(29:07):
a leader of the Democrat parties. They go into the
twenty twenty eighth primary for president, and that's doing this,
and he's trying to estabish himself as the anti Trump.
I've read a lot of them. They're funny, they just are.
I mean, if you're don't have a sense of humor
about politics, you can't help but giggle at some of them.
It's really really well done. I think the guy's, you know,
probably a threat to the economic health of the country,
but it's it's it's been very, very entertaining, and I
(29:31):
think that's probably what it's meant to be.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Do you think Trump dares respond to any of them
or does he stay above the phrase as far as
that goes?
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Oh, great question. If I know the man, I'm not
gonna do anything. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not
going to do anything. And all of a sudden, two
o'clock in the morning, he'll do something.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Eight responses in the middle of the night.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Right, So look, it's he he lives on Twitter, he
does he you know, true social is he lives on
social media. He's reading every single one of those. If
he tells you you know that I haven't seen it yet,
that's not that's not just like him saying he doesn't
watch MSNBC. He watches a cover to cover. So look,
it's it's it's it's it's fun politics. And again, if
(30:11):
I'm if I'm a political advisor to Gavin Newsom, I
think he's doing the exact right thing. Mick mulvain like him,
but doesn't mean it doesn't mean he's wrong.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
We are out of time. We appreciate yours as always,
and we'll talk to you next time.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Thanks jees soon.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Here he is Mick mlvainy. You see him on News Nation,
see him many many other places. Former White House Chief
of Staff and of course South Carolina congressman. That'll rap
it on a busy Monday. Thanks to a Steve and
Steve and good talk, Beth.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
You thrilled me today, Bo
Do you want to be good or do you want
(00:02):
to be somebody who changes the world?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Can I be both? From News Talk eleven ten and
ninety nine three w BT.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I have been around a long time for this has
the makings of a team that can bring light from
the dark.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
This is Good Morning Beat with Bo Thompson at Beth Troutman.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It can be on the whekies far to get back
to you. Look for me Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You want to be there, honey, is something special? Chats
for years? Yes, all right, Monday morning, August eighteenth, we
beam the fifty thousand watch south all the way to
the southernmost bureau of Good Morning BT. That is where
(00:54):
we find the one and only Mick mulvaney. Good morning
to you, sir.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Good morning my friends. How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We are doing great. We hope you are lucky duck
being down there in the Key West bureau once again.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, we show the show on the road this morning.
We're out at one of the state parks down here,
and Pam is dolphin watching.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Oh. We always recommend dolphin watching while listening to the show. Yeah,
perfect combinations.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
My favorite thing, yes.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And the third the third thing world politics. Here we
go with a meeting that's scheduled in just a few
hours at the White House. Before we get to what
we are expecting or anticipating with Zelenski and all the
other world leaders, they're going to meet with President Trump
just around one fifteen today. I want to roll back,
of course, and get your take on what we saw
(01:44):
unfold in Alaska on Friday, because that was quite the
spectacle to watch, and you know, heading into the weekend,
it's usually I'm sort of done for the week and
kind of in that weekend mode, but there I am
glued to the news networks, just watching every little thing
you can sort of glean from body language and the
pleasantries before they actually even talked about what they did.
(02:06):
Mick mulvaney, what were your thoughts on President Trump meeting
with President Putin on Friday?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I thought it was exactly what Trump wanted. I know
he's taken a lot of criticism from a bunch of
different people. News for you, Donald Trump's going to take
criticism regardless of what he does. But I think the
meeting gave him what he was looking for, which is
a chance to sit and talk privately one to one.
Everybody focuses on the fact that they wrapped up early,
supposedly and left. I don't look at that from Trump's perspective,
having been in with his meetings before. The critical meeting
(02:34):
was the first meeting, which I think when an hour
or an hour and a half longer than they expected,
that was the meeting. And the fact that he's now
meeting with Zelensky right away tells me that he feels
like there's opportunity here to make progress. So I know
we're going to get all sorts of, you know, sideshow criticisms.
