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May 27, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
26:35
Alastair Crooke : Is Trump Missing the Boat?
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Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Tuesday, May 27th, 2025.
Alistair Crook will be with us in just a moment on Is Donald Trump Missing the Boat?
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Alistair Crook, welcome here, my dear friend.
Thank you for accommodating my schedule.
I know today seems like a Monday here in the U.S., Tuesday, everywhere else.
Let's start with Ukraine.
What about the Russian modus operandi and goals?
Does Donald Trump seem not to understand?
As you know, I've just come back from St. Petersburg, which was, if you like, the liberal capital, the capital of the liberal world in Russia.
And I found a huge change, really significant change, this anger.
Deep anger.
Cold anger.
Now, what I want to explain is that when I was there about a year ago in St. Petersburg and talking to people, of course they were still bemused, puzzled by the West putting sanctions on them.
At first, many people from St. Petersburg, some of them left the country.
They went to Europe, went to other places, because they thought it would be disastrous and it would affect them badly.
But what happened?
Nothing.
Nothing.
The economy wasn't affected by it at all.
And the people who'd left appeared rather foolish for having done that.
But nonetheless, you have to put this into a context.
What's driving this anger is essentially Russia, of course, went through a terrible time, St. Petersburg particularly, with the siege and with the famine, and then they had,
if you like, the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks were there, the Soviet Union came, they got through the Soviet Union, they pulled themselves out of it by themselves, but the transition caused huge suffering, really bad suffering.
People were, I mean, the statistics were grim.
Mortality rates, infant mortality rates shot up during that period.
And then just as they come out of that, get through it, and are starting to recover, what happens?
The West forces Russia into a defensive war.
A war and with sanctions.
And with, if you like, more forms of pain on it.
Now, the sanctions haven't affected Russia so much.
So what I'm talking about with the argument, people, of course, or some of the elites, they had houses in Europe, they had flats in Finland.
All of those are lost because they can't pay the utilities, they can't pay the taxes.
So they've lost all their properties.
But that's mostly for the elites.
What I'm talking about more is just the sense of real anger.
Anger at the West, particularly amongst Europeans that they thought were friends or who were colleagues that they were working with, who seemed to be saying that you, you deserve it.
We just saw Lindsey Graham getting up in the Senate, and I think he said, Face these massive sanctions.
You deserve it for your barbarity in Ukraine.
And they're really angry about that now.
Really, it's a pivot.
It's a pivot because it has major implications.
There's no longer any pressure on Putin.
This isn't about people wanting...
It's not about that because that's over.
That might have been in the past because everyone, everyone you speak to understands very clearly the operation must go on, must continue, because otherwise all this expenditure of life to date is wasted because then there will be the next war, the next time the West comes back.
And attacks us.
And then all this blood would have been for nothing.
So we have to take this through to conclusion.
And so everyone understands that Putin gets it.
He understands that.
And he's playing what they see as a sophisticated game of chess.
With the American psyche, you know, we must be tough, we must be strong, peace through strength.
And they realize that Putin is having to play that.
He has to play it for diplomatic reasons, for China, for Iran, for BRICS as a whole.
He needs to play that.
And everyone understands that.
And so now, you know, Trump has missed the boat.
He is not going to be able to come back because he's seen as weak.
He's seen as unable to show that he has the political strength to mean what he says.
And this is what the Russians keep saying.
And they say, look, what we are asking for, we're not asking for anything from America except for a relationship.
What does a relationship mean?
No, it doesn't mean a little bit more money here or we will invest more with you in the Arctic.
It means when you say something, you mean it and do it.
And we mean it.
Alistair, it's one thing for Lindsey Graham not to understand this.
But it's quite another if the president and the people around him, whether they're the America Firsters or the neocons, fail to understand what you've just described.
Do you sense, and I think your answer is yes, that Trump and his national security team do not understand what you've just described?
I mean, partly they don't want to understand that.
And also because You know, this ideological, if you like, this peacemaking ideology of the West is so transactional that it doesn't take account of situations where there's irreconcilability.
It's always, you know, can you have a little more land here, a little less there?
Look, here's the spectrum.
We'll divide it, you know, half and half.
But when you're talking about things like neutrality, Neutrality isn't a thing.
It's a way of thinking.
It's a consciousness.
You have a consciousness.
The Swiss had a neutral consciousness for many decades.
And again, sovereignty is a consciousness.
Your people feel they are conscious.
So how do you divide this up?
A little bit of neutrality to him and a bit of neutrality somewhere else?
You can't do that.
You can't do this with sovereignty.
You're either sovereign or you're not sovereign.
And so this transactional approach of the West of saying, well, get into a ceasefire and then we'll divide up a bit of territory between you.
This is fine.
No problem about this.
It's just not working in that way.
It isn't.
They're not capable of working in that way.
And people see it, and therefore they know there will not be a deal with America.
But they're angry at the language, and they're angry at the Europeans, even more so, with their ugly language.
