Serbia is a country that stands for sovereignty and secure borders while Western Europe is doing exactly the opposite. It s a country where the legacy of the 1999 NATO bombing still looms large. And what's incredibly fascinating is that groups like NATO had a very different view of territorial integrity when it comes to Serbia and Kosovo when you compare it to their position on Ukraine. In the interview, we will get into all of that.
00:05:22.000And today is yet another special show, because we took the show abroad to Belgrade, Serbia, where I sat down with Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic.
00:05:34.000It was a fascinating and eye-opening experience.
00:05:37.000Serbia is a country that finds itself actually standing for sovereignty and secure borders, while Western Europe is doing exactly the opposite.
00:05:47.000It's a country where the legacy of the 1999 NATO bombing still looms large.
00:05:53.000And what's incredibly fascinating is that groups like NATO had the very different view of territorial integrity when it comes to Serbia and Kosovo when you compare it to their position on Ukraine.
00:06:06.000In the interview, we will get into all of that.
00:06:10.000Serbia finds itself located in a unique place, both literally and figuratively.
00:06:14.000It's a landlocked country at the crossroads of Southeast and Central Europe located in the Balkans.
00:06:20.000Serbia is part of the former Yugoslavia.
00:06:22.000During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro, which was dissolved in 2006, restoring Serbia's independence as a sovereign state.
00:06:32.000Tensions in Kosovo and ethnically Albanian region in Serbia escalated into open conflict in 1998. NATO actually bombed We
00:07:06.000also discuss the issue of Kosovo more broadly.
00:07:10.000And even many in Washington want to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
00:07:16.000But Serbia maintains and argues very passionately that it is part of its own sovereign territory.
00:07:23.000There's a lot to get into and you're going to learn a lot.
00:07:25.000President Vucic also knows very well both Vladimir Zelensky and Putin.
00:09:05.000And for all the headlines that we cover here on the show, go over to my news app, MXM News, like minute by minute, MXM, where you can get the mainstream news without the mainstream bias.
00:09:16.000And before we get into the interview, Let's get into a couple of the top headlines that have happened this week, along with a quick word about a major issue that could affect your health care.
00:09:28.000Guys, Joe Biden's so-called Inflation Reduction Act is a disaster for American seniors.
00:09:35.000Democrats snuck in a provision to raid Medicare and fund green energy giveaways for their special interest donors.
00:09:44.000The Biden pill penalty is undermining the development of life-saving pills.
00:09:49.000We've already seen a 70% drop in development of pill-based treatments since 2021. The Biden pill penalty is a threat to our fight against everything from cancer to diabetes.
00:10:03.000Joe Biden broke Medicare, but President Trump can fix it.
00:10:08.000Tell them to end the Biden pill penalty right now.
00:10:13.000Tell Congress to end the Biden pill penalty.
00:10:16.000Take action and go to seniorsforbettercare.com.
00:10:21.000That's with the number four, not the word, seniors, number four, bettercare.com, and make sure your voice is heard.
00:10:29.000And now let's take a look at the top headlines.
00:10:32.000And we begin with the big news overseas, where Putin today agreed to a ceasefire in Ukraine under the conditions that they work for a, quote, permanent peace.
00:10:42.000And the news comes after Zelenskyy reportedly agreed to ceasefire framework in Saudi Arabia with Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this week.
00:10:59.000They understand he's not playing around, and they're going to come to the table.
00:11:03.000It was reported earlier today that my father had cut off all Russian oil sales to the EU and ended the Biden exemption that allowed Russian banks to process European payments for oil sales.
00:11:16.000Basically, it means no one in Europe can purchase Russian oil.
00:11:21.000Even in this war, Joe Biden thought, well, we gotta let them keep doing that.
00:11:38.000We agree with the propositions to stop hostilities, but we proceed from the fact that such ceasefire should be such that would lead to permanent peace.
00:11:55.000And remove the initial, original causes of the crisis.
00:12:03.000And here's my father in the Oval Office today with the Secretary General of NATO, making it clear that we need to end the bloodshed.
