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Aug. 16, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
29:58
Negotiating from Strength - August 15th, Hour 1
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This is an iHeart Podcast.
All right.
Thank you, Scott Shannon.
And thanks to all of you for being with us.
Write down our toll free telephone number.
It's 800-941 Sean.
If you want to be a part of the program, if you are not near a television, let me describe the scene.
Oh, maybe about 20, 30 minutes ago, President Trump Air Force One landed here.
We are broadcasting this radio program from joint base Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska.
This is where the summit has taken place between President Trump and Vladimir Putin.
And in the last six, seven minutes or so, uh, Vladimir Putin has touched down.
Let me give you a quick rundown of what we expect the day to be like is Air Force One arrived.
Uh and uh sure enough, Vladimir Putin has arrived.
President Trump has not come off Air Force One.
He's uh but that this I have the whole schedule.
This is all planned out literally to the minute, so you know what the day's gonna be like.
Now, there are many unpredictable things that can happen.
There's no guarantee this meeting will last more than five minutes.
Remember, President Trump said, I think I'll know in two minutes if he's serious.
I don't think Putin would be here if there's not some level desire, interest in coming to some agreement.
And President Trump has been very smart about how he's managed expectations about all of this and how this is a first step, and that the next step, if in fact Putin is really willing, he's gonna make that determination.
He says he may know within two minutes.
That's that's that's being able to read a room, I'll tell you that part.
I wonder what he thinks of me when he sees me, you know, before the interview for that I'm about to do with him tonight.
He'll size me up in a minute and a half.
I'm like, that's it, Hannity, you're out.
Um anyway, I'll I'll go through the itinerary for you just so you know.
Um we the meeting between they're both gonna come off the plane.
Here's President Trump, as a matter of fact.
Now, again, this is all planned, all orchestrated.
President Trump is making his descent down Air Force One.
And you know, I'm I would not be surprised any second now if you saw Vladimir Putin do the same thing.
And uh I can tell you right now, I'm I'm in an airport hangar.
If I were to walk out this door and in the hangar and walk to the end of the hangar, I'd be watching this live.
That's that's how close we are to what was actually happening here.
Uh Vladimir Putin now is coming down.
I think that's Vladimir, comrade, how are you?
Vadka.
Uh again, all of this predetermined, all of this orchestrated.
So this is what they call a spray, where the two men will meet, and what they'll immediately do is, and they both have a red carpet that they're walking on, and they will then have a private meeting.
I as I understand that it'll be the two of them alone, probably with interpreters.
Uh, although Putin does speak English, is my understanding.
And then they will have a series of breakout meetings that will take us to about anywhere between you know five, six o'clock, then they're gonna have at some point in between, they're expected to have lunch together.
And when all is said and done, and this is maybe scheduled for about 730 uh tonight, this evening, uh, they would have a joint press conference.
And we don't know for sure.
I mean, again, that's gonna be fluid as well.
And at that point, immediately after that press conference, uh, I will go up live.
It might be a little few minutes early before nine, so you might want to, you know, be watching it like 845 or 850.
Uh I will have the first exclusive sit-down interview with President Trump to find out how this whole day works out.
Uh, you could see President Trump, he's greeting the troops.
He's he's clapping to some group of people.
I'm not sure who.
Probably I would assume the troops.
I had the great honor opportunity to meet a lot of people that are here serving our country at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson.
There's the handshake.
And a flyover of what sounds like some fighter jet.
And uh they're smiling, looks friendly, shaking hands, walking down the red carpet together.
And President Trump is significantly high uh taller than Vladimir Putin.
I don't know if that means anything.
I remember one time I was mad at President Trump over something.
It was during his first campaign.
I said, all right, just sit down.
As soon as he sat down, I stood up.
Because I really I did, because I wanted to get his attention because I was telling him something that was I felt was important in the moment.
But optics matter.
If I were to give you an overall, if you read the room, body language, very relaxed, both sides, a lot of smiles.
So maybe not a bad indication.
They uh it's it's actually on a delay, which just so you know the feed because they both looked up in the air.
Uh they're now standing.
It says Alaska 2025.
I don't know if they're F-35s behind them.
I I don't, it is F-35s.
Okay, there are two F-35s behind them.
Uh and last time, did you see the shot where we had the um the AWAX plane behind me?
