Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - Poor Old Zelensky

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March 1, 2025 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin

02:21:15

Poor Old Zelensky

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	It says 9:15 on my cat on my clock.
	So don't give me any allegations of being late.
	Had a long day.
	It's my youngest daughter's birthday today.
	I probably look like I haven't had enough sleep because I haven't.
	And to be honest with you, I wasn't going to do this, but it's just too juicy.
	It says 9:15 on my clock.
	Shut up, me.
	It's just too juicy to pass up because there's so much wrapped up in the exchange between Trump and Zelensky that I couldn't pass it up.
	And I needed a good period of time to talk about it.
	So this seems like the best time.
	But yeah, so a huge amount has happened in the past couple of days.
	And everyone is incredibly tense because nobody knows what the outcome of this is going to be.
	Everything's currently uncertain.
	And if there's one thing our political class really despises, it's uncertainty.
	Their entire project is to eradicate the concept of uncertainty, eradicate the need for the development of character, as I spoke about in this video, The Return of the Great Men, which frankly has just aged like fine wine, in my opinion,
	because this conversation with Trump perfectly exemplifies what I was talking about when I referred to the distinction between the people who use the Logos and the people who are using the thymos.
	And Trump is precisely exemplifying everything about the thymotic man in this.
	And in fact, if you look at Trump's complaints, they're purely out of that part of the soul that is concerned about honor and respect and decency and dignity.
	And I tweeted the other day: look, if you just remember that everything that Trump does comes through the lens of being primarily concerned about the dignity of the United States, all of this makes sense, right?
	Trump's perspective, the essence of the thymos is relationships, right?
	Everything about it is about how the connection between you and someone else is, the integrity of that connection, the nature of that connection, its character, how well looked after it is, and how strong it is, and how reliable it is.
	This is why for Trump, the most primary attribute in a person really is loyalty.
	Loyalty above all, because that relationship is the thing that keeps the relationship intact between the two parties.
	It is the most important thing to Trump, and rightfully so.
	And so this video explains the paradigm by which I'm going to be explaining this, the lens by which I'm going to approach this, because I think it really does have explanatory power.
	And it allows you to see why he's acting this way with Zelensky, and why I guess Zelensky doesn't properly understand, or and the people around don't understand.
	The Europeans don't understand.
	The people in Britain, my God, they have no idea what's going on.
	They just can't.
	Again, they just don't.
	It's not even that they don't understand.
	They can't perceive what it is Trump is doing.
	And this video does explain the paradigm that we're referring to.
	Now, let's begin with Zelensky.
	Look at the previous reception that Zelensky has had from not just the European elites, but of course the American elites, the British elites.
	All the Western powers have given Zelensky the red carpet treatment.
	And they have treated him as if he is honestly coming onto a sort of messianic figure.
	And I just want to be, I just want to hammer out what my prejudices and interests are here, right?
	I'm not from Russia or Ukraine.
	I don't have any relations who are from Russia and Ukraine.
	I have no financial investments in Russia or Ukraine.
	I've never been to Russia or Ukraine, and I have no interest in going to Russia or Ukraine.
	To me, these are two very remote and alien peoples who have nothing to do with anything in my life.
	The only thing that the only reason I talk about this is because our governments are so invested in Russia and Ukraine.
	I would be as invested in this as I am in the Saudis intervening in the Qatari civil war that nobody knows anything about, even though apparently like 25,000 people have died because the Saudis are bombing them.
	But it's not, there are wars.
	You know, there's a war going on in the Congo.
	It's not my business, not my problem.
	I'm not bothered about these things.
	You know, there have always been wars in foreign parts, and there always will be wars in foreign parts.
	They're not anything to do with me, right?
	So I don't have a preference in this.
	The only way in which I am even vaguely or tangentially involved in this is the fact that my money is going to Ukraine with no end in sight to pay for a war that appears to be over, actually.
	It seems that Russia has won the war, and we'll get onto that later.
	And this is an understandable thing.
	Russia's like four times or five times the size of Ukraine.
	I don't know how Russia's enormous compared to Ukraine.
	And it's just one of those things where it's like, right, I just, if it wasn't for the Western powers backing Ukraine, obviously Ukraine would have folded like a house of cards because they just can't keep up with the scale of Russia.
	And again, I just want to be clear.
	I don't have any personal issue with Zelensky.
	I mean, there are definitely questions surrounding him, like his billionaire oligarch patron that helped him become the president of Ukraine because he played the president of Ukraine on TV.
	And honestly, it's really all you need to do to seed these things into people's mind is to get them to believe that could be the case.
	Show them an image of it, right?
	A representation of reality.
	Hey, look, this guy plays the perfect president on TV.
	Wouldn't you like him to be the president?
	And lo and behold, there he is.
	And so, like, the pro-the pro-Russian prime minister or president of Ukraine gets overthrown in a coup in 2014.
	Zelensky gets installed via this kind of democratic manipulation.
	And okay, fine.
	This sort of thing happens.
	Ukraine's a corrupt country.
	Eastern, like Eastern European countries generally are quite corrupt.
	Ukraine and Russia being the most corrupt among them.
	So again, I'm just looking at this going, right?
	Okay, he's worth lots of money.
	He's got billionaire oligarch backing.
	And he's deciding to pick a fight with Vladimir Putin, who billionaire oligarch dictator of Russia, right?
	Not my, not anything out of the ordinary for Eastern Europe, not anything I care about.
	So I'm sorry to be so dismissive, but come on, let's be real.
	And so I wasn't, I'm not bothered by it.
	But anyway, one thing I am bothered by is when we are told that unilaterally one side is all good and the other side is all bad.
	Now, I'm willing to concede that the other side is all bad.
	I'm willing to concede that Russia is everything that the left and the neolib globalist types claim that it is.
	I am actually willing to concede it because there's a lot about the way Russia is governed that I don't want and I don't agree with and I don't want that over here, etc. etc.
	However, when they sit there and say, yes, so Ukraine is just a Western liberal democracy, bro.
	Bullshit, are they?
	They're a massively corrupt sort of money sink for Western interests and essentially the corrupt upper layer of their country to extract resources and wealth from people who have been socially crippled by having been like Ukraine was created as a province of the Soviet Union, right?
	That's how, like, not artificial, but like how not like us the Ukrainians are, right?
	Like, if you look at any of the countries that were occupied by the Soviet Union, they are low-trust societies because part of communism is to break apart the social bonds between people.
	There's an express desire of communism.
	And so, you get corrupt, low-trust societies coming out of the Soviet Union.
	And these people have deeply cynical moral perspectives, unlike the West's deeply idealistic moral perspectives, because we have been lucky, frankly, in the great game of history.
	And so, this is one of those things where, okay, our Western elites, who I, and I'm happy to concede that they're corrupt too, probably not quite in the same way as the Ukrainian elites.
	I doubt there's as much direct bribery in Western elites, but we will have more subtle methods of corruption, which is, of course, why Nancy Pelosi is worth like $100 million or something, despite her salary being like $230,000 a year.
	But the point is, the borders of Ukraine were established by Vladimir Lenin.
	And like all of these sort of borders that were established in the early 20th century, I get the feeling that they were to do more with administrative issues than they were actual nationhood and nationality on a map.
	Very similar to the way that the British and the French drew the borders of the Middle East, right?
	We're going to lump a bunch of tribes together because it's something administrative about what's going on rather than it mapping to the ethnic homogeneity of certain areas.
	Something that you could see would make sense.
	And so since 2014 onwards, there's been an ethnic Russian uprising in the East that has been backed by the Russians, that the Ukrainians have been at war with.
	And eventually, this kind of snowballs into the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
	And if you look on a map, the Russians have taken the ethnically Russian areas of Ukraine.
	And it's like, well, okay, if you think about it, if you're going to plan it in advance, you would actually just say, well, those people who are ethnic Ukrainians will have in one state, those people who are ethnic Russians in another state.
	That is how you would do it if you're going to plan it in advance.
	But again, this wasn't planned for this.
	This was planned by Lenin, presumably for administrative reasons.
	On the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as I understand it, feel free to correct me.
	I'm not an expert on this.
	But as I understand it, on the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian state declared independence and kept the administrative borders that it had been given by Lenin.
	And so it's like, right, okay, you can see how this is a mess.
	You can see how this is a problem.
	And after being a post-Soviet republic, you can see why the society itself would have major problems, right?
	Major, major problems.
	And I'm not saying, it's not that the Ukrainians can't, you know, work towards becoming a high-trust society with a relatively uncorrupt government and institutional deep state.
	I don't know how you want to frame it.
	It's not that can't happen.
	It's just that's clearly not the case, right?
	Which is why Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma, etc.
	So when we roll out the red carpet and just say, oh, look, this is the hero of the hour.
	He's our guy.
	He's done nothing wrong.
	He is the most perfect and pristine politician you've ever seen.
	Everyone clap for him.
	I'm very cynical about that, frankly.
	I don't like that kind of one-sidedness.
	I would have rather, if they just said, well, you know, there are some, I mean, why is Zelensky one of the main, one of the people mentioned in the Panama papers?
	You know, why does he have like a weird offshore account that is speculated to have hundreds of millions of dollars in it?
	Why is that?
	Why is it that, you know, Zelensky was like, yeah, so half the money that we were sent has just gone missing.
	Like, that's a staggering amount of money.
	That is a staggering amount of money.
	It was something something like 400 billion in total dollars that Ukraine has been given over the course of this war, and half of it went missing.
	Come on, right?
	Come on, don't give me this.
	They're heroic freedom fighters, and they're just good and all good and no bad, right?
	No, it's a corrupt oligarchy, which is not very different to Russia, which is not terribly surprising since it is a product of Russia, right?
	So it doesn't surprise me that these are the things.
	And so I can't stand our Western class not only being so embarrassingly supine, but also essentially just lying to us and saying, yep, so this is the Western, the duly elected Western Democrat leader of Ukraine.
	He's just like every other democratically elected leader.
	No, bollocks.
	I don't believe you.
	But anyway, the point being, Zelensky has had the red carpet rolled out of him by people who are entirely cooperative.
	Now this is completely cynical from the perspective of our Western leaders, because as I pointed out in this video, if I can get the map up, so would you believe I've got adverts on my own videos?
	If I can get the map up, right, you can see the map here.
	This is how, well, the blue one, if I can get that.
	I can't.
	There we go.
	Right.
	So this is how the world was organized until Donald Trump came into power, really.
	With the blue being the international rules-based order and the red being those evil far-right throwback Nazi dictators, not even Nazis, just dictators, old world dictatorships who are the thymotic states versus the rational states.
	And Donald Trump, as I said in the video, has flipped America in their minds.
	And so now the Europeans are surrounded.
	Now everything's falling apart.
	Everything is terrible.
	And so things are different.
	Zelensky was the rational thing for the rational states because as far as they were concerned, we're going to keep expanding the scale of the rules-based order.
	You notice the EU has just been expanding as much as it can.
	It's a very expansionist project.
	And it's trying to get, or it's been rooting, not trying to get, but like, there's always been a question of will Turkey be allowed to join the European Union?
	And of course, will Georgia, will Ukraine, or any others?
	And they want that, right?
	They want Ukraine to join the European Union because that's the spread of the imperium of the rules-based order.
	And so you can see why they would be 100% just interlocked with Zelensky.
	They want him to send Ukrainian men to die for the expansion of the Imperium of the Rules-Based Order.
	They need that, right?
	They want this to be the entire world.
	They think it should be the entire world.
	And Donald Trump turning the United States red.
	And yeah, I'm sorry I didn't do Canada or Hawaii.
	It's not that I don't recognize Canada or Hawaii as part of Donald Trump's dominions or something.
	No, you know, the EU is expressly expansionist.
	They're constantly trying to expanding eastwards, right?
	That's absolutely true.
	Don't give me that.
	It's not that I don't recognize this.
	I'm terrible with Photoshop, right?
	And that just wasn't working properly on the program I was using.
	So you'll have to forgive me.
	But anyway, so this is what they want.
	They want the increased dominion of the rational order of the world.
	And Donald Trump has essentially marked America as red on the map for them.
	This is a problem.
	And it also changes the way that Zelensky ought to deal with this issue.
	Because of course, when you're dealing with a bunch of people who are like, yeah, no, you can do no wrong.
	Everything you do will eventually mean our rule over your lands in our paradigm.
	It doesn't matter, right?
	So, we can just throw money and munitions at you as long as you provide the bodies to go and die in the wars for what is not really very much land who is just basically filled with Russians.
	Like, that doesn't make sense unless you want to, unless you have this kind of manifest destiny view of the world.
	Well, Donald Trump doesn't really have that.
	Donald Trump, being the thymotic man that he is, is based in relationships and frankly, based more on reality.
	And so, the approach that Zelensky takes with Donald Trump is not only wrong, but it's also bizarre, right?
	Especially as you'll notice how Donald Trump is very cordial, very open, right?
	So, there's in every relationship, there's a kind of handshake that goes out, right?
	So, if you meet someone and they're like, Hi there, how are you?
	And you're like, Oh, yeah, I'm very well, thank you, right?
	You've kind of put the hand out saying, Hi, I'm going to be your friend.
	I'm offering the hand of friendship, and they grab it and shake it and say, Yeah, I'm very well, thank you.
	If you go, all right, how are you doing?
	And they're like, Fuck off, then you know that, okay, they don't, they don't, they're not extending the hand of friendship, uh, they don't want to be my friend, right?
	And so, every relationship is kind of like a hook, and another hook goes on it, and then boom, and then you know, more hooks go on it, and suddenly it becomes a deeply entwined thing that can barely never be broken.
	And that's what the European elites are trying to pretend that we have with Ukraine, by the way.
	Oh, we'll be with Ukraine forever.
	It's like, but 10 minutes ago, we'd never spoken about Ukraine ever.
	Like, the last thing that happened that was even tangentially related to Ukraine in Britain was the Crimean War in 1893 or whatever it was, right?
	It's like, why would we give a fine about Ukraine?
	And so, this is all very artificial.
	But what's real are the strength of relationships, these are real things that we predicate your entire world upon.
	And Trump's entire world is also based on the strength of his relationships.
	And so, I'm going to play the beginning of this.
	You can see the press conference.
	I don't even know why this press conference came into being.
	I've seen people say, well, Zelensky wanted it.
	He kind of barged it in or something.
	I don't know.
	I haven't, I don't know what the reason is.
	And if anyone knows, let me know.
	And so, this whole thing is very, very peculiar because it's just like, why is this taking place?
	Like, this is a conversation that could have happened behind closed doors.
	I'm surprised didn't happen behind closed doors.
	And honestly, the normal running of the world probably ought to have happened behind closed doors.
	However, I actually do approve of the level of transparency we get from the Trump presidency.
	Trump is, this is something that's been very obvious to me about Trump for a very long time.
	He's just, he doesn't have a filter.