00:12:12.000We're going to be discussing a lot of things, obviously.
00:12:14.000We'll be discussing what's happening with respect to Ukraine and Russia.
00:12:19.000At this moment, we have people talking in Russia.
00:12:22.000We have representatives over there, Steve Witkoff and others, and they're in very serious discussions.
00:12:29.000As you know, Ukraine has agreed, subject to this, what's happening today, to a complete ceasefire, and we hope Russia will do the same.
00:12:38.000Thousands of people are being killed, young people usually, mostly.
00:12:42.000Young people, we were just talking about it.
00:12:44.000Thousands of young people are being killed a week.
00:13:47.000End the endless wars and actually care about US taxpayer dollars and how they're being spent.
00:13:53.000Because we're learning today even more about just how much USAID was not just being wasted, but artificially propping up other countries' economies.
00:14:09.000It was released by the news outlet Semaphore.
00:14:12.000Did you know that American aid, just through USAID, not including the other places they probably got American aid from, but just through USAID, amounted to 40% of Somalia's GDP, their gross domestic product.
00:14:28.00040% of what they earned was from USAID. 40% of the entire nation!
00:14:35.000And the numbers are similar for other African countries.
00:14:39.000It's absolutely Like I told you last week, we are just at the tip of the iceberg.
00:14:46.000And here's yet another example of that.
00:14:49.000USAID was literally propping up entire world economies.
00:14:54.000And meanwhile, over at the EPA, Lee Zeldin, many have called him the legend of Zeldin, is delivering on the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history within the agency by overhauling 31...
00:15:09.000Far left, economy-killing environmental rules dating back to the Obama era.
00:15:18.000But they don't even have their own facts right.
00:15:20.000Just look at CNN's climate expert, Bill Weir.
00:15:26.000Today, Lee Zeldin put out a video on X and they were putting out press releases with such a flurry, about 31 different actions and rollbacks, that some of them had typos or placeholders at the top.
00:16:22.000He's stopping the regulations that have smothered and stymied American growth for decades for nonsense.
00:16:29.000And meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Democrats are spinning in circles amid talks on a continuing resolution to fund the government.
00:16:39.000Chuck Schumer announced himself that Senate Democrats will block the House past CR. These are the same Democrats, just reminding you, who have said for years that shutting down the government is the worst thing you can do.
00:16:57.000Here's a quick trip down memory lane for those of you who missed it or forgot.
00:17:02.000Courtesy of the Republican congressman and my friend and friend of the show, Wesley Hunt.
00:17:08.000Republicans are marching America to a painful government shutdown.
00:17:14.000But we need traditional Republicans to break with MAGA extremists so we can keep the government open.
00:17:21.000Republican shutdown will cost 6,306 of her constituents their paychecks.
00:17:26.000Put the bill on the floor for another down vote so we can end.
00:18:16.000I know that I'm not going to vote for their proposal for sure.
00:18:19.000Are you prepared to shut down the government to join Democratic colleagues who want to stand in the way of keeping the government open?
00:18:27.000So yes, look, if we have to take steps...
00:18:29.00014 days from now, government shutdown is looming.
00:18:32.000If we don't believe that we have a willing partner on the other side, then we need to stay united and not bail out President Trump.
00:18:41.000Yet at the same time, in order for a lot of voters to fully understand what Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing, people are unfortunately going to have to feel some of that.
00:18:51.000And the only way that that happens is if the shutdown happened.
00:18:54.000Have you ever seen a delusional Democrat party as bad as this?
00:19:00.000They used to be at least, I guess they'd pretend to want what's best for the country.
00:19:05.000Now they just spew endless hate and rage at all things Trump.
00:19:10.000Because despite their hysteria, the Trump agenda is working.
00:20:15.000You know, the big Democrat fundraising apparatus, the one that seems to raise five times more than Republicans can ever raise.
00:20:22.000Well, in a letter sent to the Treasury Department on Tuesday, Republican Congressman Daryl Issa called it imperative that the agency look into whether ActBlue charities had reason to know it was handing payments that could support terror.
