Biden's Failed Foreign Policy - August 13th, Hour 1
In this episode of The Sean Hannity Show, Sean discusses President Trump's upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin, emphasizing Trump's unique approach to international diplomacy compared to past presidents. He critiques Joe Biden's handling of the Ukraine conflict, arguing that Trump's energy policies and military support for Ukraine could lead to a potential ceasefire. Hannity highlights the importance of political capital in negotiations and the need for strong leadership in addressing global threats.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
And I'm going to be telling him, you got to end this war.
You got to end it.
I like Congress.
She's a friend of mine, but she was her core consultant.
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We are looking forward.
We will be on the road.
We will be in Alaska tomorrow and Friday.
The first interview post-summit, Trump and Putin with President Trump will be with me immediately thereafter.
I assume it will be on, hopefully the timing works out right.
We're planning on it.
It'll be on Friday night's edition of Hannity.
And to get his first initial reaction to all of this is going to be interesting.
Let me tell you what I want.
I always like to manage expectations.
And when I look at this, I just compare Donald Trump in every regard to past presidents.
And we just have never seen anybody like this guy.
And it's not because he's my friend, not because I supported him.
It just is.
He's a force of nature.
And what really delineates him and separates him from so many other past presidents and other leaders is the idea that he is willing to expend all of this political capital for the purpose, really, of benefiting the world way more than the United States.
And Europe and Ukraine and everything in between says a lot about him because I can tell you how it works with with past presidents.
It works, okay, they'll talk about the idea and they'll get a list of all they have all their advisors in front of them and they'll give them a list of upside and a list of downside.
And when they get finished with the list of downside, then they'll ask themselves, why bother expending any political capital on something that may not go perfectly?
I would say going into this, there's a 25% chance that President Trump pulls a Reagan and says, net, and walks away from the table like Reagan walked away from the table at Reykjavik.
I don't think like in usually when there's a summit of some kind, there's usually a predetermined outcome that is expected.
I don't think that's the case here.
I think a lot of things have been discussed.
I think the possibility exists.
I think the fact that the president, you know, look what he's done so far in just the last eight months.
He's got he's he played a part in seven massive uh peace deals that have taken place.
I think, you know, two of the biggest are India and Pakistan.
You know, tensions were flaring up.
He got involved and they he helped simmer that down.
Israel-Iran, 12 days.
I don't think anybody would have thought that would have ended in 12 days.
He was active and involved in that too, and in the process, also took out their nuclear sites.
Rwanda, the Congo, Serbia, Kosovo, Thailand, Cambodia.
You saw last week Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, and Ethiopia.
And the president's going here.
And look, you can say what you want.
This is Joe Biden's conflict.
And we've gone over this earlier in the week.
Joe Biden allowed Vladimir Putin to amass troops and military might on the border with Ukraine.
And I think the worst part of the story is the president of our country never picked up the phone and said, What are you doing?
Why is this happening?
Offered a potential solution, offered to get involved.
And then, when asked about it, you know, well, it depends if it's a minor incursion.
And then asked in another case, don't.
Him and Kamal, don't.
Well, he did.
And, you know, a lot of people probably would like President Trump to do what Biden did, and that's call Vladimir Putin every name in the book.
Now, if you call him a murderer and a dictator and a thug, that would be an accurate description from my perspective.
And I'm not saying that Ukraine has handled all of this perfectly either.
Dumbest thing Ukraine ever did is give up their nuclear weapons program, you know, thanks to Bill Clinton.
That was dumb because I don't think they would be in the situation they now find themselves in.
But if you look at when Crimea was annexed in 2014, that was under Obama and Biden.
If you look at this minor incursion, which now has taken over, you know, significant portions of land, you know, it's that this is not a minor incursion.
This is a full-on war.
But if you really just stop and think about it, there are not many politicians, and I'm talking worldwide now, or former presidents that would be willing to expend all of this political capital when you would argue that the downside for the president could be significant, but I don't really think it's as significant as people think.
Because really, the only thing that President Trump is offering here, and he was very clear this week, he said he thinks he'll know within two minutes whether or not Vladimir is serious.