	He doesn't even.
	The idea of a filter is just not in any way something that worries him, especially at like his time of life and his level of power in his own civilization.
	No, he's just going to say his thoughts, and millions of people will probably agree with him.
	And so he's quite happy to be this transparent and be himself in public, which I actually find very refreshing.
	I really like it.
	And you saw this, you saw this sort of hooks going out with the offer of a handshake with Keir Starmer going over there.
	Now, Keir Starmer went over.
	I should have got the link up.
	Kiss Lama, in fact, I'll get it.
	Let me, just, just.
	So.
	Oh, that's terrible.
	Okay, whatever.
	Suddenly, it's all like Starma and Zelensky if I type in Starmer Trump.
	Let's just so the spectator is the example.
	So, Starmer in the same office, I think it is.
	Yeah, it's the same damn office.
	Starmer and Trump, Starmer goes over like the day or two before Zelensky.
	And it's everyone expected this to be a massive L for Keir Starmer.
	But Keir Starmer did something very sensible for a man in his position, which is to go over and just barefacedly lie to Donald Trump about the nature of Britain and his views on Trump.
	So, I mean, there's a picture of like Trump shaking hands with David Lamy.
	Now, David Lamy has spent the last eight years or so calling Trump a Nazi KKK man.
	David Lamy has said, look, if you're ever friends with Trump, you can never be friends of mine.
	Keir Starmer said much the same thing.
	And so now it's all the more embarrassing that Kierstama has to go over there and be like, oh, yes, hello.
	Yes, we in Britain love free speech.
	It's like literally two months ago when there's a stabbing, you locked thousands of people up for Facebook posts, for literally saying to the police, I don't agree with what you're doing.
	You're yelling at them.
	You locked thousands of people up.
	The barefaced like, oh, we've got a very proud tradition of free speech.
	No, we don't.
	We don't have free speech in the country.
	What we have is very curated speech.
	We have legally prescribed speech.
	You're allowed to say these things and you're not allowed to say these things.
	And much of what we're not allowed to say is merely characterizations, negative characterizations of groups.
	That is illegal in this country, right?
	If you are negative, if you're derogatory about people on their ethnicity, their sex, their religion, their sexuality, their disability status and various other categories, that's a crime here.
	Okay.
	That is literally a crime in this country.
	Thousands of people every year go to jail for this sort of thing, or at least visited by the police over this sort of thing.
	Keir Starmer is a fucking liar, but that was a smart thing to do because he knows what Donald Trump's agenda is.
	He knows the kind of man Donald Trump is.
	And from an American perspective, Britain is a dystopian hellhole.
	And when it comes to things like free speech and political freedoms in general.
	And so Keir Starmer just bullshitted his way through it.
	He just bullshitted it.
	And he was just like, oh, yes, Donald, you know, I agree with everything you're saying.
	We're very proud of this.
	We're very proud of that.
	Okay, great.
	Very smart, right?
	Zelensky basically should have done something similar.
	And he didn't.
	Because Donald Trump, like, there was such weird, weird statements coming out of this.
	It's like, Donald Trump came out and said stuff like, oh, yes, I can't do impressions.
	I wish I could do impressions because impressions are always funny and they're always great to do.
	But I can't do impressions.
	So, you know, but he's like, you know, Starmer is a great patriot.
	He loves his country.
	As if Starmer's based, as if Starmer's like not part of the Davos elite.
	The man who's like, no, I'd literally choose Davos over Westminster in a heartbeat.
	I fucking hate Britain.
	I hate the British.
	I'm literally.
	By the way, Ramadan Mubarak or something.
	Whatever the Ramadan thing is, it's fucking Ramadan.
	I love Ramadan.
	Save the Muslims from the English is Kier Starmer's entire perspective, right?
	That's all he thinks.
	That's his entire worldviews.
	I must protect the precious minorities from the evil majority.
	That's literally Kier Starmer is an unreformed trot.
	Like he is a student communist who is somehow now the prime minister.
	And so the point, though, is that Trump is not attacking someone he feels should be on his side.
	And so he goes over, essentially gives him an off-ramp and says, no, look, come over here and be my friend.
	And I will say nice things about you.
	And here's the hand.
	Come and shake it.
	And Kierstan was like, you know what?
	I've called you a Nazi a million fucking times and I'll call you a Nazi the second I get home.
	But for now, we're buddies because it's politically expedient.
	And that was very smart.
	Just lie.
	Just lie to his face.
	Why not?
	It's very, very smart.
	Zelensky didn't do this.
	This wasn't smart.
	So Zelensky should have just sucked it up, frankly, because Donald Trump is not the sort of Nancy Pelosi types who are going to give him unvarnished, infallible, infinite praise and will ask nothing in return other than his dead men, right?
	Because Donald Trump actually doesn't want to see people dead, right?
	Donald Trump makes this clear in this speech, and he's made this clear many, many times before.
	He actually doesn't enjoy loss of life.
	He thinks that the loss of life is important.
	Now, this is a very old world perspective, right?
	This is the mind of someone who is not a machine man.
	So when you have the sort of rationalized bureaucracy of the, you know, the globalist West, sorry, I'm just, I've had hardly any tea today as well.
	When you abstract away and say, well, everything is just a series of numbers.
	Well, the numbers in column A and the numbers in column B are going up and down.
	Well, okay, we'll just need more numbers in our column.
	So they've got fewer numbers in their column.
	Well, that's great.
	Okay.
	But that translates into men dying in the hundreds of thousands in the most gruesome and brutal ways.
	Like, this has been the worst war for a long, long time.
	And, I mean, the videos of it are all over Twitter and they're harrowing.
	Like, watching people getting drone striked is just awful, man.
	It's just, I'd rather people fighting with swords.
	You know what I mean?
	Like, the drones are such an inhuman way of doing war.
	And they don't care.
	Go and seize random men on the streets of Ukraine and literally conscript them by force into the army, pump them into the meat grinder and use them as cannon fodder.
	Like that's literally what they're doing to Ukrainian men.
	This is awful.
	This is completely harrowing.
	This is a terrible, terrible thing to do.
	And it's causing a massive crunch in the demography of Ukraine because this has been such a terrible loss of life.
	And yet they don't care.
	Look at their smug, smiling faces.
	It's not them.
	It will never be them fed into the cannon and fired at the Russians to spend 21 minutes on a battlefield before they get blown up by a Russian shell.
	It will never be them.
	Then they're a million miles away.
	Look at them.
	They're a million miles away from the danger.
	It will never be, look at the smirk.
	It's not them.
	Trump is bothered by this because Trump is an old world man.
	And Trump is like, no, actually, men dying by the hundreds of thousands is terrible.
	And so he wants to get this done for not just the reasons that, I mean, I don't even think Trump's that bothered about the money, to be honest.
	I genuinely think that Trump looks at this in almost kind of like his grandfather persona, right?
	Because you see towards the end of this, the kind of grandfatherly Trump coming out and saying, no, I'm just going to lay down the law now and explain to you why this is, and it's the responsible thing to do.
	And he says for the world, and to be honest, he's probably right on that.
	It's the responsible thing to just be honest about the situation and get it settled, right?
	Stop the killings.
	Now, I just want to be clear.
	I'm not actually entirely unsympathetic to Zelensky in this, because while I do think that what Zelensky is fighting to join, as in NATO, the European Union, and the rationalized world order, I don't agree with that.
	But it's not to say it doesn't have virtues, right?
	does have some virtues and one of those virtues is a a kind of there are fewer political deaths in in our countries right the The state actually does execute or disappear far fewer people.
	You can be a dissident and still have property in the liberal, rationalized West, right?
	So it's got its flaws, as in it's deeply oppressive to about a third of the people in the country.
	However, at least we aren't constantly on the verge of civil war and killing each other in the streets.
	Things get really, I mean, like, people always say, oh my God, there must be a civil war.
	It's like, kind of.
	So 200 years ago, oh, on the first rape gang, it would have been civil war, right?
	That would have been something terrible would have happened.
	However, we've been softened by our protected existence, domesticated existence in liberal democracies.
	And so, no, people don't feel inclined to fight a civil war yet.
	We've got to wait until conditions get worse, frankly, before we see anything serious like that.
	But, I mean, things are getting a lot worse, so it's probably on the horizon.
	Not that I'm in favor of that, obviously.
	I'm for an entirely democratic solution, which I do believe that there is.
	What was I saying?
	But the, yeah, so the point, completely lost my train of thought there.
	The point, though, I think, with this is that Trump does want to actually see an end to the bloodshed, right?
	This is something I think he genuinely is after.
	And so he offers Zelensky on OMRAM.
	He's saying, look, you can come over and be my friend, and I will accept you into the fold.
	I will offer the hand of friendship.
	You can take the hand of friendship.
	In fact, I'll play the first sort of like 25 seconds of this.
	You can see exactly what I'm talking about.
	You'll see exactly what I mean.
	Well, thank you very much.
	It's an honor to have President Zelensky of Ukraine.
	And we've been working very hard, very close.
	So we've actually known each other for a long time.
	We've been dealing with each other for a long time and very well.
	We had little negotiations back, but that worked out great.
	I think for both countries, I think for the world, actually, beyond both countries.
	And we have something that is a very fair deal.
	And we look forward to getting in and digging, digging, digging and working and getting some of the rare earth.
	But it means we're going to be inside.
	And it's a big commitment from the United States.
	And we appreciate working with you very much.
	Right.
	So you can see there, right?
	Trump is being complimentary.
	He's being, no, Zelensky's an important guy.
	We like him.
	working with him for a long time he's he and and this is after trump essentially like buried him on true social being like zelinski's a dictator and all of this right this is This is after Trump has said all of these things.
	He's completely turned about face and say, okay, no, I'm going to bring Zelensky in.
	Here's the hand of friendship.
	We will be friends.
	And so you couldn't get a more sort of complimentary.
	Well, you probably could get a more complimentary, but this is a perfectly complimentary introduction from Trump.
	And we'll talk about the mineral stuff later.
	And so this press conference goes on forever, right?
	Now, on a personal level, I'm not sure that Trump does actually like Zelensky.
	But Zelensky, previously, like, I remember in Trump's first term, Zelensky did come out and defend Trump.
	And I think when it seemed that Biden was going to lose, or like he was coming to the election, I think Zelensky was speaking in his defense then again.
	I think Zielinski is a smart enough guy to be like, look, I can't openly alienate the next president, right?
	Even though he did campaign for Kamala.
	So, I mean, who knows?
	But this goes on for a long time.
	And actually, most of it is quite congenial and boring, which is why you've not seen any clips of it, right?
	It's all quite normal.
	But you can see there's a sort of tenseness, right?
	There is a tenseness between them because there is an unresolved issue here.
	And that issue begins to resolve towards the end of this conversation.
	So I will get to the soup chats towards the end.
	I just want to get through these points first.
	And then we'll crack on.
	And we'll, you know, you guys can weigh in.
	There's a deep tension in all of this.
	And you know, Zelensky sniffs a lot because I'm sure he's just got a cold every time he's on camera.
	And it goes on for a long time until about 40 minutes in, where it starts getting tense.
	So we'll watch it from there and then we'll watch from about here, I guess.
	The deal that way, so that's the way it goes.
	All right, one more question.
	I will respond to this.
	So, look, for four years, the United States of America, hi, Vladimir, how are we doing on the deal?
	That doesn't work that way.
	Right.
	So, Trump begins to describe how the process of negotiations work.
	And Trump's process of negotiations is entirely based on his relationship with that person because he is a New York business mogul, right?
	This is the way that they do business is by knowing that guy isn't trying to screw me.
	And so, if I if I make an agreement with him, I will have to uphold my end of the bargain.
	He will uphold it into the bargain, and we'll both get what we wanted, which is surely closer to the sort of getting as much as possible.
	And this is Trump's entire perspective on things.
	I'm in agreement.
	Why Russia tries to invade or order Russia and Russia in response?
	I just told you, I don't think that's going to happen.
	And if that were going to happen, I wouldn't make a deal.
	If I thought that was going to happen, I wouldn't make a deal.
	See, Trump thinks, well, in Trump's view, he and Putin have a relationship, and he thinks that Putin is going to hold his word on it.
	Now, I don't know whether he's going to or not.
	I don't know the kind of man Vladimir Putin is.
	But maybe it's possible.
	And the thing is, as well, I think that if Trump got betrayed by Putin, he strikes me as the sort of guy who probably would be a bit vengeful about that, right?
	I'm sure that Trump's got a string of business associates who have betrayed him at points and have broken deals with him that he's buried along the way in his career.
	I'm sure that he's been quite vengeful in his past towards people who have betrayed him.
	And this is why loyalty is super important to him.
	So who knows?
	But Trump thinks that if he gets the deal, then the relationship with Putin will be the handshake relationship will come out.
	And this will be enough of a guarantee.
	And so he thinks that he can get this done and get it nailed down.
	And that's what he wants.
	You ought to focus on CNN on survival, not asking me these ridiculous questions.
	Focus on surviving because CNN's got such low ratings.
	I don't think they're going to survive.
	Let's go.
	You've got to love Trump when he deals with the media, don't you?
	Just complete contempt.
	I already mentioned Poland.
	Poland was under Russian control for decades after the Second World War.
	When I was a kid, I looked at the United States not only as a most powerful country, richest country in the world, the country that has great music, great movies, great muscle cars, but also as a force for good.
	And now I'm talking with my friends in Poland, and they are worried that you align yourself too much with Putin.
	What's your message for them?
	Well, if I didn't align myself with both of them, you'd never have a deal.
	You want me to say really terrible things about Putin and then say, hi, Vladimir, how are we doing on the deal?
	That doesn't work that way.
	I'm not aligned with Putin.
	I'm not aligned with anybody.
	I'm aligned with the United States of America and for the good of the world.
	I'm aligned with the world and I want to get this thing over with.
	You see the hatred he's got for Putin.
	It's very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of hate.
	He's got tremendous hatred.
	And I understand that, but I can tell you the other side isn't exactly in love with, you know, him either.
	I love hearing Trump describe things because Trump's obviously accurately describing reality hit right.
	But what he's describing is the politics of the thymos.
	He is describing the spirited part, right?
	What he needs to do is kind of calm down both sides so they can agree to something.
	And that means making sure he doesn't alienate them.
	Now, if you look at like the way that Biden and Europe and Starmer deal with Putin, if you're Putin, you would look at that and go, right, these people would hang me if they could, right?
	They would just shoot me in the head the second they got the opportunity.
	But Trump needs to make him feel as if, actually, no, I recognize the validity of your cause.
	And I want you to recognize the validity of Zelensky's cause.
	And as the mediator between them, I'm going to get you to both agree to this thing.
	And I will be essentially the guarantor through our shared relationship that goes from you to you through me.
	That's what Trump's saying, which is why he's like, no, I can't skip on the phone and be like, yeah, Vlad, yeah, sorry.
