Today, President Trump and Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet on a U.S. military base in Alaska. It's the first time in a decade that a foreign leader has visited the United States on American soil, and it's a meeting that could change the fate of millions of lives.
00:12:28.140And let me focus on Witkoff for a moment.
00:12:30.300And let's focus on what the left has said about Witkoff from day one.
00:12:33.660They call him a rookie, an amateur, a guy out of his depth, a guy that didn't belong in these high-stakes negotiations.
00:12:40.080Every place that Witkoff has gone around the world, we've found peace seven times over, whether it's in Central Africa or it's Indian Pakistan or it's, pick your place, Armenian Azerbaijan, which happened just last week.
00:12:52.140Steve Witkoff has been instrumental in all of those negotiations.
00:12:55.260So for the left, I say again, don't underestimate Donald Trump.
00:13:34.180I want to give credit to Donald Trump for picking him to get all of these important negotiations done because he has exceeded expectations, certainly of those on the left,
00:13:41.580who have derided him and considered him, again, a rookie, a guy over his head.
00:13:49.760And here's something else that's on the table today that I haven't heard you mention yet, and we should.
00:13:54.520Not only are we possibly looking at the end of the war in Ukraine, we're also looking at the possibility of an expanded nuclear arms agreement.
00:16:20.240And for Russia, I believe, saving face here, saying we're going to keep Crimea, we're going to keep sections of Donbass, whatever it might be.
00:16:58.880You look at the Donbass, you look at the eastern regions of Ukraine that have been under Russian control for the most part since February of 2022.
00:17:18.600And so we might see a little give and take in that area.
00:17:20.760But when it's all said and done, whether peace is found today or at some point in the future, I believe those territories have been ceded to Russia already.
00:17:32.040You don't have enough people left in Ukraine to fight the war.
00:17:35.120The Russians don't want to fight this war anymore either.
00:18:24.060If they give up that eastern portion of real estate, that's where all of the rare earth minerals are, the energy is, a lot of things that are real assets natural resource-wise are in eastern parts of that country.
00:18:35.680So their hope is to retain something of value when you get to the end of the negotiation, something of value that they can take home.
00:19:43.100I'm Beau Davidson, filling in for Jack Posobiec, who is on Air Force One right now as part of our RAV delegation covering this momentous event.
00:19:51.500It's all part of our collective team effort here at Real America's Voice, pulling out all the stops to give you the best and brightest coverage of the Anchorage Accords today.
00:19:59.500Now, to touch off where we left off with Steve Gruber, these are Christians killing Christians.
00:20:04.040They share the same religion, often some of the same family members.
00:20:07.200That's why Steve said it's kind of like the Civil War.
00:20:10.740Well, joining me now to further discuss today's summit is Ben Bergquam.
00:20:14.520Ben, I'd like to get your assessment of where we are today and how peace or potentially more war are at stake.
00:20:21.640And just this notion of the fact that there are families fighting against each other, very similar to our Civil War, and the fact that it is Christian brother against Christian brother.
00:20:31.380Yeah, you know, I was in Ukraine not too long ago, just a couple years ago, in the middle of the fighting.
00:20:37.000We went out to the front, and that's what you saw.
00:20:38.700You saw these communities of people who identified with both.
00:20:42.660You know, they had families that were on the Russia side.
00:20:46.000They had families that were on the Ukraine side.
00:20:48.680It sounds like Trump landed on you now because Trump, yeah, he just landed.
00:20:52.900Yeah, let's take a look at this shot right now.
00:20:54.780Air Force One has landed in Alaska, in Anchorage.
00:21:14.480It's, you know, you're talking about people and neighborhoods that are as close as you can see the neighborhoods behind me.
00:21:20.640You know, it's streets that separate some of these communities that once were Ukraine and now belong to Russia or once were Russia and became Ukraine.
00:21:29.000But the people themselves, the families themselves, the religion, their culture, their identity, very, very similar.
00:21:35.720And so it's a really ugly thing to see firsthand.
00:21:40.000You talk about the generation lost, you know, million lost, over a million lost.
