Ukraine: Peace Deal?

President Trump is giving President Putin 10-12 days to negotiate the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine. iHeart White House Correspondent Jon Decker joins us to discuss what might happen if an agreement is not reached. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's get to the latest when it comes to a
piece deal with the Ukraine, as the President has sort
of amped things up. John dekkerar iHeart, White House correspondent
on the liveline with us again. John, thanks for doing
this today, Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thanks, thanks for having me on. You know, the President
talking about Putin, talking about Russia yesterday while he was
in Scotland. He's concluding his four day trip to Scotland today,
the President indicating that he's not happy with Vladimir Putin.
You know, two weeks ago I asked the President, why
are you giving Putin fifty additional days to prosecute its
war against Ukraine? And the President, when I asked that

(00:36):
question to him, bristled at that question and said he
didn't believe that fifty days was a particularly long period
of time. Now he's got a change of heart. Now
he realizes that it is a long period of time.
He says, he's giving President Putin ten to twelve days
to come to the negotiating table to end the war
in Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Or what, John, I mean, what sort of threat out
there is massed in that statement?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, the President says that if indeed that deadline comes
and goes, the US would impose crippling trade tariffs on
Russia as well as every one of Russia's trading partners.
We're talking about one hundred percent trade tariffs on Russian
goods coming into the US and one hundred percent trade
tariffs on any country that does business with Russia. That

(01:25):
means China, India, Brazil, South Africa for instance. They purchased
a lot of Russian oil. Now the trade tariffs increase
on Russia, that's not going to move them to the
negotiating table. Only about three billion dollars of trade is
conducted between the US and Russia every year. By contrast,

(01:46):
the US and the European Union conducts five billion dollars
of trade between each other every day. So it gives
you a sense about how minimal amount of trade we're
talking about between the United States and Russia.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
No idea. It's like a rounding area. But there are
sanctions too that are playing a pretty important role in
this thing as well, right.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
John, Yeah, that's right. But you know, the sanctions really
have not had the impact that the US thought they would.
Sanctions have been imposed upon Russia for quite some time
since Donald Trump's first term in office, and that included
more sanctions placed upon Russia by President Biden. But it
hasn't changed Russia's behavior or its policies. It continues to

(02:29):
attack civilian areas in Ukraine on a daily basis, with
a record number of missile strikes and drone strikes overnight
every day.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
John, do we think this brings them back to the
table to talk or is this not really going to
do much?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well? You know, I can't get inside Putin's head, but
it certainly hasn't had any impact at all in terms
of his behavior or his policies. And that is despite
the fact that President says he has very good conversations
when he speaks with President Putin. Putin is folks on
trying to win the war against Ukraine. He's not doing
a very good job of it. That war's gone on

(03:06):
for three and a half years. And you know, I
always thought Russia was a superpower, but now they have
to rely on North Korea to fight their battles against Ukraine.
So they look pretty impotent. Actually, after three and a
half plus years and nothing really to show for.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
It, I figured you would have been part of the
press pool. How'd you not score a ticket? On Air
Force one to go to Aberdeen.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Oh to Scotland. Well, you know, in all honesty, this
was mostly a personal trip for the President. He visited
two of his golf resorts. Yes, he did some business,
including yesterday he met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer,
also met with the President of the European Commission, but
mostly a personal trip. Fell on these types of trips,

(03:47):
I save our company some money and I don't go
on these trips, and I'll save that money for another
trip that the President may mean maybe taking in the
near future.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Just for you listening, that goes a long way. Heart
House correspondent John Decker, thanks for your time today.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Thank you.