Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano - Alastair Crooke : The Pressures on Trump.

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Aug. 11, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano

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Alastair Crooke : The Pressures on Trump.

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	Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
	Today is Monday, August 11, 2025.
	Alistair Crook will be here with us in just a moment, but first this.
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	Alistair Crook, welcome here.
	Alistair, you wrote a great piece a few days ago about Russia seeking to comprehend fully the various constraints on President Trump, just as relevant today after the announcement of their meeting in Alaska at the end of this week as it was before we knew when and where and even if they were going to meet.
	But I need to ask you this at the outset.
	Who has more to gain and who has more to lose by this meeting between President Trump and President Putin in Alaska on Friday.
	Well, that depends entirely on what happens.
	But I think in the sense of who has much to lose is that I think that in terms of Ukraine, it's very unlikely that we will see much progress.
	I think what we will end up with is the continuation of the war as Russia plows on, presses on with its military operation.
	With Trump, you know, it's quite clear what he really wants.
	is a headline, a good headline.
	He wants to be the center of attention again.
	He wants to dominate and to show that he's dominating the world scene, that he's the great leader and that everyone comes.
	And so I think Whitcoff was sent off to try and sort of fix that so that there could be, you know, a great splashy meeting with Putin and it would be, you know, him and Putin together and as others have suggested even sort of bringing in Zelensky at the end.
	But the reality the reality is stra nothing has changed.
	There's no change in the Russian position.
	There's no sense in which the Russians have given any hint of a concession to offer Trump, except the ones we all know.
	And what happened, I think, was it may be much more complicated because it seems, and we don't know the details because nothing was reported about that conversation, but that Whitkov may have misled,
	certainly, the Europeans and Trump because he misunderstood what was being said that at one point Putin said, well, you know, if we take a ceasefire could happen if we take the Donbas, that is Donetsk and Lyonansk oblast.
	And as for Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, well, we can have a sectoral ceasefire in that we will stay there in those two areas, but we will stop attacking the Ukrainian forces for the period of a ceasefire.
	It seems that Whitkov may have understood that Russia was proposing a withdrawal.
	And that's why we have all this talk about swaps taking place and swapping land and so on.
	It wasn't proposed that at all.
	This was just, as he said, a sectoral ceasefire in those two provinces.
	Donetsk, the Ukrainians have to for Donbass, they just have to withdraw from it.
	But he was not proposing a Russian withdrawal person.
	And so I think that's caused and what's happened is that the Europeans have gone nuts.
	I think they're meeting about now on Zoom with Kalas, the European, you know, and all coming, how to stop this and how to get, if you like, how to get Zelensky into this discussion and Europe.
	I think they've given up on trying to get Europe into it, but they want Zelensky in it.
	And of course, the Russians have said, no way.
	In fact, I think the Russians have suggested, if you do that, who knows, we could have Medvedev or someone in it.
	But the point is, this has never been set up properly because it remains, it's remained as the.
	the archetype of General Kellogg, which is that until there's more pressure, until there's more pain felt by Putin, there won't be agreement.
	And clearly, since he hasn't moved on, we need more.
	So he's advocating to the Europeans, and the Europeans are taking it up.
	We need more sanctions, tariffs on Russia and on Russia's friends, secondary tariffs on Russia's allies.
	And the American ambassador to NATO has said, yes, you know more secondary sanctions they're coming they're coming it's war on bricks essentially so with all these pressures you know what is trump going to get out of this and i would suggest that putin chose very carefully to have it this meeting in alaska and i think that um whitcock met for
	some hours before meeting with trump um with kiril dmitriev the head of the russian sovereign fund he's a man who's wall street trained i mean he's a product of an American bank, and he's very bright, and he negotiates with Whitcock.
	I'm sure that what they know, what could come out of it, because, as I say, they understand Trump needs a headline.
	He needs something good news, you know, a showstopper, something that will excite everyone.
	So what about the Arctic?
	Here we are, you know, in Alaska.
