Verdict with Ted Cruz - Trump & Putin in Alaska： What it Means & What's Next plus Standing up to the CCP in Africa

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.580 Guaranteed human.

00:00:06.620 Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:10.400 In today's show, we've got a lot of big news.

00:00:12.640 It all revolves around Russia, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and the big meeting in Alaska.

00:00:19.300 Senator, what's even more amazing about this story is how Democrats are obsessed with hating Trump

00:00:24.240 almost as much as they hate Vladimir Putin

00:00:26.140 and hoping that this conversation is a failure.

00:00:30.440 Even Hillary Clinton saying, well, if he can get a deal done, I'll nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize.

00:00:35.300 But saying it in a way that was pretty clear, she thinks this is never going to happen.

00:00:39.340 Well, this was a major meeting that happened in Alaska.

00:00:43.960 It was a one-on-one meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin.

00:00:48.200 The proof will be in the pudding.

00:00:49.880 We will see what results, but my hope and my belief is this is going to result in a peace agreement,

00:00:57.040 in ending the war in Ukraine, and that's an outcome that needs to happen.

00:01:00.920 What we're going to do on this podcast is we're going to break down what exactly happened in Alaska,

00:01:05.360 what we know, what President Trump said, what Vladimir Putin said, and what's likely to happen next.

00:01:10.740 What are the consequences for ending the war in Ukraine?

00:01:13.980 We're going to give you all the details on today's pod.

00:01:16.100 We're also going to talk about a story that you may not have seen, but it is consequential,

00:01:20.860 which is that I've been calling for the recognition of a new nation in Africa, Somaliland.

00:01:28.060 And I'm the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa,

00:01:33.540 and the Chinese Communist Party is very, very unhappy with me for doing so.

00:01:38.880 And so they have been blasting me this week for daring to stand up to China and Africa. 1.00

00:01:43.940 Well, here's a spoiler alert. I'm going to keep standing up to them.

00:01:46.940 But we're going to explain that issue to you because it's important,

00:01:49.640 and it's another arena in which we are contesting communist China.

00:01:54.440 Yeah, it really is an important story that no one's talking about.

00:01:57.340 That's why we do this show, to bring you headlines like this.

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00:03:48.760 All right, so let's start at the beginning of this meeting.

00:03:50.920 The first thing that made people lose their minds was the fact that Donald Trump shook hands with Vladimir Putin,

00:03:55.900 and they smiled at one another, and that was when, like, the entire media just erupted with,

00:04:00.460 I can't even believe that they're touching each other and shaking hands.

00:04:03.640 It is truly incredible to watch the meltdown.

00:04:06.180 You know, it is astonishing how the corporate media and the Democrats are rooting for America to fail.

00:04:11.440 They want the president to fail.

00:04:13.720 They hate President Trump so much that actually seeing him succeed in ending this war would be intolerable to the left that hates him so much.

00:04:26.500 But, and listen, I don't know if he will succeed.

00:04:29.040 This is not easy.

00:04:29.840 This was courageous to go and do this meeting.

00:04:32.460 There is a risk of failure.

00:04:33.780 But if we know anything about President Trump is that he is afraid of very little on planet Earth.

00:04:41.260 And he's not afraid of Vladimir Putin.

00:04:44.400 And so he went.

00:04:45.380 He invited him to come to Alaska.

00:04:47.680 He went and met one-on-one.

00:04:49.280 He looked him in the eyes.

00:04:50.980 And he made very clear this war needs to come to an end.

00:04:54.480 I want you to give a listen to what President Trump said about his meeting with Putin.

00:04:58.720 We were together almost three hours.

00:05:02.220 And it was very extensive.

00:05:03.740 And we agreed at a lot of points.

00:05:05.140 I mean, a lot of points were agreed on.

00:05:06.960 But there's not that much.

00:05:08.200 There's, you know, one or two pretty significant items.

00:05:11.380 But I think they can be reached.

00:05:13.380 Now it's really up to President Zelensky to get it done.

00:05:17.180 And I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit.

00:05:21.540 But it's up to President Zelensky.

00:05:23.480 I think we are.

