People used to tell you that Donald Trump was stupid. Remember that? "He's an idiot!" Now, we're not going to sit here and tell you it was a smart idea to turn the White House over to Jared Kushner; it was not. But it's also true if we're being honest – and we should be – that Donald Trump had far wiser instincts about American foreign policy than any leader in at least a generation, and he did it without the help of anyone.
None of his advisers wanted to hear his views on foreign policy. In fact, they desperately wanted Trump to be quiet, but Trump wouldn't. "What's the point of NATO?," he asked nearly 30 years after the fall of the Soviet Union. No one in Washington could answer him. Shut up, racist, they replied, but Trump just kept going in his Trumpy way. "Why would we fight Russia?" he wondered. "Wouldn't making Russia our enemy just drive Putin into the arms of China and create the most powerful and dangerous anti-American bloc in history?"
No one bothered to answer him. In fact, for the sin of asking, they called him a traitor to his country. They impeached him for it, and then they started a war with Putin. But in retrospect, Trump had asked a deeply patriotic question: If Russia ever joined forces with China, American global hegemony, its power would end instantly. You'd have the world's largest land mass and largest natural gas reserves, allied with the world's largest population and world's largest economy.
So, a Russia-China axis would be not just more powerful than the United States, but much more powerful. It would have the scale to control a lot of the world's economy and trade routes and raw materials. It could project military force that posturing aside, we actually don't have the power to stop. If Russia and China ever got together, it would be a brand-new world and the United States would be greatly diminished. Most Americans agree that would be bad.
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Now, as Donald Trump predicted very clearly, that is happening. Thanks to Joe Biden's reckless and self-destructive response to the invasion of Ukraine a year ago this week, the economies of Russia and China are intertwined. Chinese spending on Russian goods has increased by more than 60%. China now imports more coal from Russia than it has in the last five years. Chinese shipments to Russia, meanwhile, are up by nearly 30%.
Companies like Ford and Toyota pulled out of Russia. They had to. Remember that? So, what happened next? Chinese automakers stepped in. Chinese carmakers once made less than 10% of all cars bought in Russia. Now, China makes a third of them and you can see where this is going. The same thing has happened with smartphones and countless other consumer goods. Not surprisingly, the Chinese yuan is replacing the dollar in Moscow. Chinese currency now accounts for fully one fifth of all trades on the Moscow Stock Exchange. That's up from less than 1% last year.
So, these are deep and growing economic ties and they're formal. The thing about economic ties, however, is that they lead inexorably to military ties. So, it shouldn't surprise you that China is actively helping Russia in the war against NATO, which we are leading. In other words, the country with more ships than any navy in the world has united with a country that has more nuclear armed ICBMs than any country in the world to fight us through proxy in Ukraine.
Well, that's scary, and the thing is, everybody involved seems to know it's scary and just how scary it is. Our leaders understand that their push for total war with Putin, which is unnecessary, could lead to the destruction of the West. They know that, but they're doing it anyway. In an interview with a German newspaper today, the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy casually mentioned that, oh, by the way, the entire world may soon go up in flames: "if China aligns itself with Russia, there will be a world war."
There will be a world war if China aligns with Russia? Who could say something like that calmly, since as we just told you, China is aligned with Russia? It's already happened. That's not speculation. It's a fact. And as a result of that fact, according to Zelenskyy himself, hundreds of millions of people will die. No big deal. As long as we take Crimea. This is a very dark way of thinking.
Zelenskyy himself is a very dark force. That is obvious if you watch him. It is unmistakable. Who could not see that? This man is a destroyer. He banned a Christian faith in his country and arrested nuns and priests. Oh, but he's a hero, claim our leaders from Chuck Schumer to Mitch McConnell. No, Zelenskyy is not a hero. He is an instrument of total destruction. That is not a defense of his enemies. It's just true and maybe that's why Joe Biden is drawn to him. Biden landed in Kyiv today to promote another world war.
Note the air raid sirens in the background. What's strange is there didn't seem to be any air raids in Kyiv this morning. We checked. There were just air raid sirens at precisely the moment that Joe Biden appeared for a photo op. Even CNN's reporters on the ground in Kyiv know that they've been in the city for the past five days and didn't hear any bombs or missile strikes or any sirens until the moment that Biden walked out for the cameras.
REPORTER: I've been here for the past five days. I have not heard any explosions. I have not heard any air sirens until about half an hour ago, right when President Biden was in the center of Kyiv.
Right. So, here you have Potemkin air raid sirens, just the touch required in this, the most tightly scripted, most completely dishonest war in history, the fakest war and the point, of course, is to sell Americans on yet another $500 million in tax dollars for Ukraine for the Zelenskyy government. Watch this.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: We've committed nearly 700 tanks and thousands of armored vehicles, 1,000 artillery systems, more than 2 million rounds of artillery ammunition, more than 50 advanced launch rocket systems, anti-ship and air defense systems, all defending to defend Ukraine and that doesn't count the other half a billion dollars we're going to be, we're announcing with you today and tomorrow. That's going to be coming your way and that's just the United States in this piece.
