I think to a degree is embarrassing. President Trump when he bombed Kyiv in this brutal attack. The worst. You're watching it now. Worst in a year. Worst in a year. And kill these innocent people. That was actually a pretty amazing little bit of video that you have. Brian Kilmeade both caring about the fact that these civilians [00:00:17] were once again killed in Ukraine in this absolutely vicious bombing of Kyiv, which, look, he's spoken out in defense of Ukrainians before. That's maybe not the most surprising thing, but that Kilmeade also very clearly states that Putin is embarrassing Donald Trump and that this peace process is not going at all as smoothly [00:00:33] as Donald Trump implied that it would. And so Putin kills a bunch of people again, vicious assault as Donald Trump pretends that he's closing in on a peace deal. And what does Donald Trump have in response? We're going to flash back a couple days ago on Truth Social when he posted this. [00:00:49] I am not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv. Not necessary and very bad timing. Vladimir, stop 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let's get the peace deal done. And that's just so weird. [00:01:05] The first name basis with Vladimir, when he's literally never done that with Zelensky. And like, the very bad timing. When? When would be a good timing, Donald, for civilians to be murdered, when would would it be better on the weekend? [00:01:20] Would it be like you get to do your fake peace deal and then you can go back to killing the civilian? Like when would be great timing, because I kind of feel like it's always bad timing. And that's always a weird way to address the murder of civilians. But he's a super weird guy. He's super unserious guy. And as we said, by the way, this should have been done about 99 days ago. [00:01:37] He implied day one over and over and over again. I must have missed, though. He was joking, it turns out, because he said, well, I said that figuratively, and I said that as an exaggeration because to make a point, obviously people know that when I said that it was in jest, but it was also said [00:01:55] that it will be ended. I was in jest. Oh, now that I think about it, it is actually pretty funny that you would quickly solve this major crisis. And then. Oh, it was actually a joke. I'm not actually going to solve it anytime soon. And when I do, it's going to be just taking whatever Russia says and being like, hey, Ukraine, do this. [00:02:12] That's also in jest, I imagine. Not super funny. Maybe dark humor, I don't know. But anyway, he apparently really did think that he would make progress. Maybe not one day progress, but a little bit faster than three months. And, he's apparently behind the scenes growing frustrated [00:02:27] about how long this is taking. And so, in a moment, we'll turn to the actual deal, the peace plan he's put forward. But let's talk just a little bit about where we are at. We haven't talked about this topic in a while. - Michael, what do you make of this? - Well, I make exactly what I mean. [00:02:42] It's sort of predictable, other than him calling out Putin. You know, Donald Trump when he talks about Crimea. And I know we'll get into that when we get into what the peace deal is. And he said, the most compelling thing that he said is he's blaming it on Obama, [00:03:00] so somehow he can find an avenue to blame Obama for everything in the world that's bad and that's Crimea. And then, well, then that's this Russian war as well. So that's the thing that strikes me most about all of this. The fact that Trump is trying to criticize Putin because this happened on Easter, [00:03:21] sort of showing himself to be this proud religious God, how could you ever, you know, desecrate the most important holiday in the world? To me, is is absurd, as is so much of what he says. But I think that it's really important to look at, at least it is to me the way [00:03:39] that he is flip flopping on something because he doesn't know how to deal with Vladimir Putin. I think, Johnny, you said it rightly at the at the beginning when he said, you don't hear him call anybody else by their first names. He doesn't send a text like that or a truth social like that to Netanyahu [00:03:57] and say, come on, Benjamin, stop this. There's something about Vladimir Putin that puts him in a place that nobody else does. And I, we we can all have theories of what that is. It doesn't matter. It's just that that is the disposition here and him stepping in as a peacemaker, or whether it's witkoff or whoever it is, [00:04:13] it's not going to make a difference because his his allegiances are with one man. Clearly. Yeah, he's less peacemaker than just, like, kind of acting Russian diplomat. He's their ambassador to Ukraine, basically delivering their terms. - Exactly, exactly. - Jordan, what do you think? [00:04:29] Well, I think there's a couple things here, as we've seen with tariffs. And now we're seeing here global leaders know they can just push Trump around while he acts like a strongman here and uses his power and throws it around domestically. [00:04:44] Other leaders know that this guy doesn't know what he's doing. He doesn't know what he's talking about, and they don't really need to respect him. We saw it with China and tariffs specifically. And this is just another instance where Trump is looking like a buffoon [00:05:00] on a global stage, while reassuring his base here that we're respected again. And of course, we can see through that. But I also want to think about this push to end this war, and juxtapose that with the lack of a push, especially from the right to end the war in Gaza. [00:05:17] I mean, Michael, you pointed it out. He's not going to do that with Netanyahu. I think the reason here is that people value Ukrainian and European lives more than lives in Gaza. I think you're seeing a total disregard for the suffering in Gaza. [00:05:34] Chuck Grassley is calling for Trump right now to apply even more sanctions on Putin and Russia. I mean, Russia is already heavily sanctioned and he wants more. But he met with Netanyahu just a few months ago. He's totally fine with everything that Netanyahu is doing. [00:05:50] I think we need to take a second and think about why, when it comes to our foreign policy, why we care about some victims and some innocent civilians that are dying and not others. Yeah, I think it's an important point that we need to center in these conversations. Yeah, I think that's a great point. I think it's indisputable that that's sort of like dark, cruel calculus [00:06:08] has been underlying the last year and a half of that conflict. 