00:05:24.960 And if they'd like, I'll be at that next meeting.

00:05:26.840 They're going to set up a meeting now between President Zelensky and President Putin.

00:05:31.360 And myself, I guess.

00:05:32.840 You know, I didn't even, I didn't ask you about it.

00:05:34.840 Not that I want to be there.

00:05:35.700 But I want to make sure it gets done.

00:05:37.600 And we have a pretty good chance of getting it done.

00:05:41.840 He described it as a pretty good chance of getting it done.

00:05:44.920 Part of this is the economics.

00:05:46.960 And that's something, Senator, that a lot of people have not been talking about.

00:05:50.340 This war is costing Russia a lot of money.

00:05:53.440 And they are a country that is very poor at this point.

00:05:57.940 They're teetering, some would say, economically.

00:06:00.520 And so there is a real chance that Vladimir Putin needs to get out of this from a financial standpoint.

00:06:08.520 That's part of what I think the president clearly was talking to him about as well.

00:06:11.760 I think that's right.

00:06:14.380 And I believe the Ukraine war will end, and it will end this year.

00:06:18.280 That was clearly something President Trump campaigned on.

00:06:21.680 He was explicit to the American people that he intended to end this war.

00:06:26.480 And listen, President Zelensky has been reluctant to reach a peace deal because he wants to recover every square inch of Ukraine.

00:06:35.980 Now, I understand why he does.

00:06:38.380 You and I, if we were president of Ukraine, we'd probably want the same thing.

00:06:42.820 But President Trump has been clear the United States is out of the business of funding the war,

00:06:48.980 that we have sent billions and billions of dollars to Ukraine, and the cash spigot has stopped.

00:06:56.400 And I think that is a powerful incentive to President Zelensky to reach an agreement.

00:07:02.100 You are right that the war has been incredibly costly on Russia.

00:07:06.160 They have poured in enormous money and materiel and manpower and soldiers who have been lost.

00:07:14.100 And what I've urged the president is, number one, end the war, but number two, end it in a way that is a clear and discernible loss for Putin. 0.65

00:07:25.180 Putin is not our friend.

00:07:26.200 Putin is our enemy.

00:07:27.760 And we do not want our enemy getting stronger.

00:07:30.860 We want our enemies getting weaker.

00:07:33.060 And so my hope is the resolution, there's going to be some kind of negotiated settlement.

00:07:38.120 I think it will be reached later this year.

00:07:41.180 The follow-up, on Monday, today, President Zelensky is scheduled to be in Washington and meet with President Trump.

00:07:49.720 That'll be the next step.

00:07:50.860 And then the objective is to get Zelensky and Putin together with President Trump and see if we can make real progress to a resolution.

00:07:59.940 That is not going to be easy because Zelensky has not wanted to give anything up.

00:08:05.680 And Putin generally doesn't want to give anything up either.

00:08:09.500 And so you've got two people that are pretty dug in in their positions.

00:08:13.540 But I think President Trump is trying to move heaven and earth to stop the war, to stop the shooting, and stop the bloodshed.

00:08:22.680 You talk about the next steps, and let's just go to that meeting with Zelensky.

00:08:27.760 I think it's pretty clear, and a lot of people criticize in the media, also Democrats, that Zelensky, quote, wasn't invited to this meeting, and they wanted to hit the president on that.

00:08:36.600 Look, Donald Trump clearly need to get in the room with Vladimir Putin, talk to Putin, and probably be able to say some things to Vladimir Putin without Zelensky in the room.

00:08:46.000 Yeah.

00:08:46.260 There was no indication, by the way, that Vladimir Putin wanted to meet with Zelensky.

00:08:50.480 And if you look historically at these deals, usually the person, the country that brokers the deal has a meeting with one side first, has a meeting with the other side.

00:09:00.020 Then they have that follow-up meeting that the president talked about.

00:09:03.600 That has been standard practice for decades and decades and decades, maybe even centuries, around the world.

00:09:10.920 And yet people wanted to criticize the president for using this strategy, which has been proven to work well.

00:09:17.180 I think the president was smart here.