00:23:43.320There's a disdain for the Russian Empire, for the USSR, for the history of that, for the KGB and what Russia was to a lot of these communities.
00:23:51.580And so there is, on the Ukraine side, there are a lot of people that don't want to give up anything.
00:23:57.300But you're also in a position where, if you don't, how many more deaths, how many more lives, how many more young people are you going to lose?
00:24:03.800How much more of this generation will you not be able to replace?
00:24:13.880I don't think Russia is going to give back anything that they've taken.
00:24:16.240And the saddest part about this is this really started because of forces, external forces, NATO basically going into Ukraine saying, we'll bring you to the table.
00:24:26.140And Russia saying, that's a deal breaker.
00:27:46.240Well, no, I mean, you look at what President Trump's already doing with Thailand.
00:27:49.940And Cambodia and all of these peace deals that are already going on.
00:27:52.640That's clearly his desire to see peace in the world, to see these countries, you know, not be killing themselves, to see economic prosperity, not just in our country, but globally.
00:28:01.300And so that's that's my prayer is for not just that region, but for the entire globe.
00:30:24.540Could you cut the tension with a Ginsu knife at this point?
00:30:27.040You know, I would say everyone's kind of silent.
00:30:33.160You know, the three-hour process it was to get in here as far as going through security, sweeping the buses and things like that.
00:30:39.720It was a process this morning to get to here.
00:30:42.280Once the media arrived here, then it was everyone had to find a place to set up, get situated with the staging area behind me.
00:30:49.320So it's been a very, very busy last hour and a half.
00:30:53.120So it hasn't been a whole lot of conversations going on.
00:30:56.800A lot of people are just trying to get the workspaces up.
00:30:58.900But, obviously, everyone is, you know, anticipating this meeting.
00:31:02.440Now, just moments ago, we heard a plane land.
00:31:05.140I'm presuming it's Air Force One because he was scheduled to land at 1010 here local time.
00:31:11.080And it was about 1010 when that happened.
00:31:12.860So I'm assuming that President Trump is on the ground here.
00:31:16.060Now, President Putin is scheduled to land at 11 a.m. here local time.
00:31:20.880So really, probably here in just a few minutes, we should hear another plane start to land.
00:31:25.720So once we have these two leaders on the ground, Beau, then they're going to go into a bilateral meeting.
00:31:30.240And as this whole conversation has developed, how long will the meeting last?
00:31:34.460President Trump has said numerous times that he's going to be able to know in the first two minutes or so whether or not President Putin is there to negotiate.
00:31:41.520And, of course, Zelensky, from all the things that I have read today, a lot of analysis of people who have been following this engagement for a long time say,
00:31:50.940look, you know, President Zelensky does not have the cards.
00:31:54.680And that's exactly what was told to him in the Oval Office.
00:32:05.620And I feel like he needs to do what's best to end the bloodshed.
00:32:08.640And that's one thing that President Trump has said from day one.
00:32:10.940This isn't about U.S. lives being lost.
00:32:14.100We don't have one U.S. soldier over there in that fight in that particular capacity.
00:32:19.060Matter of fact, we're making money through selling weapons to NATO on this.
00:32:24.480So this is something he wants to see end to save lives.
00:32:28.180And, of course, we want peace in that region.
00:32:30.340I do, however, said, and I do think this is one of the reasons why Putin is here.
00:32:34.380You know, with these sanctions that have been on Russia for so long and also with the new tariff and the sanctions that have been put on India and any other country selling goods, oil, things like that to Russia, that has put them in a financial crisis.
00:32:48.680So I do think Putin is coming here to make a financial deal with the U.S.
00:32:53.460And we definitely want to make sure that they get – I'm hearing a plane right now.
00:32:59.600I think we have – we've got some Russian media that are making their way through here.
00:33:04.100So I think they've just got the indication that Putin has just landed here at the base.
00:33:09.120But to wrap it up here as far as the meaning is concerned, I think that we're going to see peace through an economic deal.