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00:23:49.000President Vucic, thank you so much for being here.
00:23:52.000I'd love to get your perspective as we watch the turmoil that you see across Europe right now.
00:24:00.000seems like entire existences are going.
00:24:02.000Where does Serbia stand in all of that and in contrast to what we see, perhaps more so in Western Europe?
00:24:09.000Thank you very much for having me, Dirdan, and just would like to present in a few sentences.
00:24:20.000Serbia and Serbia is a non-EU country, and the Western Balkans, Southeast Europe, which is confusing a bit.
00:24:32.000The Americans in particular, but it's a country that is on EU path.
00:24:40.000But our country was number two fastest growing economy last year.
00:24:45.000This year we believe that Serbia is going to be number one fastest growing economy in Europe.
00:24:51.000And in the recent years we really made a big economic development and a big impact on People's living standards as well.
00:25:04.000Of course, the situation is never ideal, and you can always criticize many things, but generally speaking, we are heading, or Serbia is on the right path.
00:25:24.000But we do invest hugely into infrastructural works.
00:25:30.000We do try to We attract a lot of foreign direct investments and we've been doing that successfully in the recent years.
00:25:39.000And on the other hand, we still brag ourselves of having an independent and sovereign approach towards international political events, actors and also...
00:25:57.000Ideas, and that's what, in a way, makes a difference between us and at least many European Union countries.
00:26:07.000On the other hand, there are a few countries in Europe that are facing protests right now.
00:26:20.000Big protests against us because of that canopy fall that happened on November 1st.
00:26:27.000Get into the details of that, because it feels to me, as someone who's watched this play out in America and with my family, a tragic incident, of course, but it was later weaponized, perhaps like our January 6th turned into something that it wasn't to incite potentially even a revolution.
00:26:49.000I was saying the same to my people here.
00:26:56.000What happened on January the 6th for Donald Trump, for all of you, dear Don, it was for me in a way November the 3rd, when one tragic accident, which happens all over the world, like it happened after President Trump was inaugurated this year with that helicopter and plane, and it happens.
00:27:24.000With even bigger number of casualties.
00:27:28.000And it was used in a way that I couldn't believe it against the government, although the prosecutor's office indicted all the people that they thought would have been responsible for that.
00:27:49.000We fulfilled all the requests, all the demands made by Students here, but it was not enough.
00:27:55.000And I realized that, let's say, mid-December, a month and a half after.
00:28:02.000Then I realized that it was an ongoing colored revolution, imported revolution, something that you couldn't handle easily, and it was not easy, it's still not easy, but I believe that we are on a very good path.
00:28:22.000To overcome it successfully and victoriously.
00:28:28.000It was huge amount of money that was invested from outside, from different countries, different foundations, different agencies, because nobody wanted to see...
00:28:45.000there are three reasons why they wanted to destabilize Serbia.
00:28:48.000Number one was Serbia was performing better than the others in the region.
00:28:55.000Well, that was not a good sign for the others that didn't want to have that disbalance.
00:29:01.000On the other hand, Serbia was having its own independent policy, which was, yes, we were on Ukrainian side when we discussed territorial integrity, an incursion issue and everything else, but we were the only country that was
00:29:19.000Not imposing sanctions against Russia, because Clinton administration was imposing sanctions against us, and we still remember that, and that was one of the main reasons why we didn't want to do it.
00:29:31.000I want to ask about that later on as well.
00:29:34.000I'm saying this, all this stuff were quite a reason to go against this government from outside, and we were not always very much obedient like most of the others in Europe.
00:29:59.000But now I really believe that, at least in the days to come, it will be all over this or another way.
00:30:06.000But I think, and I'm very much prudent and very much cautious, I think that we are going to win because I see the clear veil of Serbian people, which is on our side.
00:30:16.000It doesn't mean that they like me or they dislike.
00:30:19.000It means that people would like to have peace, stability, and to decide on their future in elections.
00:30:28.000In the election process, not in the streets, not under the influence of some foreign countries and everything else.
00:30:36.000Well, there's another planned protest in a couple of days.
