Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano - Pepe Escobar : A Pre-Alaska Analysis.

All Episodes

Previous Next

Aug. 12, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano

25:21

Pepe Escobar : A Pre-Alaska Analysis.

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	Hi, everyone.
	Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
	Today is Wednesday, August 13th, 2025 Pepe Escobar will be with us in just a moment from Paris with his very unique and very insightful preview of what we can expect to happen in Alaska when President Trump and President Putin meet on Friday.
	But first this while the markets are giving us whiplash, have you seen the price of gold?
	It's soaring in the past twelve months.
	Gold has risen to more than three thousand dollars an ounce.
	I'm so glad I bought my gold.
	It's not too late for you to buy yours.
	The same experts that predicted gold at three thousand two hundred dollars an ounce.
	$4,500 an ounce now predict gold at $4,500 or more in the next year.
	What's driving the price higher?
	Paper currencies.
	All around the world, they are falling in value.
	Big money is in panic as falling currencies shrink the value of their paper wealth.
	That's why big banks and billionaires are buying gold in record amounts.
	As long as paper money keeps falling, they'll keep buying.
	And gold will keep rising.
	So do what I did.
	Call my friends at Learn how you can store gold in your IRA tax and penalty free or have it sent directly to your doorstep.
	There's zero pressure to buy and you have a 100% risk free purchase guarantee.
	It's time to see if gold is right for you.
	Call 800 511 4620 800 511 4620 or go to learjudgenap.com and tell them your friend the judge sent you.
	Pepe Escobar, a pleasure, my dear friend.
	I must say that I'm blessed to have very, very intelligent fr, very thoughtful people on this program, and almost all of them send me written materials in advance.
	You have sent me one of the most profoundly intriguing, challenging, informative, and entertaining pieces I have ever read concerning geopolitics.
	It is your analysis of what we can expect in Alaska on Friday.
	So let me start.
	Is it going to be reality or shadow play?
	Shadow play.
	Shadow play 150 percent.
	Photo up for Trump, something that he could brag about later on.
	There are serious doubts that Trump understands the underlying causes of Maidan 2014, of the SMO, of the proxy war in Ukraine, and all the baggage, all that came before.
	So in the middle to go pop, I think this week we're going pop all the way.
	One of my readers reminded me of Goldfinger.
	So all of us who grew up watching James Bond will remember Goldfinger.
	So I applied Goldfinger to Donald Trump and I think they match.
	So maybe we're going to have a fabulous spectacle, but no substance.
	Wow.
	Do you think that this is just the prelude, the agreement to agree, the prelude to another meeting, which would be in Moscow at a much later date?
	The reason I ask that is because, as he is wont to do, I don't know how he thinks this is going to advance a negotiation.
	But President Trump just said a few minutes ago, there will be hell to pay for Russia if President Putin doesn't agree to stop the war.
	And we know he's not going to agree to stop the war.
	McGregor told us earlier today Colonel McGregor, the Ukrainian military is virtually obliterated.
	Why would they stop the war now?
	There's absolutely no incentive for the Russian general staff to stop the war now, especially because now they have total momentum all along the front line.
	We should go back to the definitive sentence that explains why Alaska is happening.
	Yuri Ushakov, top putting eight.
	We received a proposal from the Americans that we think is acceptable.
	We can read anything overground, underground, in parallel, subtext of what he said.
	Basically, he's saying that the Russians have no interest in having a blah, blah, blah about Ukraine and bigger questions.
	But if the Americans have a solid proposal, they consider it.
	And that's why Putin is going to anchorage.
	What that could entail, if on the table, we have a serious discussion about the overarching issues, which is essentially they concern U.S. Russia reset, a real reset.
	And of course, spheres of influence, expansion of NATO, the really, really serious indivisibility of security issues that were present in those two letters that the Kremlin sent to the White House and to NATO in December 2022.
	If we get to a situation on the table where they start discussing it, then there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
	or the thing could derail in 10 minutes.
	We don't know.
	We really don't know.
	So it's on a razor's edge what could happen.
	The positives, the negatives are much, much hardcore than the positives, slim positives, let's put it this way.
	Who has the most to gain and who has the most to lose?
	Depends on, there are two very complex relationships in terms of domestic public opinion and foreign policy.
	Okay, I'll start with Putin because it's easier.
	Putin is being criticized by some people among the intel agencies and let's say some think tanks as well and some businessmen.
	He should have ended this war a long time ago.
	He didn't cut off the head of the snake.
	This is going away and out of proportion for too long.
	It's time to end it and end it the Russian way.
	Internal critics, domestic critics.
	At the same time, Putin answers to bricks.
	Very important.
	Putin will be representing bricks in Alaska for several reasons.
	One of them is it's possible that inbuilt in what Ushakov told us about an American acceptable proposal, there is the possibility that Trump would refrain.
	Most of them, most of all, Russia and China.
	If that happens, it will be a BRICS victory.
	And Putin will get this BRICS victory.
	So BRICS is at the table in Alaska because, of course, the Empire of Chaos and Donald Trump himself, he is at war.
	against BRICS, hybrid, hot and cold at the same time.
	Trump situation, he has domestic opposition, he has total European opposition, and obviously he has gangsters of Kiev opposition to any accommodation and any possible beginning of a peace deal with Russia.