I know, his criticisms of how he walked down the
(02:55):
red carpet for good ess sakes, But when you look
at the actual merits of the big issue, which is,
you know, a possible peace deal in Ukraine, I think
you're closer to that now than you were on Friday morning,
and I think everybody would agree that's probably a good thing.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So one of the criticiss criticisms, and you just mentioned it,
was the red carpet itself. The fact that that a
red carpet was rolled out for Vladimir Putin? Did that
strike you when you saw it? If you had been
chief of staff, if you had been someone who was
part of organizing this particular meeting, would you have suggested
some of the niceties that happened, the gift that was given,
(03:30):
the red carpet, you know, riding in the beast together,
things that are being talked about on a Monday morning.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah. I think that the job of the chief and
of the staff most that's probably be driven by Trump,
right because I mean Trump, he's an entertainer and he's really, really,
really good at it. He puts on spectacle in ways
that that I would never contemplate, just not in my DNA.
The staff's job, including the chief of staff job, would
simply lay out for the president president, if we do this,
(04:00):
then it might be perceived as that, if we do that,
that it might be perceived as this as you sort
of lay out the options and just try to give
him the perspective that he might be missing. The ultimate decision,
obviously on how to handle things is his. I didn't
mind the red carpet treatment. This is a world leader,
is he? You know? Is he my favorite world leader
right now? No, he's not. He's still a world leader.
I thought the B two flyover was one of the
(04:21):
most I don't know if I could say this in
the radio or not ball or moves i've ever seen,
you know, get and you could tell that that Putin
was surprised by it. That's a that's a that's he's
sending a real, real powerful message, especially in light of
what just happened in I around about six weeks ago.
So I again, I thought it was one hundred percent Trump.
I thought he was going to be very happy with it.
(04:41):
And is he going to be criticized? Yeah, the man.
You know, when it comes to style, there's no end
of criticism for Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
One of the reasons why I love having you on
the show and always have many reasons, but one of
the most important ones I've always felt was, you know,
you can ask a lot of people to analyze something,
but very few of them have actually been with the
subject behind closed doors, have watched President Trump when the
cameras aren't on, have been five feet away from him
(05:09):
for the better part of a year. You were his
chief of staff. So when I ask you, what did
you glean from body language? What did you think about
the looks on the faces and that type of thing.
Beth and I were talking about this earlier, and there
was a person on the text line that said, lol
body language hah, like like you can tell anything from
that basically that was the inference. Well for me, yes,
(05:31):
but from you, I think that's absolutely an important question because,
like I said, you know him better than most. So
what did you think Beth talked about the red carpet
and all, but just watching Trump's mannerisms and you know,
this is more so than most cases about I mean,
that's not the Trump spoke and so did Putin, but
watching them and you know, even just getting in the
(05:51):
car and sort of how they sort of reacted to
each other. What did you think about what you saw
based on what you've seen before?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, you talked about all the analysts and so forth,
and I was, I think on the news this morning,
at least on the internet, there's a story from a
lip reader who now is convinced he actually knows what
they said to each other and you know, in private,
which is just bizarre. But anyway, put that aside, like
I said, at the outset, sitting here watching her, watching
everything right, and mostly watching the actions afterwards, because I
(06:21):
think that's very telling when it comes to Trump. What
happens next with Trump and the fact that there's a
meeting today. Think about that, and maybe I'd just get
too deep down in the weeds on this stuff. From
my old job perspective. What they're what they are doing
is really difficult to do. I know that sounds sort
of inside baseball, and I guess it is. But you
(06:42):
don't have a meeting with the Russian leader in Alaska
on Friday and then have effectively a symposium with all
of the leaders of Europe including Ukraine, at the White
House on a Monday. That never happens. That's that's that's that.
That speaks an opera commitment to this is that blows
(07:02):
my mind? And why do I focus on that? Because
that tells me Trump feels like he's got an opportunity.
He got on the airplane after and said, look, we
need to have a meeting now in Washington with Zielenski
and the Europeans as soon as possible, and Monday would
be as soon as possible. Don't put any value in
this criticism or these commentaries saying, oh, these European leaders
(07:24):
are rushing to Washington to save Zelensky from Trump. You
don't get to invite yourself to the White House. Manuel
Mi chrome can't show up on the front door and say,
how can you let me in? That's not how it works.
Every single one of those world leaders received a formal
invitation from the White House to get here, and they
are dropping everything on their schedule to get here. So
look to the actions, not to the commentaries of lip
(07:45):
readers and body language experts. Look to what's actually happening.