	I know I said that I hated you and I was going to hang you, but actually, can you sit down and do a deal with Zelensky now for me?
	He's right.
	It doesn't work that way.
	When you're mollifying and bringing people to the table to actually begin to forge relationships with people, it doesn't work that way.
	What it does is it works the way Trump's saying.
	It's, again, rooted deeply in the spirited part of a person's soul because they need to feel like they're being recognized, like they're being respected, like their dignity matters to the party who they're dealing with.
	And, I mean, Nancy Pelosi could never do that.
	Like, Joe Biden would never do that.
	Keir Starmer has no idea what I'm talking about.
	Ursula von der Leyen is probably currently drawing up invasion plans for the invasion of Russia.
	But Trump is actually doing something that will actually secure a peace, in my opinion.
	I think that's actually the practical outcome of what Trump is trying to do here.
	And I think I really like the framing.
	It's like, no, look, I'm not on anyone's side.
	And again, what I like about this is kind of stemming.
	And I believe it too, right?
	Because he's not exactly pulling his punches with Zelensky.
	He's not like on anyone's side.
	He's just seeing the chessboard or the risk map and being like, okay, look, I just want you two to settle it.
	What does that take?
	And it takes them to both feel like they're recognized, like the legitimacy of their cause is real.
	And so they both have to essentially concede something to gain something.
	And Trump knows how the game is played because he's a businessman.
	He's been securing these deals for decades now.
	And I think he's completely right.
	I think he's completely right in this.
	So it's not a question of alignment.
	I'm aligned with the world.
	I want to get the thing set.
	I'm aligned with Europe.
	I want to see if we can get this thing done.
	Right.
	So when he says I'm aligned with people, what he means, and again, Trump is never the he's a great communicator, but he's for normal people, he's a great communicator.
	For the sort of, you know, technocrat international globalist, he makes no sense whatsoever, right?
	They can't understand what he means when he says, I'm aligned with you.
	They're like, you're obviously not.
	You're obviously dealing with the enemy, Putin.
	Therefore, if you're not for total war, you're our enemy as well, which is what all those headlines were about recently.
	And it's like, no, no.
	What he's saying is that he has moral consideration for you, right?
	He is sentimentally attached to you.
	He wants to be your friend.
	He wants Europe to do well.
	He wants Britain to do well.
	He wants Ukraine to do well.
	And I'm sure he's not even that like that bad about Russia.
	I'm sure he's like, okay, yeah, I'd like it if everyone just relaxed and we could get the killing stopped.
	And, you know, I'm on everyone's side here.
	As in, I'm not against any of you.
	I just want you to stop and resolve your differences.
	Again, it comes across very grandfatherly.
	And I very much approve of Trump's grandfatherliness, especially when he starts putting the hammer down.
	You know, this is the law.
	I love this bit.
	You want me to be tough?
	I could be tougher than any human being you've ever seen.
	I'd be so tough.
	But you're never going to get a deal that way.
	So that's the way it goes.
	One more question.
	I will respond to this.
	So, look, for four years in the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin.
	And then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country.
	The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy.
	We tried the pathway of Joe Biden of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States' words mattered more than the president of the United States's actions.
	What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy.
	That's what President Trump is doing.
	So Vance is a great sweeper for Trump.
	And I'm actually so glad that he's here.
	Because, like I said, Trump says a bunch of stuff and he says it from the heart, right?
	He says it from the FIMOS.
	And he speaks in language they don't understand, in ways they can't really comprehend.
	And so they go, oh, right.
	So he's just with the enemy then.
	But no, Vance is like, look, I can explain this in the sort of clear language that you need.
	Here is what he actually means.
	We want peace, therefore we need to negotiate.
	And this is very much the adults in the room, actually.
	This is the perspective of the adults in the room.
	No, we recognize that each of the parties involved is a valid actor.
	And the problem with the rational liberal West is we don't recognize that Vladimir Putin is the legitimate ruler of Russia.
	He is what the Russians seem to want, right?
	He seems to embody a kind of classic stereotypical Russian ruler.
	Like he's like a new czar, right?
	He seems to represent Russia in a sort of metaphorical way, in a thematic way.
	Like, I don't think the average Russian looks at Putin and thinks, yeah, he's terrible.
	You know, I don't think that.
	I mean, I don't know.
	I don't speak to any Russians, right?
	But I just can't help but feel that you can't be in Putin's position if that's the case.
	I can't help but feel that you get lots of conspiracies and plots against you, you know, that your position would never be tenable and you'd just be undermined.
	So it's not like they're a rules-based order, right?
	That's the thing.
	So it has to be based on his character.
	I think his character is sort of symbolic of what it is to be Russian.
	At least I think not from the outside.
	And this is something that the West just can't come to terms with.
	And it's like, okay, well, you know, Trump doesn't care.
	You know, Trump hasn't got designs on Russia.
	And this works for them.
	Can I ask you?
	Sure.
	Jan?
	Yeah.
	So this is where the problem comes, right?
	So Vance is like, look, we're going to get peace because it would be better for everyone if we had peace.
	And now Zelensky intercedes.
	Because, so, and again, there are lots of reasons to have problems with Zelensky.
	And I, like I said, I don't agree with the things that the world order he's trying to join.
	But he is actually kind of sticking his neck out at this point now for Ukraine to get a good deal, right?
	Because it would actually, I think, be easy for him to fold like a house of cards and be like, right, okay, Ukraine is just going to be fucked forever.
	I'm going to take my golden parachute and piss off to California like Rishi Sinak after bringing in millions of immigrants.
	And it's not my problem because I'm rich and I can fuck off.
	Zelensky actually hasn't done that yet.
	Zelensky is actually trying to say, no, I would like guarantees for Ukraine after the peace is settled.
	I would like Ukraine not to be essentially an economic colony of the United States.
	And that is actually working in Ukraine's interests in the future.
	Now, you know, there are going to be people who come at me for that.
	But I do think that that's actually somewhat commendable.
	And I can see why supporters of Zelensky like him on those grounds.
	Right?
	Because again, I'm not someone who likes Zelensky.
	I'm not someone who supports the war in any way.
	But I can see why they do.
	It's understanding what they're seeing in him and why they can spin a Churchillian myth around him.
	And that's the reason, I think, that they do.
	But anyway, let's carry on after saying that controversial thing.
	Okay, so he occupied our parts, big parts of Ukraine, part of East and Crimea.
	So he occupied it on 2014.
	So during a lot of years, I'm not speaking about Jose Biden, but those time was Obama, then President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump, and God bless, now President Trump will stop him.
	But during 2014, nobody stopped him.
	See, notice how he's talking softly with Trump here, right?
	He's like, you know, now President Trump, God bless.
	You know, he's playing the part.
	But he does have a point that, okay, he does just have Trump's word for it, right?
	And if you are coming from a place where a man's word is not his bond, such as Ukraine, you can understand why that wouldn't be sufficient, right?
	You can understand why you'd be like, okay, I don't really trust.
	Because people in the Anglosphere especially forget that we have a deeply honorable culture when it comes to a man's word.
	If you say you're going to do something, it is just expected that you do it.
	And it is an atrocious and disgraceful thing if you don't.
	If you don't live up to your word, that is a black mark on your character that everyone sees and will treat you in a negative way.
	They won't trust you.
	No one will trust you.
	And then you're denied access to the high trust society from your own actions.
	But if you don't come from a high trust society and people are just talking at you, well, you can see why you'd be like, okay, I would actually like a bit more than that.
	I would like, you know, 100,000.
	What he's asked for is 100,000 troops in Ukraine to garrison areas of it to disincentivize Russia from attacking any further.
	And you can understand where he's coming from on this.
	So, you know, like I said, I'm not a fan of Zelensky or Putin or, well, Alan Fan of Trump.
	And I think Trump is acting in America's interest here.
	But you can see why he would – there is this unresolved tension here, right?
	You can – You can understand it.
	He just occupied and took.
	He killed people.
	You know what the contact line?
	2015. 2014.
	2014 it was.
	2014.
	So he killed that here.
	Yeah, but exactly right.
	Yes, but during 2014 till 2022, what the situation is the same.
	People have been dying on the contact line.
	Nobody stopped him.
	You know that we had conversations with him, a lot of conversations, multilateral conversation.
	And we signed with him, me, like a new president.
	In 2019, I signed with him the deal.
	I signed with him, Macron, and Merkel.
	We signed ceasefire.
	Ceasefire.
	All of them told me that he will never go.
	We signed him with gas contract, gas contract.
	Yes, but after that, he broke the ceasefire.
	He killed our people and he didn't exchange prisoners.
	We signed the exchange of prisons, but he didn't do it.
	What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about?
	Right.
	Now, this is not, again, an invalid point.
	Yeah, we've tried this with Putin, and it didn't work because Putin does not respect contracts.
	He does not respect the rules-based order.
	What he respects is strength.
	So the question is, if Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump shake hands and say, this is the deal and how it's going to be, does Putin think that if he breaks that deal, that Trump will act?
	Now, I think that a lot of people think that Trump will act, actually.
	And I actually, I'm on the side of, yeah, Trump probably will act if he feels that he has been betrayed.
	Is Putin going to honor a contract that he signed?
	No, I don't think so either.
	I don't think he's the sort of person who cares about that at all, words on paper.
	But I think he is concerned that if he breaks a handshake, as it were, breaks a relationship that he's got, that it might have a negative consequence from the party that is just betrayed, especially if it's someone like Donald.
	I think Putin's a smart guy, and I think he's well aware that, and I think it's very public, and he can easily find the information that Donald Trump values loyalty, and he will see this as a deep slight on his own person, because, of course, he's the old-fashioned old-world themotic man and not someone who's just like, well, I guess I'm just going to have to break out the lawyers then and take them to court over the breaking of this contract.
	No, Donald Trump isn't going to do that.
	Donald Trump will fire missiles, right, like he did in Syria.
	Donald Trump will act.
	And I think Putin respects that.
	I could be completely wrong.
	And maybe that'll be a statement that ages really, really badly.
	But I guess we'll find out, won't we?
	But like I said, you can see from Zelensky's perspective why he would be like, okay, is that going to be enough?
	Is this going to work?
	How is this going to work?
	Let's think, what kind of diplomacy?
	Well, Donald Trump is engaging in a different kind of diplomacy than the kind that Merkel and Macron would engage in.
	Notice that Putin did not respect Merkel and Macron's kind of diplomacy.
	And I don't blame him, to be honest.
	I mean, I don't respect it.
	But I'm not the guy in charge of a state.
	And so you can see why Zelinsky's like, okay, how is this going to be different?
	And obviously, he doesn't think it will be different.
	And it's up to Trump and Zelensky to show him how it will be.
	What do you mean?
	I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country.
	Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.
	Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems.
	You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.
	Right.
	This is fascinating.
	So Vance has laid out what Trump has laid out, again, more articulately, that this is a different kind of diplomacy, and one clearly that Zelensky himself is not that familiar with.
	And the thing that he then does is begin to pull on the string of the relationship and say, well, hang on a second.
	You know, why are you challenging me in this?
	Because all relationships are in some way hierarchical.
	And so Vance is saying he's pulling rank, basically, and saying, well, hang on a second.
	We have made a commitment.
	We, the sort of, and there have been people making comparisons to like mobsters and gangsters.
	It's like, yeah, this is the same kind of politics, right?
	It's not done in the same way exactly, but it's the same kind of relational politics where it's like, you know, you betrayed me on the day of my daughter's wedding or something like this, right?
	I don't watch gangster movies.
	I hate gangster movies.
	But it's the same kind of politics in which it's based in sentiment and trust, dignity, and honor, rather than a set of rules we all agree to abide by.
	So it's about how one another feels about one another.
	And Trump and Vance feel disrespected by Zelensky in the fact that he won't trust them to do what they're saying they're going to do.
	They, as far as they are concerned, are men of their word.
	They're trying to do the right thing.
	But everyone involved, as Trump put it, for the world, right?
	And I think that they're probably telling the truth.
	I think they probably sincerely want to do what they're saying they want to do.
	And so when Zielinski starts saying, well, hang on a second, I don't really trust you.
	That's offensive.
	That's an offensive thing.
	And the thing is, again, if Trump didn't have a very long track record of being a deal maker, then you could say, oh, maybe Trump doesn't know what he's doing.
	But actually, I think Trump, you know, I'm not saying that Trump's a brilliant man in all regards.
	But when it comes to making deals with people, I think he probably does actually know what he's doing.
	If he's got one specialist skill, it's probably the art of the deal.
	So, you know, and I'm just saying, we've watched a lot of people who are clearly not good deal makers, right?
	The reason things, I think, the reason that this has all come to this is because everyone has dealt with Putin poorly and in a way that I guess he felt was disrespectful to Russia and Russian interests.
	And honestly, I can see his argument in that, right?
	I can see his argument in that.
	And so I think that Trump probably has a better handle on how to deal with Putin than the West.
	And so Vance is like, well, hang on a second.
	You're being disrespectful.
	We are on your side.
	We're going to get this sorted.
	Why are you challenging me?
	And this then becomes the question of the nature of the relationship they have.
	So the actual blinds are like, hang on a second.
	You're attacking that by questioning me on this, by not trusting us on this.
	And that's why Vance said, well, hang on a second.
	We're doing a lot for you and you are being ungrateful.
	So this is now, rather than turning from the subject, we tend to say, hang on why are you being ungrateful about this?
	Why am I sticking my neck out?
	Why is the American public sticking their neck out with hundreds of billions of dollars and a potential escalation of conflict to keep Ukraine a sovereign state if you aren't even going to trust us on this subject?
	You're going to sit here in front of the world's media in public and disrespect us, essentially.
	Why would we carry on?
	And this is where things start going off the rails.
	Do you disagree that you've had problems like bringing people into your military have problems?
	And do you think that it's respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack?
	Look at the body language.
	Look at the body language.
	So Vance.
	I hate when the teabag breaks.
	Got a little bit of tea in my bottom of my tea.
	So Vance is on the attack.
	You can see hands pointed.
	He's going for him.
	He's like, no, look, we actually are morally superior to you is what he's saying here.
	And we have a better claim to be a moral authority on this.
	We also have the expertise to solve this.
	And what you've done so far has not worked.
	And actually, I disapprove of your handling of the war is what he's saying now.
	Look at Zelensky.
	Just shoulders up, arms crossed, completely stone-faced.
	Like he is on the edge of his seat, you know, completely rigid.
	This is This is very interesting to me.
	The administration that is trying to try to prevent the destruction of your country, a lot of questions.
	Let's start from the beginning.
	Sure, first of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you.
	But you have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future.
	God bless you.
	You don't know that.
	God bless you.
	God bless.
	You're not.
	Don't tell us what we're going to feel.
	We're trying to solve a problem.
	Don't tell us what we're going to feel.