	So we saw these past few days how the dementia of Russophobia is now completely off the charts, trying to smash the summit even before it happens.
	At the same time, Trump, in his mind, what does he want?
	He wants to transfer definitely the war from...
	The Europeans will pay for the war against Russia in Ukraine from now on, buying loads of American weapons and getting 5% of GDP of each NATO member.
	And obviously the U.S. will profit one, two times, ten times, a million times from the whole thing.
	And he wants to do business with Russia if it's possible.
	if we get to the point of discussing a reset and doing business and doing business on what oil and gas and where in the Arctic And that also explains why this first meeting is in the Arctic.
	And this is the Russian carrot to Trump.
	The Russians suggested the first meeting in the US and they suggested the Arctic.
	Be Is Putin under any pressure from his intelligence people and his generals not to cooperate with Trump or to get American and UK intel to stop firing weapons on Russian soldiers?
	Exactly, Judge.
	This is the red line, not only for Putin, but for the Russian general staff.
	If in the discussions in Alaska, there is no mention of the us ceasing to uh provide intel to kiev not to mention weaponizing then all bets are off and russia will continue to do what they're doing attrition war uh victory in the battlefield within the next few months or maximum beginning of 2026 And they are absolutely sure this is going to happen.
	It's a national consensus.
	It goes from the Minister of Defense to the men in the street in Kazan or in Vladivostok.
	So the differential is, can we sit on the same table with the president of the united states and have a dialogue about resetting russia us relations the overarching teams discuss the big picture they're going to see that in the first 10 15 minutes and laprov is going to be there this is going to be quite substantial upside down our our friend Sergei
	Lavrov, our other friend, Scott Ritter, who's in Moscow, was on the show with some guests of his.
	We had a translator.
	They were government officials as well as business people.
	They're expressing the view that the Russian public wants a grand reset, geopolitical, economic and commercial, cultural reset, as was the case, excuse me, before Biden imposed and Trump continued the sanctions.
	Do you think President Putin comes to Alaska?
	with that on his agenda.
	It's also on his agenda.
	It's a very, it's a multi-layered agenda.
	resetting relations as a whole, discussing underlying issues and especially the background that led to Maidan and then to all those years of harassing of Donbass populations and the SMO, resolution of the SMO, respecting these four oblasts that will be Russian.
	And it is already inscribed in the Russian constitution.
	demilitarization of Ukraine, neutral Ukraine, no NATO in Ukraine, no Ukraine in nato no nato in ukraine of course right right they can answer you anytime they want the russians don't care all right so let's say trump says yes yes yes yes and yes what about zelensky exactly uh and especially what about his sponsors judge what about zelensky is just an actor what matters in this case are the sponsors the sponsors and
	among those sponsors is the american deep state and of course the american deep state So anything that Trump agrees by definition will be opposed by the US deep state except If Trump,
	after, let's say, this first meeting and the second meeting in the Russian Federation, which Trump is saying it should be held immediately after the first one in Alaska, he finally concludes that there's no way he can sell any possibility of any sort of arrangement to the europeans so he transfers the war completely to nato and then the industrial military complex and the deep state will continue to reap their profits in euros selling
	loads of weapons to nato but then it's going to be an european nato war against russia and america's that the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Brussels, et cetera, can afford to pay for the American arms and have the political will to do so.
	Not only they cannot afford, George, because they don't have the money.
	They will have to go in the open market and get loans with absurd interest rates that they won't be able to repay anyway.
	How they are going to sell this to domestic public opinion here in France, in Italy, in the UK, in Germany, it's absolutely impossible.
	There is a silent but extremely angry, I would say approaching a majority in most European nations that they are doing the math and they are making a direct connection between weaponizing Ukraine and the degradation of social services all across Europe.
	People are finally doing the math.
	If President Putin is unable to talk or negotiate for the removal of secondary tariffs.
	I'm pretty sure that BRICS has a plan B, don't they?
	Not yet, Judge.
	This is what they are discussing.
	I'm sure you and our audience, all of you, you have noticed the flurry of phone calls these past, I would say, less than a week.
	Everybody is calling everybody else, Putin, Maudi, Lula, you name it, she.
	And they are organizing a collective response.
	to the tariff dementia let's put it this way and to the overall hybrid war by trump 2.0 against bricks they are coming with their plan B, which is not a plan B. It was always their plan A. We are de facto de-dollarizing without even invoking the term de-dollarization.
	We are increasing trade in our national currencies more and more all the time, all across the bricks spectrum and involving the 10 bricks partners as well.
	So this is what, this is de-dollarization de facto.
	And you don't even need to comment about that.
	You don't even need a label for that.
	And in parallel, what I call the BRICS lab, they are still testing all these payment settlements mechanisms, which will be implemented between now, 2025 and 2027.
	They will all be implemented.
	There will be three, four, five of them.