How cool is that on TV?
And it says Alaska 2025.
Uh, and I believe one's is one American.
No, they're both, they're all American.
They're all American.
I met kids that were that are serving here from all over the country.
All right, so they had the quick photo op.
Uh the beast is is there.
That is the presidential uh limousine, and it looks like Vladimir is getting inside the beast.
When I was in the Gulf States, I got to go in the beast.
It's part of my you know, interview and experience with President Trump.
The doors are thicker than anything you've ever seen in your entire life.
And uh I will not reveal secrets.
I may or may not have learned about that.
What's interesting is I guess because it's I guess because it's on American territory, it's in Alaska.
That's why they're doing that.
And so, you know, again, all of this is orchestrated.
The spray is over.
Trump and Putin now will go into a meeting.
Uh the breakout sessions will then follow up with that.
I'm sure a lot of the breakout sessions will result in first.
Let's cue you into what we discussed, and then let's take it a step further.
And a best case scenario.
Now, how do we define success here?
There's there's so much to tell you about the lead up to all of this.
Uh there's some rays of hope, and then there's some dose of reality.
In the lead up to today, for example, you know, uh, we know Ukraine attacked multiple cities in Russia just yesterday, and we know that the Russians had also attacked.
We know the Ukrainians also hit a Russian oil refinery last night in air strikes.
And similarly, uh we know that the Russians have been pounding Ukraine.
And so you, you know, both sides, I think, doing it for some type of advantage.
Maybe they think it's some type of negotiating advantage.
I don't really know.
But Ukraine last night struck an oil refinery in Russia's uh Sumara region in an over uh overnight attack.
Ukrainian forces also hit a Caspian seaport, cargo vessel.
You know, the war is ongoing.
There's not a ceasefire, so both sides are doing the same thing.
Uh in Alaska, it was interesting.
I saw two contingencies.
One is a bunch of leftists that were protesting, and another group, several hundred people gathering for a pro-Ukraine rally here in Anchorage, uh, where the president is.
Uh, and with hundreds of Russian soldiers, I mean, both sides, both Ukraine and and Russia, both sides have, you know, they have been fighting, you know, now for going on three years.
And I, if anyone would have told me Ukraine would still even be in the game, I wouldn't have believed it.
Now, for the most part, it became a proxy war between Joe Biden's administration and Russia.
Now, there are certain things that have happened that I think really got Putin's attention.
First of all, I think there is a genuine relationship between the two of them.
I don't think this is like a lot of other summits where there's a predetermined outcome.
I don't really see that here.
But if you look at, for example, the fact that the president kind of has gotten fed up with Putin and him dragging his feet, and he's trying to push this thing along, and he's put a lot of political capital into this.
I think finally said, okay, fine.
If you're going to be difficult and you're going to continue to attack innocent women and children, we're going back.
We're going to arm Ukraine, although President Trump is doing it differently than Joe Biden did, is he's selling the weapons.
The second thing that I'm certain got Russia and Putin's attention is the EU trade deal, where close to a trillion dollars Europe is now committing to purchasing American energy.
That's money coming directly out of Putin's pocket.
The fact that the European Union has been purchasing so much energy from Vladimir Putin has actually worked against them because they're funding his war machine in the in the process.
Another big part of this is the tariffs that President Trump put on India if they continue to buy Russian oil.
And when the president says over and over again there will be severe consequences if Putin doesn't make a deal here, he's not talking about going to war with Russia.
He is basically saying he's going to do everything in his power to prevent Russia from being able to sell their energy, which will just devastate their economy.
The last thing that I'm sure got Putin's attention is President Trump was able to get NATO to double their commitments.
So all of this is happening simultaneously as we continue our coverage.
It's going to be an interesting day for me.
I mean, the show's going to be a little bit more fluid than normal, and we'll get some expert analysis.
But you know, for the most part, for the next two hours, they're disappearing in a room.
And I'll try to work some sources and find out yay or nay and see if you know I can get any indication.
But uh Russia's paid a very dear price, too.
Radio Free Europe had a piece out after mounting losses in Ukraine, the Russian government appears to be intensifying their coercive recruitment tactics.
They're now having to target prisoners as conscripts and ethnic minorities from remote regions as well as Central Asian migrant communities.