	Notice how that pricked Trump, right?
	That was.
	Hang on a second.
	You don't say that.
	Again, you're not respecting the kind of dignity of Trump and the United States.
	The presidency of the United States.
	And I saw a lot of people saying, how can he come to the Oval Office and act like this?
	And Zelensky, in a way, is kind of right.
	He's like, look, you've got an ocean between you.
	You're not going to have Russians knocking on your door anytime soon.
	So you don't get it.
	But eventually you will.
	And I'm sure from Zelensky's perspective, there's always the threat of the Russians coming in, right?
	That's not happening in the United States, right?
	The Russians are never going to invade the United States.
	Never going to happen.
	And I don't think there's going to be a nuclear exchange either because both sides are tarded.
	And so Zelensky comes to this narrative.
	Again, this is the sort of narrative that you'd hear in Europe, right?
	This is not the sort of narrative that holds in the United States.
	Because, yeah, okay, like the furthest the Russians ever got in Europe was the defeat of Napoleon.
	They got to Paris, right?
	So that's quite far.
	And they didn't stay for very long, but like that's quite far.
	And it's, you know, possible that you like theoretically possible, not that I think it's going to happen, that you could have like a Russian army, a giant Russian army that steamrolls through Europe.
	So that you know, happened in the 20th century.
	They took half of Europe up until you know the East German demarcation line.
	So it's possible, right?
	It's a possibility in Europe.
	And so Zelensky is bringing forth this European perception.
	Well, no, look, you know, it'll be rough when the Russians come.
	They're not going to have that's not going to happen in America.
	And so Trump's just like, what are you talking about?
	You know, now you're not showing us the respect that we feel that we deserve.
	And you're speaking in a language I don't really understand.
	Trump's not having any fear of the Russians.
	What he's annoyed at now is that essentially someone who is hierarchically lower than him, in a way kind of dependent on him, and has come begging for money and munitions from him, is being disrespectful to him.
	And this is a problem because, of course, if you've got a politics of dignity and respect that is based on the relationships between two kinds of people, three different people, well, if one side starts actively antagonizing him in this way, well, that's a problem.
	And Vance was right to say, look, you're doing this in front of the media.
	And Trump doesn't care.
	Trump, he at one point quips, I'm sure this is going to be great telling.
	And it was, right?
	It was genuinely like, wow.
	You know, everyone was just like, holy shit.
	You know, this is like a domestic spat that we're watching in public in front of hundreds of millions of people.
	The entire world saw it.
	So, anyway, let's carry on.
	I'm not telling you because you're in no position to dictate that.
	Remember this.
	You're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel.
	We're going to feel very good.
	We're going to feel very good and very strong.
	We'll feel influenced.
	You're right now not in a very good position.
	You've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position and he happens to be right about the very beginning of the war.
	You're not in a good position.
	You don't have the cards right now.
	With us, you start having playing cards.
	Right now, you don't care.
	So a lot of people have made a lot of the, I'm not playing cards and Trump, like that's an idiom.
	I can understand that they might not have that in Ukraine.
	You know, the idioms rarely cross language boundaries.
	And Zelensky didn't speak English, I understand, before he started before the war or something.
	So I think he's doing quite well speaking English in a second language.
	He's not a full master of.
	So I thought I think people shouldn't have made such a big deal out of the not playing cards thing.
	Uh, Zelinsky is trying to give a a hypothetical analysis, but Trump's giving a very real analysis here, right?
	He's saying, look, Ukraine has lost this war.
	Like you're 500 000 men down, we've spent billions.
	Russia still controls all this territory.
	You're not getting it back.
	You have to start being realistic.
	You know you can't.
	You've got to ignore the sort of insane idealistic European interpretations of all of this.
	Because the Europeans are in this mad place right now.
	They're like, no, we will fight to the death.
	The last man in Ukraine will die before we give.
	And we'll never give up.
	We'll always fight.
	I want everything that Europe has.
	In fact, i've seen loads of posts of them saying this, like really, like otherwise, like rational centrist dads are in full-throated war hawk mode.
	It's like I actually think it'd be better to negotiate with Putin.
	I'm actually with Trump on this.
	I think we should negotiate with Putin.
	It would make more sense rather than sacrificing every man, woman and child to a war with Russia.
	But anyway, you're gambling with the lives of millions of people.
	You're gambling with World War III.
	You're gambling with World War III.
	So look at the Trump is now Granddad Trump laying down the law.
	And he is, he's gone beyond Ukraine and he said, look okay, you're gambling with millions of lives, but also the entire world.
	Right now there's a part of me that is kind of annoyed that they they emphasize the World War III part too much, because it makes it sound like we are too afraid to fight if the opponent can threaten World War III, and that's actually not a strong position to be in.
	That actually gives them a lot of leverage over us, and i'm not sure it's wise that we say that, even if it's true, i'm not sure it's wise that we say that um, I think we we, we collectively, the West, should at least make our opponents think that look, we do have lines that you cross and we will go to war with you and it will be total war if you are going to cross them, if only to to just overawe them and keep them in line right um, but the point is here, Trump is being the responsible parent in the room, he's the grandparent, he's Granddad Trump's like no,
	he's lecturing a wayward child.
	Essentially, I mean, look at this, look at this like.
	I'm sure that when I was, like you know 19, this is exactly how my dad looked when I had gone out and got drunk and acted like a prat and like broken something or got in trouble or something.
	My dad wagging his finger at me like no, you are being irresponsible right now.
	You need to do this, you need to do that, you need to do the other.
	I'm the one who's the adult in the room.
	I'm the one telling you what right and wrong is, to make sure that this doesn't happen again and, in Trump's case, to save millions of lives.
	And, to be honest, he's not wrong, is he?
	He's not wrong?
	And so Zelensky's like okay yeah, but it means i'm going to essentially, my legacy is going to be terrible.
	Like i'm going to get an absolute grilling from people when I get back home.
	Zielinsky has a lot of obligations to other people.
	Um, they're not Trump's obligations, they're not his problem Right now, his problem is just getting this ended.
	And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country.
	And if there's one thing Trump is not going to abide, it's disrespect to America.
	Remember, the picture of Trump hugging the American flag, kissing the American flag.
	That's Trump's most important thing.
	The dignity of America as a country on the world stage.
	If you disrespect America, he will take that personally and he will act on that.
	Zelensky is playing with fire here, and it shows that he just doesn't understand the difference in tenor between Biden and Trump.
	And really, he should watch my video to understand what the difference is because I think I lay it out there pretty clearly far more than a lot of people said they should have.
	Have you said thank you once?
	No, in this entire meeting you said.
	So this, I actually don't agree with Vance here.
	Like, because Zelensky has said thank you a lot, right?
	And he isn't wrong to say these, but he has shown a lot of gratitude towards the Europeans and Biden.
	He did say thank you to them a lot because they gave him unconditional support.
	Vance is kind of hectoring him a bit now to defend Trump, which I understand and is kind and everything.
	But it's kind of unfair.
	Have you said thank you in this meeting?
	Has he had to?
	Has he been called upon to do so?
	Like, there's any need to do so?
	Like, not really.
	And so it's kind of unfair to kind of pull this on him.
	I know I'm being quite soft on Zelensky, but I do feel a bit bad for him at this point.
	Zelensky's future is not looking brilliant, is it?
	You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October.
	Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who's trying to save your country.
	Please, you think that if you will speak very loudly about the war, you've got to.
	He's not speaking loudly.
	He's not speaking loudly.
	Trump's kind of missed his point there.
	Your country's in big trouble.
	Can I have a question?
	No, no.
	You've done a lot of talking.
	Your country is in big trouble.
	I know.
	You're not winning.
	You're not winning this.
	See, that's the thing.
	He's like, your country's in big trouble.
	I know.
	And I think this is genuinely sincere from Zelensky.
	You know, I think he wants to win the war, obviously.
	But when Trump says, look, you're not winning this, but he's about to be like, I know, I know.
	Well, I'm not, I can't agree to that.
	But that is definitely true.
	That's definitely true that Russia has won this war.
	And it's very difficult for them to admit this.
	And so Trump coming in with the and it's kind of dispassionate in a way.
	With a realistic analysis of what's happening, this is where it really starts like where Zelensky's face really starts falling.
	A damn good chance of coming out okay because of our president.
	We are staying in our country, staying strong from the very beginning of the war.
	We've been alone and we are thankful.
	I said thanks.
	You haven't been miscarried.
	So this is another difficult part, right?
	So Zelensky is a wartime leader.
	And if you put yourself in the position of someone in Ukraine or Zelensky himself, he has to keep up morale.
	He can't be like, yep, the Russians are beating us because that will cause the war effort to collapse.
	Like, you know, 90% of war is genuinely keeping up morale for fighting a bit longer than the other guy.
	But the situation in Ukraine is quite clear.
	That's the problem.
	And so this is one of the reasons why all of the talking heads in Britain, all of them in Europe, all of them in the Democrats are 100% pro-Ukraine.
	They have this kind of hyper-narrative about the war.
	They're like, no, if we just say it's all fine for long enough, then we think it'll work out fine.
	And otherwise, morale collapses.
	And actually, we have to consider other options.
	And we are so committed to this way of doing things that another option essentially undoes everything we believe about the world.
	So we can't have that.
	So, you know, obviously for Zelensky, it's a much more immediate like, well, morale collapse in Ukraine, and then we definitely lose the war if I don't keep puffing it up.
	But for the rest of them, it's like morale collapses across the liberal global order.
	And then that's bad too.
	So they all have to keep it up.
	They can't have Trump giving a kind of outsiders realistic perspective on this.
	We gave you through this stupid president 350.
	You see, Trump's getting pissed off now.
	Billion dollars.
	You warned me.
	We gave you military equipment.
	You and your men are brave, but they had to use our military money.
	If you didn't have our military, he touches him.
	He shoves him.
	No, you listen.
	Like, Trump's getting physical with him now.
	You see, look at Zelensky's hands.
	Just like, oh, you know, what do you because Zelensky, in a way, he's kind of backed into a corner.
	Like, he has to be like, no, we are going to win.
	We've got to, you've got to win.
	You can see why he's backed into this corner.
	Trump's telling the truth.
	That's the problem.
	Trump is telling the truth.
	And it's hard.
	Like, Zelensky's in an impossible position.
	I don't envy him at all at this point.
	Like, this is this must have been an awful meeting to have had to have gone through.
	And I'm so glad I'm the fly on the wall who just gets to watch it.
	Like, this, this looks like a very difficult thing to manage.
	If you didn't have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks.
	In three days, I heard it from Putin.
	See, now he's being sarcastic.
	But Putin was probably correct, right?
	If America and Europe weren't giving Ukraine tons of money and weaponry, yeah, the Russians would have won it already a long time ago, right?
	That's probably true because that's the way that modern warfare works.
	It's a numbers game.
	But now Zelensky's getting, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, like sarcastic.
	He's not taking them seriously now.
	And it's like, okay, but that's just going to make things worse.
	That's just going to make things worse.
	And it does make things worse.
	Three days.
	This is something.
	Maybe less in two weeks.
	Of course, yes.
	It's going to be a very hard thing to do business like this.
	I'm going to tell you.
	Just say thank you.
	It's going to be very hard to do business like this.
	Again, this is Trump's worldview.
	I said it at all don't you?
	Except that there are disagreements and let's go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media when you're wrong.
	We know that you're wrong.
	But you see, I think it's good for the American people to see what's going on.
	I think it's very important.
	That's why I kept this going so long.
	You have to be thankful.
	You don't have the cards.
	You're buried there.
	Your people are dying.
	See, you can see how frustrated Zelensky is.
	I am thankful, but I can't agree to what you're saying because then Ukrainian morale collapses and we genuinely have no position.
	Because Zelensky's entire position at this point, what he's bartering with is essentially the Ukrainian unwillingness to concede defeat.
	That's the only thing they have to fight on, like to negotiate with Putin.
	It's like, look, we're just going to keep fighting you forever unless you give us something.
	If Zelensky gives that up, they have literally nothing left.
	And then, I mean, who knows how rubbish this gets for Ukraine after that.
	So you can see why he's like in this very, very dark place.
	And you can see the stress on his face.
	Just look at it.
	He is.
	This is not good.
	I tell you, you're running low on soldiers.
	You're running low on soldiers.
	And so Trump is just disrespecting.
	Look at that expression.
	Murderous expression on his face there.
	Trump is now just disrespecting him because as far as he's concerned, Trump is not being respected.
	America's not being respected.
	And Zelensky is talking nonsense.
	Zelensky is speaking just absolute nonsense.
	And it's like, well, no, no, no, no, I've got to lay down the law here because I am your patron.
	You've come to me for money.
	You need to be a bit more respectful if you expect to get that money.
	And you're full of shit.
	It would be a damn good thing.
	Then you tell us, I don't want to ceasefire.
	I don't want to ceasefire.
	I want to go and I want this.
	Look, if you can get a ceasefire right now, I tell you you take it so the bullets stop flying and your men stop causing kills.
	Of course, we want to stop the war.
	But I'm saying you don't want to ceasefire.
	I want to cease guarantees.
	Because you get a ceasefire faster than any great.
	Ask our people about ceasefire, what they think.
	That wasn't the money.
	That wasn't with me.
	That was with a guy named Biden who was not a smart person.
	That was with Obama.
	It was your presence.
	Excuse me.
	That was with Obama.
	So this is very interesting because what Trump is saying is, yeah, Biden represented the old managerial way of doing things.
	The signing of contracts, the things that Putin doesn't respect.
	He knows that doesn't work.
	But Trump is convinced that his relational method of diplomacy is going to get results because basically it's underpinned by the threat of violence.
	It's underpinned by the threat that Trump will send a fleet to the Black Sea, that Trump will put, you know, 200,000 men on the border of Russia or whatever.
	It's underpinned by the threat of the American Air Force flying over Russian space and bombing things.
	That's what Trump, in the back of his mind, is thinking, I think, at this point.
	And Zelensky is just like, okay, he can't see this.
	He doesn't know this.
	And he is just like, okay, I just don't think that's nothing's going to happen.
	And it was America as a whole, as a homogenous whole, as a continuum, that he saw, well, America promised this and they didn't give it.
	And so he's not seeing the distinction between Biden and Trump and their different style of politics.
	And so Zelensky is like, well, America's already promised this.
	This didn't happen.
	Why would I expect a different outcome?
	And Trump isn't properly explaining why, and Zelensky isn't properly understanding.
	Obama, who gave you sheets, and I gave you javelins?
	Yes.
	I gave you the javelins to take out all those tanks.
	Obama gave you sheets.
	In fact, the statement is Obama gave sheets and Trump gave javelins.
	I love the way that Trump programs the media.
	In fact, the statement is Obama gave sheets and Trump gave javelins.
	Love it.
	Love it.
	He knows the game.
	He knows the game so well.
	You got to be more thankful.