	Not to mention payment systems like the CIPS payment system in China, the SPFS payment system in Russia, they will be merging.
	and this will be expanding to other bricks as well.
	This is all ongoing, non-stop.
	It's a high-speed rail thing.
	The i in bricks, the letter i I in BRICS stands for Iran.
	Now, yes, the President of the United States has been demonizing Iran because the President of the United States is arguably controlled by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and all of his acolytes here in the U.S. Question, will Iran be on the table for Putin and Trump?
	It's a very good question, probably not.
	because this is basically about U.S.-Russia relations.
	For instance, Putin will not explicitly mention bricks at the table.
	First of all, because not only Putin, but everybody around Putin, they know that Trump doesn't understand bricks and Trump doesn't know exactly how bricks work.
	But Putin can say to Trump, look, I'm here representing a group of emerging powers from the global south.
	And we all align in many aspects.
	So dealing with Russia means dealing with them as well.
	But this is going to be told in, I would say, almost like...
	like when Putin decides to revert to a history lesson lasting 20 minutes.
	Amidst these 20 minutes, he could introduce this extra element if he has 20 minutes to talk to Trump and give Trump the full background of what they are actually discussing, the parameters.
	And as far as we know, right now, Trump has no idea about the parameters they will be discussing.
	I have to say that I fully agree with you.
	I mean, when you compare Vladimir Putin's knowledge of geopolitics and history, Sergei Lavrov's knowledge of geopolitics and history with Donald Trump's and Marco Rubio's, it's not a comparisonison at all.
	It's an extraordinary balance favoring the Russians in terms of their knowledge and grasp of these affairs.
	It's not the first time that this happens, a judge.
	In one of my columns, the column I published earlier this week, I reminded the readers about the last time there was a summit in Anchorage, March 2021.
	US and China.
	Guess who was representing the US?
	Blinken and Sullivan.
	Guess who was representing China?
	Wang Yi and Yoda Young Jeshi, they destroyed Blinken and Sullivan.
	And this was, everything was fully documented and translated because, of course, the Chinese, they had an absolutely outstanding translator.
	And she translated everything from English to Mandarin, from Mandarin to English.
	So this went all over the place, reproducing.
	that, you know, I would say the smackdown that Blinken and Sullivan got, especially from Young Jeshi.
	So this was one side of the table that was completely unprepared, the other side of the table you're dealing with giants.
	You have the same thing.
	You mentioned the Arctic earlier.
	Will the Arctic be in play on Friday, or do more players need to be there to address the Arctic?
	In Trump's mind, yes, because in Trump's mind, in business terms, he wants to
	especially via the Arctic Silk Road.
	This is the Chinese denomination, which I think is much more appropriate than Northern Sea Route, which is the Russian denomination, with their fleet of icebreakers.
	They have nine nuclear icebreakers, two being built now, including a monster.
	which is capable of navigating the Arctic 365 days a year, non-stop anywhere in the Arctic.
	So this is the fleet that will allow the North Sea Route or the Arctic Sea Rolls to be functional all year around.
	Everybody will be interested because it's shorter, faster, and much more convenient than using the Suez Canal.
	So this is the long-term Russian vision.
	Will the Russians allow the Americans to be part of it?
	Forget it.
	No way.
	Gas, oil and gas exploration in some parts of Siberia or even the Arctic may be depending on the contracts depending if Gazprom is interested etc but this is what Trump has in mind he wants business oil and gas and that's where the arctic comes in depends on how he's going to would he be able to convince putting oh let us in let's make a lot of money together okay but first we need to solve that little indivisibility of security problem
	that we have right right will putin let trump take greenland i love this one I think we should think, would Putin let Trump get part of the Arctic business?
	This is more a problem because this is directly linked to what should be discussed on the table in Anchorage.
	Greenland is too far away.
	And Putin would say, okay, whatever you want to do with Greenland, this is not our problem.
	This is your problem, which is true.
	Will the military action in Ukraine be affected one bit?
	by the meeting in Alaska on Friday.
	Absolutely not, Judge.
	Absolutely not.
	And for instance, Pokrovsk is going to become Russian in a matter of a few days, Marx.
	And then everything to the west is open, coming back to what commanders in Donbass told me when I was there last time in February.
	After that, you know, you see those planes over there, we'll keep going all the way.
	And this is what they are already doing and they will continue to do.
	And the only thing that could let...
	The Russians would never accept a long-term ceasefire.
	They don't need to.
	Right.
	They don't have to or they don't need to.
	Would be if there is a strict American promise.
	And then we come back to Lavrov.
	The United States is non-agreement capable.
	Can you trust any promise made by Trump?
	Well, Lavrov would probably say no.
	Exactly.
	Exactly.
	because and he has all the background and he followed everything minsk one two three four five six same thing right ask ask the Iranians with whom the Americans were negotiating when the Americans started dropping 2,000
	pound bombs if Trump can be trusted Pepe I have to run thank you very much I know it's middle of night in Paris but it's worth it to have you on deeply appreciated my dear friend publish this piece it's about Goldfinger it's a masterpiece thank you so much all the best yep we'll see you again soon all the best thank you coming up if you're watching us live in five minutes but at 3 300 Eastern Kyle Anselone,

▲