00:04:34.820But to be clear, the United States is also his principal patron, his funder, the person who has paid for the war for years, has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine.
00:04:49.220And so in any sane and rational world, Zelensky would come into the Oval Office, hat in hand, would come into the Oval Office being grateful for the support that the United States has given.
00:05:04.560And to be honest, kissing Trump's ass.
00:05:08.620I mean, this is not a complicated dynamic.
00:05:10.660And by the way, it's also not a new dynamic.
00:05:15.720I've been in a lot of Oval Office meetings.
00:05:19.580Just about every foreign leader comes in and treats the President of the United States with respect.
00:05:29.160The United States is the world's leading superpower.
00:05:31.800And so foreign leaders, foreign heads of state, whether they like the President or not, they treat the President with respect.
00:05:38.140I will tell you, any president, if there were a foreign leader who treated them the way Zelensky treated Trump, would have been pissed off and the consequences would have been bad.
00:05:49.540With Trump, the consequences were spectacularly bad.
00:05:53.580And listen, one needn't be a forensic psychologist to understand that it is a really dumb idea to go into a meeting with Donald Trump and insult him and condescend him and attack him.
00:06:09.540If you do that, Ben, I can actually give out the probabilities to amazing precision.
00:06:15.080If you attack and insult Donald Trump, the chances that he will punch back are 100.000%.
00:06:31.580And that's the part where it was like such shocking tone death.
00:06:35.760And you and I mentioned this in the pod on Friday, but the ambassador from the Ukraine, I think she summed it up perfectly, holding her head in her hands like this is a disaster that no one knows how to fix.
00:06:48.560So, look, I think the problem is Zelensky has been surrounded by an echo chamber of left-wing Democrats.
00:06:55.180He's been palling around with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
00:06:58.960He's been palling around with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
00:07:02.500He's been palling around with the New York Times, and he's become – this is a guy who appears in Vanity Fair, appears in People magazine, and he's become a leftist cause du jour.
00:07:14.380And he made, I think, the stupid assessment of, gosh, all the people I hang around with, they hate Donald Trump.
00:07:23.880So I should go in and treat Donald Trump like he's an idiot.
00:07:28.300And it was – I think he felt – I think Zelensky went into the Oval performing for the New York Times and believing that the world would be like, oh, Zelensky stands up and puts Trump in his place.
00:07:50.660And by the way, this is the same political idiocy that led Zelensky last fall to go and effectively do a campaign event with Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania and to come to the United States in the middle of the presidential campaign to come to the United States and do a New York Times interview attacking Donald Trump a month out from the election.
00:08:13.660And you and I did a whole pod at the time going, what the hell is wrong with this guy?
00:08:53.660But this goes back to one of two things.
00:08:56.140Is this because he's a fake politician in the sense where he's an actor that, you know, figured out a way to get this job, and there's no elections happening there right now,
00:09:07.220and he feels like he believes the international press, which, by the way, did turn him into a rock star.
00:09:12.520I mean, he became the Taylor Swift of dudes in politics and was piped in to the award shows like we had on Sunday night.
00:09:22.340I mean, this is a guy that I think started maybe believing the press, that he's untouchable, he's amazing, he's this incredible leader.
00:09:29.760Look, he thinks he's George Washington.
00:11:39.340I don't know, but given the history of corruption in his country, it's not unreasonable to acknowledge there's some reasonable possibility.
00:11:46.000It's not unreasonable to acknowledge there's some reasonable possibility of that.
00:11:49.740The United States has also been shoveling hundreds of billions of dollars to this war with no accountability.
00:11:55.340It's been dragging on forever and people are tired of it.
00:12:11.360But Trump was not hiding that was the outcome he wanted.
00:12:16.380Kamala Harris was not hiding the outcome she wanted, which is to pay for the war forever and ever and ever and keep shoveling cash to Ukraine no matter what.
00:12:23.580But by the way, not enough cash that they win and not cutting off the money to Iran, which is making drones and sending them to Russia, that it's using them to kill Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
00:12:33.220So fund both sides in perpetuity to keep the war machine going.
00:13:06.880I think Putin was laughing his ass off as he watched that because Zelensky was such a jerk that he did real damage to Ukraine.
00:13:17.480And the consequence of Zelensky's behavior is it benefits Russia and benefiting Russia is not good for America.