What's happening seems to indicate that there is some opportunity
for a deal here, at least more so than there
was last week.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Okay, so when we come back, I want to get
into what happened today and what can be expected to
happen today. Of course, the backdrop is what happened the
last time Zelensky was at the White House. Now, last
time it was just Selensky and President Trump and his team.
Now you have a lot more people in the mix.
But we do know that the itinerary says that he's
going to meet with Zelensky one on one, and then
(08:19):
a good bit after that is when the other leaders
are going to figure into this based on the intel
that we've seen this morning schedule wise, But I want
to get you see what McK maldinney thinks is gonna
you know, what are we going to be talking about
by the time we're back tomorrow based on this meeting today.
More with Mick Mulvaney coming up. This is Good Morning
BET with Bo Thompson and Beth Troudman nine twenty one
(08:43):
on WBT. Bo and Beth here talking with Mick Mulvaney,
former White House Chief of Staff, South Carolina congressman, White
House Budget Director, and you see him periodically on News
Nation and other networks. Here's what we know about the
itinerary for today's meetings at the White House twelve noon.
The European leaders. There are at least seven of them
(09:04):
that will arrive at the White House. At one o'clock.
President Trump will greet Vladimir Zelensky, President of Ukraine. At
one fifteen. He will meet with Zelenski, assuming this is
President and his team, very much like the meeting we
saw last time Zelensky was there with And how much
of that gets televised we don't know, but that's going
(09:26):
to happen at one fifteen, and then three o'clock is
when the meeting with the other European leaders will happen.
At least that's what it looks like on paper. Right now,
Mick mulvaney's back with us on the phone line today
from Florida. So, Nick, we talked about what happened on Friday. Now,
what about your expectations today? How do you think this
is going to go down?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah, it was sort of just laughing to myself as
you read through the itinerary for the day, because my
guess is, there's a one in ten chance that's how
it's going to play out.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
We'll see, we'll see. You would know, you would know that.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
You know, it's the type of thing where he's going
to start a meeting and say, come on, just bring
everybody in, or you know, he might say a meaning's
going to go ten minutes and to go two hours,
so they're going to meet that. That's the bottom line.
I don't hope what the structure is going to look like,
but it sounds like he wants to meet with Zelenski alone,
at least for part of the time. I think that
is very interesting, and then he'll meet with the group.
(10:17):
But you know, whether or not it happens, like you
just laid out on that. On that with the White
House put outers, it's more sort of from the hip.
My guess is it doesn't really make any difference. Trump
thinks he's got the outlines of a deal and he
wants to run it by the Europeans and see where
they are and try and sell them on it is
what I think is happening here and what you know,
(10:39):
what the European what the Ukrainians need to understand is
that they really don't hold many of the cards. I
know Trump took a lot of criticism for using that
line the last time that that Zelenski was in town,
but he's right. You know, the Ukrainians they are providing
the people, there's no question about it, and it's a
tremendous sacrifice for them. But they cannot continue this war
without foreign support, specifically ours and the Europeans. So if
(10:59):
the Europeans want to deal on, the Americans want to
deal in, the Russians want to deal, there's going to
be a deal. And I think that's what Trump is
trying to tee up here, which is, look, there's a
there's a deal to be had here. Let's let's let's
take it to the next level and find how far
we can get.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Well, speaking of the deal, there are some who are
suggesting that that Trump is going to recommend that Zelenski
give up Crimea and potentially give up some other regions
that aren't currently being held by Russia, and also to
make sure that Ukraine does not join NATO. Do you
think those are the things that he potentially could bring
(11:34):
up when he's in the one on one with Zelensky
before he actually goes into the meeting with the European
Union leaders simply because they have they have suggested that
they they would not agree to the idea of Ukraine
giving up territory.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah, I mean, go back. We've had this conversation, Bet,
I don't know what eighteen months ago. Maybe I can't remember.
My position was, everybody knows. So the war ends, The
war ends with Russia taking some part of Ukrainian territory
in exchange for closer relationships between Ukraine and the West
that doesn't look like NATO membership but looks like something else.
(12:08):
I keep coming back, by the way, so that the
thing that doesn't get nearly enough attention, which is the
critical minerals deal that Trump negotiated, which is true genius
because what it is effectively is a security guarantee. Without
that allows the Russians to say face, it's a security
guarantee without a security guarantee, because everybody knows that Russia
won't invade Ukraine if there's an American mining company there.
