Aug. 19, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
28:59
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| This is an iHeart Podcast. | |
| All right, thanks, Scott Chan. | |
| An hour two Sean Hannity show. | |
| Write down our toll-free telephone number if you want to be a part of the program. | |
| Anyway, we are following the news developing at the White House all day long today as the president welcomes all the leaders, let's see, from the President of France, the UK Prime Minister, the German Chancellor, the Finnish President, uh NATO secretary, uh uh the Prime Minister of Italy, and and much, much more, and President Zelensky, in the hopes that the President can follow through on his summit with Vladimir Putin. | |
| The President did say that he will call Putin after uh what takes place at the White House today. | |
| Anyway, here with analysis, we have Niall Gardner, he's the director of the Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, uh, and also Gordon Chang, author of the coming collapse of China, the Great US China Tech War, former U.S. trade uh rep in his own right. | |
| Niall, uh welcome uh back to the program. | |
| Um I'm making the case in two ways. | |
| I'm I'm arguing number one that I really do blame this mess on both Obama and on Joe Biden, and I give President Trump a lot of a lot of credit for trying to clean it up. | |
| Uh I don't think Europe is blameless in this either. | |
| They have funded Putin's war machine by buying his energy. | |
| None of them have ever tried to really engage with him. | |
| They have isolated him. | |
| Uh they are completely impotent in trying to deal with him. | |
| And if any country benefits the least in in a possible peace deal with Ukraine and Russia, I would argue it's the USA, and the only person that could pull this off, uh whether you like President Trump or not, is him, and he's moving at the speed of Trump. | |
| He's not wasting time. | |
| He's trying to get this thing resolved. | |
| And he's already had success around the globe with India, Pakistan, Israel, Iran, Rwanda, Congo, Serbia, Kosovo, Thailand, Cambodia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Ethiopia. | |
| So I mean, he's trying. | |
| He said it's it's by far the hardest of all of them. | |
| Um I think if it does come down to a deal, I think it's going to end up being land swaps of some kind with security guarantees. | |
| Uh not quite Article 5, not NATO related, but NATO like Article 5 security uh guarantees for Ukraine. | |
| Um I just hope there's an end to the killing myself. | |
| Nile. | |
| Yes, uh well, it's got great to be on the show. | |
| Thank you very much. | |
| And uh, you know, my my view uh is a strong agreement with that, but basically um with President Trump's leadership right now, it's a huge change actually uh from what we saw with with Joe Biden and with with Barack Obama, both very weak need uh leaders in my in my view. | |
| In contrast, uh Trump projects strength and leadership. | |
| You'll see that today uh at the White House summit, of course, with European leaders uh gathered together with President Zelensky of Ukraine. | |
| There's only one man in the world who can bring together this kind of of coalition, and that's that's President Trump. | |
| And President Trump, of course, determined to uh bring about an end to the war in Ukraine, a war that should have been averted, frankly, by Joe Biden, who actually did nothing to uh avert the war in the first place. | |
| And let's not pick up the Niall, he never picked up a phone. | |
| He never made one phone call. | |
| He never well, while Putin was amassing troops and military equipment on the Ukrainian border. | |
| Yeah, uh that's exactly the case. | |
| And also let's not forget that Barack Obama, when he was president, refused to actually send any defensive weapons to uh the Ukrainians. | |
| Uh and uh and so and whereas President Trump did do so during his first presidency, uh, and so uh there is a remarkable contrast, I think, between the kind of grit and determination that we're seeing from the U.S. Presidency today, uh, with the with the absolutely useless approach taken by by both Biden and and Obama previously. | |
| So uh America certainly is back on the world stage right now. | |
| What is your take, uh Gordon Chang? | |
| And I do have a uh uh a China question involving this, because I think one of the reasons Putin even went to Alaska is because Trump was able to up European or NATO countries' commitment to NATO more than double to five percent of GDP. | |
| I do think the European trade deal, where nearly a trillion dollars in committed monies for American inner energy rather than Russian energy played a role. | |