00:09:19.180 You go to this meeting with Zelensky.

00:09:21.260 I'm assuming he's going to treat it very much the same way he treated this meeting with Vladimir Putin, except there is a difference.

00:09:27.560 One's going to be at the White House, and one's in Alaska.

00:09:30.360 So I think that also plays out well in the president's favor with Zelensky saying, hey, I'm showing you respect.

00:09:36.240 I want to get this deal done.

00:09:37.840 You need to stop the killing for your people. 1.00

00:09:40.040 That's coming in, I think, with a smart idea and strategy.

00:09:42.980 Your reaction?

00:09:44.400 Well, look, President Trump, before the meeting in Alaska, he was explicit.

00:09:47.860 He said he wanted to see if Putin is willing to make a deal, to reach a resolution.

00:09:52.960 And he was also explicit, and he said if Putin is not, Trump was perfectly prepared to get up and leave.

00:09:59.340 And remember, that's what President Reagan did when he met with Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik.

00:10:06.360 And Gorbachev was not willing to reach a deal.

00:10:09.400 In particular, Gorbachev wanted Reagan to give up SDI, the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was Star Wars.

00:10:15.720 It was missile defense.

00:10:16.560 And Reagan was not willing to give it up.

00:10:19.340 And Reagan got up from the table and left and walked out. 0.72

00:10:23.220 And I'll tell you, his leaving that negotiation was a critical element of winning the Cold War.

00:10:30.740 Because the Soviet Union, they did not have the economy to support the military buildup they needed to keep up with SDI, to keep up with our military.

00:10:38.900 And we ultimately won the Cold War without firing a shot.

00:10:42.760 I think President Trump did a good job of setting expectations.

00:10:46.400 And I wasn't in the room with Trump and Putin, but I assume he looked at him flat out and said, listen, are you willing to reach a deal or not?

00:10:55.000 And the answer was satisfactory enough that Trump stayed and continued the meeting.

00:11:01.480 I think that's a step forward.

00:11:02.940 It's a positive step forward.

00:11:05.080 And, you know, the left is contemptuous.

00:11:07.900 But I want you to listen to this exchange with Brett Baer.

00:11:11.220 We asked Trump about Hillary Clinton.

00:11:13.800 Give a listen.

00:11:15.060 In fact, did you see that Hillary Clinton yesterday said that if you got this deal done and not capitulate to Putin, that she would nominate you for the Nobel Peace Prize?

00:11:27.920 If President Trump were the architect of that, I'd nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize.

00:11:32.140 Well, that was very nice.

00:11:36.040 I may have to start liking her again.

00:11:38.900 That one just made me laugh.

00:11:40.500 Like when I watched it, because I think he was even like, really?

00:11:43.360 Like Hillary Clinton?

00:11:44.500 Notice she had a caveat in there if it's without capitulating, right? 0.99

00:11:48.400 There's always a caveat with Dems.

00:11:50.580 Well, and that's their wiggle language. 0.54

00:11:52.640 She said, and not capitulate to Putin.

00:11:54.540 So whatever the deal is, if Putin gets anything at all, Hillary will say, nope, nope, that was capitulating.

00:12:00.280 So I didn't mean it.

00:12:01.300 I'm not nominating him.

00:12:02.700 But that may be a quote that she and the other Democrats come back to regret, because I think there's going to be a deal.

00:12:10.360 And if there is a deal, you can be assured that quote is going to be played multiple times.

00:12:16.040 And if the president negotiates the deal, she'll try to walk away from it. 1.00

00:12:22.140 A hundred percent, she tries to walk away from it.

00:12:24.380 But it shows, you know, she's rooting for failure, and the other Democrats are rooting for failure.

00:12:33.060 But, and a significant part of the reason, understand, this war in Ukraine should never have happened.

00:12:40.540 It was unnecessary.

00:12:42.920 This war in Ukraine was caused by two things.

00:12:45.620 It was caused by, number one, Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan, the incompetence, the debacle that unfolded.

00:12:53.660 Every enemy of America took a measure of President Biden and determined that the commander-in-chief was weak and ineffective.