00:30:43.000I've read and I've seen and spoken to other people here.
00:30:46.000Some of these protests, they're offering kids a hundred euro to show up.
00:30:51.000And then they'd have a fake social media account of a good-looking woman saying, you know, you're a ten if you show up to the protest.
00:30:59.000And so kids are basically showing up to a party that they may not even know.
00:31:03.000But then once it's manipulated through the lens of a media, through perhaps the EU, who would much rather control everything through Brussels rather than allow actual sovereignty of a nation.
00:31:14.000that image is shaped differently to the rest of the world.
00:31:16.000You, dear Don, mentioned some of this stuff.
00:31:19.000There are so-called, I'm not an expert on this, but they told me so and they showed me some proofs.
00:31:27.000These are cell phone or IT farms, how to create, how to boost all this stuff against the leaders during the protests and during all these events.
00:31:43.000But the real issue is that if you analyze one thing, and I'm absolutely certain that your father and let's say Elon Musk and some other guys, they can recognize it easily.
00:31:59.000When you see an entire liberal establishment from Washington and New York and LA going against you, and you see that there is no single NGO that was on your side.
00:32:39.000So USAID, and I think Americans have been watching some of the disgraces, you know, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars blown for things that can't have any possible benefit to Americans or probably anywhere else in the world.
00:32:53.000Transelmo in Guatemala is probably not all that important, but maybe I'm wrong.
00:32:58.000But you're saying that that was even playing here in an also political fashion.
00:33:02.000Maybe they were doing some good, but...
00:33:05.000What I'm saying, we were listening to President Trump, and he was actually mentioning Serbia, saying the USAID was spending $14 million on public procurements.
00:33:21.000But they were spending much more money, which was not public procurements, which was NGOs that became very instrumental in any kind of political crisis.
00:33:35.000Choosing the side that was anarcho-liberal, that was so-called green, but just so-called, and always against the leaders that would have kept sovereignty and independence of the country and of the nation.
00:33:52.000And interfering into all our election processes through all these NGOs that were Allegedly presenting their agenda as someone that was independent, as someone that was not actually involved in the process, but they were so deeply involved into the process.
00:34:16.000Then supporting the medias that were always against the government.
00:34:21.000And I don't understand what was that good for the American citizens regarding these issues.
00:34:28.000Has your government made requests to figure out where this money is going?
00:34:31.000Because it seems like a reasonable question if they're interfering in your elections to find out.
00:34:37.000And we faced an avalanche of criticism, even coming from some sources from the deep state of your country, but from Brussels in particular.
00:34:57.000There is no single clerk in Brussels that was not criticizing us just on a fact.
00:35:49.000Everybody can ask everybody in the world, apart from NGOs that are...
00:35:55.000Like, blessed by someone and protected by the liberal world because if you touch them, if you ask them, okay, is it a rainy day or it's a sunny day, you made the most terrible mistake and you are going to be crucified by them.
00:36:11.000And this is something that is happening to us now.
00:36:16.000We'll finish our job and you'll be very surprised with the results because I got some information, but I need a confirmation to say it publicly.
00:36:30.000And it will be helpful to President Trump very much in the next period to show what was the purpose of that money, and it can happen to you and to him again, because they're going to use the same sources against you.
00:36:47.000They don't seem to have a very creative playbook, and it seems like whether it's yourself, whether it's Viktor Orban, whether it's my father, anyone who's adhering to the notion of sovereignty, perhaps the notion of traditional Western values, that becomes the enemy of all of these.
00:37:04.000The American left, the de facto American left, which is USAID functioning abroad, and you mentioned the EU. You're obviously not a part of the EU, but...
00:37:15.000You've seen what happens as these nations sort of bind into one blob and they lose their own identity.
00:37:23.000Talk a little bit about the difference between Serbia and some of the other nations that have held fast versus Western Europe that's been sort of absorbed by that mindset.
00:37:33.000We are on the EU path and we respect you.
00:37:35.000But the real issue is that they, from time to time, expect from us to be 100% obedient on everything.
00:37:45.000And my question to them has always been, then why do you need our government?