	Because let me tell you, you don't have the cards.
	With us, you have the cards.
	But without us, you don't have any cards.
	Well, more questions about Vice President.
	I'm sorry.
	It's going to be a tough deal to make because the attitudes have to change.
	See, that's exactly.
	Trump gets it.
	This relational view that he understands that Putin needs to be shown some respect.
	He is the winner of the war.
	And so he has to recognize Putin's rank there.
	And Zelensky has to recognize his rank.
	Whereas the Europeans and the international, liberal, rules-based world order wants to treat everything as if it is exactly the fucking same.
	And that is just not an accurate representation of reality.
	Like, I saw, like, you know, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg or whatever, tweeting, we stand with you, Ukraine, Slav-Ukrainian, until the end, or whatever.
	Luxembourg has 900 men in their army.
	Like, no one gives a fuck what Luxembourg may be.
	They're on a council.
	They get to chip in.
	They get to sit around the table at the UN and go, ah, I'll vote cancel as much as anyone else is.
	Press a button.
	You've got 900 fucking men.
	It doesn't matter what you think.
	Like, oh, oh, good.
	Denmark is weighed in.
	Oh, brilliant.
	Okay, Denmark's mighty army is going to.
	So not to shit on Denmark or anything.
	But like, these things don't really describe the state of the real world, right?
	Like this, in the real world, it is the people with the massive armies that actually matter when underpinning any agreement.
	So when they're like, oh, Ukraine needs to see at the table.
	No, not really.
	And frankly, that's a formality.
	That's a hyper-reality that you want to impose on the world.
	But no, the situation will be solved with Trump and Putin resolving it, right?
	That's how this will work, whether you like this or not.
	And I'm not saying that's good or bad.
	That's just the reality of it.
	Like, there is an inequality in all of this.
	And Zelensky and the Europeans and the international global order have a real problem acknowledging that.
	Whereas Trump and Putin are just going to be frank about it.
	They're going to be frank about it.
	And that's what Trump is opinion.
	Look, you just have to admit that Putin is on a higher rank than you are.
	And so you're going to have to negotiate inside that reality.
	And all of the globalists are just like, nope, we don't accept that.
	We think that the sovereignty of the smallest and most disarmed country is as valid as the sovereignty of the mightiest and hegemonic country.
	And it's just that that's just not true.
	That's just not true.
	It's not a true statement about reality.
	That's the problem that you have.
	What if Russia breaks ceasefire?
	What if Russia breaks peace talks?
	What is that?
	I understand that it's a heated conversation right now.
	What are you saying?
	She's asking, what if Russia breaks the ceasefire?
	What if anything?
	What if a bomb drops on your head right now?
	Okay?
	What if they break it?
	I don't know.
	They broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn't respect him.
	They didn't respect Obama.
	They respect me.
	What's he saying there, folks?
	He's saying war.
	It would have to be war.
	The only thing that he could back that up with, the respect comes from the fear of his power.
	He knows this, right?
	He knows this.
	And he believes that Putin would definitely think that Trump would just declare war.
	That's what he's saying.
	He is saying it would have to be war.
	And he doesn't want to say it because that seems bellicose.
	That seems aggressive.
	That seems like it wouldn't be advantageous to start threatening the person you're trying to get a deal with.
	So Trump in dealmaker mode isn't going to just come out and be like, you know, I'll fuck you up.
	But that is what he's saying.
	And he knows that's what he's saying.
	Putin knows what he's saying.
	Everyone knows.
	But look at the fucking Eurocrat, like, international types.
	Oh, we want that written down on a signed agreement.
	No, I'm not going to write that down.
	It's not how that works.
	This is about feelings.
	This is about my spirited part of my soul feeling so maligned and pierced and hurt that I'm going to send an army.
	That's what he's saying.
	Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me.
	He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia.
	You ever hear of that deal?
	That was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam.
	Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff.
	It was a Democrat scam.
	And he had to go through that.
	I love this.
	Like, you know, think of what Putin has gone through.
	Putin's gone through way more than that.
	He did go through it.
	We didn't end up in a war.
	And he went through it.
	He was accused of all that stuff.
	He had nothing to do with it.
	It came out of Hunter Biden's bathroom.
	It came out of Hunter Biden's bedroom.
	Okay, so Trump goes on for a bit more, and he's basically correct.
	Russia didn't do any of those things.
	They had too many investigations to find out.
	So let's move on.
	So you can see where the general cleavage is.
	And I think this conversation has been a superb example of the different styles of politics that I've been talking about in this video.
	And so I really wanted to do this on that.
	And so afterwards, Zelensky, everything went terribly.
	And Zelensky apparently got ejected from the White House.
	And then Trump said, right, you're not getting any money.
	And then put out this statement.
	We had a very meaningful, again, Trump, forever the negotiator, right?
	Trump starts essentially offering the handout again to Zielinski.
	He says, we had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today.
	Much was learned that could never be understood about the conversation under such fire and pressure.
	It's amazing what comes out through emotion.
	And I've determined that President Zelensky is not ready for peace if America is involved because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations.
	I don't want advantage.
	I want peace.
	He disrespected the United States of America and its cherished oval office.
	He can come back when he is ready for peace.
	Again, speaking purely from the dignity of the United States.
	And basically, he said he's not going to get any money.
	This is not good for Zelensky.
	He's going to have to come back and grovel.
	That's going to have to be what this is.
	He's going to have to grovel because he's going to have to accept he is not on the same level.
	This is an unequal relationship.
	And he has to accept this.
	So Zelensky then did a very mature thing.
	And the Europeans all started saying, you know, well, in fact, let's.
	Where is it?
	I've got a particular.
	There we go.
	Right.
	So you get this kind of embarrassing cavalcade of responses from the Europeans.
	It's like a bot farm, right?
	The Europeans, the EU, the NPC international rules-based order.
	Be strong, be brave, be fearless, says Ursula von der Leyen and basically every other European leader going, right?
	It's the same statement over and over and over.
	The president of the EU Commission, President of the Parliament, President of the Council, EU Commission, Commissioner for Economy and Project.
	Loads.
	And there were loads and loads and loads of national leaders saying it's all the same thing.
	All the same NPC talking point.
	It's so bizarre.
	And so Zelensky, again, very maturely, just retweets them all saying, thank you for your support.
	Thank you for your support.
	Thank you for your support.
	It's like, oh my God.
	Like, that's not the way to solve this, Zelensky.
	That's not the way to get Trump back on side.
	That makes you look like a total bitch.
	Just the same, again, look at the same fucking copy and pasted thank you for your support.
	Thanks for not like you are not in a position to needle Donald Trump, right?
	Trump put out the hand.
	Again, he's saying, look, we can be friends.
	You just have to understand how this works.
	And Zelensky's like, no, fuck you.
	I don't understand how this works.
	I'm not going to come cap in hand and say sorry.
	I'm not going to apologize.
	I'm not going to admit that I was in the wrong and I'm not treating America with the respect it deserves.
	Instead, I'm going to look at Switch PM like everyone.
	Like, thank you for your support.
	It's like fucking petty, right?
	On both sides, in some ways.
	Like, you can make an allegation on both sides of being petty.
	But this is really fucking petty and really, really silly, frankly.
	I don't think this is wise at all.
	Anyway, so much was made of Zelensky not wearing a suit because one journal was like, why are you wearing a suit?
	Zelensky does wear suits when he feels the occasion calls for it, which is interesting, isn't it?
	You know, whenever he's pictured with Netanyahu, he's wearing a suit.
	Interesting.
	Anyway, so one thing that I noticed is there were lots of black people on Twitter and everywhere else on TikTok and wherever, who completely understood what Trump was doing.
	He completely understood.
	And actually, I think this is probably why Trump before his first presidency was something of an icon in the black community and the sort of rap community in America.
	Like they used to think Donald Trump was the shit.
	And then the Democrats are like, yeah, but he hates black people.
	But Trump's definitely winning more back over.
	But this is, again, just totally fascinating.
	Let's watch this.
	Boss man standing on business.
	Let's stand in our business, okay?
	Bossman shit, buff man shit.
	Boss man shit.
	Well, I mean, the way he talked to him, too, though.
	You know, boss man shit.
	The real nigga.
	Boss man shit.
	I saw so many, I saw threads of these where it's just black people like, oh yeah, Trump's a boss.
	And that's exactly how their community works, right?
	They understand that a lot of this is about front.
	It's about attitude.
	It's about the thymos.
	It's about the spirit.
	It's about being able to stand up and stuff like this.
	A lot of the black community totally understood where Trump was coming from.
	Whereas the international global white people are like, oh my God, I can't believe he dis.
	I'm going to write an email to my, you know, and I'm going to go and complain about it on Twitter.
	It's like, yeah, no, it's an old world style of relationship that Trump is engaging in here, right?
	Anyway, Tucker Carlson posted this.
	And I thought this was interesting because instantly Lindsey Graham came out and was like, oh, Zelensky's done, basically.
	Yeah, no, we can't trust him anymore.
	And that was very interesting because Lindsey Graham is a disgusting, slimy war hawk who normally would back any conflict to the hilt.
	And so when Trump's like, yeah, no, we're going to end that.
	It's weird that Lindsey Graham came out against it.
	But Tucker, I think, is one of those people who knows a lot of the sort of people directly involved in all of this.
	And so is a sort of strong voice authority on this kind of thing.
	This is his patch.
	You know, Tucker's gone off the rails on a few things of late, like UFOs and World War II revisionism and stuff like this.
	There's no need for any of that.
	But when it comes to the sort of, you know, the political class of America and how they deal with the world, I think he's very solid.
	And he says, one of the most striking things about yesterday's Zelensky press conference was Lindsey Graham's reaction to it.
	The two are old friends, but Graham disavowed him within the hour.
	This was more than just a transactional disloyalty.
	It was scapegoating.
	Lindsey Graham knows what's coming.
	Over the past three years, with the tacit support of its Western patrons, the Ukrainian government has committed a remarkable number of serious crimes.
	Ukrainians sold huge quantities of American weapons on the international black market at 20 cents on the dollar.
	These weapons are now in the hands of armed groups around the world, including Hamas, Mexican drug cartels, and the forces now controlling Syria.
	God knows what the Ukrainians have done with the pathogens and American biolabs in their country.
	Even US intelligencies aren't sure.
	The Ukrainians have also murdered a number of people in various countries in political assassinations and tried to murder others, including American journalists and a European head of state.
	This is all true, and it's all going to come out at some point.
	Better start blaming on Zelensky now.
	Well, interesting.
	I mean, like, and then you've got Matt Gates posting, you know, basically endorsing the message and stuff like this.
	Now, I don't know where this goes.
	I don't know how much truth there is to this.
	But I think that Tucker Carlson knows a lot more about this than I do.
	And I suspect that there is going to be, it's going to be very much like you've got the very nice clean rug on top.
	And then you pull it back and just all the cockroaches are exposed to the light and you see the disgusting mess underneath.
	It's going to be very much like that with Ukraine.
	And so, who knows?
	Anyway, so the first thing that Zelensky did then is fly to the United Kingdom.
	Now, things are very different in the United Kingdom.
	We are governed by the Communist Party of Labour, and they're very committed to the international rules-based order.
	And everyone in Britain, we are told, every single talking head, every single politician, and it is every single politician, every single person you'll see on TV, every single academic, every single, everyone, everywhere.
	As you can see, he says you have the full backing of the United Kingdom.
	Let's watch this.
	Cheers on the street outside.
	You have full backing across the United Kingdom.
	And we stand with you with Ukraine for as long as it may take.
	And I hope you heard some of that cheering in the street.
	That is the people of the United Kingdom coming out to demonstrate how much they support you, how much they support Ukraine, and our absolute determination to stand with you, unwavering determination, and to achieve what we both want to achieve, which is a lasting peace, a lasting peace for Ukraine based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine.
	So important for Ukraine, so important for Europe, and so important for the United Kingdom.
	So I'm much looking forward to our discussions here this afternoon.
	Thank you very much.
	So we're going to be paying for huge amounts of money to Ukraine.
	Assuming they don't get the peace, what is it just going to be an endless war?
	Is it going to be an endless war with Russia that Europe is going to finance?
	Oh, brilliant.
	You know, I actually am much more inclined towards doing what Trump wants to do, which is actually getting the peace and letting it settle.
	Like, again, you already know that Putin doesn't really respect contracts.
	So, no, we're going to get the contract.
	It's like, oh, great.
	That's the way to deal with him.
	That's the way to deal with him.
	Anyway, so the point being that Putin has obviously won this war.
	Putin has obviously won.
	You can tell with things like this, where German industry is starting to now call for a return to Russian natural gas as the economy is declining, according to Bloomberg.
	And this is just one data point that exemplifies the trend.
	Everyone can see that things are getting worse in Europe.
	Everyone can feel it.
	Prices of everything are unbelievable.
	The price of energy has been unbelievable.
	We have totally been screwed by this war.
	And I think Putin knew this was coming too.
	And it's really because of our own short-sightedness.
	If we had, like, you know, if we, France is not getting screwed, right?
	We're the ones getting screwed.
	England, like, Germany, any other countries that are dependent on natural resources from Russia are getting screwed.
	The French aren't getting screwed because they're mostly nuclear economy at this point, right?
	Their economy is powered by nuclear energy.
	They're an energy exporter.
	We're not.
	Neither is Germany.
	Germany closed down all their nuclear plants.
	We are, for some reason, just not building loads and loads and loads.
	And you can get like, you know, uranium or whatever it is from Canada and Australia, right?
	Russia has it as well, but we don't need to use Russia to get the fuel from this.
	We've got friendly Anglosphere countries that we could have just, you know, deal with.
	So it's just, it's so crazy how we have been so we collectively, the Europeans, have been so arrogant and so just short-sighted.
	So, right, so we're going to, we're just going to keep pouring money into Zelensky's coffers forever.
	I mean, surely at some point, Ukraine will just simply run out of men, right?
	There will just be no men left to fight at some point.
	But apparently, Kierstama doesn't care and it doesn't matter.
	Who cares?
	Apparently, Secretary Besant said that Zelensky has been reluctant to agree to the mineral deal that Trump wants.
	Now, I don't really know what the deal is with the mineral deal.
	I don't think anyone else does either.
	Like, it's not clear what this is going to entail.
	Something like the initial request of 500 billion was rejected, but it's something like 50%, I think they say in here.
	Somewhere, I can't remember.
	It's not entirely clear.
	Oh, there we go.
	According to the deal, Ukraine will contribute 50% of future proceeds from state-owned mineral resources, oil and gas to the fund, and the fund will then invest to promote the safety, security, and prosperity of Ukraine.
	Basically, it looks like they're going to owe America a lot of money, right?
	So, okay, not great, but apparently, Zelensky is finally ready to sign this minerals deal.
	This was today.
	So, this is all very much up in the air.