Remember, they've also been importing fighters from North Korea, and according to testimonies collected by Radio Free Europe, male inmates in prisons and parts of Siberia describe routine beating psychological torture threats aimed to force them into military service.
And then on the other hand, then you have reports that there might be, you know, President Zelensky is taking guys that are over 60 years old to go fight this conflict.
I mean, nobody's doing great here.
Nobody's winning in this.
There's no winners and have been no winners here.
Fortune magazine pointed out Russia's coming financial crunch could derail Putin's war machine.
Yeah, well, okay, the Kremlin's oil and gas revenue, their main source of revenue tumbled 27% in July from a year ago to 787.3 billion rubles to about 9.8 billion or about down 9.8 billion.
That's a lot of money, especially if you're trying to fight a war.
And it's probably about to go down significantly more.
Now, what is the end game?
What it well, all right.
More important, let me let me give you what the reality is.
All right, let me be very let me let me keep it real here.
Because the bet the best case scenario coming out of today would be they have a good meeting, they agree to the meeting that Donald Trump has called for and add Zelinski.
Uh the idea that European countries that have enriched Putin are trying to tell Donald Trump how to negotiate is a joke to me because they themselves have compromised their own security.
So if that in fact happens, and the pre and President Trump has said he wants that next meeting very quickly.
Okay, at that point, then what are we really dealing with?
Okay, well, Putin's gonna retreat and he's gonna go back to Russia.
That's not gonna happen.
It's gonna be a very complicated needle to thread that will involve land swaps, but also what Putin doesn't want to give Ukraine, which is security guarantees, so there won't be a third invasion.
What's the point of doing this?
And what?
You get a Democratic president in next time and you get another conflict.
That's not a win to me.
All right, I'll give you what the most likely outcome and scenario is here in a second.
Anyway, we uh continue.
We are at joint base Elmendorf Richardson.
We're in Anchorage, Alaska.
We're literally feet away from where Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are.
Uh I do have the first interview with President Trump uh tonight, Hannity Fox News.
Hope you'll tune in and watch that.
That's gonna be very interesting.
I love knowing what's going on behind the scenes.
What happened?
Tell me the real secret.
What did Vladimir eat anything?
One of the more interesting things in one of the Kim Jong-un summits was to find out that nobody in the delegation of North Korea ate a bite of food.
They must have thought it was poisoned.
And at the time Tucker Carlson went in and started grabbing the desserts and handing them out.
True story.
I want to start with this is this is not Donald Trump's fault.
You look at the timeline.
We have we have talked extensively about you know Joe Biden.
Joe Biden couldn't even pick up a phone and call Vladimir.
Hey, Vladimir, why do you have 200,000 troops and all this military equipment on the on the border with Ukraine?
Uh and uh, you know, maybe we could talk this out.
Maybe we could talk this through.
And Joe Biden never bothered to lift a finger.
So, you know, Joe Biden just didn't care.
And this is the point.
You know, if you look at Crimea when it was annexed in 2014, hello, Instagram.
How are you?
Good to see you.
By the way, we here at the Sean Hannity Show support David Sunflower seats.
I prefer the ranch flavor.
Um, but it's this all happened.
Crimea happened under Obama.
And in the case of this military buildup, the you know, weaponry and troops along the Ukrainian border, it was so obvious.
And Joe's answer, don't.
And Kamala's answer, don't.
What does don't mean?
And oh, it depends if it's a minor incursion.
What does a minor incursion mean?
This is madness.
This is insane.
So because President Trump, now again, a lot of negotiation is an art, it's not a science.
And then what's fascinating is is President Trump saying, I'll know within two minutes whether or not he's serious.
Well, two minutes is coming gone.
Because we are right here, you know, literally, we're not I I honestly I'm sure I could probably throw a football to whatever room they're in at Joint Base Elmendorf, uh, Richardson.
It's a beautiful place.
Wonderful people, by the way, that work here.
I've met I've met these young, you know, soldiers from all around the country.
They're just phenomenal people.
But because President Trump, what happened because of Biden and his weakness and the minor incursion became a full-on blown-out war in Europe, what what the end result is is that Joe Biden ended up providing all of the weaponry and funding it, so it it evolved into what was nothing short of a U.S. proxy war with Russia.
Well, that's never gonna end well.