00:13:26.740I do want to urge everyone who listens to this podcast, as I watch Twitter, we're so captured by tribalism that there are people on the right who are fed up with the Joe Bidens and Kamala Harris's and the virtue signaling on Ukraine, that they've decided Putin is just awesome.
00:14:12.460He said he wants to go back to the old Russian Empire before the Soviet Union, but that was even broader and that had Russia controlling much of modern Europe.
00:14:21.220That would be a disastrous outcome for America.
00:14:26.000My view is America first, which means I want our allies to be strong and I want our enemies to be weak.
00:14:34.820It's the reason I've urged President Trump.
00:14:37.240Yes, you campaigned on we should end the war in Europe.
00:15:11.360And look, you've got UK and France and Ukraine that have agreed to, quote, work on a ceasefire plan and try to get, I guess, Zelensky back into a conversation with the president of the United States of America.
00:15:26.980They're having this big meeting over in Europe.
00:15:29.880A lot of different countries are there.
00:15:31.960Where the summit includes France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Romania.
00:15:42.420The Turkish foreign minister, the NATO security general, and the president of the European Commission and the European Council will also attend.
00:15:50.360Now, you notice I didn't say the United States of America.
00:15:52.900This is part of, I think, the most interesting part of President Trump's meeting with Zelensky.
00:15:56.980It's like, look, you take us for granted.
00:16:30.120It's an indication of just how disastrous Zelensky's meeting was, that he immediately ran to the United Kingdom, to France, to meet with the King of England.
00:17:04.440The proposal is the result of emergency talks held by European leaders in London following President Trump's heated exchange with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the White House last week.
00:17:16.720Over the weekend, leaders from over a dozen countries got together to discuss a roadmap for peace and security for Ukraine as the country faces its third year of war with Russia.
00:17:25.580The emergency summit was also aimed at working to preserve Ukraine's relationship with the U.S. and Americans' involvement in the war overseas.
00:17:32.780Starmer said that Europe must do the, quote, heavy lifting to secure a lasting peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine and that the U.K. should lead the front.
00:17:40.920He emphasized that, quote, this effort must have strong U.S. backing, which if he means more hundreds of billions of dollars, the answer is no thank you.
00:17:51.640But he continues, quote, through my discussions over recent days, we've agreed that the U.K., France, and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, Starmer said at a press conference on Sunday.
00:18:01.280Then we'll discuss that plan with the United States and take it forward together.
00:18:53.920That's the other thing about finding money, like, you go back to Trump saying, like, we're no longer just an open blank check.
00:19:00.700There was also something else that was said that Europe, quote, needs to step in and release some 200 billion euros, it's 207 billion, in, quote, seized Russian assets to help fund the war effort.
00:19:13.940So, all of a sudden, they're now saying, well, we got 200 billion or 207 billion in U.S. dollars, 200 billion euros of seized Russian assets.
00:19:23.260Maybe we should use that money instead of our own money to help them in Ukraine.
00:19:27.460And I'm like, wow, you turn off the spigot in America, a brilliant, simple plan, and all of a sudden they find 200 billion euros sitting around.
00:19:35.900They're like, okay, maybe we can give that to them now.
00:19:38.260Yeah, look, I'm all for the Europeans stepping in and doing everything they can.
00:19:41.680And if they want to do that, knock yourself out.
00:20:04.520Now, look, I will say one of the frustrating things about this meeting last week in the Oval is the meeting was there to sign an agreement, an agreement that had been negotiated ahead of time.
00:20:16.080And that agreement was an agreement where Ukraine would give the United States a substantial interest in its rare earth minerals and valuable resources to pay back the $175 billion we've given them.
00:20:43.620And I actually want you to listen to this exchange on CNN because it's a striking exchange.
00:20:50.120The first speaker is Scott Jennings, who, by the way, Scott Jennings is doing a phenomenal job on CNN being a voice of reason and common sense, fighting against a bunch of numbnuts and left-wing commies.
00:22:07.800And however you feel about why it started, why it's going on, who's right and who's wrong, we can help them in this and come out okay on the other side.
00:22:32.320So the short answer is the Trump administration believes that if Ukraine goes into business with the United States, that in and of itself is a security guarantee.
00:22:42.080If your interests become our interests, we're going to be interested in making sure our interests are secure.
00:22:47.820So it would have been wise for him to understand the economic deal, the mineral deal, is a security guarantee in and of itself.
00:22:54.700And he lost sight of that today in the argument premeditated.