He also thinks he also had a conference call with NATO leaders, Western European leaders, and Ukraine earlier today, and laid out what I'm sure they all discussed what their expectations are.
A best case scenario would be to hopefully maybe put a ceasefire in place.
And in the lead up to this, my take is there's a reason that Putin is coming to the table.
And I'm looking at three specific things that Donald Trump has brought him to the table.
Now, what has been funding his war machine is energy.
And, you know, remember when, go back to when Angela Merkel was the chancellor of Germany, and it's now a pretty famous story.
He's told it a couple of times when I interviewed him, meaning President Trump, and that is once he handed her the white flag of surrender.
And she goes, what's this?
And he goes, that's the white flag of surrender.
And that was after Germany had done this, you know, 100-plus billions of dollars in an energy deal.
And the lifeblood of their economy was going to be reliant on a bad actor, that bad actor being Vladimir Putin.
And remember, it was President Trump already has been able to more than double the contributions of Western European countries as it relates to NATO, because after this incident with Ukraine, maybe they're all beginning to realize that Vladimir Putin is a hostile actor on the world stage.
Not sure why it took this to make them aware of it, but can you name any European leader that would be able to go and sit with Putin and possibly hammer out a ceasefire or some type of negotiated peace with Ukraine?
Now, nobody's going to like the outcome of this.
I can tell you that ahead of time.
I mean, had Joe Biden had enough sense to maybe stop this and nip this in the bud and have a negotiated settlement.
For example, I don't think the Donbass region is going back to Ukraine.
Why?
Well, it's about 70 to 80% Russian nationals to begin with.
So I'll use Lindsey Graham's term, there will be some type of land swap.
And if I'm Ukraine in this situation, you know, what Joe Biden allowed to have happen and what he allowed to evolve in this situation is that this became a proxy war as he was giving all of these weapons to Ukraine.
It became a proxy war between the U.S. and Putin and Russia.
But Putin was still selling his oil to Western European countries.
And the three things that the president did that I think have been game-changing, if you look at the trade deal that he made with the European Union, part of that deal includes a trillion dollars in energy that they will be buying from America because of his energy-dominant policies that he's put in place.
Well, that's money directly that was directly going to fund Putin's war machine.
Now, also, you've got to factor in that Putin's economy's not been doing particularly well, in part because he's been funding his war machine.
The 50% tariff that the president just imposed on India, also, they're getting most of their energy from Vladimir Putin and Russia.
And what he's saying to India is, no, you're not going to do business with the U.S. if you continue to do that.
And then I think the president did one other very important thing that got Vladimir's attention, and that is he's selling, unlike Joe Biden, he's not giving, he's selling very sophisticated weaponry and technology that is needed for Ukraine to fight their own conflict.
And because Putin has been, you know, so stubborn, he's like, okay, if this is what you want, if you want more death, then fine, we're not going to abandon Ukraine under those circumstances.
Now, if I'm Ukraine in this situation, you have to recognize that there's going to be a realignment in some capacity, part of which you're not going to like.
However, in exchange for that, if they want to stop the killing.
Now, the president was also clear that this decision ultimately is going to be made by Ukraine and by Europe.
In the end, the U.S. does not have to involve itself in any of this.
We really don't.
But I don't believe in isolationism.
This would have the potential, I think, over time to spiral out of control and become part of a wider conflict in Europe.
We don't, I know that's not going to end well.
It's not good for anybody as part of the equation.
So, you know, but you know, all how do you define success here?
I would say, well, the president, the fact that he's willing to do that which no other leader could do.
Name one other person in your own mind.
Think.
Who do you think would be capable of sitting across from Vladimir Putin and saying, you got to stop the killing?
This has to come to an end.
What country has the strength to impact Russia in significant ways, especially the funding of their war machine?
There's no country on the face of the earth that has that power the way the United States of America has it.
And there's no president that understands America's power more than President Trump.
Now, do I think there's a 25% chance that President Trump realizes Putin's full of crap?
I mean, Putin sent his message by, you know, bombing out innocent women and children in the last couple of days.