00:13:00.240 That was a major reason Putin invaded Ukraine.

00:13:03.320 And it was caused, secondly, by Joe Biden waiving sanctions on Nord Stream 2.

00:13:09.260 Nord Stream 2 is the undersea pipeline that Putin built from Russia to Germany.

00:13:14.080 And the reason he built that pipeline to carry natural gas was to circumvent Ukraine.

00:13:19.560 Because right now, Russia's natural gas goes through Ukraine on pipelines.

00:13:23.840 And the purpose of Nord Stream 2 was so that he didn't need to go through Ukraine and he could invade Ukraine.

00:13:30.420 In the first term, I authored sanctions legislation, crushing sanctions legislation, to shut down Nord Stream 2.

00:13:38.300 It passed the Senate with bipartisan support.

00:13:40.860 It passed the House with bipartisan support.

00:13:43.260 President Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law.

00:13:47.420 And, Ben, Putin stopped construction of Nord Stream 2 literally the day President Trump signed my sanctions legislation into law.

00:13:57.420 That legislation stopped the invasion, prevented the invasion.

00:14:02.040 And had the sanctions remained in place, we would not have a war in Ukraine.

00:14:08.120 But Joe Biden came in and waived the sanctions.

00:14:11.420 He gave a multi-billion dollar gift to Putin.

00:14:14.380 Putin finished Nord Stream 2 and almost immediately thereafter invaded.

00:14:18.580 And, by the way, it's not just me saying this.

00:14:21.040 Give a listen to Putin saying this same point, which is that the war in Ukraine would never have happened if Trump had been president in 2021.

00:14:30.720 Give a listen.

00:14:31.940 I'd like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration,

00:14:38.380 I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities.

00:14:53.640 And I said it quite directly back then that it's a big mistake.

00:14:56.700 Today, when President Trump said that if he was the president back then, there would be no war, and I'm quite sure that it would indeed be so. 0.95

00:15:07.520 I can confirm that.

00:15:08.420 I think that overall, me and President Trump have built a very good, business-like, and trustworthy contact.

00:15:19.140 And I have every reason to believe that moving down this path, we can come, and the sooner the better, to the end of the conflict in Ukraine.

00:15:29.440 I mean, he said it there.

00:15:32.760 I also think he said it because he's probably messing with our media a little bit, which I love. 1.00

00:15:37.300 It's like you guys are idiots and you're wrong, and if you knew what was actually going on, you'd tell the truth. 0.99

00:15:42.680 It's pretty bad when even Putin knows how to just call out the media. 1.00

00:15:46.600 Yeah, look, and the media actually behaves like Providence, behaves like the Soviet media, except they pitch the hard-left Politburo line.

00:16:00.180 And so, as a result, they blame everything on President Trump.

00:16:04.020 But understand, Joe Biden and the Democrats caused wars.

00:16:08.700 They caused the war in Ukraine, and I believe Biden's weakness caused the war in Gaza, caused October 7th.

00:16:14.600 And the world is safer.

00:16:17.680 We have fewer wars when we have a strong commander-in-chief.

00:16:22.100 And President Trump is working, I think, very hard to end this war.

00:16:27.760 Now, one big question is, is Zelensky willing to make a deal?

00:16:32.220 And President Trump had some very straightforward advice to President Zelensky.

00:16:38.200 Give a listen.

00:16:39.660 What's your advice to...

00:16:41.020 Make a deal.

00:16:42.340 Make the deal.

00:16:42.920 Gotta make a deal, yeah.

00:16:44.600 Look, Russia's a very big power.

00:16:47.400 And they're not.

00:16:48.400 They're great soldiers, and they have great...

00:16:50.180 But, you know, they also had the best equipment.

00:16:52.160 You know, they had our equipment.

00:16:53.680 And I gave them javelins, if you remember, in my first term.

00:16:56.640 In fact, there was a statement, I gave javelins.

00:16:59.380 You remember the statement?

00:17:00.600 I gave javelins, and Obama gave, because it was Obama at that time, Obama gave them sheets.

00:17:05.800 And that's true.

00:17:07.640 I gave javelins.