| I do believe the 50% tariffs that the president put on India played a role and I do believe the president selling sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine and to NATO is also playing a big part in it. | |
| But one has to wonder if the president is backdooring China and saying we don't want you to buy any more Russian oil. | |
| Yeah I agree with all of that Sean with regard to China they want this war to continue indefinitely. | |
| And the reason is that they believe that if the war continues the U.S. is not going to pay as much attention to China in East Asia. | |
| And we know this because Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Y on July 2nd when he was talking to Kayak Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, actually said this. | |
| He said they don't want Russia to lose the war in Ukraine because they're worried about the change in focus of the U.S. Well if you just extrapolate a little bit it means that if the war in Ukraine ends the U.S. is going to be paying attention to China in East Asia. | |
| So I think the Chinese are fueling this and because of that they believe they get a real advantage. | |
| And they've been supporting Russia across the board including providing soldiers to the Russians. | |
| So this is all in support on the part of Beijing for the war effort. | |
| Yeah. | |
| I know that people don't like the way I'm describing that I think the only way this is end is the following way and that's going to be yeah in terms of land transfers and probably a a fairly dramatic increase in land that is taken over by Putin I mean there's a certain percentage now of Ukraine that Vladimir Putin has complete control over. | |
| I would imagine some most if not all of it stays with him and I say that with a heavy heart because I don't like to reward bad behavior Nial but you know uh the Donsk's region for example is about half and half and I'm not sure what happens to that region. | |
| Donbas is another area where I think there's some question marks and a and a few other coastal areas but if in my view in the end if this war continues how many more you know people are are going to end up losing their lives number one innocent people, | |
| women and children being targeted by Putin and let me be clear I think Putin's a murdering dictator thug I have no no admiration for Vladimir Putin but if you do want the war to come to an end uh that's the only way in reality I see it happening. | |
| Uh what is your thought? | |
| And and in exchange I think the security guarantees including Article five like security agreements will be put in place with Ukraine and weaponry will be sold to Ukraine by the United States and other countries, I think that would offer security guarantees that that that certainly Ukraine didn't have prior to this conflict. | |
| Yes, I I think that those those are excellent uh points uh and if uh if Ukraine is to uh to give up uh the the Donbass uh region to Russia as Putin uh demands uh then ukraine is is going to need a security guarantee in return and and I think that's basically what the White House is is really proposing uh right now of course uh details being discussed uh today as as as we speak in fact um but | |
| The reality is that the only way I think Ukrainians will decide to stop fighting will be if there is a security guarantee in place, some kind of NATO-style Article 5 guarantee, but of course not under the auspices of NATO. | |
| So this would involve, for example, British and French ground forces in Ukraine to protect Ukrainian territory. | |
| There may be some U.S. military air supplies. | |
| support uh for example uh but this would not be a NATO uh operation so so quite quite a quite a unique sort of proposal but one that may actually uh uh succeed uh at at the same time, of course, I I think it's vital that the Russians uh make some concessions uh themselves, | |
| and that should include returning the tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been abducted, kidnapped, basically, uh, and and basically forced to live uh in Russia. | |
| And and Melania Trump wrote a very powerful letter to Vladimir Putin uh talking about these these children. | |
| Uh and and I think that as part of any kind of peace deal, it's imperative these children, Ukrainian children be returned back home to Ukraine where where they belong, and that that should be uh a demand made of Vladimir Putin. | |
| Listen, I totally completely agree with you. | |
| I really do. | |
| Uh however, Zelensky has been on record saying over and over again that they're not going to give up any land. | |
| He said it's impossible. | |
| Uh if that is his position, then this is going to be a fight to the finish, in my view, and there's going to be a lot more death between now and the end of this war. | |