(12:29):
So that's put that aside. For a second, Crimea is gone.
It just is Crimea is not coming back to be
part of Ukraine. And I hate to sound cavalier about that,
but no one really serious believes that Crimea is going
to become part of Ukraine permanently. Here. The real question
is whether or not it's going to be a de
facto sort of control by Russia or an officially sanctioned
(12:51):
and recognized control by Russia. But I think it bears
repeating that when Russia invaded Ukraine, what five years ago,
maybe eight years ago? That good. It's been a long time.
We didn't go to war. The Ukrainians didn't even go
to war. I mean, everybody knows Crimea is. That history
of Crimea is different. And if the Ukrainians aren't willing
to go to war to maintain their own territory, then
(13:13):
I don't think we're going to be willing to keep
going supporting them over that particular issue. The issue is
going to be Thembas and Denetsk, which is the eastern
part of the country, some of which the Russians control now,
some of which they don't. The Russians want all the stuff,
even the stuff they don't control in the eastern Ukraine.
I think that's going to be a negotiating point. But
Crimea is not coming back to part of the Ukraine.
(13:34):
And if the Ukrainians get up, as let's say, he
gets up at the table, banks the table and says
I'm not doing anything until Crimea comes back, he will
be on his own because I don't even think the
Europeans will back him on that.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Going back to Friday, just coming out of that particular
meeting with Putin, the reporters who were there, and I'm
talking about reporters like Peter Alexander from NBC and the
Fox News correspondent Jackie Heinrich talking about the body language
of Caroline Levitt coming out of Steve Whitcoff coming out
that they looked ashen, that they looked wide eyed. And
(14:08):
then Donald Trump, even when he addressed folks, when he
addressed the press, seemed more subdued. So people are wondering,
and I'm wondering your thoughts on this, that this meeting,
that he wanted this meeting to happen really quickly so
that he could regain footing in the negotiations, because people
like Jackie Heinrich from Fox said that they believed from
(14:30):
the way that people were behaving coming out of that
meeting that Putin might have steamrolled the meeting.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Again, I cautioned everybody on sort of reading into things
like body language and whether or not Carolyn Levitt was
ashen or wide eyed, which he came in to the
out of the meeting. I mean, granted that those are
fair data points, but and there's always value to being present,
to seeing people's face to you know, face to face
and so forth. I don't want to diminish it entirely,
(14:58):
but to read, you know, to go from oh, my goodness,
it was action wide eyed to oh, Putin must have
steamrolled Trump. That that's a connection that I don't make.
If Putin had steamrolled Trump, then I don't know why
we're having the meetings today because I'm not really sure
how Putin would steamroll Trump, and I'm not sure what
that would look like in any event, But why why call,
(15:20):
you know, eight world leaders to Washington to say, oh,
by the way, boys, I just got steamroll last week. Now,
what do we do that that that conversation doesn't take place?
That that's that is that is a that's not sort
of in the cards here today. So the beautiful thing
about working with Donald Trump is that you're gonna know,
you can watch you can watch the press of this
afternoon because there's gonna be one and you can make
(15:41):
up your own decisions. He's the probably singly most transparent
politician I've ever met. He's not going to keep a
lot of secrets.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
News Talk eleven ten WBT will continue with Mick mulvaney,
Bowen Beth here on a Monday morning. This is good Morning,
beat back at it here on a Monday morning, ninety
seven Bo and Beth here and in the in the
southernmost GMBT bureau that you can get. I mean, it's
we're talking about the Key West. It's Mick mulvaney calling
(16:11):
in this morning on the hotline. Thanks again for holding on, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Tolling, Beth, I think I do this segment from the
ocean itself. Can stand in the ocean and do the segment.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Well, you know, I mean, someday we're going to do
it there with you. That's that's the right.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I think you need to splash some water. Improve it
to us, Nick that you are in fact in the
ocean today.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
So as we're talking about the meeting that is coming
up today at the White House, you know, Beth was
mentioning before the news about some of the interpretations, you know,
based on what reporters had seen that we're in Alaska
on Friday, some were describing it as a possible situation
where could you say that Trump got steamrolled by Vladimir Putin.
That was the take of one or two of them.