00:17:08.720 And a lot of tanks were knocked out because of the javelins.

00:17:11.620 The javelins, incredible weapon.

00:17:14.180 It's a tank.

00:17:15.220 You know, you look at this big, powerful tank.

00:17:17.400 It ends up being a ball of metal lying on the ground and burning.

00:17:21.040 I've never seen anything like it.

00:17:22.180 We have the greatest military equipment in the world, but they did have courage in fighting.

00:17:27.120 And, you know, they're fighting a big war machine.

00:17:29.660 And we, I think, are close to a deal.

00:17:33.100 But I don't like saying it.

00:17:35.020 I always say, if I'm really close, I say 50-50.

00:17:38.300 50-50, right?

00:17:41.120 I love how he says that.

00:17:42.580 Yep.

00:17:43.740 Yeah, look, and this was, President Trump also made clear that Biden is the one who screwed this up.

00:17:50.780 And he's coming in now, and he's trying to fix the mess that Joe Biden and the Democrats' weakness caused.

00:17:59.140 Here's how the president put it.

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00:19:57.100 All right, take a listen to Donald Trump in Anchorage, Vladimir Putin right next to him,

00:20:01.320 and talking about how Joe Biden screwed all this up and he inherited this mess.

00:20:06.720 1986, Reagan walks away from Reykjavik with Gorbachev, and it was a strong moment.

00:20:12.340 I mean, you could foresee if it goes down a bad path, you get up and walk away.

00:20:17.920 I'm not doing it based on history, based on anything else.

00:20:20.760 I'm doing it based on a deal.

00:20:21.980 If we make a deal, great.

00:20:23.340 If I see that there's no hope of making a deal, I'm out of there.

00:20:29.900 It's over.

00:20:30.620 I'm out of there.

00:20:31.240 This isn't my war.

00:20:32.840 This is Biden's war.

00:20:34.020 This is Biden screwed this up, just like he did with Afghanistan with that horrible retreat.

00:20:39.840 And the way he did it, I'll never forget it.

00:20:42.760 He'll never forget it.

00:20:43.980 Yeah, and neither will the soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines who fought in Afghanistan,

00:20:53.640 who bled, who lost brothers and sisters there.

00:20:57.560 Every veteran of that war, Biden's disastrous retreat is indelibly marked under their conscience.

00:21:06.680 Final question for you on this.

00:21:08.200 If you were meeting with Zelensky about getting this deal done, what would you say to him?

00:21:14.240 What would your advice be?

00:21:16.160 And how would you see this thing ending if you could do it your way?

00:21:21.320 Well, look, my advice would be the same as what President Trump's was, which is make a deal.

00:21:26.240 It's got to be a negotiated settlement.

00:21:28.400 Zelensky's not going to get everything he wants.

00:21:30.920 But it is important that Ukraine have an outcome where their security is protected.

00:21:38.960 And that's one thing that is striking.

00:21:41.840 Putin acknowledged that.

00:21:43.540 That was a real concession that Putin said there needs to be an outcome where Ukraine's security is protected.

00:21:49.600 I also think it is important that the resolution of this continues to leave Nord Stream 2 shut down.

00:21:59.080 When I'm meeting with our European allies, and I do so frequently, a question I pose to them over and over again is I say,

00:22:06.440 listen, when the war in Ukraine ends, who are you going to buy your energy from?

00:22:11.400 Are you going to buy your energy from Russia or are you going to buy it from the United States?

00:22:16.040 Because I would like to see a resolution to this war that is America first, that puts America first. 0.97

00:22:21.480 I'd like to see Europe buying their energy from us and not enriching Putin.

00:22:25.960 And so that's an outcome that I think is very much in America's view.

00:22:29.400 But I want you to listen to Putin.

00:22:30.920 I want you to listen to Putin acknowledging the importance of an outcome that protects the security of Ukraine.

00:22:38.940 Give a listen.

00:22:40.560 I agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well.

00:22:49.540 Naturally, we are prepared to work on that.

00:22:51.740 I would like to hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help us bring closer to that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine.

00:23:01.640 We expect that Kiev and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won't throw a wrench in the works.