00:33:17.580That's just my personal take on it, taking a look at all the financial situations for both those countries.
00:35:05.860When you kind of look at what that area looks like, I even said this, a post-Trump administration.
00:35:11.960What does that region of the world look like?
00:35:14.060And I think if they would – obviously, I think Zelensky would love to have some type of military – I say military, but if you say support, security, people in that region to make sure that peace is maintained.
00:35:27.880And you think about these raw earth minerals, the deal that we have with Ukraine as far as getting some of the money back that we've put into that country, $380-plus billion.
00:35:38.180So, Bo, there may require some type of security backup for that region because that is a – it's a very volatile area.
00:35:49.960And so you're going to have personnel in there mining these rare earth minerals.
00:35:53.700So I think that it's definitely an option.
00:35:55.880I think he just wants NATO to have nothing with that and wants that to be on the U.S.
00:36:01.300But we'll see how that side of negotiation goes, and I'm sure that discussion will take place as well.
00:36:06.040And we don't know that those discussions have not already taken place.
00:36:09.260Or if you remember, Bo, just a few days ago, President Trump had a phone call with European leaders and Zelensky to talk about several things.
00:36:18.660He was very, very tight-chested on what they talked about.
00:36:22.380Yeah, and, you know, Brian, I do want to get your reaction to this, too.
00:36:25.340And I don't know if you've seen it yet, but Hillary Clinton, of all people, said that she would nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize if he can put an end to this war,
00:36:33.740or if Ukraine doesn't have to cede any more territory.
00:36:36.500Now, isn't this rich that this comes from a woman who started Russiagate and said, we came, we saw, he died?
00:36:43.540What are your thoughts on that claim and coming from a warmonger like her who has no regard for human life?
00:36:51.240The next time I see Hillary Clinton, I want it to be in front of an oversight committee on her testimony for what, with the Russia, Russia, Russiagate.
00:36:59.500I don't care what she has to say right now.
00:37:01.360I think it's, I think what she's trying to do is reach for a headline, any type of positive headline.
00:37:06.240The approval ratings right now for Democrats is at a historical low.
00:37:09.500So for Hillary Clinton or any Democrat to come out right now and start pushing for this peace, Nobel Peace Prize for President Trump,
00:37:18.220they're just trying to grab some type of positivity in connotation to their party.
00:37:23.560So, you know, I want to see her in the oversight committee for the collusion and all that stuff that they mustered up and peddled to the media.
00:41:30.280I think it's an economic opportunity for everyone right now.
00:41:35.240An economic opportunity for everyone right now.
00:41:38.400And peace will be the outcome of that.
00:41:40.400Yeah, well, I want to bring back in our panel now, our previous guests, Steve Gruber and Ben Burkwam.
00:41:46.180And, of course, we've got Brian Glenn, who we just heard from.
00:41:48.440Gentlemen, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here.
00:41:50.280But, you know, we've seen President Trump broker peace deals already, which have earned him some Nobel Prize nominations.
00:41:55.620Steve, you and I talked about that earlier, whether it's Rwanda and the Congo, Cambodia and Thailand, Israel and Hamas, India and Pakistan, or Armenia and Azerbaijan.
00:42:03.700If he can do it, he seems to be a lot closer to that.
00:42:06.280But as Brian said, the stakes are very high.
00:42:11.200So I know he's giving himself about a 75 percent chance of that happening.
00:42:15.680So, Steve, I want to bring you back in here and just say, you know, I know there's got to be a lot of personal pressure he's putting on himself to do this, to get this done.
00:42:23.780Because it was, as Brian mentioned, a campaign promise.
00:43:19.420And again, at the top of the broadcast, I said I'm an optimist.
00:43:22.620A poll I saw said 59% of Americans do not believe that he can pull it off.
00:43:27.100I'm of the mind that he can because that's what Donald Trump has done for 200 days is stop war, stop conflict, and stop killing.
00:43:34.080And I think he's going to do it again today.
00:43:35.680It may not be done today, but we'll take a great step forward.
00:43:38.220And Ben, let's talk about some of the geopolitics of this as well.