| Yeah, I I think I think that that's that's right. | |
| And you know, the challenge for Zelensky, of course, is to be able to continue uh uh fighting against a far bigger uh adversary, but also at a time when public opinion inside Ukraine is moving uh further and further in support of a negotiated uh settlement. | |
| And so uh so immense challenges for for Zelensky. | |
| The Ukraine is a fought incredibly bravely against a brutal and barbaric uh enemy. | |
| Uh and and the question now is is whether Zelensky is willing to trade territory for a full peace um uh while you know potentially gaining a vital security guarantee. | |
| So we'll have to see how things move uh in in the coming days and weeks. | |
| Uh so far, as you point out, of course, Zelensky is is refusing even consider the idea of giving up uh territory. | |
| So we'll have to see how that moves forward in in the next uh few days. | |
| We'll see. | |
| What is your take, Gordon? | |
| I mean, if is Zelensky really that you know dug in as it relates to any concessions as it relates to land. | |
| In exchange for security guarantees, so there's not a third invasion. | |
| Yeah, he does appear to be dug in. | |
| There are a couple of other things though that we should talk about, and one of them is if the United States does uh enforce its sanctions and cuts off money to the Russian war machine, then we could be having very different conversations on what a peace agreement looks like. | |
| You know, remember Sean that during the Cold War, we did not recognize Soviet sovereignty over the three Baltic states. | |
| And lo and behold, those three states, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, are now considered sovereign, and they're actually members of NATO. | |
| Um because these untold events can occur, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, and we can see a collapse of the Russian Federation as well. | |
| So there's a lot going on here, especially because Putin doesn't want to cease fire. | |
| This means that all sorts of things can occur because the fighting will continue, and uh during that fighting there's a lot of uncertainty. | |
| So there might be uh terms which we do not think are possible, but could be, especially if the United States does impose those sanctions and enforces them rigorously along with the European Union and our other partners. | |
| At the end of the day, this is gonna be a Ukraine Zelensky and Europe decision, is it not, Nial? | |
| Yes, I I I think I think so. | |
| Uh and this is a matter of uh Ukrainian sovereignty and self-determination. | |
| Ultimately, uh any deal will have to be made by by Ukraine uh directly with uh with with Moscow. | |
| And and President Trump is really facilitating uh a likely uh trilateral uh summit in in the weeks ahead. | |
| Um but uh ultimately Zelensky will have to uh negotiate this deal directly with uh with uh with with Putin. | |
| Uh Zelensky will have to make those those decisions. | |
| Uh I I do think it's imperative that the United States ramp up the pressure on on Moscow uh at this at this time. | |
| And President Trump has spoken about severe consequences for the Russians if they don't end the war. | |
| Uh I think we need to hear a lot more uh of that messaging uh being put forward by by the United States In the coming days uh and and weeks after all this is a Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. | |
| Russia's the invading uh force. | |
| Uh and uh and Russia needs to act and uh to end the war. | |
| Uh and so U.S. pressure on Russia uh must be significantly increased further. | |
| Uh and if necessary, yes, uh severe economic sanctions have to be imposed on the Russians, uh and we should we should bring the Russian economy to its knee. | |
| Vladimir Putin doesn't want to end the war, so all options have to be on the table. | |
| Yeah, I agree. | |
| Anyway, I appreciate both of you. | |
| Uh Niall Gardner, good to hear your voice again. | |
| Gordon Chang, always good to hear your voice also. | |
| 800 nine four one Sean is on number if you want to be a part of the program. | |
| Um the media, I will tell you in this country, if it's ever if it's never been this obvious, you have one MSDNC host exploding live on air over Putin talks ranting. | |
| Trump doesn't give a sh about democracy. | |
| What is Trump really gaining here except that the world will be a better, safer place? | |
| I go back to what my friend Barry Farber said. | |
| There's never been a country in the history of mankind that's accumulated more power and abused it less than the U.S. And and I go on to explain there's never been a country in the history of the world that's accumulated more power and used it to advance for good and to advance the human condition more than our country. | |