00:23:10.080 Two things there.

00:23:11.240 One, he says it clearly, the security of Ukraine should be ensured.

00:23:14.920 Now, I think this goes back to trust but verify, right?

00:23:17.540 But at least he's saying that out loud.

00:23:19.700 Absolutely, we should not take Putin at his word for that.

00:23:23.000 But it's better that he says it than that he doesn't.

00:23:26.760 And then you hear him at the end.

00:23:28.420 It does seem to be that he is talking in a way you would talk if you're winding things down.

00:23:35.420 I think you have to read into that a little bit and say, OK, this is not a bad thing either.

00:23:39.520 Yeah, look, if he was hell-bent on continuing the war and trying to conquer all of Ukraine, he wouldn't say we need to ensure that the security of Ukraine is protected.

00:23:52.700 Now, he also said that the Europeans shouldn't throw a wrench into it.

00:23:57.080 And one of the real questions is there have been some in Europe and there have been a number of Democrats who have advocated that Ukraine be a member of NATO.

00:24:08.160 I think that would be a real mistake.

00:24:10.360 I've been vocal opposing that.

00:24:11.980 President Trump has been explicit.

00:24:13.480 He opposes that.

00:24:14.380 And the reason is NATO, under Article 5 of NATO, when a country becomes a member of NATO, the other members take an obligation to defend it in the case of war.

00:24:25.640 And I have zero interest in putting American troops in harm's way defending Ukraine.

00:24:31.600 And so I think inviting Ukraine to NATO would be a bad mistake.

00:24:37.620 President Trump has made that clear.

00:24:38.960 And I think that's what Putin was saying there as well, is that that would do real damage to the prospects of peace.

00:24:46.080 And so I'm glad that President Trump has taken that off the table.

00:24:49.960 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98

00:24:57.080 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:25:00.820 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:25:01.980 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:25:03.220 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:25:06.980 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:25:12.720 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:25:15.700 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:25:21.540 I want to move to this other story.

00:25:23.740 And it's one, realistically, that probably 99% of this audience doesn't even know about this because no one's covering it.

00:25:33.040 It doesn't mean that it's not an extremely important story.

00:25:36.760 It is you calling out China.

00:25:39.080 It's an epic fight over creating a new country in Africa.

00:25:42.740 This reminds me of that story we were talking about not that long ago about China creating an island in the middle of the ocean based in the middle of nowhere that would help give them air superiority.

00:25:54.380 If there was a massive world event that took place, another world war, it would give them the ability to reach places they currently cannot reach.

00:26:03.280 And now we're hearing that they're looking at creating a new country in Africa.

00:26:07.760 You're trying to bring that to light and also stop it.

00:26:10.380 Well, that's exactly right.

00:26:12.820 So I am the chairman of the Africa subcommittee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

00:26:18.840 And so I've been sharing a number of hearings, in particular focusing on the growing influence of communist China in Africa.

00:26:25.220 Africa has become a major battleground where China is trying to gain influence, trying to gain power, and do so at the expense of America. 0.53

00:26:34.160 And so this last week I wrote a letter to President Trump urging the president to recognize a new country in Africa.

00:26:42.280 I'm going to read you the letter.

00:26:43.620 Dear President Trump, I write to urge your administration to formally recognize the Republic of Somaliland as an independent state with sovereignty within its 1960 borders.

00:26:55.420 Somaliland first gained independence and international recognition in 1960, before voluntarily uniting with Somalia later that year.

00:27:05.800 Since moving to reclaim its independence in 1991, it has functioned as a stable, self-governing, democratic nation.

00:27:15.040 It has held several peaceful elections since 2003, marked by strong voter turnout and peaceful transitions of power.

00:27:24.780 Somaliland has emerged as a critical security and diplomatic partner for the United States, helping America advance our national security interest in the Horn of Africa and beyond.

00:27:37.020 It is strategically located on the Gulf of Aden, putting it near one of the world's busiest maritime corridors.

00:27:45.760 It possesses capable armed forces and contributes to regional counterterrorism and piracy operations.