	What about the Arctic?
	Look, huge raw earth, huge deposits of minerals, oil, gas.
	Join with us in a joint project in the Arctic and you'll make billions and billions from it.
	And so we maybe, I mean, I don't know.
	I don't have evidence from this, but that choice and it does go back, you know, there were talks between American oil companies.
	This was pre-Biden.
	between American oil companies and Russia for joint production.
	I mean, it's a very rich area and there is a lot of resources there.
	And would that tempt Trump to say, I've got a great deal out of this.
	We're going to make millions, billions of dollars from this deal.
	Let's forget, you know, Ukraine, we'll talk about later tonight.
	Yeah.
	So maybe.
	I think you're right on the mark in thinking the way you believe Trump thinks.
	But from your experience as an ambassador and as a diplomat, when heads of state meet over something as dramatic as war, isn't there usually an agreement hammered out ahead of time and the meeting is just the formality for them to take credit for the agreement that their underlings actually worked out.
	If that is the case, this is an abnormal meeting.
	As far as we know, nothing has been agreed to other than the time, date, and place of the meeting.
	I think, you know, this really goes back.
	And, you know, the blame for the fact that this meeting is held without any preparation by Sherpas or others to get this in order.
	And you're absolutely right.
	I mean, you know, usually it's the heads of state.
	They don't come to negotiate with another.
	They come to sign the agreement that has emerged.
	And this will not be the case.
	And I think, you know, where it's all gone wrong is with General Kellogg, because he has just insisted, you know, no, there must be a ceasefire first, a straightforward ceasefire.
	Political discussions, you know, no, you don't need to prepare them.
	We don't need to do anything.
	They will take care of themselves based on the sort of Korean model.
	And so nothing has happened.
	And the line is simply, well, now we need, if you like, tariffs on all those dealing with Russia, more tariffs.
	And I think to get out of this is one of the reasons Trump wanted so much to have this meeting, because it's quite clear to me, but you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me McConnell and others in the Senate are trying to regain control of the Republican Party away from Trump.
	And one of their tools for doing this is for tariffs and sanctions, because they know perfectly well that if they put tariffs and if they make Trump agree to a system of tariffs, whether it's on India or China or other BRICS countries, it will prevent ever a chance of normalizing relations with these countries because we know America never lifts sanctions.
	I mean, they stay forever.
	It's impossible.
	There's never been a case of sanctions being imposed and then really lifting.
	So I think he's desperate to get out of being penned in by some of the hardliners in the Republican Party who can't stand the MAGA force.
	forces there at all and want to get back to a sort of uniparty approach which sees Russia as something that must be reduced to dependency on America that it has to be subjected to enough pressure that it becomes a dependent country like other countries and hence all of the firing up and this is what Putin will be seeing all around.
	You know, the pressure on Azerbaijan, that new proposal to put NATO forces right on Iran's border, all of the what is happening., the heating up of the ISIS movements, the attack on Lebanon, the attack across the region, shows that Trump has no agency on the Middle East.
	He has shown that, for whatever reason, he is trapped, cannot take action there.
	Perhaps he doesn't know the motive for the trapment, but he understands that he's entrapped or he doesn't know quite what the details are.
	And that is connecting to the American aspect of that as well.
	As we speak, you mentioned this earlier, European heads of state and foreign ministers are meeting in a Zoom meeting.
	Also, as we speak, General Kellogg is in Kiev.
	Now, what is he telling?
	What can he possibly be telling President Zelensky?
	For all we know, General Kellogg's on the Zoom meeting as well.
	But we know he's in Kiev or on his way to Kiev.
	What can he promise President Zelensky?
	Well, what I now, I don't know what he's going to say in Kiev.
	Obviously, I can't read his mind.
	But what I hear is and what we've been told reportedly that.
	I believe that Macron and Starmer agreed in a conversation between the two of them that what Zelenskyy must do is to do some provocative operation, a false flag operation or a provocative attack into Russia,
	into the depth of Russia, or something else we don't know, sufficient to create an absolute pressure on Putin to respond and thus to destroy the meeting altogether, to stop the meeting taking place.