(16:54):
Now there's also the notion that or the the idea
that perhaps by the time this is all over today,
that Vladimir Zelensky could be steamrolled by President Trump and
the rest of the people involved. Here, I want to
play a clip from Face the Nation yesterday. This is
Margaret Brennan talking with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
You know, there is concern from the Europeans that President
Zelensky is going to be bullied into signing something away.
That's why you have these European leaders coming as back
up tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Can you it is that's that's not true. But that's
not why why that's not true. They're not coming here
tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
They're they're coming here tomorrow to television cameras where President Zelensky.
You know how many meetings you're Oh, no, I know,
And I was just up one with Vladimir Putin where
red carpet rules rule.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
We've had more meetings we've had We've had We've had
one meeting with Putin and like a dozen meetings with Zelenski.
So that but that's not true. They're not coming here
tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied. They're coming here
tomorrow because we've been working with the Europeans. We talked
to them last week. There were meetings in the UK
over the follow the previous weekend, and they said as
early as Thursday. But you said that they're coming here
(18:10):
tomorrow to keep Zelensky for being bullied. They're not coming
here tomorrow. Oh, this is such a stupid media narrative
that they're coming here tomorrow because the Trump is going
to bully Zelensky into a bad deal. We've been working
with these people for weeks, for weeks on this stuff.
They're coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow.
We invited them to come. We invited them to come,
The President invited them to come.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
But the President told those European leaders last week that
he wanted to ceasefire. The President went on television said
he would walk out of the meeting if Vladimir Putin
didn't agree with one. He said there would be severe
consequences if he didn't agree to one. He said he'd
walk out in two minutes. He spent three hours talking
to Vladimir Putin, then he did not get one.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
So there's obviously something things happened during that meeting. Well,
because obviously things look Our goal here is not to
stage some production for the world to say, oh, how
dramatic he walked out. Our goal here is to have
a peace agreement to end the okay, And obviously we felt,
and I agreed, that there was enough progress, not a
lot of progress, but enough progress made in those talks
to allow us to move to the next phase. If not,
(19:09):
we wouldn't be having Zelensky flying all the way over here,
we wouldn't be having all the Europeans coming all the
way over here. Now understand and take with a grain
of salt. I'm not saying we're on the verge of
a piece deal, but I am saying that we saw movement,
enough movement to justify a follow up meeting with Zelensky
and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even
more time to this.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Okay. So that was CBS's face the nation yesterday. Rubio
went on three different shows, so he was the chosen,
you know, talking head of the administration to be out
and delivered this message on the Sunday before the day. Now,
Mick mulvaney, look, whatever you think is happening behind the
scenes here, I think everybody can agree. Even the President
(19:49):
has got it in the back of his mind as
to what happened the last time there was an official
televised meeting between Zelensky and Trump. We know that it
got explosive and he left the White House and it
was a pretty it was a spectacle. So there is
that backdrop, and I'm curious as to how much you
think that figures into how this goes today.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Not much, I think Marco, by the way, I'd read
about that interview, had not heard it until you just
played it. I mean Marco mentioned that, which is like, look,
we've had several meetings with Selenski since that meeting, and
so is it part of the backdrop. Is there a
data point that meeting? Yes, it absolutely is. It is
the only one. No, And I got to tell you,
you know, having formerly worked at CBS, I'm so glad
(20:29):
I don't work there. That's such. That is such horrible
journalism by Margaret Brennan. To say that the Europeans are
coming here is back up to Zelensky. There's no basis
for that. This is a reporter essentially making a judgment
call over Wystone's coming, a supposed asking why are these
people coming? You think that's a fair question to ask,
why are they coming? And the point that they can't
come on out being invited, I think bears repeating again
(20:52):
and again for all the journalists out there, all the
people out there, Oh, oh my goodness, the Europeans are
rushing here to make sure that Trump doesn't beat up
on Zelenski. They're not. They can't do that. Again, you
don't just walk into the White House. You have to
be invited, So that that narrative is entirely wrong. I
think what Trump wants to do is get everybody in
the room and talk. That's what he likes to do.
(21:14):
Why did he why did he meet with Putin? Because
he wants to meet face to face. Why is he
calling all these people to Washington to meet face to face.