00:27:53.280 It has enabled the opening of a Taiwanese representative office in the capital of Hargisa,

00:28:00.060 sought to strengthen ties with Israel and voice support for the Abraham Accords.

00:28:07.520 It has proposed hosting a U.S. military presence near the Red Sea along the Gulf of Aden and is open to critical minerals agreements that would support our supply chain resilience.

00:28:24.220 The U.S.-Somaliland partnership is robust and it is deepening.

00:28:30.060 Somaliland faces mounting pressure from adversaries, due in no small part to its role as a partner for the United States and our allies.

00:28:40.280 The Chinese Communist Party is using economic and diplomatic coercion to punish Somaliland for its support for Taiwan, as well as to undermine that support.

00:28:52.380 The government of Somalia has played an unfortunate role in these efforts.

00:28:57.600 In April 2025, the CCP arranged for Somalia to bar Taiwanese passport holders from transiting into Somaliland.

00:29:08.200 And Chinese support Somalia is benefiting anti-Somaliland groups working to erode its sovereignty.

00:29:16.180 Despite these threats, Somaliland remains committed to forging closer ties with the U.S.

00:29:22.320 and is actively engaged in enhancing military cooperation, counterterrorism efforts, and economy and trade partnerships.

00:29:30.840 To do so to the greatest effect and the greatest benefit to American national security interests,

00:29:36.640 it requires the status of a state.

00:29:39.060 I urge you to grant it that recognition.

00:29:42.960 This is obviously significant.

00:29:45.360 What are the chances that this could move forward this way?

00:29:48.360 Look, I'm optimistic.

00:29:49.500 I think there's a real chance the president will recognize Somaliland.

00:29:53.040 As I said, they've been an ally to us.

00:29:55.240 They've been an ally.

00:29:56.480 This is a Muslim country in a very dangerous part of Africa. 1.00

00:30:00.380 And they've shown real courage.

00:30:02.480 They've shown real courage standing with the United States.

00:30:04.780 They've shown real courage standing up to China.

00:30:07.440 They've shown real courage siding with Taiwan, which infuriates communist China.

00:30:13.580 They've shown real courage embracing Israel and the Abraham Accords.

00:30:19.620 I think Somaliland would eagerly join the Abraham Accords. 1.00

00:30:24.360 And so it is in America's national security interest, I believe, to recognize Somaliland.

00:30:31.580 And probably the best confirmation of that is this week, China put out a public release blasting me absolutely furious that I made this public call to recognize Somaliland.

00:30:51.140 And here's what China put out as their statement.

00:30:53.540 They said, quote,

00:30:55.780 A U.S. senator, in a letter boasting of so-called U.S. recognition of Somaliland region, launched baseless attacks against China and China-Somalia relations.

00:31:08.280 The Chinese embassy in Somalia firmly opposes this misconduct.

00:31:12.420 This coercive letter constitutes serious interference in the internal affairs of Somalia and further exposes the hegemonic and bullying attitude of certain U.S. politicians to the Somali people.

00:31:26.740 Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference in each other's internal affairs are enshrined in the U.N. charter as basic norms governing international relations for safeguarding world peace and stability.

00:31:41.880 China never interferes in other countries' internal affairs and absolutely does not accept meddling in its own internal affairs by any countries.

00:31:52.340 Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory.

00:31:58.580 This is history and this is reality.

00:32:02.480 China firmly opposes Taiwan independent separatism and external interference and possesses the legitimate right to take measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

00:32:15.800 The fact that China is freaking out, the fact that they are this pissed off, from my perspective, confirms that I was exactly right and is yet another argument why President Trump should recognize Somaliland as an ally to America and as a country in Africa willing to stand up to communist China. 0.79

00:32:38.840 Yeah, great point. We're going to keep you updated on this story because it's an important one and we will have movement on it, I have no doubt.

00:32:46.060 So make sure you download this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

00:32:48.680 Hit that subscribe or auto-download button wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss a single episode.

00:32:55.020 And the center and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.

00:32:59.240 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:33:02.120 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 18, 2025

Trump & Putin in Alaska： What it Means & What's Next plus Standing up to the CCP in Africa

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