00:43:41.700I teased this with Steve earlier when we had him on, just in terms of let's look at how China is going to look at this.
00:43:46.680Because they've, you know, they've got a relationship with Russia.
00:43:50.480Obviously, Russia has been an ally of ours before.
00:43:52.960But you look at what China wants to do with Taiwan.
00:43:55.240They may be looking at this summit today saying, hmm, if it goes well for Donald Trump and for Vladimir Putin, maybe we shouldn't be toying around with Taiwan so much.
00:44:04.380If it goes poorly and we bug out and we go home, maybe they say, hmm, maybe we should go take a closer look at bringing Taiwan back into our own fold.
00:45:01.080We have more communists now in America that are trying to turn America communists.
00:45:04.880Those are the enemies that I'm really concerned about.
00:45:06.860And going back to our own border, you think about we've been talking about Ukraine's border and Russia's border.
00:45:11.460Well, we just gave up our border for four years.
00:45:13.380President Trump is the one who came in, secured our border, and I believe he's the only one globally that can help bring peace, not just to Ukraine and Russia, but globally because he is that stabilizing force that other countries look at and say, well, if we do that, we're screwed because this guy is actually going to come and actually do what he says.
00:45:31.460And look, he's got the track record to prove it.
00:45:35.160And that's, I think, what we're seeing today.
00:45:37.540Hopefully, we see an end to this conflict.
00:45:39.920And China, you know, they have to look at that and recognize that.
00:45:43.240And I think we saw that in the first four years.
00:45:45.000I think we're going to see that these four years as well.
00:45:47.000Brian, you mentioned earlier that there are some Russian businessmen that are coming with Vladimir Putin today.
00:45:53.580What sort of financial package or economic incentives do you think that President Trump can dangle in front of them that would incentivize them?
00:46:02.720And potentially, could we see a reentry into the G8 in terms of becoming a trading partner with them?
00:47:00.020I mean, there's reports coming out of Ukraine where they've got seniors and they're taking people that are 60 years and older to fight and people that have certain handicaps.
00:47:08.040I mean, they're down to that recruitment level.
00:47:10.780So they don't have any more, I think, a whole lot of fight left in them on this.
00:47:15.780But if we can do some type of economic deal that would open up opportunities within the U.S., between the two countries, does that – that might offset – you know, that might offset a little bit of what he is looking to do in Ukraine.
00:49:03.200His oil could go more freely to China and elsewhere without the restrictions and the global sanctions that are in place.
00:49:09.060Look, Donald Trump has made it clear that if there's not a deal put together here, it's going to be very difficult for Vladimir Putin to move forward economically.
00:49:17.400And look, the country is already impoverished.
00:49:19.640This war has cost them billions of dollars and thousands of lives.
00:49:23.920We know that the cost in life and treasure has been very high for Russia.
00:49:28.140So can I get into the mind of Vladimir Putin?
00:52:47.940Well, I think from the MAGA base standpoint, ending our dollars being spent on killing any other country's countrymen is the only success.
00:53:00.300The ultimate success that we're looking for is taking our dollars out of continuing these wars and putting them back into the wars that matter.
00:53:07.780Our own southern border, our own country, defeating the enemies within our own country, increasing our economic benefit.
00:53:13.960But I think there's also economic benefits that Brian Glenn brought up, that Steve Ruber brought up, that you brought up, that Jack's been talking about.
00:53:21.880All of this, you know, this idea that we can just pump money into these countries year after year after year endlessly, our own dollars, our own tax dollars.
00:53:30.160When our countries and our cities are going broke, you drive across California and it's bums everywhere.
00:53:41.840And again, you got the art of the deal there with Vladimir Putin.
00:53:45.400I don't think I think success means the end of the war, but also economic benefit for the United States, primarily between these countries, both with Russia.
00:54:05.380Look at ways that every single one of these decisions, every single problem that President Trump faces needs to be looked at through the lens.
00:54:13.220And I believe he looks at it through this lens of what is best for the American citizens, what is best for our people, for our country.