And President Trump has a whole different strategy, and he said to put he said in the lead up to today there will be severe consequences.
I'm gonna spell out what that will mean.
But if you go back just a number of months ago, and you look at the polling data, the polling data was clear.
Americans, they want no part of these forever wars, and they don't think we should be involved in foreign conflicts.
So I got pinned by these these Russia media people sticking cell phones in my face.
I'm like, who how do you even know who I am?
And I said, you got to understand, Donald Trump will walk away in five minutes.
Well, five minutes has passed, so okay, he can't walk away now.
But when I said that to them, it was a reality.
And Donald Trump probably the United States on paper gets the least out of this deal.
There's not one European leader that could possibly pull this meeting off.
Not one.
Not one that would even expend the political capital to try, but they don't have the strength to do it.
But Donald Trump got them to commit to more than twice of what they were paying for NATO.
So many nations weren't paying their fair share.
And Donald Trump did a trade deal with Europe, which resulted in a trillion dollars and committed money for energies that they're going to buy from us.
That stops funding Putin's war machine.
That's a smart thing to do.
President Trump said to India, you keep importing Russian oil at we're gonna slapping you with a 50% tariff.
Guess what?
India now has to think twice about whether or not they're gonna take on any more Russian energy, which would not be a good idea for them anyway.
But in the case of Europe, it's more infuriating because they're paying all this money for national defense and a NATO alliance against who against the possibility of Vladimir Putin or hostile regimes coming in.
It's insane.
But because Donald Trump has been very, very skillful in making sure both sides have something to lose here, you see the polls have now reversed and reversed quickly and and rather dramatically, and it shows 62% of Americans overall support sending military assistance to Ukraine.
Now, one of the reasons for that is that President Trump is not giving them the equipment.
It is if but he is recognizing that Russia's handling of this and their lack of a conscience, a heart and a soul when it comes to, you know, just taking out innocent women and and children, which they have been targeting, uh, has got to stop, and that it's in the world's best interest.
It is in the world's best interest.
You know, if countries would focus more on economic partnerships over, you know, geopolitical conflicts, do you think just think how much better off the world would be?
It's like some of these people that come up with the most sophisticated criminal schemes, you wonder what might they accomplish if they ever put all of that energy, all of that thought, all of that creativity, into something productive, but they don't do that.
So the one thing that Trump wants, he wants a lot of things out of this meeting.
And and but one of the things, if you want to look at the big picture, what do we expect?
What is the realistic outcome here?
I don't want to play games with with all of you out there.
Donald Trump's been clear that this is a first step.
Donald Trump's been clear that if this goes well, he wants phase two to come very quickly and expeditiously.
Phase two would include Zelensky.
Then, of course, where then we're talking about a ceasefire, then we're talking about an end to the hopefully the hostilities, then we're talking about a negotiated settlement.
That's that would be the ultimate goal.
That is not what's that's not in the cards today, President Trump's been clear that's not in the cards.
If you want to know what I what I think the realistic outcome is, and maybe some of you like this, maybe some of you won't like to hear the reality.
I can I can sit here and BS you and tell you things that just aren't true.
But the reality is if this war goes on for a protracted period of time, I don't see the odds of Ukraine ever winning back any of the territory they currently have lost.
Ukraine is completely dependent on other countries to fight this conflict.
The Russians are not.
If the Russians find other avenues where they can sell their oil, they will be able to continue to fund their war machine.
Now, do I think they are foolish enough to want the entire landmass of Ukraine and need an Occupying force because that's what it would take.
And it would they would have their own problems in terms of they they would constantly, Russian soldiers would constantly be in be killed, constantly.
There'd be a resistance that would go on for decades and decades and decades.
I don't think that's what it is.
But you know, Putin would argue that the Donbass region, 80% Russian national, if you gave people a vote, they would go with Russia.
So what is the likely outcome?
And again, don't shoot the messenger.
I'm giving you just a straight up analysis on this.
I would imagine a land swap is probably going to be part of it.
What does that mean?
It probably means at this point because Ukraine has lost the territory in a war, right or wrong, historical precedence, whatever.
It doesn't matter.
And that's going to be what Russia wants.
Now what does Ukraine want?
Ukraine is going to want security.
And by the way, they will, there's no deal worth having for Ukraine if now they're not going to have NATO security.