00:37:51.000Why do you need any government in the region?
00:37:53.000Because they have always been criticizing us because of those sanctions against Russia that we did not impose.
00:37:59.000They were saying to us, you are aligned 52, 54, 56% with us.
00:38:05.000I said, okay, yes, it means that we have our government, our own government, run by our people, run by our people.
00:38:14.000They were saying to me, but you need to be aligned 100% like all the others.
00:38:18.000And my question was, why would we need a government?
00:38:21.000If you bring all decisions instead of us, we don't need ministry for foreign affairs.
00:39:31.000And I don't know in Serbia, not to mention in English, I don't know in Serbia how do they call this third gender or I don't know what else.
00:39:53.000The NGOs would disagree with us, which is why they're spending tens of millions of dollars pushing it in other countries.
00:39:58.000Yes, but if you go to some other countries, like Germany, they were...
00:40:01.000It's not USAID that was even the biggest.
00:40:04.000From Brussels, from, let's say, from Green Party, from their foundation, from Socialist Foundation, their foundations, they were financing everything here.
00:40:30.000And not only that, but also from Brussels and from many European capitals as well.
00:40:37.000And that's what they were doing against your father all the time.
00:40:41.000All European mainstream medias were launching terrible campaigns against him without even...
00:40:48.000Asking him or giving him a chance to respond, but just say that he was ruining values, ruining that and that, and there has never been values, because they were always insisting on values.
00:41:01.000When you come to values, there are no values.
00:41:45.000Because I always say to them, really, you speak about territorial integrity.
00:41:50.000But why you Europeans, together with Bill Clinton in 1999, why you violated an international public law, brought a decision without any voting within UN Security Council, and you were bombarding this country, and then changing the borders of this country?
00:42:11.000Changing the borders of this country, which means that you didn't care about territorial integrity at that time, but now when you care about it, when it's in your interests, and I have nothing against Ukraine to tell you the truth, nothing at all, but when you changed your rules and your values, you stick to the values.
00:42:33.000When it fits to them, then they have these values.
00:42:38.000When it doesn't fit, To their interests, well, just put it aside or cover it with something else.
00:42:45.000So, in the big picture, I mean, that was 1999. Bill Clinton decided to bomb Serbia unilaterally, to your point, without real consent from the rest of the world.
00:42:58.000Was that a distraction to what was going on in his personal life at the time?
00:43:02.000No, dear Don, I'm not speaking and I'm not exposing my opinion.
00:43:16.000Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, just once or twice Montenegro as a part of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and a Serbian inhabited part of Montenegro in the north.
00:43:29.000And Serbia itself was bombarded by 19 NATO countries.
00:43:37.000Nineteen NATO countries attacked small Serbia.
00:43:42.000Because they were saying that we were violating an international public law.
00:43:47.000Now you're going to hear something for the first time in your life.
00:43:50.000That we were violating an international public law in a part of our territory with the possible, in the future, humanitarian crisis that we might cause.
00:44:11.000But please, then Putin learned something from that.
00:44:18.000And when the crisis started in Donbass region, he said, exactly using the same words, well, you see, it's going to be a massive humanitarian crisis.
00:44:35.000Russian-speaking people in East Ukraine, and we had to intervene using exactly the same narrative, exactly the same language as it was used against us.
00:48:28.000Because they thought that they were much smarter, that it was a superficial approach, or they wanted to have steering wheel in their hands.
00:48:40.000Well, it seems like if we're talking about Bill Clinton and mistakes, he's the guy that said, it's the economy, stupid.
00:48:45.000If everyone's benefiting, you would think that they would go along with that, or are they better off when they fragmented?
00:48:54.000You know, I... I just don't understand why people in the region did not accept fully the idea of an open Balkan, which we discussed and it was fully supported by the Americans and even by the other administration, Democratic administration, because they were getting some impulses and signals from Europe not to go with it.
00:52:24.000Against the deep state which was unimaginable.
00:52:28.000And I'm not sure that he'll be 100% successful on this because it's impossible.