What's lost on this, by the way, is that everybody's
coming to him. That Putin came to him and not
all beeing in Alaska, and now the Europeans are coming
to him. So I think that that that sort of
shows you where the where the center of power here
is in the negotiations. But look, I think Marco's probably
(21:36):
right that they're closer than you were last week, and
at least enough progress was made to justify the next meeting.
To Brennan's point about how well, Trump said he'd walk
away if he didn't get a ceasefire, and he didn't
get a seafire, So why did he walk away? That's
fair and that's Trump using his traditional sort of hyperbole
to say, oh, you know, I won't be afraid to
walk away. Look, I've been a meetings when he walked away.
(21:57):
We walked out of the meeting with Kim Jong un
because we couldn't get a d but Trump is not
going to be feel like just because he said if
I can't get a deal, I'm walking out in three minutes,
that he's going to actually behold the be held to that.
If he feels like he's making progress, he'll stay. If
he feels like he's not making progress, he leaves. That's
I've seen him do that a dozen times.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
You know, I'm gonna ask the question again because of
the fact that you know, Zelensky is coming to to
Washington and Putin did come to Alaska, that that the
these leaders are coming to Donald Trump, especially the fact
that Putin came to Alaska. Why do you think that
Donald Trump has not been able to get Vladimir Putin
(22:36):
to back down?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, that's that's that's that's a really good question. And
I think the answer is this is that Putin still
feels like he gets a better deal on the field
in battle than he does at the at the negotiating table.
That he looks his hand over and said, well, you
know what, this war is killing me. But the Europeans
aren't gonna they can't do anything because they don't have
(22:58):
any money or the or the political will to do it.
The Americans have the political will, have the political will
and the money, but they don't want to do it
because Trump doesn't want to get involved more in an
overseas war and so forth. So I think he's doing
the calculation It says, I'm still going to do better
in the field, which is why I don't want to negotiate.
What do we talk about last week in the show
re establishing credibility? That Trump has to figure out a
(23:20):
way to make Putin want to go to the negotiating table,
and I don't think they figure out how to do
that yet.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
If the negotiation leads to Ukraine giving up different parts
of their country more than just crimea, do you think
that that emboldens Vladimir Putin and then he ends up
ultimately invading other countries and wanting more because he's getting
his way with a war that he started.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
It's a risk, there's no question. And that goes back
to the conversation about appeasement and how we treated Hitler,
you know, in the nineteen thirties and so forth, when we,
you know, effectively gave him Czechoslovakia. So the parallels there
are not lost on folks who read and study history.
That being said, is a couple of different dynamics here.
Ukraine is I think you could make the argument that
(24:13):
Ukraine is somewhat unique in that part of the world
in that it has the long term connections with Russia.
A lot of the people in the eastern part of
the country are Russian background and so forth, and it's
not a NATO country. You go to the rest of
the European countries that people worry about, Finland, the Baltic States, Poland,
(24:36):
those are all NATO countries, and an invasion they are
attacked by Russia into any of those automatically triggers a
NATO response. Ukraine has been different. They've not been a
NATO member. There were some agreements regarding them, the withdrawal
of nuclear weapons that we look like we haven't lived
up to, but no one seems to pay attention to that.
But it's not We simply don't have the relationship with
(24:57):
Ukraine that we do with the NATO or of our
NATI allies. Again, Ukraine is not an ally. They're a friend,
but they're not an ally and there's a difference there.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Understanding what you alluded to and what Marco Rubio essentially
said that there have been more meetings than the one
that we last saw that we remember where the blow
up happened. But we know how badly Trump wants this
to wants to close the deal so to speak here today.
We also know that do Lensky has pushed back some
even since this meeting on Friday. What do you think
(25:26):
the likely I mean, we know that both men can
have short fuses if they are drawn to that point,
and we saw it a few months ago. What are
you thinking of the possibility at all today that this one,
if it goes south, could end the way the last
one did, meaning the dramatics.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Well, I think it's a chance for that. I mean,
I think it's a chance of Trump goes in and says, look,
I got a deal. I think I think there's a
deal to be had here along the lines of Crimea,
Don bask and Denetsk. And you know, if the Europeans
and the and he thinks that's a fair deal. I
think it's a good deal. He believes that that that
putin will deliver or at least it's a verifiable type
(26:04):
of agreement. And the Europeans say no, we're in this
until until Crimea comes back, which I don't think they'll do.