	I don't know what the consequence of all that's going to be.
	Who knows what the actual end result is.
	But the point is, you can see that this has just been a bit of a fuck-up for Zelensky because he didn't understand how the game is now being played.
	And our in Starma and in Europe, they're still playing the old game, but Trump is playing the new game, and none of these people are equipped to deal with it, right?
	We've got a very, very different kind of politics happening in front of our eyes, and they don't know what they're going to do about it.
	Give me a second.
	I'm just going to go get a drink because I'm desperately dry throat and a run of tea.
	But I will be back in two seconds, and then I will go through the soup chats and we'll discuss what has happened.
	Sorry, it's going to be a black screen for a second.
	Boo.
	I told you it would be long.
	Right.
	And I'm not getting a bit.
	I'm not much of a drinker, you know.
	I never drink when I'm on my own.
	I don't like it.
	I always drink socially.
	I don't know why.
	Like, I don't know.
	It just doesn't appeal to me to be drunk on my own.
	Like, for me, it's always something I do with other people.
	I'd rather be sober on my own.
	And also, I can't do anything fun when I'm drunk on my own.
	I don't watch TV.
	If I watch TV, I'd probably do it, but I don't.
	So.
	Just get to the start of the super chats.
	Right.
	So.
	Johnny says, this is just proof that Zelensky has been playing softball this whole time.
	I'm not entirely sure.
	Take your meaning there.
	I think it's more proof that Zelensky has been given the red carpet and an easy ride this whole time.
	I don't think he's had to play hardball.
	And it's only now that he feels that he has to, I think.
	I don't think that he's been challenged by the Western powers on any of this until now.
	Opinionated junkie says Carl will be drafted by the UK.
	Look at these grey hairs, man.
	I'm too old to be drafted.
	I'm 45 years old.
	I won't be drafted.
	I don't think I'll be drafted.
	And I wouldn't go even if I was.
	I'm a conscientious objector.
	And it's not that I'd be against fighting a war or anything like that.
	I just wouldn't support this war.
	I'm not dying for Ukraine.
	You shouldn't die for Ukraine either.
	There's absolutely no reason.
	I wouldn't die for this government.
	Like, this government can get fucked.
	If the Germans were invading across the beaches or something, or whoever, the Russians, whatever it is, yeah, sure, I would fight for my home and my country if we were being invaded.
	But I'm not going to fight for the Stama government in Ukraine.
	That'd be mad.
	Cameron says, we're living in wild times.
	The scenes yesterday were just unbelievable.
	Certainly going to be interesting to see what everyone does next.
	Yeah, and I do appreciate Trump's level of transparency.
	The fact that he was a media personality means he's very comfortable with all this being out because he's very sure of himself.
	And I actually do appreciate that, actually.
	Blaze says, JD, I get my Chinese agit prop TikTok.
	Vance quoting Russian agit prop in 2025 in the Oval Office oofed.
	I don't really respect that position.
	And Zelensky pulled out as well.
	But like, yeah, yeah, we heard we'd lose the war in three days if it wasn't for America from Putin.
	Okay, but that doesn't mean it's not true.
	And I don't think that Vance is saying anything that isn't true either.
	So if the Russians say something true, you can't be like, oh, that's what the Russians say.
	And that's something that the sort of neoliberal shitlibs say all the time.
	It's like, it doesn't make it false.
	It just means you can't bear to hear it.
	So I don't like that kind of attack on what someone is saying.
	I'd rather things be refuted on the merits.
	Because, again, a lot of like agitprop is often just this is what the other side could feasibly present.
	And so we're going to get in there and do that.
	And just dismissing it can also dismiss valid critiques and valid issues.
	But I don't like that form of approach.
	The Emperor's Champion says, I can't stand European arrogance.
	They think they're entitled to our protection.
	They think they can scold us like we're backwards colonials.
	Well, this is not Zelensky's perspective.
	So that's not what Zelensky was thinking.
	Zelensky is just thinking...
	zielinski's in the mode that pelosi and biden have put into his head right this is not i zielinski doesn't think you're a backwards colonial um as I mean, I imagine from the Ukrainian perspective, America looks like a giant golden god that is an ever-flowing font of money and weapons and power and glory.
	Like, it's not the same.
	It's not like a British person going over and scolding you.
	That would be, you are backwards colonials.
	Biscuits and gravy is fucking gross looking.
	What is this?
	Like, that would be that.
	That's not what Zelensky's doing.
	Zelensky is just Eastern European and they're different to we are.
	They're different to how we are.
	The current mood says, how far do you think Starmo will go?
	If he tries conscription, I can't see how it doesn't end with riots and disorder that make Southport look like Charles Blake.
	Also, post-modern tradition is a book when books will come soon-ish.
	In about a year, probably.
	Starmool will just pay.
	I don't think Starmool will be brave enough to conscript men or even try and recruit men because he'd get very few people, I suspect.
	I think he'll just spend as much of our money as he can.
	He'll put us into whatever debt he thinks is required because he thinks this is the most justified thing.
	Because remember to him, the entire international liberal rules-based order is on the line.
	The entire thing is on the line.
	It is up to them.
	As far as they're concerned, Russia, America, both anti-liberal states now.
	Europe is the last bastion of the rules-based order.
	We've got to save it.
	And there's no limit to that in his mind.
	This is a true, sincere religious belief for him.
	No end to it.
	Dice Planck Studio says, far too often people equate to being opposed to Zelensky as being anti-Ukraine or pro-Putin.
	Ironically, the ideology, the ideology, for the ideology of the tractors, it's non-binary.
	Yeah, no, that's exactly true.
	I'm not pro or anti-Ukraine, and I'm not pro- or anti-Putin or Russia.
	I'm just someone who doesn't want to pay for it, right?
	And that's exactly correct.
	Like, I don't hate Zelensky.
	I don't like Zelensky.
	And I can see from his perspective on in some parts, and I can see where he's wrong in other parts.
	So, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't think that the people who are heavily involved, sort of Julia Hartley brewers of the world, really understand why people aren't bought in in the same way they are, and how ideological they personally themselves are.
	I don't mean to call her out in particular, but she's just, I saw her. arguing with Posey Parker earlier over it.
	It's just like, again, Posey's slightly, I'm not involved in this.
	You know, why is this?
	She's got essentially my position.
	And Julie's like, no, we have to bang the drums of war.
	It's like, no, I don't want the drums of war over Ukraine because I'm not worried about the international liberal order that's essentially oppressing me collapsing.
	Pierre says, after that display, turn off Starlink, break the radios, break the software, pull the ISR assets, livestream the fallout.
	Vassals must be punished.
	Well, the thing is that that also punishes the Ukrainian people, and I don't think they deserve it, right?
	So just to be clear, the Ukrainians have fought heroically, and it is impressive that they have managed to resist the Russian invasion.
	I don't think so many people in Britain would fight for Britain if Russia were to invade Britain, right?
	So it's not that the Ukrainians aren't people who are worthy of respect.
	There are many more things that go forward over that.
	And it's too abstract to just be like, vassals must be punished.
	I don't think Trump's thinking quite like that.
	Because he is, I think, being actually quite responsible in the scope of who he is giving moral consideration to.
	He could just be like, no, fuck it.
	I'm not doing anything.
	But he's not doing that.
	And again, once again, he offers out the hand of friendship.
	So I actually think Trump is handling this relatively well.
	Camden says, can you speculate as to why Europe and portions of America espouse undying support to Ukraine up until including the troops?
	They crinkle their noses at fighting for Ukraine themselves.
	Well, yeah, because they are materialists and they can't imagine actually fighting for anything and willingly taking on suffering.
	And they view it as the end of the international rules-based order.
	And so every single Ukrainian can willingly be sacrificed for it because it's not them.
	That's literally what it comes down to.
	Brownie Cow says, it is cruel, but it could be argued that it's geopolitically worth prolonging the war just to damage Russia's demographics and weaken them further on for the future.
	Well, I mean, that is something that you could definitely see a more callous and Machiavellian person doing.
	But notice how Trump's got a very human and sentimental perspective on this.
	I don't want people to keep dying.
	Like, Trump actually doesn't seem to care about the money that much, right?
	He didn't bring up the money very much.
	He was concerned about the loss of life, which I think is actually quite nice.
	it's quite adorable Michael says it is realism Nothing more, nothing less.
	Good or bad.
	What is in America's or your case, the UK's best interest.
	That's all we should really care about.
	Not sorry.
	Love the show and podcast The Lotus Eaters.
	Oh, yeah, go support, go subscribe to the podcast of The Lotus Eaters.
	Yes, there is more to be said than that.
	And I do think we should care about the sentimental bonds that tie us together.
	I do think those things are important.
	I don't think we should just abandon them.
	But you are right that we have to look to our own best interests, especially if we were in a much, especially in Britain and Europe, if we were in a much better position to be cavalier with what we have, then it would be more understandable.
	But we're not.
	Things suck over here at the moment.
	They haven't always sucked and they won't always suck.
	But at the moment, things are not good.
	And we can't just pour our treasure into the black hole that is the Ukraine war.
	So I agree in that respect.
	Jonathan says, I find it hilarious that Zelensky has already capitulated.
	He says he's ready to sign the minerals deals like a child of putting a timeout.
	Well, yeah, that's the thing.
	Like, again, this only happened earlier today.
	So, the Zenitsky, and you know, he's been said this three times now.
	So, who knows?
	Who knows?
	I don't want to, you know.
	I was more trying to emphasize the difference in politics.
	But that's the thing.
	Trump was approaching him kind of like a dad, right?
	The wagging of the finger.
	Like, you know, you will know.
	I will tell you.
	You know, very much who hasn't had their dad do that to them, right?
	Mithridate says, counterpoints 40k is on plus principled unblock in chat.
	Sorry, I don't know what that means.
	Blaze adding Carl Neville Chamberlain Benjamin.
	Oh, no.
	We're back at the World War II analogies.
	Ganjiblob Flankis says, George W. Bush era, how dare America act as world police?
	Trump II era, how dare America stop being world police?
	Funny how that works.
	Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it?
	How, but again, it's because they feel the imperium of the United States weakening.
	So they're like, no, we want that to be pushed outwards.
	If they felt as secure as they did in 2000, then they would be like, well, should we?
	Because America was much more dominant then.
	It doesn't feel as dominant now.
	Daniel says, big fan of the videos.
	Keep up the good work.
	What do you think?
	The ideal solution to possibly fix this.
	Honestly, I think I don't even want the ideal.
	I just want the most realistic.
	And like the ideal solutions that Putin has a crisis of conscience and goes, okay, you know, I'll just, I'll just end the war and I'll just, you know, I'll just go back to Russia and everything be fine.
	That's not going to happen.
	The most realistic one is that Putin keeps the Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine that he's annexed and we just have a recognized redrawn border of Ukraine, which is ethnically Ukrainian.
	And Putin just knocks it off.
	I mean, he's getting on, you know, so hopefully he just knocks it off after that.
	And that's the most realistic thing.
	Dante says, Did you hear Norway is refusing to cooperate with the US Navy over Zelensky?
	We won't allow our ships to refuel.
	I did not hear about that.
	I'll look into it.
	Ian says, wait until European leaders find out that NATO weapon systems only function when provided with targeting data from American satellite networks.
	Well, that's the thing.
	Trump is not wrong when he says, look, you don't hold any cards.
	We hold all the cards, and it's only when we are backing you that you hold the cards.
	You've got to do what we want you to do, or we will just stop backing you.
	And, you know, good luck with the backing of the European Union and Starmer.
	Yeah, Ian, you're completely right.
	Like, they don't understand that America does hold the cards in this.
	Eugen says, Do you have hope for Germany, Britain, and France?
	No.
	At some point.
	Generico makes a great point.
	We watched the Strong Gods Return in the Oval Office that day.
	Yes, we did.
	And this is the point.
	It all stems from the passion, the spirited part of the soul.
	That's what Trump is speaking from.
	And this does make sense in that paradigm.
	It absolutely makes sense.
	And it will get results.
	And I do think that Putin will at least be able to understand the language that Trump is speaking.
	I guess we'll see.
	Mark says, I don't want our tax or blood spent on Ukraine.
	Neither do I, frankly.
	But I mean, we're in for a penny in for a pound, I guess.
	So let's get it fucking sorted.
	You know, let Trump get the deal.
	You know, he's the deal maker.
	Let's see if he can get a deal.
	You know what I mean?
	Usagi said, if you had freedom of expression, we would still be that same country.
	There's a reason we had a disagreement, but it wasn't over free speech.
	We had a disagreement.
	Matthew says, EU are stalling the peace because they aren't ready for Ukraine membership.
	It will tank the European agricultural market.
	Trump needs the mineral deal to sell U.S. involvement in peace security to his base, ending the war faster.
	Doubtless that's all true.
	I think a lot of it is also that Zelensky doesn't want to be totally in hocke in that way.
	Because, like, at one point when Kiostama was with Trump, Trump was like, well, look, you're getting your money back.
	And Kia was like, no, that was just a gift.
	We're not getting anything back from you.
	We've given them money and we're never going to see it again.
	And Kia's well aware of this.
	So.
	Kyle says the rare earth deal is a guarantee through shared economic interest.
	America is investing in Ukrainian soil.
	The sovereignty Zelensky doesn't understand because he's a global homo-lib actor.
	Totally agree.
	And I'm not saying that it's in any way wrong that America would want involvement in Ukrainian mining and things like this.
	I'm not criticizing that.
	I'm saying that from Zelensky's point of view, remember, they have this very high-minded, idealistic view that Ukraine's sovereignty is inviolable.
	Well, that's obviously not true, but let's carry on.
	And that essentially there is no practical deal to be made because a moral principle they hold has been violated.
	And it's like, okay, well, you're living in a dream world, and that's not going to work, but here we are.
	Julia, thank you for the 10 euros.
	Trenchcoat Sword says, I can't help but think of that episode of Yes, Minister, where they had to change the locks on Sir Appleby and made him to get an appointment to number 10.
	I'll have to go back and re-watch it.
	I haven't seen that one in a long time.
	Gurgli says, I think when the CIA showed the real situation in Ukraine and the numbers to Trump, he got shocked.
	Yeah, so the numbers on either side are very speculative at the moment.
	I'm sure historians will spend decades going over the true numbers.
	But it's probably quite.
	And it's probably been awful.
	And I think that Trump's probably not wrong to emphasize ending the loss of life would be the best thing.
	So Brastion says, Russia invades again.
	They ignore US mines for neutrality.
	US agrees because of World War III.
	Trump is not offering the peace he thinks.
	He's saving no one.
	Well, that's definitely an argument.
	And I don't want to say that I've come down hard on one side or another, right?
	I don't know.
	I guess this is all things that will be stood to be seen in the future.
	I can't say yes or no.
	Sam says, look up No Din Diem from South Vietnam, very similar to Zelensky, authoritarian leader at war who bit the hand that fed him and didn't end well.