And seeing after everything, you know, that St. Petersburg went through when the Germans, you know, deliberately burnt down the Catherine Palace, just as an icon.
Now, they see Germany leading the call for war on Russia, and they don't see Trump doing anything about it.
Now, you ask me, is it because they don't understand it?
I think there is a problem there that he is getting increasingly boxed in.
Now, a couple of months ago, the New York Times admitted very clearly that the U.S. The CIA was directing the attacks into Russia, into Russia, homeland Russia.
And, of course, Russia understands that can only have come about because President Biden signed a finding, instructing the CIA that they should make attacks into Russia, first of all with limits, and then later.
Now, Rubio, who we've seen saying, well, you know, we have to leave this to the Senate if they want to sanction Russia.
He knows that because he's one of the group of eight.
Group of eight being those that are briefed about things like the findings, presidential findings.
But why doesn't Trump, if he really wants a deal, why doesn't he issue a new presidential finding, telling the CIA to stop it?
To stop the attacks, instead of which we get, and this was raised with me when we get there, you know, Germany talking about Taurus missiles and that there's no restrictions in the future.
Well, they have a 500-kilometer range, so they can go in and hit Moscow, potentially.
And then you hear that Trump has said, oh, I think Putin has gone crazy.
He's gone nuts.
All this attack.
And yet, do they not know that Ukraine fired nearly a thousand drones specifically targeting the airports in Moscow?
They shut down the airports.
They didn't hit the airports, but they shut down all of the four airports in Moscow.
They nearly hit his helicopter as he was going.
Putin was going to curse.
And then no one says And what do you expect would be the response from that?
No, he says, they're going crazy.
So they don't trust, they're just not trusting the United States.
And I'm afraid the credibility that Trump had, because people were prepared, they saw him as different.
He is, in a way, radically different, but he's also radically something of the same.
Right.
I'm going to post on the screen what Trump posted on Truth Social when he referred to Putin as crazy.
You tell me who's crazy after we read these words.
This is Donald Trump.
Yesterday, I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him.
He has gone absolutely crazy and caps him with an exclamation point.
He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I'm not just talking about soldiers.
Missiles and drones are being shot into cities in Ukraine for no reason whatsoever.
I've always said he wants all, in caps, of Ukraine, not just a piece of it.
And maybe that's proving to be right.
But if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia.
Likewise, President Zelensky is doing his country no favors by talking the way he does.
Everything out of his mouth causes problems.
I don't like it and it better stop.
This is a war that would never have started if I were president.
This is Zelensky's, Putin's, and Biden's war, not Trump's.
I'm only helping to put out the big and ugly fires.
How does the Kremlin view Trump when he mouths nonsense like that?
Completely untrustworthy.
And as I said, I go back to what I said to begin with.
They want it.
They've mentioned it endless times.
What they were looking for was a new relationship with Washington.
People mean what they say.
And in that interview, and in the later interview, it seems that Trump doesn't know that there were a thousand drones fired into Russia by Ukraine.
In the days preceding this last Russian missile assault.
And he didn't seem to know that they threatened Putin's own helicopter traveling from Moscow to Kursk, accidentally or not.
But he did not seem to know it.
Who's briefing him?
And as I say, there is not any sort of sense that it is possible to have a serious discussion.
Because this transactional approach that is just a matter of how many oblasts, who gives up and what, misses the fact that this is a deep and protracted conflict in Ukraine and Russia, between Ukraine and Russia.
And it goes back a long way, as Putin has explained, and parts of it irreconcilable.
This is why you can't just simply sort of say, oh, let's just, you know, cut off this or blast and that or blast.
And now we have a deal and we can have a ceasefire.
And we can put off any political discussion to the long term, as they did in Korea.
I mean, this is absolutely nonsense and the credibility, and I mean this point when I say this is a pivot point, credibility of the United States and the Senate is destroyed in this period.
Now, Putin is going to go on playing along with it and trying to manage the...
But everyone understands.
So the pressure on Putin is not coming from what was the case where they felt he wasn't doing enough to win it.
They now know perfectly well.
That Putin understands a deal is almost impossible to conceive with America now, unless Trump is able to show that he has the political clout to be able to say something and to mean it and to take it forward in political action.
And they don't see that.
And so they're becoming very much.
And that, of course, means that we're heading towards escalation.
In fact, I mean, it means escalation is inevitable.
Here's more from President Trump yesterday at an airport in New Jersey saying how unhappy he is with Putin all the while his buddy Steve Witkoff is supposedly negotiating with him.
Chris, cut number three.
Yeah, I'll give you an update.
I'm not happy with what Putin's doing.
He's killing a lot of people.
And I don't know what the hell happened to Putin.
I've known him a long time.
Always gotten along with him.
But he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all, okay?
We're in the middle of talking, and he's shooting rockets into Kiev and other cities.
I don't like it at all.
President, what do you want to do about that?
I'm surprised.
I'm very surprised.
We'll see what we're going to do.