That was his message to say, oh, just so you know, I could keep this war going on in perpetuity, which everybody knew going in.
But then why is he wasting everybody's time and going to sit down with President Trump?
That's him in his mind.
He thinks he's showing strength to me.
He's just showing that he's a murdering, brutal dictator thug.
And, you know, one of the things, if you look at how Israel fought, fights their conflicts and wars, they have purposely over the years gone out of their way not to target, not to have civilian targets.
Hamas made it nearly impossible because they're firing missiles from hospitals and schools and their terror tunnel network that they built out and the brutality.
I mean, we still have American hostages being held by Hamas for crying out loud.
And then we have Israeli hostages being held.
And, you know, hopefully we now have the foundation laid that there can be an inevitable peace there.
So, you know, with the president now putting all of this on the line, the president has said he thinks he'll know in two minutes.
He also thinks the ultimate decision is going to be Europe's and it's going to be Ukraine's.
He's also warned that Russia will face very severe consequences if Putin continues the Ukrainian war after this summit.
He said there'll be consequences.
I don't have to say what they are.
They will be severe.
He said, talking to reporters at the Kennedy Center, he said that the summit is about setting the table for a potential follow-up meeting involving both Putin and Zelensky.
He said there's a very good chance we're going to have a second meeting that will be more productive than the first.
He said, I'm not sure if the two guys can be in the same room, to be very honest.
I really don't.
Anyway, because the first is, I'm going to find out where we are and what we're doing.
So I want to manage everybody's expectations here.
I'm not sure what people think is going to happen.
Now, Putin does have nuclear weapons.
How to factor that in?
America doesn't want to have a nuclear war with Russia, but Russia doesn't want to have one with us either.
And the one president he really doesn't want to mess with is Donald Trump.
So I could tell you the next, you know, by Friday, I mean, history will be made.
It was made in Reykjavik when President Reagan walked away and said no deal.
It hinged on the issue of strategic defense, SDI, and it ended up, he ended the Cold War in the end.
It may be a case like that where we don't see the benefit of all of this until much later.
I don't know.
But you got to say this.
President Trump, he's not wringing his hands and he's not, you know, asking his advisors, what's the downside?
He's just going in headfirst like he always does, which to me is very courageous, which defines who he is as president.
Let me go back to this summit one more quick time here because what we know about this, and it is, as the president said, he's going to allow Europe, he's going to allow Ukraine ultimately.
I mean, Zelensky, we know, cannot make the ultimate decision on his own.
He's got to go to his legislature and the way their government is formed.
So it's not going to be a peace deal.
The best, maybe the best case scenario, you walk away with a ceasefire.
But what frustrates me is all of these European leaders that have, if you really look at it, not stepped up to help their own continent.
They have, no, it was Joe Biden, America, American taxpayer dollars, American military might, and Joe Biden foolishly gave it all away when Ukraine could have paid for it.
A separate issue.
Donald Trump is helping Ukraine.
I think it made a big impact in Putin's mind, the fact that he's now willing to sell all of this weaponry to Ukraine so it can defend itself because he's given Putin every opportunity to go for a ceasefire.
I think putting the sanctions on India, as I stated, I think that's a big, big factor as well.
I think the president making the trade deal with the European Union and they are going to stop buying a lot of their energy from Vladimir Putin, the lifeblood of their economy, and they're committing to nearly a trillion dollars in American energy purchases.
That is playing a big deal.
What frustrates me is the ever-impotent European Union and European countries and Western European countries.
There's not one of these leaders, not one, that could even possibly arrange a sit-down, a meeting with Vladimir Putin and have a serious, significant, meaningful conversation about a potential peace in this conflict.
And they all want to tell Donald Trump what to do.
I mean, it's almost unbelievable to me.
Anyway, they're now telling, okay, we only want an enforceable ceasefire.
There is no enforceable ceasefire.
That would be a great result.
Nobody can guarantee it today.
Donald Trump can't redraw the map.
Donald Trump can't talk about land swaps.
Donald Trump can't talk about land for peace.
Donald Trump can't, can't, can, can't, can't.