	You know what?
	I haven't ever really looked into the South Vietnam or the Vietnam War very much.
	And you know it through the cultural osmosis that you get from watching American films.
	So I should probably at some point.
	Hate speaker Sargon of Akad says, I think Trump feels an outsized portion of guilt at the deaths of Ukrainians.
	He did escalate the war by sending lethal aid during his first term.
	That's true.
	I hope he has finally realized playing ball with the deep state is his only downside.
	Well, I mean, who knows?
	Let's hope he has.
	But yeah, I think there probably is something that I suspect that when George Gergi, I think Gurgli says, you know, the CIA has probably shown him the numbers they have.
	And I think he probably does.
	Like, it's entirely possible.
	Again, I don't know, but it's entirely possible.
	TTH TTPD says, I'm sick and tired of bureaucratic altruism.
	President Zelensky not saying thank you while begging.
	USAI funding anti-Western projects, German meme police, etc.
	So happy it's all being defunded and berated.
	Well, yeah, me too.
	You know, obviously I hate, yeah, bureaucratic altruism is a great term for it, actually.
	I like that term because it's awful.
	Your boy Forgot says, schizo theory, Boris Johnson was so hawkish about the war because his grandfather was an Ottoman statesman.
	He wants Ukraine to be caught unawares as Turkey regains former Ottoman territory there.
	I don't think the Ottomans actually held territory as far north as Ukraine.
	At least not for any significant amount of time.
	But I think that is a schizo theory.
	I think Boris is just a lib and he wants the lib order and he wants the cosplayers Churchill and like supporting Zelensky is the closest he can get to it, I think.
	And a safe way for him to do it.
	Nathan says, apparently they've been killing American reporters, selling our weapons that we gave to them to had his pennies on the dollar.
	They are not our allies.
	They're not good.
	They're not Western libs.
	They're not Western libs.
	They're old world people.
	Steel Manning says, I'm going to say about Zelensky what you said about Jesse Smollett.
	This is why you don't let the actors do the screenwriting.
	Yes.
	Sad Wings Raging says, Trump derangement syndrome is a mental disorder of the weak and effeminate every single time.
	120 billion for rare earth minerals is more than fair.
	Excuse me.
	I think it was more than that.
	It was 500 billion.
	But even then, like, you know, it's not necessarily an unfair deal.
	And if it's 50% of what they're making, well, Ukraine's still making 500 billion.
	So come on.
	And it's just going to go into the pockets of fucking oligarchs anyway.
	It's not like it's going to be a national wealth fund or something.
	So Matthew says, two worldviews: pragmatic politicians versus rigid bureaucrats.
	Not just rigid, idealistic bureaucrats.
	Trump, Vance, and Putin challenge norms while the EU and UK resist change.
	Politicians break paradigms.
	Bureaucrats fear disruption.
	That's completely correct.
	The Barnyard Animal says, did you meet Father Hosiah B. Trentam at Arc?
	Interview in the future.
	I may have done.
	I met a lot of people.
	I can't really remember.
	Lurch says, I wish Trump Vance would keep the same energy with Netanyahu and Starma.
	Yeah, well, Starma, they didn't have to have that energy with, because Starma just pretended, just lied to their faces and was like, yeah, no, bros, I'm one of you, basically.
	Which is embarrassing.
	Then when Vance called him up on it, Stalma was like, oh, now we have a proud freak.
	It's like, shut up.
	But yeah, obviously, well, you'll never see it with Netanyahu.
	The Cheerful Cynic says, a big problem with the EU-Russian threat narrative is that Russia has the exact same casualty and demographic problems as Ukraine from this war.
	It'd still be a pyrrhic victory for Putin.
	Yeah, and to be honest, he didn't take that much.
	Okay, he's got fifth of Ukraine, which is a narrow band of Russian-speaking.
	Like, if that's how much Russia struggled with Ukraine, you imagine when they get to Poland, which is a country of like 70 million people, and actually a part of the EU and NATO.
	They're not going any further, man.
	I just don't see how the Russians can be like, right, yes, and now we're going to roll into the next country.
	It's like, you haven't even got all of Ukraine, bro.
	But you haven't.
	I just don't see the Russian threat in the same way that everyone else sees it.
	The political classes here.
	I don't think they've got it.
	I don't think they've got the ability to do it.
	I just, I really just don't.
	I'm very skeptical about this.
	I think the power of Russia has been overstated by a great deal there.
	Anyway, Stray Cat says, not to worry, my boom parents are ready to deploy to Ukraine to fight after watching the nine o'clock news.
	Zelensky is the boomers, Jesus Christ.
	Yeah, I know.
	Yeah, there's genuinely a kind of messianic aspect to the way they think of Zelensky at this point.
	And I'm just like, like watching Piers Morgan talk to Zelensky.
	And like, I don't even hate Zelensky.
	I just don't.
	I don't dislike him that much.
	I don't like him, though.
	And this puts me in a position where, like, I look like a fucking alien to both sides of this.
	One side really fucking hates Zelensky.
	One side really fucking loves Zelensky.
	I'm just like in the middle of my, he's a comedian.
	Corrupt puppet of an oligarch.
	You know, come on, I don't.
	Anyway.
	Alpha Unique says, does anyone think Zelensky openly challenged Trump during the photo op spontaneously?
	And all of Europe vomits out exact same talking points.
	Really, really.
	Yeah, no, this is all predictable.
	It's not that this doesn't require a conspiracy.
	This is them acting from their own positions and in ways that they truly believe.
	And this is a predictable result from it.
	That's all.
	Pavel says, Russian here, you're 100% right.
	Putin is the best thing to have ever happened to our country recently.
	Super thankful he always finds a way to run for another term.
	We wouldn't find another one easily.
	So, like, this is, I've heard this from like lots of Russians.
	I've never been to Russia.
	I don't.
	But you can see how Putin, he's an intelligent and canny operator.
	And I imagine the average Russian doesn't have sort of delusions of democracy like we had in this country.
	And so I guess in Russia, you're probably looking at, I just hope we get a competent dictator, essentially, or czar, basically.
	And you can say a lot of things about Putin, but you can't say he's not competent.
	Like, he clearly knows what he is doing.
	And he seems to represent Russia and the Russian people in what he is and how he operates.
	So it's like, you know, I could believe that, like, so is, oh, Putin's got like an 80% approval rating.
	Yeah, well, you know, why would you trust those polls?
	Good question.
	But on the other hand, I could believe it, actually.
	And I could believe that the average Russian is kind of, you know, we could do a lot worse than Putin.
	I think they genuinely think they could do a lot worse than him.
	Joshmo says, I think Zelensky was on drugs here.
	Well, yeah, I was trying not to just openly say it.
	I was trying to just nod at it.
	But yeah, you're sniffing a lot.
	Sebastian Howard says, my viewpoint on this war is that Putin only attacked because Biden was getting buddy-buddy with Ukraine and Putin couldn't risk having NATO on the border.
	Yeah, well, that's a common because it seems to be one.
	I mean, that's what Putin says.
	Putin says, look, you promised us you weren't going to expand NATO to the border.
	NATO's on the border.
	And like in 2008, they invaded Georgia.
	And in 2005 or 2007, it was something like that.
	They were applying for NATO membership and stuff like this.
	I think these things are all connected.
	I'm not an expert in the geopolitics of it, but I wouldn't be surprised if Putin was just telling us the truth, telling us what he was really doing it for.
	I don't know why we would think he would be lying, right?
	Kasperius says, JD feels like the apprentice to Trump.
	He's there to learn from the master of 2028.
	Well, you know, fingers crossed, because I've heard people saying, oh, JD Vance was anti-Trump.
	He's just, has he really had this Damascene conversion?
	Maybe he's the tool of the intelligence agency.
	Maybe, maybe.
	But from what I've seen so far, I could see, again, a lot worse than JD Vance.
	He's pretty good.
	He seems to be positioning himself in the correct way when he frames what he's doing, why he's doing the thing.
	I agree with the frames that he uses, almost entirely, actually.
	And so, okay, well, you know, if he does a good job for the American people, that's good enough, isn't it?
	Scarlock says, Europe needs to step up and deal with European problems.
	Well, God.
	He's mad?
	That's the last thing Europe wants to do.
	Can we not sweep these under the rug and then deal with Ukrainian problems instead?
	The US is only asking for Mexico's cooperation against cartels.
	I swear if Poland went in on Russia at this point, the war would be over in a month.
	Maybe.
	I don't want to even speculate, really.
	Delaki says, the mineral deal created a DMZ commercial zone.
	This would be full of America's companies and citizens' security guarantee.
	If Putin's attacks, we retaliate.
	Yeah, and that's absolutely true.
	And so I don't know why.
	I can only assume it's that Zelensky doesn't want to be too in the hole or something.
	But I don't know, man.
	Like, who knows?
	Yeah, he hasn't articulated it properly.
	So Mason says, Trump playing the bad guy gives Zelensky an out when he has to tell his people to surrender territory after such a prolonged and costly war.
	And yeah, that's a great point because he did say, How will the people back home take it sort of thing?
	Something like that when he was talking to Trump.
	And he is right.
	He does still have to, you know, he is an obligation to them.
	They have, you know, not power over him, but like he has to answer to them at some point.
	So it's something he has to pay in mind.
	Drifter says, what's the point in the press conference where Trump looks him in the eyes and says it's enough around 218?
	Watch Zelensky's eyes, hands, and chest, and trying to compose himself.
	He wept.
	And he's got another one.
	I believe he feels all the death is worth it if he gets into NATO.
	Without that cornerstone, in his mind, he falls apart.
	That's why he lost it.
	The guilt and deal worse than 2022.
	They are the one that Boris tanked.
	Yeah, I do think that's probably true.
	I think Zelensky's prime purpose at this point is to hold out until he gets into NATO.
	And if he doesn't, again, he says, what's the guarantee that Putin doesn't invade?
	Well, there isn't one really.
	That's the problem from his perspective.
	There isn't one.
	So, you know, I can see where he's coming from.
	Russia has been invaded three times through Ukraine historically.
	Yes, they have.
	They are behaving rationally while the West, NATO, has been unnecessarily hostile and expansionist into Russia's sphere of influence.
	Yeah, well, again, the boomers, the sort of boomer-Americans, have never dealt with Russia very well.
	They've always not understood Russia at all.
	For some reason, my browser's crashing.
	I tell you what, right?
	I bet loads of YouTube content creators are complaining about Cube and the back end these days.
	And I see why.
	Don't know what is going on with it.
	But yeah, Russia has its own security concerns.
	And I don't know why we're not at least being respectful of that.
	Like, I don't have any designs on Russia.
	I don't care about Russia at all.
	But like, you know, if it was like Turkmenistan or something, it was like, oh, yeah, well, you know, we need this, this, and this to make sure that someone doesn't invade our country.
	I'd be like, okay, I understand why.
	You know, you don't want your country invaded.
	I completely understand why you would do that.
	But like, why, why do we have to, like, what do we want from Russia?
	Right?
	That's what we should be asking ourselves.
	Because I've, I've, you know, I've spoken to people like, no, we basically have to dismantle the Russian state and reprogram the Russian people.
	It's like, yeah, I don't think we can do that.
	Right?
	I don't really want to do that.
	I don't think that that's necessary.
	I think this is kind of a crazy thing to say.
	And actually, you know, I kind of want Russia to just sit there and give us resources, right?
	I want us to give them money and for them to give us resources and for us to just get along.
	I don't want anything from Russia other than to have trade, right?
	So why, you know, we've got to ask ourselves, what do we expect from Russia?
	And what will essentially shut Russia up and let them do that?
	And then we can all just get along, can't we?
	Like, so anyway, that's what I think the West needs to think about.
	Joshua says, as a former Marine, I can tell you, hey, Joshua, that when Vance broke out the knife hand, Vladimir had fucked up.
	There's a move made by superiors to subordinates, Alpha Move.
	Yeah, I know.
	You can see it.
	And you can see the very defensive perspective of Vlad.
	And what does the deal with Vladimir and Vladimir?
	Come on.
	Like a poorly written script.
	William says, really enjoyed the last few minutes of your previous video.
	Someone's laughing.
	Well, I saw people like, oh, you've definitely got to take him out on his bike afterwards.
	Well, obviously, I did.
	And we went out and it was a really nice time.
	Then when Times came home, he decided to act like a total little shit.
	And he would, I had to tell him off and carry his fucking bike home and hold his hand all the way with him crying all the way home because he was being very naughty.
	And it was like, Jesus Christ.
	So just to be clear, right?
	Being a dad is an amazing thing, would never take it back.
	It's not all sunshine and rainbows, and sometimes, you know, it can be stressful.
	And I don't want to, because there are lots of like, you know, Instagram accounts and stuff like this that like make being a parent look like it's totally stress-free and everything goes brilliant the other time.
	No, it's not like that.
	There are lots of stresses.
	I don't want anyone to ever say that I only ever painted a rosy image of what it's like to be a dad, right?
	It's not only rosy, but it is the most rewarding thing you'll do.
	You will be very happy with it.
	Call sign tourists says, much love from Kazakhstan.
	I have to say, Ukraine did break the deal before Russia did.
	They attacked the separatists on bass and cut off the water crime illegally.
	Yes, they did.
	And this is another thing.
	Like, we act as if the separatists in Donbass had nothing, like the Ukrainian shelling of them and reaction to them had nothing to do with this.
	It did.
	You know, it's something that we're just not prepared to admit.
	Badgito says, how is the UK able to give 2.26 billion?
	I thought we were 22 billion in the hole.
	Europe and the UK can't finance anything without the US.
	Yeah, well, you know, I see you've paid that in pounds.
	Expect to get poorer.
	Expect your taxes to go up.
	But just remember, you're paying for freedom in Ukraine.
	Gaming Gate veteran says, Zelensky put himself in the corner.
	All he has to do is agree to a ceasefire and can be ready for his people for the transition to peace.
	He refuses.
	Yes.
	Again, it's a messy thing.
	I guess we'll see what happens.
	Michael says, Obama didn't dare back up the security guarantee for surrendering the Soviet nukes in the 90s when Russia took Crimea in 2015.
	No.
	Well, I mean, Obama didn't.
	Obama had lots of red lines and he's they just got trampled over repeatedly.
	And the other thing is as well, the paying Iran thing really bothered me.
	Like, they're not, they're just going to use that money to do what the thing that you're paying them not to do, you fucking idiot.
	Like, how can you be so naive?
	Um, Ivan says, Are you aware of the 1991 Minsk agreements Ukraine failed to complete?
	Uh, I'm not, I have to admit, I'm not an expert on this area, and I'm not an expert on the history of it.
	Uh, and so I'm not, I'm not trying to say that Russia is the villain and Ukraine is the innocent party.
	I just want to be very clear about this.