But if they were to say that, Trump is completely
capable of standing up, washing his hands and says, boys
and girls, congratulations, this is now your war. I'm out.
This is it.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I'm done.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I gave you a deal, I gave you a possibility.
I think it was a fair deal. I think it
was an enforcable deal. I think it was a verifiable deal. Clearly,
you people are interested in continuing this war. I am not.
I'm washing my hands of it. Good luck. I don't
think that's going to happen, but you ask him it's
a chance. I think it's absolutely a chance that happens.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I'm going to wash my hands of this segment and
be done with it because we have to get over break,
so we will be back with one more, not just I.
I really enjoyed that said, but I do have to
move on because I'll get in trouble if I don't.
Boom Er von Cannon is tapping his foot waiting for him. Hey,
I'm loving it. To keep holding man came love it,
vot good segment. I love this. I don't say that
because I will. I know I love it. You do
(26:56):
it to it. This is good morning. Final moments here
on Good Morning BT Bowen Beth and Mick mulvaney who
joins us on the hotline today from Florida. And we've
talked a lot about the meeting that is coming up
in a few hours at the White House with President
(27:17):
Trump and Zelenski and seven other European leaders. But there's
another story I want to get to before we get
out of here.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
And we would be remiss if we didn't ask you
about this. We have you for a few more minutes now.
Governor Newsom of California has been making waves online and
with a press conference. Over the past week. His press
office has been sending out X posts that are similar
in nature to post on truth social from Donald Trump.
(27:45):
I'll just read one a little bit of one to you.
This is again from the Governor Newsom press office X account.
It says Trump just fled the podium with putin, no questions, nothing,
total low energy. The man looked like he'd just eaten
three buckets of KFC with vlad. Is he afraid the
press will ask about me America's favorite governor and the
(28:06):
fact that I stole the cameras this week with the
maps and of course Gavin Newsom is referring to the
special election that he has called for to get redistricting
done in California as a result of the conversation that,
according to reports, President Trump had with Governor Greg Abbott
of Texas that is leading to their redistricting and the
(28:26):
fact that Democrats left the state of Texas. It has
been a gigantic story on top of all of the
international headlines. What do you make of what Governor Gavin
Newsom is doing? By kind of you would I think
a lot of people would call it trolling the president
online by sending out x posts that look a lot
like President Trump's posts.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Look, you know, I'm not a big Gavin Newsom fan,
but I going to tell you if I'm just sort
of a disinterested third party looking at this, this is
a genius. It just is. First of all we're talking
about it, my guests, is that Gavin wants to do
a couple of things. He really wants to get under
Donald Trump's skin. That's absolutely going to do this. He's
trying to raise his, you know, sort of profile as
(29:07):
a leader of the Democrat parties. They go into the
twenty twenty eighth primary for president, and that's doing this,
and he's trying to estabish himself as the anti Trump.
I've read a lot of them. They're funny, they just are.
I mean, if you're don't have a sense of humor
about politics, you can't help but giggle at some of them.
It's really really well done. I think the guy's, you know,
probably a threat to the economic health of the country,
but it's it's it's been very, very entertaining, and I
(29:31):
think that's probably what it's meant to be.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Do you think Trump dares respond to any of them
or does he stay above the phrase as far as
that goes?
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Oh, great question. If I know the man, I'm not
gonna do anything. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not
going to do anything. And all of a sudden, two
o'clock in the morning, he'll do something.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Eight responses in the middle of the night.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Right, So look, it's he he lives on Twitter, he
does he you know, true social is he lives on
social media. He's reading every single one of those. If
he tells you you know that I haven't seen it yet,
that's not that's not just like him saying he doesn't
watch MSNBC. He watches a cover to cover. So look,
it's it's it's it's it's fun politics. And again, if
(30:11):
I'm if I'm a political advisor to Gavin Newsom, I
think he's doing the exact right thing. Mick mulvain like him,
but doesn't mean it doesn't mean he's wrong.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
We are out of time. We appreciate yours as always,
and we'll talk to you next time.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Thanks jees soon.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Here he is Mick mlvainy. You see him on News Nation,
see him many many other places. Former White House Chief
of Staff and of course South Carolina congressman. That'll rap
it on a busy Monday. Thanks to a Steve and
Steve and good talk, Beth.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
You thrilled me today, Bo
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