And then you have one idiot, European Union, you know, wedded to their unbelievable, pathetic appeasement policies.
You know, the same people that, again, funded his war machine.
Well, Putin's got to be told he must respect international law.
He doesn't respect international law.
He doesn't give a damn about international law.
And the only one that has showed any sense, the only people that showed any sense in this were the first people to make a trade deal with Donald Trump, and that's our friends in Great Britain.
Anyway, British officials are telling these idiotic EU leaders to shut up and stop being unhelpful with their never-ending running commentary on this looming Ukraine peace talks between Trump and Vladimir Putin, especially when you factor in that none of them are capable of making this happen on Friday.
Again, no guarantee of the result.
We don't overpromise and under deliver.
It could end the way Reykjave ended.
And that is an American president standing up and saying no, yet, not happening.
Ronald Reagan was not willing to give up on strategic defense.
And good thing he wasn't because, you know, when the media made fun of strategic defense and called it Star Wars, we've watched all of that play out in real time.
It's amazing if you go back and look how realistic the media was mocking then President Reagan, and they'd come up with these graphics where missiles were being shot out of the sky, and it was like contempt and laughter.
I think it probably is Reagan's greatest legacy.
You know, in the end, it won't happen in our lifetime, but if the president gets the technology moving on a golden dome, that might end up being his greatest legacy.
So, you know, let's see what the president's able to pull off here.
I do think that the conditions are ripe.
The conditions are right for Vladimir Putin to maybe consider the alternative of peace and put an end to the killing.
There's no guarantees.
There's no guarantees in life.
There'll never be guarantees in life.
But unlike every other political leader, he can make it happen.
Unlike other political leaders, he is willing to expend political capital.
So far, it has paid off big time with all the other peace deals that he has been a part of to his credit.
It's getting interesting watching the radical left in this country.
It's always interesting watching the radical left in this country.
So the National Republican Congressional Committee, the NRCC, has rolled out a new ad tying the politics of radical Democrats like New York City, you know, mayoral candidate, Marxist Mamdani, to the future outlook of the Democratic Party.
Now, they're targeting 25 vulnerable House Democrats across the country, which is really somewhat modest ad-by, but it's sending a message.
Are you going to let them now?
This is a very, very smart ad on the part of the Republicans.
And everything they're saying in this ad that Democrats want to do is 100% true.
You only need to listen to their leaders.
And one of them now is the rising star Marxist Mamdani or Jasmine Crockett or AOC or Grandpa Bernie.
I mean, the suckup on fake news, CNN to Grandpa Bernie, was beyond the pale.
I never heard anything like it.
Or Pocahontas is out there campaigning with him and making him cry and everything.
It's a very touching moment.
But they do plan to remake America.
What will happen?
Democrats just voted for the largest tax increase in history and voted against the largest tax cut in history.
They voted against working men and women, you know, because the one big beautiful bill had no tax on tips or social security or overtime.
They voted against all of that.
And none of these so-called Democratic leaders, none of them are willing to take on the likes of Mamdani, AOC, the squad.
None of them.
They won't say a bad word about them.
Hakeem Jeffries, Chucky Schumer, they're only, quote, leaders, minority leaders in name only.
Anyway, and what would happen with the border?
They would open the border.
They would have mass amnesty.
I think they would probably follow the advice of people like James Carville.
I do think they'd look for D.C. statehood, Puerto Rico statehood.
I do think they'd like to pack the courts.
I think there's a lot at stake.
They'd impeach Trump a thousand million times if they absolutely could.
You know, Mom Dani now is centering his campaign on going all over New York City and surrounding boroughs in New York and making this an election about President Trump.
It's actually very clever on his part.
In a place like New York City that is so radically left, running against Donald Trump is not a bad idea.
And as others, you know, desperately try to get some attention and some traction.
Anyway, it prevents focus on his privilege, his inexperience.
What we talked about yesterday, this guy has a rent-stabilized apartment, which is designed for working men and women and for low-income and for poor people.
And meanwhile, him and his wife make a couple of hundred grand a year.
And, you know, Andrew Cuomo is not wrong in saying that he ought to give the apartment back.