| Never happened. | |
| Uh, I think one of the funniest stories is MSDNC is to change their name amid a spin off from uh M NBC. | |
| Not not even MBC. | |
| As liberal as they are, as left wing as they are, wants to be associated with the lying and conspiracy theory pedaling over at MSDNC. | |
| Uh did you notice, Linda, they're trying to change the name now. | |
| It's I didn't hear about that. | |
| I know. | |
| We will see MS Now, which stands for my source for news, opinion, and the world. | |
| And look, Andrew, they even have a graphic up. | |
| I like it. | |
| There it is. | |
| Actually, it looks very sporty. | |
| Ah, it looks very, very sporty. | |
| Really rolls off the tongue. | |
| Rolls off the tongue. | |
| It's still to us, it's forever will be MSDNC. | |
| Nothing has changed here at all. | |
| Whatsoever. | |
| Uh anyway, we're still watching and seeing, you know, what the fallout is going to be from uh the president and his attempt meeting with European and NATO leaders today. | |
| Uh, you know, so if you look at the key takeaways from the the summit, you know, President Trump saying to me there's no deal until there's a deal, he's right. | |
| The president, you know, going into great specificity and and details, talking about he wanted to move quickly, he wants to get to trilateral negotiations, he's willing to be a part of it. | |
| It's up to Zelensky to now get a deal done. | |
| The president also laid out, you know, the two conditions, which I went over earlier. | |
| I won't repeat myself, uh, that where he could get a deal right now. | |
| Zelensky has been pretty adamant saying that they will uh that Ukraine will never give up land. | |
| If they don't, then there will be no resolution to this conflict. | |
| There just won't be. | |
| President keeps reiterating that he's trying to save lives using the power of the United States, which is a noble cause. | |
| Uh I think if you really want what this breaks down to, there's gonna be land swaps and massive security measures in place for Ukraine moving forward, so there's not a third invasion. | |
| You know, President Trump in the lead up to today said Zelensky's uh his advice to Zelensky is make the deal. | |
| Uh I think if they don't make a deal, I think both countries are gonna suffer massive losses, and I don't know to what extent the world is gonna have an appetite to continue. | |
| Europe has shown no appetite to get involved and actually do something of value in this entire conflict from the very beginning. | |
| They really haven't. | |
| They've they have fallen down on the job and frankly been a disappointment. | |
| And I take it even a step further. | |
| I think they've they are partially responsible for where we are today. | |
| But that said, uh our friend Matt Towery over at Insider Advantage came out with a poll today. | |
| What is your opinion of President Trump's job performance? | |
| Fifty-four percent. | |
| This is polled right after the summit that took place on Friday. | |
| Fifty-four percent approval rating and a forty four percent disapproval rating. | |
| The exact opposite of what uh of the polling companies that have never in ten years been able to poll Donald Trump the right way. | |
| Not one time. | |
| They always get it wrong. | |
| President Trump deployed 4,000 troops to the Caribbean to combat drug cartels. | |
| That kind of went a little bit unnoticed. | |
| I noticed that the secretary, uh the Homeland Security Chief Christy Nome has been forced into military housing amid surging death threats. | |
| That's not good to hear. | |
| She'll join us on Hannity tonight. | |
| Also uh DC crime, we have an update on that. | |
| Uh sixty-eight suspects were arrested Saturday night is as part of President Trump's DC crackdown on crime, nearly 70 people. | |
| And that's a lot of people. | |
| And MSDNC is dismissing fears about DC safety, saying, Well, it ain't Mayberry. | |
| Well, what does that mean? | |
| I mean, if you look at every capital country in the entire world, we have 41 homicides per 100,000. | |
| The next worst country with the highest homicide rate per 100,000 is 16. | |
| I mean, when Baghdad and Mexico City and El Salvador, you know, and and all these other countries are safer than Washington, D.C., maybe it's time that you want help. | |
| There's actually a few people that are surprisingly saying that they they open they're open to the help. | |
| All right, let's get to our phones. | |
| Texas, God bless Texas. | |
| Robert, you're on the Sean Hannity show. | |
| Hi. | |
| Robert, are you there? | |
| I guess not. | |
| Jim and Minnesota. | |
| Jim, you're on the Sean Hannity show. | |