00:52:34.000But what he tried, what he did was something of an utmost importance not only for the United States of America but for many freedom-loving countries here, in Asia, in Africa.
00:52:49.000Did I tell you that because I'm From the very small country, relatively or very popular in China.
00:52:59.000Do you know that, apart from all the tariffs and everything else, Donald Trump is ten times more popular than his predecessor?
00:53:53.000I don't take so many of these people anymore as serious people.
00:53:55.000Chinese show respect to everybody, but I see the difference between real respect and an alleged or diplomatic or protocolarian one.
00:54:10.000What were your thoughts about the infamous now meeting in the Oval Office between my father, J.D. Vance, some of that team, and Zelensky in terms of trying to come up with a settlement?
00:54:23.000Zelensky is a very smart guy, very intelligent person.
00:54:30.000He was doing something for his political position in Ukraine, smartly done.
00:54:40.000He went back as a hero to Kyiv, and his numbers were, as your father was saying it in a very proper way, not very good, but that was one of the reasons as your father was saying it in a very proper way, not very good, Protecting Ukraine from everyone, even from the United States of America, doing that and that.
00:55:07.000Number two, my friend Zelensky, I think that you can I accept his apology on this because I think that he did not act fully in a rational way.
00:55:29.000Because when you see the President of the United States, particularly a guy that is determined and decisive, that knows the politics, that knows his aims, like Donald Trump, you need to understand your position as well.
00:55:49.000And, you know, people here were, I'll tell you the story, people here were criticizing me because when I was at that Oval Office, Donald brought, or his people brought, like a tiny chair for me, like this one.
00:56:04.000And I looked like a kid, you know, and he was having that big armchair, you know, like a king sitting above me, you know, and people were saying, you humiliated us, you did that and that.
00:56:42.000And I was shocked when people and Maria Zakharova from Russian minister of foreign affairs attacked me like I was humiliated by American president and that and that.
00:58:17.000You understand both sides of the spectrum.
00:58:20.000I feel like in America it's difficult because I feel the media has programmed the American people to think that Ukraine is winning and they should be able to get everything.
00:58:27.000It's probably not realistic, but that makes me an apologist.
00:58:30.000I cannot discuss wishful way of thinking because I'm too pragmatic, too rational.
00:58:37.000I'll tell you, I think it's the worst job in your father's hands and would never like and would never dare to do anything like he wants to resolve.
00:58:54.000Because I know how complicated that is.
00:58:58.000But my response is going to be very simple.
00:59:02.000Someone has To start losing in a very clear way, not in a clear way, but in a very clear way, doesn't matter which side, in order to get us closer to peace.
00:59:29.000Do you feel that if this was a conflict that wasn't basically between two Eastern European nations and there was, say, an ethnic minority involved, and perhaps you've dealt with some of that at least in the history of this country, that there'd be more clamoring to peace?
00:59:43.000Because I found it fascinating even during the early part of the election cycle when my father said his only objective was to get to peace.
00:59:51.000And the geniuses at CNN said, "How dare you?
00:59:55.000We just want to stop the death," was his exact question.
01:00:33.000But Ukraine was losing many people, as many as Russians, and at the same time they were losing territory, but they were losing their economy and they were losing their future because there are more than 7-8 million people or even 10 million people that left the country.
01:00:55.000I cannot say for good, but it's very doubtful whether those people will come back.
01:03:08.000If you'll be able to stop the war in Ukraine, everybody will say many thanks to the United States of America, many thanks to President Trump.
01:04:09.000I'd love to end it, but I'm not going to give up a meal.
01:04:13.000Yes, and you might add even their participation in that war.
01:04:17.000And then nobody will be in favor of that.
01:04:20.000Because it's easy when someone else is dying, when someone else is paying the price.
01:04:25.000And you are not doing it, but because of your global or regional interests, you would like to see more of a war, which is very hypocritical, to tell you the truth.
01:04:37.000And you can see it in a very easy way.
01:06:30.000Funded by the Soros groups or whatever it may be.
01:06:33.000Do you think that's happening there and it's just anything that could take out a potential...