100%. And also American foreign policy forever. Right. When it's convenient. - I just started a year or two ago. - Did. - Okay. - You're 100% right. I'm going back to the WrestleMania one day. So the no, no, but there is a I wouldn't even call it hypocritical. [00:06:28] It's you. They pick their battles and their battles are are generally not the ones that have people in mind. They have, whether it's petroleum or business interests or alliances. In this case, it's pretty clear there's another ism. [00:06:44] So yeah. And you mentioned what he had said about Crimea that like he sends these long true social posts way too long and Donald stopped doing that. Also. Everyone don't do that, don't send stuff like that. But anyway, he'll do this like big block thing. Half of it is Obama's responsible for Crimea. [00:07:01] No. What's the difference? I literally don't even understand why you're so focused. Says Obama, that that that was Obama. Not that was Obama's war, not Trump's right or that was Obama's fault, not Trump's right. It's not Obama's or Trump's. I'll give you a pass here, Don. [00:07:18] What happened in 2014 had nothing to do with either of you. It was Putin, your buddy, going in and taking over Crimea because, as he said, most people there speak Russian. Exactly, but I'm glad that he brought it up because the reason he brings it up is to maintain this myth, [00:07:34] this baseless myth, that he never would have done it if it was me, if I'd been in charge, he never would have invaded. They would have never. Hamas would have never. You know why? Because Donald Trump just being in charge means all of you guys have to keep it cool. Be chill. Don't do anything crazy. [00:07:51] Because if you do, Donald Trump is going to come down on you like a ton of bricks. Except, when Vladimir Putin, in the middle of this peace process, decides to kill a bunch of people on Easter, he didn't seem scared about what the consequences would be. And evidently, why would he be? [00:08:07] You slaughter a bunch of people. You make a mockery of the peace process. And what does Donald Trump do? No. Stop! He posts on social media shouting into the digital void. That's that's what would have stopped him from invading Crimea. That's what would have stopped Hamas from attacking Israel. [00:08:23] Oh, no. He's going to post on social media about me. Yeah, I can see how that would maintain detente across the Earth's surface. It's a ridiculous lie. And nothing from him on JD Vance killing the Pope the day after. Great point. Exactly. [00:08:38] An assassination on your watch? Nothing. But anyway, let's turn now to the actual deal. So here is the agreement that Trump wants Ukraine to sign. So Russia would keep almost all the land that it seized from Ukraine, about 20% of that entire country, or what's left of the country after Crimea. [00:08:57] Obviously there's like one little area that they would supposedly get back, but the vast majority of the territory would be taken from them. Ukraine would be prevented from joining NATO. So no defensive alliance that would help forestall a future invasion. The US would recognize Crimea as part of Russia, in addition to all the territory [00:09:16] that would be stolen illegally through this peace plan. They could theoretically join the EU. Maybe it's a little bit vague on that, but again, no defensive alliances. There would be, security aid in funding. Not from us. We're not involved in it. [00:09:32] There's literally no reference to the US. So somebody I guess one of, I guess the countries that are not even involved in this process, they're going to have to foot the bill, I suppose. And so, you give Russia basically everything they want. You say, no, NATO, you give a very strong signal to Russia [00:09:49] that we're not involved in this anymore. You don't have to worry. If you do decide to invade, that's we're not going to do anything about it. And so this is basically just a guarantee that you'll have a little bit of peace a month, six months, maybe two years. And then the invasion will continue. [00:10:05] But Trump doesn't want you to see it that way. He doesn't want you to see it as him just carrying the water for Vladimir Putin, which is objectively doing. He actually says that Russia is making a very significant concession in this deal. Take a look. What concessions, Mr. President, and to your national security team, [00:10:21] what concessions has Russia offered up thus far to get to the point where you're closer to peace? Stopping the war. Stopping. Taking the whole country. Pretty big concession. Okay, so the concession Russia is making is that they only get to steal [00:10:39] the territory that they've conquered. They don't get to steal the territory that they're trying to conquer, but have failed, right? So Ukraine, which is. It's nice of him. It's merciful. You don't have to hand over the whole country right now. You will eventually in a year or two. But for now, the territory they haven't successfully taken. [00:10:58] You don't have to give up. I mean, that's not even like Bizarro World. That's. That's a worm ate your brain logic. I don't even understand it. But what do you think? I mean, it's where. It's where this started, right? I mean, it's there's no difference. It's like, okay, Russia can have Crimea. [00:11:15] Well, that's the whole point of a lot of this fighting is for Russia to try and get Crimea. It's not a, it's not any kind of a deal. And they're also saying it's an ultimatum. If Zelensky walks away, there's going to be no money [00:11:30] for Ukraine from the United States. So that's part of this conversation, which puts a great deal of pressure on Europe, a great deal of pressure on on parts of Asia as well. It's