| Hi. | |
| Glad you called. | |
| Hi, Sean. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | |
| Um, I listen to your show often, and I'm a supporter of President Trump. | |
| Um I was calling that I'm disappointed in your position that you think giving up that Ukraine giving up land at this time is the right way to go. | |
| And apparently President When did I ever say was my position that I think that Ukraine that I want Ukraine to give up land? | |
| When did I say that? | |
| You you haven't said that, but you think that that's the way it's gonna have to go. | |
| And I think that's the way if you're asking me for analysis which is different than what I want. | |
| I don't like the fact that you reward a country that invades an innocent country and they end up with more land. | |
| I don't I don't like the principle of it. | |
| However, given the choices where we are, I think that's the reality of any if there's gonna be any deal, that's where it's gonna land, in my opinion. | |
| And I understand that, but I disagree at this time. | |
| Um President Trump has said that if President Putin was not going to stop the fighting in Ukraine, that he would face severe sanctions. | |
| We have not tried that. | |
| And I think that needs to be done first, and he needs to say, get out of Ukraine, stop the fighting, or those sanctions are gonna go in place. | |
| We know what the severe sanctions are gonna be. | |
| It's very simple. | |
| It's not complicated. | |
| The sanctions are gonna be exactly what President Trump has started, and the sanctions will be like the U EU trade deal, and European countries will now buy more and more of their energy from us and not from Russia. | |
| Uh that that then cuts off as the funding of his war machine. | |
| I think the president also puts pressure on other countries like he did with India, 50% tariff. | |
| I think that's all in place. | |
| I think the president will continue to sell arms to Ukraine. | |
| But if you don't get a deal, and I'm being and I think the president's being very realistic in terms of what's possible. | |
| I'm I'm not saying I like it. | |
| I'm just saying this is where I think it ends, if it's going to end. | |
| But I think you have to give strong sanctions a chance first. | |
| And that's not happening. | |
| Well, it look, uh, Lindsay Graham is going to join us, has a bill, a very strong sanction bill. | |
| I think eighty-five senators now have signed on to it. | |
| I agree with you that there's got to be major consequences, as the president said, if Putin doesn't doesn't at least try to meet them part way. | |
| I'm not going to get into the history of what Russia thinks and what Ukraine thinks or what they're going to do here. | |
| At the end of the day, these countries have a choice to make. | |
| There's the Reality, and then there's you know the hand you dealt versus the hand you wish you had. | |
| And if you're dealing with the hand that you have, for you for us to achieve what you want would probably take a good eighteen to months to two years to for the sanctions to fully impact the Russian economy the way we want. | |
| I don't think it's gonna happen immediately because you got to get other countries to get on board. | |
| That's true, but if you think the killing is gonna stop, you can't trust Putin and it's gonna happen again. | |
| Well, it could, but that's what that's that's why on the other side of the equation, that's why uh Ukraine and Zelensky will get the security guarantees, including the equivalent of Article Five uh security measures. | |
| That means that if you invade Ukraine, then all these other countries are pledging to to get involved in the war against Russia, which nobody wants. | |
| I mean, we don't want a full-on war in Europe to a full out war in Europe, do we? | |
| They also pledged to help him out when he gave up his nuclear weapons, and we didn't do that. | |
| Well, let me ask you this question. | |
| How many people are gonna die while your sanctions program is is being implemented? | |
| Because Trump's only been in office seven months. | |
| You can blame Biden for all of this, but how many people are you willing to let die in the process? | |
| I'm just curious. | |
| I guess I'm looking to the future and saying that more people are gonna die in the future if you Putin has said what he wants to do. | |
| He wants to re-establish the Soviet Union. | |
| And if and he says it, and you know, we just don't listen to him and don't believe him. | |
| He said it in the past. | |
| I pay attention to it, but he's not made the the effort or the movement, and I also think we learned one other thing. | |
| The Russian army is not as tough as they thought they were. | |
| Anyway, we'll see. | |