01:06:37.000I have the protests every single day here, all around the country.
01:06:42.000And as you can see, not only that I'm still alive, I'm still by far the most popular politician in this country, by far.
01:06:52.000And it's not about protesting, it's about someone's programs, plans, political ideas.
01:07:01.000If you ask me whether it's the same kitchen like it was happening in Moldova, in Georgia, in Hungary, yeah, I believe so.
01:07:15.000It doesn't mean that I'm fully right because I don't know many things about Romanian political landscape, but that's how it looks.
01:07:27.000Do you feel that perhaps you see all the flight from ACK Blue, obviously the big Democrat funder in the United States, do you think that with the cutoff of the USAID funds and all of those, there's a reason that those people are fleeing?
01:07:41.000Because again, it was the NGOs kicking back to these organizations illegally?
01:07:48.000And these people that were very well paid, they became very nervous.
01:07:54.000That's why they would like to come to power here or to keep the power somewhere else because they need it very much because they are not going to spend your taxpayers' money.
01:08:06.000They will have to earn it differently in the future, which is not always as easy as it looks.
01:08:18.000Well, I guess when you're playing with house money or other people's money, it's easy to continue a war, just like the Europe mentality in Ukraine.
01:08:29.000I will ask, though, this summer I went at a speaking tour across a lot of even Eastern Europe.
01:08:35.000I think a lot of people, similar mindset to me.
01:08:38.000But there was this notion, even in these rational places, perhaps here, certainly in Romania, that if you don't figure out Ukraine, Russia's going to sweep through the rest of Europe.
01:08:51.000Almost absurd, but it was a genuine concern for them.
01:08:54.000I don't think they've necessarily overperformed in this war.
01:08:58.000I certainly don't think they'd want the actual full force of NATO. There is something to be said about if NATO doesn't carry their weight, why should America be doing that?
01:09:06.000And, you know, those were all written deals that the rest of the EU hasn't, or the rest of NATO hasn't lived up to.
01:09:10.000I'm not going to take a lot of your time.
01:09:13.000Three years ago, when the Russian-Ukrainian war started.
01:09:18.000Since then, I was attacked more than 10,000 times in Western liberal medias for the alleged fact that Serbia was going to attack neighboring countries because Vucic became an imperialist.
01:09:36.000Now they compare me with Trump, Putin, and the others.
01:09:39.000Wait, so you're with Trump and Putin as an imperialist?
01:10:51.000And do you believe that none of these big papers, big outlets, were saying, sorry or excuse us, Mr. President, we were lying about you for three years?
01:11:11.000If you deny everything, if you try to defend yourself, you always become too defensive and then people say something's wrong with this guy.
01:11:18.000And you don't know how to act on this.
01:12:45.000You're not going to win everything, and not every hill is the hill to die on.
01:12:48.000It feels to me, and I've seen this in my own dealings, when I was accused of being a Russian spy or traitor or whatever, you know, who knows.
01:12:58.000For me, I considered it a great honor.
01:12:59.000For me, they were saying that I was a member of...
01:13:05.000That's Russian club, but that's very recently when they wanted to say that I became a traitor, I became a member of the American and European club and all the others.
01:13:16.000I'm changing, shifting the camps, that's it.
01:13:19.000Their attack on me, to me, was an honor because it meant I'm always over the target.
01:13:41.000But I think the point that they then came to me two years later, you know what, Don, you were right to fight, because if you curled up in a ball, put your thumb in your mouth and cry for mom, that's the admission of guilt.
01:13:56.000They would have so far suffocated you.
01:14:03.000When you have your own ideas, when you have something that you believe that is worthy to fight for, then you have to express it freely, openly, sincerely.
01:15:11.000And I hope that politics-wise they will be changed a lot in the future.
01:15:18.000And I hope that the influence of the United States and Donald Trump will work in a sense to Get to the point where many things are going to be different than they are today.
01:15:33.000Well, we appreciate you having the guts to actually say that out loud.
01:15:37.000If other leaders did the same, I think we'd make a lot of progress towards those goals.