What am I going to tell you?
You're the fake news, aren't you?
You're totally fake.
Any other questions?
I don't like what Putin is doing, not even a little bit.
He's killing people.
And something happened to this guy and I don't like it.
Can I follow up on that?
A Russian commander reportedly said that Putin was almost caught in the middle of a drone attack from Ukraine.
I haven't heard that, but maybe that would be a reason.
I don't know, but I have not heard that.
What he said at the end is what you mentioned earlier.
It's almost inconceivable that he wouldn't have heard that.
And the president didn't know that for three days Ukraine was firing missiles at Moscow and shutting down the airport.
no one had briefed him on this and he didn't know and he just regards Putin as being crazy and attacking.
I mean, you know, this isn't...
A Biden presidential binding that exists somewhere.
We don't know what it says or anything, but I know how these things work a little bit.
There is one authorizing the CIA to run the operations into Russia.
Then we have Mertz from Germany saying there are no restrictions now.
We can send missiles anywhere we want, deep into Russia, even to Moscow.
That's what he's saying now.
So what do you imagine is the Russian response to this?
I mean, quite clearly, they know the background.
They understand that.
And what they conclude is he's boxed in.
And you only have to look at the Senate support that Lindsey Graham claims to have.
82 senators supporting 500% sanctions on Russia.
I don't think they'll be very effective, these sanctions.
I don't think they'll work.
But I mean, as one Russian said to me very clearly, he said, listen, you know, Russians can be very rude.
So when you in Europe are so rude to us, we can be just rude back to you.
A lot of anger.
Understood.
Do you fear?
That the failure to understand the history, the culture, the military, the politics, and the observation of the special military operation as if it were a real estate deal, do you fear that all of that, combined with the verbiage out of Macron, Tusk, Starmer, and Mertz, will lead to a wider European war?
I don't think it's going to lead to a wider European war because the Europeans are not capable of it.
They don't have the troops.
Maybe even at the moment they could probably muster 35,000 troops into Ukraine.
I mean, that's a nonsense.
That would control perhaps 15 kilometers of the front line at the normal military rates.
They haven't the money for this.
But what they are intent in doing is to try and push Trump.
Increasingly into an escalation against Russia.
And they want to do this to undermine Trump and to undermine his program.
Because they, first of all, hate him.
And secondly, it's because they fear the consequences of his economic program.
The economic program can destroy Europe.
And they understand that.
So they don't want that to happen.
Here's Chancellor Mertz not too long ago saying what you just referenced about long-range missiles.
Chris?
There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine, neither from the British, nor the French, nor from us, nor from the Americans.
This means that Ukraine can now also defend itself, including, for example, by taking actions such as attacking military positions located within Russia, or by targeting other strategic sites as necessary.
Until recently it was not able to do that.
Until recently, with very few exceptions, it also did not do that.
Now it can.
In jargon, we call this long-range fire, meaning equipping Ukraine with weapons that can attack military targets in the rear.
And this is the decisive, this is the crucial qualitative difference in Ukraine's conduct of the war.
Russia attacks civilian targets completely ruthlessly, bombing cities, kindergartens, hospitals and nursing homes.
Ukraine does not do that.
And we place great importance on ensuring that it stays that way.
But a country that can only confront an aggressor on its own territory is not defending itself adequately.
So, and this defense of Ukraine is now also taking place against military infrastructure on Russian territory.
I guess if he had the men and materiel, he would send them to Ukraine.
That's the way he sounds.
You know, Russians, as I say, ordinary Russians, listening to that about how Russia is deliberately attacking schools, hospitals, civilians, they know it's just lies.
But it is making them very angry and, as I say, absolutely no one is thinking that there is any choice left.
They have to bring this to an end before the West decides to have another war against them and that all of these lives will be spent wastefully if there is a deal.
So, you know, the credibility, whether it is because You know, these presidential findings from Biden and the CIA have boxed in or the sentiment in the Senate is constraining Trump from taking any action.
The reality is that the other side, and it's not just Russia, it's Iran seeing the same thing, see that he does not have the capability to have a relationship, i.e.
a relationship where he can say something and mean it.
Because one day it's one thing, the next day it's a different thing, then it's something else.
And when he was at West Point just over the weekend, I mean, he said the power of the military is to crush our adversaries, to kill our enemies and keep the American flag flying across the globe.
What does that sound to you?
Like someone who wants a relationship with Russia and Iran or someone who's interested in global hegemony?
That's what it sounds like to the rest of the world.
And the credibility of America is going down the drain with it.
Great points, Alistair.
Thank you very much, my dear friend.
Again, thank you for accommodating my schedule today.
Thank you for all of your thoughts.
We'll look forward to seeing you back at the usual day and time next week.
All the best.
Thank you very much.
Of course.
And coming up later today, it's Tuesday.
As if it were Monday, at 10 o 'clock, Ray McGovern at 11.30, Larry Johnson at 1.30 this afternoon, Scott Ritter.
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