00:24:07.760Look, this deal on minerals had the advantage for Ukraine of having the Trump administration being an integrally involved economic partner with Ukraine.
00:24:22.720And the alternative is very different, which is without the United States, Ukraine's prospects are really dim.
00:24:34.000And so if you know that your prospects for success are miserably sad unless President Trump supports you, in what universe do you come in and start attacking and insulting him?
00:24:48.920Yeah, it doesn't – and this is now – how fast can Europe get this back together?
00:24:54.320But I do love they found billions and billions and billions of Russian assets.
00:24:59.360They're like, oh, well, maybe instead of our taxpayers over in Europe paying them, giving them, maybe we'll just take this money we've seized and frozen, and then we'll use that in the war effort.
00:25:09.700That makes more sense for the short term, so we're going to go down that road.
00:25:14.620It's amazing how fast Europe found cash when America said, no more from us, we're not going to be suckers.
00:25:24.740Let's just have a little fun with this for a second, because you mentioned earlier it's the State of the Union.
00:25:30.520Others are going to say, well, technically it's a joint session of Congress.
00:25:33.980Can we explain very quickly why the first time the president addresses a joint session of Congress, it's not technically called the State of the Union, but afterwards it is?
00:25:43.880Okay, so I believe tomorrow's address is the State of the Union.
00:25:47.160You're right, but I think the sort of tradition is wrong.
00:25:51.620The origin of the State of the Union comes from the text of the Constitution.
00:25:57.900He, the president, shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.
00:26:10.980And so that's the origin of it, that the Constitution says he shall give to Congress information on the State of the Union.
00:26:21.240Now, traditionally, the first address the president gives when he's newly elected is not called a State of the Union address.
00:26:29.000It's rather just called an address to a joint session of Congress.
00:26:32.600And traditionally, the first State of the Union is the second address he gives.
00:26:36.980So a year from now, that will be called a State of the Union.
00:26:40.120In my view, the plain text of the Constitution is if the president's giving Congress his views on the State of the Union, it's a State of the Union address.
00:26:46.920And so I think the tradition is wrong.
00:26:50.040Now, it's interesting if you go and look at the history of it.
00:28:18.480And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.
00:28:22.240Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.
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00:28:30.980Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:28:35.280What do you what do you expect in this speech?
00:28:39.480I mean, this is going to be one where I think it's going to be a lot about a we won.
00:28:44.460B, this is what we're getting done for the American people.
00:28:47.580I think the president understands how important this speech is to continue momentum moving forward for for Doge and other things.
00:28:53.960But but I actually think this is one of the most important speeches he's going to give, because this is at that critical moment where it's like, all right, you know, are we winning?
00:29:06.020Here's what we promised we were going to do.
00:29:07.920And keep supporting and backing us because we're all in.
00:29:11.640So my prediction is the theme of the speech will be promises made promises kept and and and it will have many similar themes that the inauguration speech had about the mandate from the last election.
00:29:25.240But the difference is going to be the inauguration speech was on the first day of the second term.
00:29:30.580So at that point, nothing had happened yet.
00:29:32.920It was literally raising his hand and taking the oath of office is what made him president.
00:29:37.140So we hadn't been able to do anything yet in the second term when he gave that speech.
00:29:39.980In this instance, we have seen the most consequential first 40 days of a president in history.
00:29:49.760There's never been a president hit the ground running the way Donald Trump has.
00:29:53.140There's never been a president issue as many executive orders do as much as Donald Trump is.
00:29:58.320And so I expect the speech to be number one, I expect a lot of focus on the border.
00:30:03.120So on the border, I think the president is going to say we had chaos.
00:35:32.100It should not take a sitting United States senator to make a phone call to make that happen.
00:35:36.440The victim ought to have the right to get that down.
00:35:38.780And so my legislation puts a legal obligation on the part of the tech platform.
00:35:43.500If the victim notifies them, they have to take it down.
00:35:45.880So tomorrow, I'm going to do an event at the Capitol with the first lady, Melania Trump.
00:35:50.660We're going to have Elliston Berry is there.
00:35:52.960We're going to have other victims who have been victims there to highlight this legislation.
00:35:57.280My bill has already passed the Senate 100 to nothing.
00:35:59.900I believe we'll get it through the House.
00:36:02.060And I think you could see the president talking about issues like that at the State of the Union as well, laying out, we have a mandate we're going to deliver.
00:36:10.020And here's what we're delivering already.