	You know, I totally agree that there is wrong on the Ukrainian side, there is wrong on the NATO side.
	I'm not, and that doesn't mean that I'm saying that Russia has done nothing wrong or anything like that either.
	So, just to be clear, I'm not an expert on this, and I don't think one side is morally good and the other side is morally bad, and that's the only answer.
	Kasperius says, MSM take, give Obama gave a sheet, Trump never gave a sheet, therefore, evil orange man bad.
	Uh, Novotic says, every time I see someone say they support on the ground Russia with troops, I always think, Well, good luck.
	Yeah, well, the thing is, it's always people who themselves don't ever envisage being one of those troops, right?
	That's the thing.
	Like, I could envisage myself if you know Russia landed, you know, 500,000 men in Kent or something.
	Yeah, I'd go and sign.
	I'd go and sign up.
	I'd be like, okay, has to be done.
	And it'd be shit.
	And I can envisage it.
	And it's not something I'm like, oh, you know, I wouldn't be singing war songs as I marched off.
	I'd just hope everything was okay and I'd be lucky enough to be one of the few survivors or something like that, right?
	I wouldn't be like cheering.
	I'd be like, well, we just have to do this.
	We don't have a choice.
	But I would definitely go and do it.
	And you can see in everyone else, like, in all of these, people are like, oh, yeah, we should just.
	We've got to go save, you know, we've got to support Ukraine.
	It's like, okay, but you don't think you're ever going to get a bullet or a bomb or an artillery shell or something, a drone hovering, you know, like you don't think that's going to happen to you.
	Whereas if England were invaded and I had to sign up, I would definitely be like, yeah, that's probably going to happen.
	It's going to be shit.
	So, yeah, I loathe this kind of abstract warmongering.
	I really loathe it.
	George says it's like Bhutan guaranteeing Mexico.
	Detective Stabler says, the core of Trump's success and this issue is Trump's a Western leader that is finally playing the same game as the rest of the world always has been.
	Yes.
	And this is why the Biden and Obama administration sending loads of money to Iran is just such a stupid thing.
	It's like, look, these people are fucking playing you for fools.
	They are not your friends.
	They will never be your friends.
	They will never cooperate in a rules-based order.
	And they are just like, these fucking idiots are going to give us money.
	Okay.
	Take it.
	Fucking take it, obviously.
	You know, just agree.
	Yeah, we agree to have the, you know, it's obvious bollocks.
	But yeah, you are right.
	Trump is actually just playing their game.
	And I think that he'll succeed in it.
	He did really well internationally in his first presidency, like by just playing that game.
	They all understood.
	Oh, right.
	Okay, no, he gets it.
	We can't fuck around anymore.
	And what happened?
	No new wars during his first presidency.
	No new wars so far in the second.
	Joshua again says, Mike doesn't make right, but it does determine who's in charge.
	The world forgot this, but it's getting relearned and we will all be the better for it.
	That is exactly correct.
	I actually had this conversation today where I explained a good friend of mine, like, you know, might not make right, but it does determine who's left.
	Right?
	So that's important.
	Fat Chipmunk says, written agreements aren't respected by great men because of the inevitable lawyering, the text to subvert and break the spirit of the agreement.
	You know, that's a great way of interpreting it.
	And that's why I do think that the handshake guarantee that Trump is so personally reliant on for his, you know, just his worldview is something they'll understand.
	Because, no, it's personal, right?
	Like, I don't care if someone's broken a contract somewhere else.
	Okay, send the lawyers in.
	In five years' time, we'll get a legal resolution and whatever.
	I don't care.
	Trump will care if he looks Putin in the eye and says, right, blind man, I'm expecting this to happen.
	We are going to uphold our end of it.
	We expect you to uphold your end of it.
	If they shake on it, Trump will personally be bothered by this.
	He will personally be affected by it.
	This will be his status and majesty that will be attacked by that.
	He has to respond.
	In the same way, some fucking Mafiodon has to respond if one of his guys is killed or whatever, right?
	No, we have to go kill one of theirs now.
	That's literally how Trump will be interpreting this.
	And so it's like it makes it personal.
	It makes it so he can't not respond.
	Silver says, the same people who call Trump a dictator for retweeting memes stand a guy who's using war and 100% stalemate to extend martial law so he doesn't have to run for re-election.
	So he can perhaps rule for life.
	Yeah, I mean, I did think Trump was being a bit mean to Zelensky, calling him a dictator.
	I can understand why a country in a current hot war would not run elections, right?
	I can understand it.
	And I don't think it's entirely fair.
	And again, I don't like to defend Zelensky or anything.
	I don't think it's entirely fair to just be like, right, Zelensky, you know, you're a dictator now.
	I think that's correct.
	God of Gravy says, the Eurocrats demanding a signed commitment from Trump is silly.
	Zelensky just said Putin doesn't respect it.
	Exactly.
	Reminds me of that scene from Game of Thrones.
	Is this a piece of paper on your shield, Lord?
	Is this piece of paper your shield, Lord Stark?
	Yeah, again, You know, it works for the international rules-based order, but outside of it, they don't give a fuck.
	Um, silver again says, I was watching The Wire, and one of the street uh, one of the names street hustlers had for their drug product was Trump Towers, and then they mentioned Trump as an idol a lot.
	Yeah, he used to be their man.
	I'm telling you, these he's dropped in loads of rap uh songs as well, you know, as the ideal.
	Um, you know, they get it, they got it.
	RJ Spain says, I remember one of your older videos when you turned your head, stopped talking, and left the video.
	I thought myself, oh, you look like you went to dad mode.
	Yeah, that's what that is because the thing is, it's like you know, oh, I have to go and resolve something now, you know.
	My son has got the most awful face cold, and I can feel it coming up in me now.
	Um, Nullface says, Ukraine war is just the deep state, fast, and furious weapons laundering scam writ large.
	Hey, man, I'm not saying it's not, you know, I'm and this is what Tucker is saying: like, look, whatever you think is happening, there's shady shit going on underneath, and I believe it.
	Uh, Putson hasn't won from the Western Western calculus.
	Americans are allergic to casualties, but he doesn't care about that, so he'll get the territory at the expense of his people's lives, eh?
	Yeah, I mean, that's the Russian way of war, frankly.
	It's always been attritional.
	The Engaged View says, I just want to know why you let American Gonzalo De Lira die of pneumonia in a Ukrainian prison rather than getting your medical care.
	Because Gonzalo was posting anti-Ukrainian videos, pro-Russian videos, in Ukraine in a time of war with Russia.
	So, like, I mean, that's why he did it.
	I, I, I, why, why was he in Ukraine?
	Just out of interest.
	And he was a YouTuber, he could have gone anywhere.
	And for some reason, he finds himself in Ukraine being anti-Ukrainian, pro-Russian.
	Like, that wasn't genius, right?
	I don't know.
	I'm not saying he should have done it or anything like that, but like, that seems to have been an easily avoidable fate.
	But, you know, rip Coach Redpill, I guess.
	Sorry, I just had to refresh.
	AOP says, I do 50, 60 hours a week work.
	I have...
	Can I have a king that either takes me to war or leaves me alone?
	Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it?
	Some random S says, if America is Rome, I mean Great Britain is Greece.
	Yeah, and there is a parallel there.
	So eventually it will be conquered, and the American Caesar will create the Holy Dominion of the Greater Anglosphere.
	Dude, we've been an American vassal for a long time since World War II.
	Triple R says Kier can't send British troops to Ukraine without Trump's approval.
	The last thing we need is an embarrassment like the Swears crisis.
	He will, and it will be embarrassing.
	Cowboy Curtis says, Pastor Louis had a great video at the start of the war about how he didn't care about it.
	As American, I felt the same way about the war.
	By the way, someone re-loaded his whole channel recently.
	If anyone missed him, did he take down his entire channel?
	Damn, man.
	We should come back and start making videos.
	Tax says, peace hinging on Putin's respect for Trump means peace will be over once Trump is out of office.
	Sure, but if it's Vance that takes over, well, I imagine the same would hold because Vance would have been integral to the peace deal, being his vice president.
	But also, like, Putin's probably not going to be around forever.
	He's getting on now.
	How old?
	Let me just check.
	Huh?
	He's 72.
	Like, you know, he's been, he's an old dog.
	He's long in the tooth.
	You know, like, oh, why wouldn't Putin invade?
	Well, I mean, he's very old.
	Good answer.
	They should send the illegal migrants in the Ukraine in the UK to fight for Ukraine.
	Oh, yeah.
	Can you even imagine?
	They disappear overnight.
	We're like, right, you know, everyone who arrived here in the last five years, between, you know, 18 and 50, is being conscripted to go and fight for the Ukrainians.
	You came to Britain to fight for the, because you wanted to take in the international global rules-based order.
	So now you've got to fight for it.
	They would fucking scatter.
	I mean, that would actually be a great announcement.
	I mean, like, yeah, so we're going to be coming around and giving you your papers.
	And you will be conscripted to fight for Ukraine.
	They would fucking disappear overnight.
	You would see entire communities just empty.
	Flights non-stop, loaded with foreigners going home.
	And not just the illegals, you know.
	Dana says, funding and training hundreds of thousands of troops under the flag of World War II bad guy ideology will have worse consequences than funding the Majidine did.
	Yes.
	I've got nothing to add to that.
	Alias says, God bless you, Carl.
	Your dulcet terms calm my soul in these hard times.
	Yeah, the sunrises, brother.
	Thank you.
	Gold says, Trump is already annoyed with the Chinese EU soft power when Zelensky said, you will feel it referring to Russian soft power that hit hard for Trump because he spent the entire month restoring Pax Americana.
	Yeah.
	And it was the tension.
	He shouldn't have presumed to be able to dictate how Trump was going to feel about something.
	That was offensive to him.
	You can see Trump was pissed about that.
	It's like, no, no.
	Carson says.
	So Sujad says, Zelensky is a typical Jew/slash slav.
	Regardless of how you help him, you're doing it wrong.
	Narcissist with delusions of grandeur.
	If you admit to consider helping him, he'll feel entitled to it.
	Carson says, thanks for the commentary.
	It helped clear up my uneasiness with yesterday's fallout.
	Not to be soft on Zelensky, but what could have Trump done better at that moment yesterday?
	What was the good outcome for this debacle?
	Trump could have been less sensitive, right?
	Trump, I think, and Vance could have been less sensitive to the issue.
	Because they are in the position of strength when it comes to this.
	Zelensky needs their help.
	They essentially should have weathered Zelensky disrespecting them and acted as if they were the adults dealing with the child, which towards the end, Trump was wagging his finger at him.
	And this essentially could have put Zelensky back in his little box and put him in his place rather than taking offense at it.
	It would have been better if they'd just essentially kind of not taken him seriously when he was saying these things.
	I think that would have been a better strategy.
	Maganomicon says, Hi, Carl, been a viewer since the early days.
	Politics of Demolition Mamma is amazing.
	This kind of content is important.
	If we want to retake the culture, keep up the good work.
	Thank you.
	Thank you very much.
	Inbro Duck says, the globalists want to kill off the Slavs.
	The only people who left will defend themselves.
	Well, I don't know if I'd go that broadly.
	But they certainly got no love that they don't value the Slavs at all.
	View them as just literally human fodder.
	Convincing Reality says, the problem is that from the very start, Zelensky seems to slightly neg Trump towards voicing a threshold for American boots on the ground.
	Well, he's looking for a guarantee.
	He's looking for a security guarantee.
	So you can understand why he would be this way, but Trump isn't playing the game in the way that he plays the game.
	There are a bunch of other comments, but to be honest with you, I'm absolutely shattered.
	So I'm going to wrap up with only a couple and say, and apologize for being exhausted.
	I'm sure you can see the bags under my eyes.
	I had a two-hour nap this afternoon because I was just fucking wrecked.
	Because I just, every morning, my four-year-old gets up, gets into an argument with the other kids, and starts yelling really loudly.
	And I'm just like, shut up.
	You know, and so, like, I have been losing a couple of hours of sleep every goddamn day.
	And so, I want to go to bed for my Saturday night.
	Like, what are you doing Saturday night?
	I'm trying to get in bed before midnight.
	Hopefully, then, about seven o'clock on Sunday morning, when I get woken up, I'll have had a sufficient amount of sleep.
	So, um, Silver Kamara, uh, sorry, Hammer Space Froggy says, uh, how strong is Italy's support for Ukraine being under Georgie Maloney?
	Well, she seems to be deeply committed to the Ukraine war.
	Um, do you think it'd be possible or pragmatic to get more or less uh to get more of the less fervent countries to end their support for Ukraine instead of Trump?
	Uh, I, yeah, I think people like Orban will.
	Um, I don't know about the rest.
	I mean, the rest of the EU seems to be speaking with one voice on the Ukraine issue.
	So, I think they will continue to be frankly weird spurgs about it.
	And uh, Goose Springsteen says, regardless of your non-interventionist inclinations, do you worry about the risk of nuclear proliferation in a world without reliable security guarantees from the US?
	Like, what I fucking do now.
	Um, I don't know because I'm a so it's a long thing to go into, but I mean, like, Pakistan is theoretically a nuclear-armed country.
	Do we think their nukes work?
	Do we think they're going to be competent with them?
	I don't know, you know.
	So, no, but it would be nicer to have reliable security guarantees from America.
	But, um, but anyway, uh, thank you, everyone, for joining me.
	Um, this has been hopefully interesting and hopefully useful.
	Um, again, I want to reiterate: I'm not on either party's side, I'm not anti-Ukraine, I'm not even anti-Zelinsky, not pro-Putin, I'm not pro-Russia, I'm not really you know, I view them as like a foreign civilization.
	So, I just want to be clear: I'm not for or against either one.
	I don't, I just don't want to pay for it, I don't want to see any more deaths.
	I think that Trump probably has the right strategy to just if you need to just need a quick takeaway there.
	I think Trump's probably on something, and I think it's because he has his relational view of the world that's rooted in the spirited part of his soul, which is a completely different form of politics and diplomacy to what the international rules-based global order is offering.
	Anyway, sorry, Chief Slingenby says, I sent you the first super chat I've ever sent.
	Sorry, man, there are loads left over, and I can feel myself like getting slow and crap.
	And like, the answers I'm giving are shit because I'm really tired.
	Um, I can't see it either.
	I don't know whether it hasn't come up or what because I can't see it.
	Let me I will find it just because I saw you post that.
	i like to be nice i'm afraid i can't see it so So, but uh, but thank you everyone for joining me, and thank you for your very generous donations.
	This is much appreciated.
	Especially was, I mean, you know, these are going to be end up getting taxed through me to get fucking Ukraine.
	So, brilliant.
	But no, thank you so much.
	It means the world.
	And it wouldn't, like, things are difficult here as well.
	So, I really appreciate it.
	Means that you know take less out of lotus eater space.
	So, anyway, thank you very much, folks.

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