	The Europeans are terrified of the meeting taking place and they want to stop it.
	And this was a discussion, I believe, the Russians have probably picked up on it and suggesting that, you know, there isn't going to be an attempt to create some incident, some security catastrophe that creates the impossibility of following up on this meeting.
	And they're trying to get, they're trying to put Zelensky into Alaska, whether invited or uninvited, to sit there on the borders and to sort of throw verbal hand grenades into it.
	Don't you think that if Zelenskyy shows up in Alaska, even if he's invited by the Americans, the Russian delegation will go home?
	Yeah, they won't talk to him.
	They'll say this was this was not in the agreement.
	I do think I don't think Trump will do that.
	I don't think he will do that.
	I think he understands that they won't do this with Zelenskyy.
	But this is part of the disruption tactics the Europeans are using.
	How close is Russia to achieving its military objectives in Ukraine?
	I think very close to an inflection point, which is that, you know, after the Maidan Revolution, there was set up in a very sort of urbanized area, this series of about five cities, which were turned into fortresses, into a new defensive, a new Maginot line, if you like, of defense.
	And it's breaking up and it's cracking and it is being destroyed.
	And when it is broken, that is a major change psychologically, socially in Ukraine, but of course militarily, because if there's nothing then, Russia will be on the Dnieper River.
	So there's a great deal of anxiety and I think this is causing the European furor is they feel that they could be at the point of defeat, that Ukraine they do finally see that the situation is becoming past critical mass.
	It is getting critical mass and it could change dramatically any moment.
	And this is what's causing this huge.
	I mean, they've been in discussions ever since it was announced all the time.
	They are talking about how to stop Trump, how to contain this, how to ensure that European interests, so called, will be guaranteed in this process.
	European interests, of course, means continuing the war.
	The Republicans in the Senate have two proposals making their way through the legislative process, one for about 50 billion, one for about 100 billion more aid to Ukraine.
	Now, the way these proposals are structured, it's subject to the discretion of the president.
	So even if he signed this into law, he doesn't have to spend it.
	But Colonel McGregor, Colonel Wilkerson, Scott Ritter have all told us that the United States' military supplies of offensive and defensive weaponry are dangerously, dangerously low.
	And at some point, we will have to stop providing the Israelis, about which more in a minute, and the Ukrainians with the level of military supplies with which we've been supplying them.
	I don't know if these senators understand that.
	I don't either, but I do think what you've just said is absolutely correct.
	There's no inventory.
	And Europe doesn't have the inventory either.
	So the question is, can money alone sustain Ukraine?
	I mean, how do you have an army and how do you fight, if you like, if you haven't got weapons?
	I mean, the money is actually damaging.
	I mean, I found that in Afghanistan all those years ago when I was there.
	I used to persuade the CIA, try to persuade them.
	And I said, you know, if you put.
	too much money into Afghanistan, all you create is divisions and people are jostling each other, wanting a bigger share, and no one actually fights because they're more concerned with grabbing their share of the loot that's coming in.
	You have to contain the amount of money you give to the weaponry and the ability you have to take this forward, and they're not doing that.
	So it's only money that's left, whether it's European money, American money, just money going in, and that money that ends up in, you know, back in American banks and European banks.
	It doesn't actually change the situation on the ground and they are on the cusp of a big defeat which will be a blow to Europe because it will destroy, you know, the whole European conceit that they are somehow a politically significant power and the whole idea that Europe is something to be contended with,
	that it is a power and it has to reduce itself to nothing more than a trade association and a regulatory body.
	And this is causing great despair in Europe.
	Is MAGA turning against Israel?
	Yes, I believe not only MAGA.
	I think it is, it is, there is a, I mean, you know, I'm an outsider.
	You're an insider.
	But what I see from the outside is that there has been one of those big shifts that is social and cultural in America.