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Can anyone see how dark and crazy this is, truly crazy? Yes, many Americans can see how dark and crazy. Let's look at the numbers. How many Americans support this war for democracy? This war for democracy that Americans for some reason can't vote on? Why don’t we have a national referendum on all this as long as we're leveling a country on behalf of democracy? It might be nice to try democracy here, but no. It's all so grotesque. It defies imagination, really.
But imagine if you were watching all of this, the spectacle from your home in East Palestine, Ohio, a home that is still stinking of chemicals you can't identify. Here you have the president of the United States, personally visiting a corrupt foreign autocrat to announce a half a billion dollars more in your tax dollars to go to Ukraine. Meanwhile, you’re stuck in some lost and forgotten part of Ohio, the state that helped build this country, have a mushroom cloud over your city. The animals are dying. The water is glowing,
And yet, for more than two weeks after all of this started with the famous train derailment, FEMA and the Biden administration have refused to provide any kind of financial assistance to you. East Palestine still hasn't even gotten a visit, a token visit, from Joe Biden's token transportation secretary, Mayor Pete, and after two weeks, people in East Palestine are starting to notice. Watch.
EAST PALESTINE RESIDENT: What federal response?
FOX REPORTER: The White House is under fire for its response to the East Palestine train derailment.
EAST PALESTINE RESIDENT: If it were in Washington, D.C., it would all be cleaned up and taken care of.
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WOMAN: I've had massive headaches since it started
ABC REPORTER: And locals say they're feeling the effects of the toxic chemicals.
CBS REPORTER: East Palestine resident Melissa Blake says two days after that toxic train derailment, doctors diagnosed her with acute bronchitis from chemical fumes.
MELISSA BLAKE: It's hard to breathe. My chest is always tight, the coughing.
EAST PALESTINE RESIDENT: I'm 53. I've had two headaches in my life, and I feel like I've had one every day since the controlled burn.
SHELBY WALKER: And my kids will never go play in our backyard again, which makes me very sad now. It's never going to be safe for them in my eyes.
CBS REPORTER: Today, families like the Baileys lined up for a $1,000 check per person.
REPORTER TO MAN IN LINE: Is 1,000 enough?
MAN: Probably not. Honestly, probably not.
CBS REPORTER: Ted Murphy doesn't believe officials who say there's no lingering health risks.
TED MURPHY: I’ve got to move because I'm not safe being here. There is no way we are safe.
Nobody cares and they know that in East Palestine. The contrasts are becoming too sharp and obvious: the American border versus the Ukrainian border. One doesn't matter at all. In fact, it's racist. The other is so important we’ll risk nuclear war to protect it. Aid to Zelenskyy? Unaudited. God knows where it's going. Nobody seems to care. Aid to East Palestine? We just can't afford it. Unfortunately, the people, you just saw are not Ukrainian, so Joe Biden is not interested enough to visit. Unfortunately, no one in East Palestine thought to pay Joe Biden's son 80 grand a month. If someone had done that, if someone had been wise enough to pay off the Biden family eight years ago, things would be different. Here's how Joe Biden might talk to them now.
BIDEN: It's going to deliver much needed humanitarian assistance as well as food, water, medicine, shelter and other aid to Ukrainians displaced by Russia's war and provide aid for those seeking refuge in other countries from Ukraine. It is also going to help schools and hospitals open. It's going to allow pensions and social support to be paid to the Ukrainian people so they have something, something, in their pocket.
So, not everything that winds its way through Congress is of equal importance. Most legislation in Congress means nothing in the long term. Nuclear war means everything in the long term.
So, what's the issue on which both parties seem aligned? Oh, the issue that matters. There is no opposition party. Both parties seem to agree that the administration that shot down weather balloons with $400,000 heat seeking missiles is capable of navigating an incredibly complex conflict in Eastern Europe, where the stakes are existential. No problem. We can pull this off. Everybody involved is Winston Churchill.
No one on the Republican side seems outraged on a gut level that the president of the United States is personally visiting an autocrat in a tracksuit in Kyiv while he ignores the exposure of thousands of American citizens to toxic chemicals we can't identify. So, Republicans in the Senate have a leader. You might be interested in what he thinks is important. Here he is.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: I'm going to try to help explain to the American people that defeating the Russians in Ukraine is the single most important event going on in the world right now. It will save us an enormous amount of money down the road if the Ukrainians can succeed. You're not asking for any of our personnel. They're asking us for financial help.
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The thing is, that's not rhetoric. Mitch McConnell believes what he just said. "I'm going to help explain." You couldn't help explain how to get from here to the nearest gas station. You're beyond the ability to explain, and you're way beyond the ability to lead the opposition in the United States Senate.
But for some reason, McConnell and so many other Republican leaders and talk show hosts have been completely brainwashed by the idea that the United States will benefit from a war with Russia. Well, now that Russia has joined forces with China to create a bloc against the United States that we cannot defeat, they will control perhaps the majority of the world. Really?
Really? You did that, by the way. You laughed at Trump, and here we are facing the end of control of a lot of the world because you so unwisely managed the power that you inherited. What's your answer now, Mitch McConnell? You're welcome on this show any time to explain.