it's the most foolish peace Negotiation I've ever heard because you're [00:11:45] saying, here's how you have peace. You have peace if you give them Crimea, which is why they invaded you in large part in the first place. So, okay. Yeah, we know that we're fighting to protect it. We're fighting to protect our sovereignty. It's just the most absurd way of getting peace. [00:12:02] And I don't see how Zelenskyy, the president, said that he may see Zelensky when he's at the Pope Francis funeral on Saturday. He left for Rome already. He said that on the white House lawn. But May I don't know. I mean, what is he going to tell Zelensky? You better take this deal. - I have no clue. - Yeah. [00:12:20] Yeah. I mean, neither Trump nor Biden really had any leverage over Putin here. I am routinely thinking about the progressives that tried to push the Biden administration to at least consider negotiations [00:12:38] and diplomacy while Biden was in office. Just make it part of the package, of course, still continue to send aid to Ukraine. And they were screamed at, browbeaten into submission and rescinded this open letter. [00:12:54] And you know, the terms that we're seeing now in this deal and I'm with I'm with you, Michael. It's like, how is this different than where we started? I mean, the one thing that's different is many more people would still be alive. There would be less bloodshed between when they raised that suggestion and now. [00:13:12] And to go back to the leverage point. I mean, I don't see how you're going to convince Putin to stop with any other deal. What incentive does he have? While there was a moment where it looked like Ukraine was holding strong and was pushing Russian forces back. [00:13:28] It has not been the case in some time. And this is not a war that Ukraine can actually win. No matter how much money we throw at it, more and more people are going to die. There will be more and more destruction at the end of the day. You want to preserve as much of the country that is still [00:13:44] standing as you can on the NATO thing. The US, Germany and five other NATO countries already opposed Ukraine's membership in NATO. So while Biden envisioned a long term plan where eventually Ukraine could be [00:14:00] a member, it wasn't on the table now. So I keep thinking back like it seems like a missed opportunity to at least try to include some sort of diplomatic approach that the Biden administration just squandered. And unfortunately, the right seize that opportunity [00:14:18] in a very cynical fashion, framed it a lot around the money we sent to Ukraine. Just a pure dollars and cents game framed it as a government waste and whipped up fervor on the right in opposition to this war that I would [00:14:34] have hoped the Democrats could have done. And unfortunately, it was all about fighting back. And the long term consequence is I think the Democrats are losing. A firm footing in being the largely anti-war party. It's a very militaristic party. [00:14:49] And that's not the that's not the Democratic Party. - I think a lot of us want it to be. - Yeah. And these are strange conflicts for Democrats to stand up in because they, you know, Putin was pretty absolute that he wasn't going to talk to Biden about this. [00:15:04] And he knows that he can talk to Trump about it. And that's a huge advantage that Putin had with the election of Donald Trump in November. And as far as what happened in Gaza, yeah, it's it's a drop ball. But it's also, as we know, a very complicated, much more complicated [00:15:19] conflict than were this to be happening between Paraguay and Bolivia right now. So it's it's man. It's yeah. It's well I agree very difficult situation. You're in a tough spot when Vladimir Putin just decides I literally do not care [00:15:36] how many of my people die. I don't care how long this takes. I don't care how much money I have to put into it. I'm going to take this territory. That puts that puts everybody in a very difficult position considering their military, obviously. The idea that, again, it doesn't look like Ukraine is going to accept this even effectively the barrel of a gun. [00:15:53] But the idea that, like, if any of this goes through, Trump would claim to have been a peacemaker. Like, yeah, it's easy to tell one side to surrender, I suppose. That doesn't seem that difficult. That's not the art of the deal. And for him to come to Ukraine and be like, give up Ukraine to Russia. And then, oh, and we're also going to steal Gaza. [00:16:08] Like, I guess that ends a conflict when you ethnically cleanse the land. I guess there's less bloodshed afterward, I suppose. And then meanwhile, he's got this long list of countries that he wants to conquer and add to the American empire. So I agree with you. [00:16:24] The Democrats have a lot of progress to make on these topics. But the Republicans, I mean, if they are claiming and they are that they are somehow the party that's against war, they sure have some lofty imperial ambitions while they're doing it. And not not to mention a legacy of being the party against Russia. Which is, which is all out the window right now. [00:16:42] Yeah. Well, look, we're going to play one more clip, in a sec. First, though, I do want to let you know about a poll that we have up on the website right now. Should Ukraine have to surrender land, to Russia? Looking at this point, like people are not really buying that. [00:16:58] I mean, obviously, it's, you know, surrender land is a broad thing. How much where that sort of thing. But it looks like people are pretty clear about what they think about that for now. Except there are I always. Wonder about this with polls, right? Where there's an I'm not sure. Like, why are you filling out the poll? [00:17:13] Like, the most exciting thing about taking a poll is. I don't I don't have a problem with. I'm not sure. - I think it's honest. - I think we have. It is. But I have a problem, too. It's honest. But I have a problem with. If you're going to take a poll. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. The poll is not for the sitting. The poll is for the committed. [00:17:29] Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.