	American particularly young people I think over 50s are still stuck in you know Exodus film and are not moved on from that but under 50 there's a big change It's just, it's just not acceptable.
	It is vile.
	And so there is a shift that is taking place and they blame Israel, but they also blame Trump, and Trump knows that.
	And it's he who told an Israeli donor that my base is coming to hate you.
	But he can't do anything because Israel or the powers that be somewhere beyond have told him., no, you can't have what you want, which is an end to the war and to have a release of the hostages, because we are going to continue the war and we are going to continue it everywhere and you can't stop it.
	And the question, you know, comes back, who are these people?
	Because we've seen, and as you know, Ashley follows us closely.
	I mean, we see that there are divisions within Shimbet, the security service, divisions within Mossad as well.
	Yes.
	used to call those two services, together with other parts of the institutional framework, the Israeli deep state.
	Well, that no longer works anymore because behind that deep state there has to be another deep state that is telling Trump, no, you're not going to get what you want.
	Whitcoff can come and go, but no, yeah, we'll let a little bit more food in to sort of just keep the thing going, ticking over, but we are going to go ahead with our plans.
	And what's more, Whitcoff was fooled.
	This is what the Israelis say because he was told or given the impression that, you know, Israel was going to go in, sort out Hamas and come out.
	They didn't say that the Israeli plans actually for at least four years in Gaza, maybe much, much longer.
	And that at the same time, Israel is pursuing ardently, where can we send these Palestinians to?
	They came up with a deserted Indonesian island the other day.
	I don't think that's serious, but this is typical of what is going on.
	So, I mean, there is a right-wing force in Israel that seems to be having a great deal of say and power.
	even over parts of Shinbet and the defense.
	That's we had more than 500 senior defense security officers in Israel writing a letter saying, we are committing harekare.
	This is a great mistake.
	We are going to suffer a defeat in Gaza, a defeat not just in Gaza, but a defeat of the Israeli project, of the Sionist project as a whole.
	is going to flow from from this.
	That's 500, including heads of heads of Shinbet, says Amy Ayalon.
	And Pardo, the head of the former head of Mossad, all signing on to this letter.
	Yet someone in America, some people in America or in Israel on the right, have said to Trump, no, we are going ahead with Gaza and we will not agree to make a deal and to get the hostages released.
	It's, I mean, you can imagine the tension in Israel because it's a condemnation to death of the hostages.
	Today, Monday, the IDF murdered five Al Jazeera journalists.
	one of whom was exceptionally popular and extremely well-known.
	They, of course, claim that these were not journalists.
	They were Hamas under the guise of being journalists, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence for that whatsoever.
	It just seems that every month, every week, every day, this is worse and worse and worse.
	There's more slaughter, there's more bloodshed, there's more innocence.
	I mean, you need to, I mean, be aware that Lebanon is on the edge of civil war because, you know, this envoy, Barak, is pushing very hard.
	And the Saudis are pushing extremely hard for the forced disarmament of Hezbollah.
	And Hezbollah are not weakened rump, as people think.
	They have cleaned up everything.
	They don't use phones.
	They don't use the communications, all that.
	Any Western electronic component has been washed out of the system.
	And they still have their heavy weapons.
	They haven't been done.
	But if you think, if they think in Washington that the Lebanese army is going to be able to disarm Hezbollah, they're wrong.
	It will lead to a disaster and it will probably divide the Lebanese army in two.
	Alistair Crook, thank you very much, my dear friend.
	A truly, truly gifted analysis.
	And we'll see what happens.
	We may have to call on you again if some...
	But thank you very much for your time.
	Much appreciated.
	Look forward to seeing you next week.
	Anytime, Judge.
	Thank you very much.
	Thank you.
	Coming up later today at 10 o'clock this morning, Ray McGovern at 11.30 this morning, Larry Johnson.
	At 1 o'clock this afternoon, live from a television studio in Moscow, Scott Ritter and some Russian officials, and I will get to question them and they will get to question each other.

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