He's not going to do it.
But it is the vanity of the left.
This is now the modern extreme radical Democratic Party.
This guy is winning.
His new poll has him at 44%.
Andrew Cuomo is at 25%.
He's up 19 points.
Mayor Adams is only at 7%.
My friend Curtis Lee was at 12.
But this is this, I mean, you can make the argument, politically speaking, that Mamdani winning and Fatah in Minneapolis winning, and this being the new direction of the radicalized Democratic Party is not going to hurt Republicans.
Or Gavin Newsom screaming about fight fire with fire.
This is your last chance.
None of it's going to work when the Democrats and J.B. Pritzker and all these other people that have ambitions to run for president in 2028.
I don't think it's going to work.
Michael Moore shaming disgusting Democrats for not supporting Momdani, begging to lose more races.
You keep going, Michael.
Don't stop.
You're doing great.
Momdani pressed on his pledge to be Trump's worst nightmare.
By the way, we have Hannity taped tonight.
We sent one of our reporters out, and they confronted Momdani not once, but twice today, and we'll air that tonight.
Anyway, the Republican National Congressional Committee, the NRCC, rolling out this new ad, I think, is a good idea.
And I think it's definitely going to be impactful.
I think it's going to be pretty powerful.
These horrible tariffs of Donald Trump are now projected to generate $1.3 trillion in government revenue in the next couple of years.
Oh, I thought they were terrible.
I mean, the president keeps signing deal after deal after deal.
That's a win after win after win.
And we're not paying, you know, this, we've been abused and taken advantage of.
In a way, you can kind of argue that the script is flipped.
And now these countries that are taking advantage of us, now they're paying the tariff, and we're not paying any tariffs.
And in the process, as a result of all this, we have over $15 trillion in committed manufacturing investments in automobiles, semiconductor chips, rare earths, pharmaceuticals.
And I mean, it's working out great.
And, you know, speaking of this mass migration out of places like New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California, you look at the state controller, comptroller of New York is now sounding the alarm about the state's cash shortfall.
Apparently, it's the worst it's been in like decades and decades, and they knew trouble was coming, but the legislature quit for the year, having given Governor Hochul the power to cut as needed.
And anyway, she now is asking state agencies to find $750 million in savings in the current year budget.
But next year, that nut jumps to $3 billion.
Long term, the state is facing their worst shortfall since the great recession, $34.3 billion in red ink in New York.
And this guy's going to come in and he's going to threaten to tax corporations.
Good luck.
That's not going to end well for them.
It is, you know, fake news.
CNN was reading the economic statistics and like, wow, this is amazing.
You know, oh, the experts wrong again.
Inflation didn't go up.
It remained steady, below expectations.
Whoopsie-daisy.
Trump's tariffs jumped to $25 billion a month as inflation holds steady.
And, you know, never mind the president's other success.
Look, if you actually look at the numbers, I have an article here somewhere in front of me in my, as Rush used to say, stack of stuff in my big pile of junk.
But if the CPI report that came out yesterday, it showed that inflation beat market expectations.
Tariffs are raking in billions of dollars.
Small business optimism is now at a five-month high, and real wages are rising.
Inflation is down since Donald Trump took office 1.9%.
If you look at the price of gasoline, it's down a whopping 10%.
That's a lot of money in people's pockets.
You know, the price of eggs is down 20%.
The price of phones down 14.7%.
Internet services down.
Energy commodities are down 9%.
Doesn't mean everything's perfect.
Real average weekly earnings increased in July.
America's real wages are up 1.3% over last year and have increased each month since Donald Trump took office.
Wage growth for American workers is beating inflation, which is good.
So inflation comes down.
People pay less.
If you look at the sentiment among small businesses, Bloomberg reporting, it climbed to a five-month high in July as owners grow more upbeat about the economic outlook, fueling a pickup in expansion plans.
If you look at the $15 trillion in expected manufacturing expenditures, there's something in that big, beautiful bill that nobody pays attention to.
It's called bonus depreciation for manufacturing.
And what does that mean?
That means they can build out a manufacturing center.