| I at the end of the day, I'd like to see the killing end. | |
| Uh I don't like any solution, to be honest. | |
| I wish that Russia would just turn around and go back home. | |
| But that's not a possibility, so I deal in reality, not in the world that I wish we had. | |
| I wish evil didn't exist in the world. | |
| Uh Rich in New Jersey. | |
| Hey Rich, how are you? | |
| Glad you called. | |
| Um, the reason I called, I can understand why Zelensky doesn't want to give up land for peace. | |
| And everyone seems to think that's what has to happen. | |
| But I I think we should think outside the box a little bit. | |
| Has anyone considered if you would be able to lease land to Russia, much the way that China did that long-term lease for Hong Kong. | |
| And then when the lease is up, the land would be turned over to the Ukraine. | |
| It's just something that Russia would occupy for a while. | |
| And then that way they would have their warm water port and they would have protection for their Russian brethren that are sort of living in the eastern portion of Ukraine. | |
| My understanding is the only land that would outright go to Russia would be Crimea and that everything else would be considered along the lines of, I think, what you're describing, quote, a land swap. | |
| But in the end, let's be real, we're just playing semantics. | |
| I think that Russia is gaining territory and Ukraine is losing territory. | |
| Are they willing to give it up in the name of real security this time so there's not a third invasion? | |
| That's the question. | |
| So I I I actually think language is a little bit different. | |
| They're calling it a land swap, but I don't think it's any really I don't think it's different than what you're describing. | |
| I'm thinking that it would be Ukraine's land, but it would be a long-term lease, and when the lease is up, that land goes back to the Ukraine. | |
| And but what that does is it either exposes Putin as a liar because the things he initially said were the reason for him going into Ukraine would be resolved if that lease took place. | |
| And and Zelensky would be able to say we've retained our pre-war borders, and you know, while the Russians are going to be there for a while, it's a transitional thing. | |
| They're using it for a while. | |
| But when the lease is up. | |
| But you and I both know that that's all semantics and it's not reality, right? | |
| We we look wink wink nod nod. | |
| We know that once Russia has it, you're not gonna they're not giving it back to Ukraine. | |
| Well, Sean, just something to consider. | |
| Uh thanks for taking my listen, I I think that I think that's what the words land swap mean. | |
| I I don't think you're off base here. | |
| I think that's what they're talking about. | |
| Anyway, Carl and Maryland, Carl, you're on the Sean Hannity show. | |
| Hi, Sean. | |
| Uh Thanks for taking my call. | |
| I have such uh great respect for you. | |
| I love your show. | |
| Um telling the call screener that uh I'm a big follower of the great one. | |
| And on last night, he was yeah. | |
| He was talking about the um the fact that as your previous callers were mentioning the power of the uh that Trump has over Poot Putin for financial reasons with the sanctions. | |
| Do you believe that there are sanctions that would be strong enough to pull the rug completely out from under them instead of long-term or short term? | |
| I I I think the only reason Putin came to the table is because the president forced NATO to more than double their commitment to defense. | |
| I think it's because of the EU trade deal, where I mean it's a sanction in the sense that that Western Europe won't buy their energy from Putin anymore, but they'll buy it from us. | |
| Uh I think the tariffs on India, that's a sanction. | |
| I think selling weapons to Ukraine in a way you can describe it if you want, depending on the semantics you want to use, that would be a sanction. | |
| I'm not I'm in favor of harder sanctions, especially if they can't come to a deal. | |
| You know, do I think it's gonna r I th I think the president is committed to resolving this quickly, and if you want to do it quickly, the only way it's gonna end is with land swaps versus real security guarantees for Ukraine. | |
| Now, if you want to play long ball and you're willing to accept all the dead people in the interim, then we could talk about the sanctions uh strategy, which you know I'd like to see the strongest sanctions policy possible, especially if Putin doesn't come to the table. | |
| Anyway, good call. | |
| We have a lot of smart callers today. | |
| 800-941 Sean, if you want to be a part of the program. |
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