That's a non starter, but they're going to want security guarantees.
And other European leaders, Macron, for example, said Trump was supportive of continued security guarantees for Ukraine.
Putin's not going to like that part of the equation.
Putin would like to have the ability or the option to go back in any time he damn well pleases.
And that would mean the possibility of a third invasion.
And what's the point of even starting this process if that's going to be the end result?
Bad bad idea, bad consequence.
So, you know, the hope is coming out of today is that Vladimir comes in with the right attitude, and he understands that he's not going to get everything he wants.
The president has spoken to Zelensky many, many times.
The president is now funding Zelensky in terms of, you know, it's American weaponry that he's buying that is keeping him in the game.
You know, so it's uh, you know, one other thing I think strategically for the president is very smart, too, because you have the you know, how close does Donald Trump want China to Russia?
And don't think that Vladimir Putin's not competitive with President Chi because he is.
Now Putin has praised Trump's sincere desire for peace in the lead up to today.
I thought this was pretty interesting.
Comments that he made late yesterday praising the U.S. for making sincere efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is raged on now for over three years.
And he said on TV that the U.S. was making, in my opinion, quite energetic and his sincere efforts to stop the hostilities and stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in the conflict.
That doesn't sound like somebody that is against a deal.
That sounds like somebody that is recognizing that this might be my off ramp.
Um that's why it's going to be so fascinating to interview President Trump tonight.
I want to I want to know what you all want to know.
I want to know what goes on.
I mean, if I could be a fly on the wall in another room at this air base we're at, I would love to be a fly on the wall.
I'd like to know what's really going on.
You know, there's been talk and there's been a lot of speculation about well, what what what might this all look like?
You know, U.S. and Russia possible peace deal that would include a West Bank style occupation.
I think what most people are not factoring in is probably the most the most obvious answer is everything comes down to money.
Everything comes down to money.
You know, how can they benefit financially?
That's what a lot of these you know deals end up being about in the end.
They end up being about money and how much money they might be able to extract, or how much, you know, does it provide what they need.
What are the things that they need?
You know, if you're making a business deal, what are the things that people need in life?
Fortune magazine is put pointing out that Russia's you know, fiscal crunch is that bad that it can in the end derail Putin's war machine, and it's about to get worse.
And I think that's where the severe consequences are coming in.
Also, we talk a lot about the price that Ukraine has paid Militarily, the Russians have paid a price militarily.
They paid a huge price militarily.
And, you know, but you know, what form manifestation this takes on, I don't know.
I just know that it really is nobody else in the world that's capable of pulling us off than Donald Trump.
You know, Trump said his game plan, he said, well, it's kind of like chess.
He's not wrong.
And if it's chess, that means that Donald Trump is ten steps ahead.
Because it's not checkers.
And this is not for the faint hearted.
And if you read the art of the deal, go back to Trump in his early career.
He's always said to be a good businessman, you have to be able to walk away from any deal up until the last seconds.
So the last words that Trump said publicly on the way to this summit was that he threatened very severe consequences if Russia doesn't agree to end this war.
Couple that with what Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said, which was the warning that tariffs on any major purchaser of Russian oil could go through the roof if in fact these talks fail.
So what did I just say?
I said it all comes down to money, didn't I?
In the end, it's always going to come down to money.
You know, and you know, at some point, do I think it's the issue of civilian casualties in Ukraine that Vladimir Putin's going to be motivated by?
I don't.
You know, Ukraine is now targeting Russian oil facilities with drone attacks.
They did it last night.
You know, Ukrainian media reported that two days ago, 990 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in the last 36 hours.
Not that long.
And the Russian economy, Bloomberg had an interesting piece about this, is faltering under the strain.
And now President Trump may have taken away two of Putin's biggest energy company uh customers, the European Union and India.
If India goes along with the tariffs, and they might not have any choice.
And China's another big customer.
So anyway, it's it's interesting.
The Telegram had an interesting article, Trump to offer Putin minerals.
That's that's already kind of been part of the deal.
Um, 800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
We continue our coverage.
We're live.
President Trump and Vladimir Putin.
The summit is officially underway.
We are at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson.
Uh they will have not only a lunch, a meeting, and then breakout sessions, and then we expect a joint presser, and then the most important part of the day for President Trump is seeing me.
What?
Just saying.
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