Trump Rejects Zelensky’s War Stance, Pushes for Ukraine-Russia Peace Deal

The pod­cast claims Ukraine has lost the war to Rus­sia, with Pres­i­dent Trump dis­miss­ing Ukrain­ian Pres­i­dent Zelensky’s refusal to nego­ti­ate peace. It describes a heat­ed White House encounter where Trump told Zelen­sky he has no lever­age, accus­ing him of pro­long­ing the war to avoid elec­tions and main­tain per­son­al gains. Zelensky’s Wall Street Jour­nal state­ment reject­ing Russia’s Crimea occu­pa­tion, held since 2014, is called inflam­ma­to­ry and harm­ful to peace talks, as Crimea is not up for dis­cus­sion. The pod­cast notes Trump’s envoy, Bessent, failed to secure a min­er­al deal with Zelen­sky, who is alleged­ly stalling peace efforts while trav­el­ing to South Africa. The Trump admin­is­tra­tion is report­ed­ly ready to walk away if no deal is reached, with dis­cus­sions on lift­ing Russ­ian ener­gy sanc­tions like Nord­Stream. It crit­i­cizes media nar­ra­tives push­ing a Trump-Zelen­sky meet­ing at the Pope’s funer­al, insist­ing Zelen­sky obstructs peace, which both Trump and Putin want. The pod­cast also men­tions Sen­a­tor Dick Durbin’s retire­ment after 44 years.

• WE have watched Trump throw Zelen­sky out of the White House. We know that Bessent went to Ukraine to make a deal with Zelen­sky on the min­er­als. It got heat­ed. Zelen­sky went to Munich to get Zelen­sky to sign the deal with Rubio and Vance. WE know Zelen­sky wants war. Trump told Zelen­sky that he doesn’t have cards to play. Zelen­sky is in South Africa. What is he doing in South Africa? He doesn’t want to make a deal because he doesn’t want to end the wealth tour and doesn’t want to have elec­tions. The Trump admin­is­tra­tion knows that it is time for us to walk away if Rus­sia na dUkraine don’t agree to deal. 
• White House debates lift­ing sanc­tions on Russ­ian ener­gy assets, Nord­Stream. 
• Trump: Zelen­sky is boast­ing on the front page of the Wall Street Jour­nal that Ukraine will not legal­ly rec­og­nize the occu­pa­tion of Crimea. There’s noth­ing to talk about here. This state­ment is very harm­ful to the Peace Nego­ti­a­tion with Rus­sia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the aus­pices of Oba­ma, and is not even a point of dis­cus­sion. Nobody is ask­ing Zleen­sky to rec­og­nize Crimea as Russ­ian ter­ri­to­ry but if he wants Crimea why didn’t they fight for it 11 years ago when it was hand­ed over to Rus­sia with­out a shot being fired? The area also hous­es, for many years before the Oba­ma han­dover, major Russ­ian sub­ma­rine bases. It’s inflam­ma­to­ry state­ments like Zelen­skyy that make it so dif­fi­cult to set­tle this war. He has noth­ing to boast about! The sit­u­a­tion for Ukraine is dire. They can have Peace or he can fight for anoth­er 3 years before los­ing the whole coun­try. I have noth­ing to do with Rus­sia, but have much to do with want­i­ng to save, on aver­age, five thou­sands Russ­ian and Ukrain­ian sol­diers a week, who are dying for no rea­son what­so­ev­er. The state­ment made by Zelen­sky today will do noth­ing but pro­long the killing field and nobody wants that. WE are very close to a deal but the man with no cards to play should now final­ly get it done. 
• They are los­ing it over this state­ment. There is no plan to sell out Ukraine, they lost the war. For 11 years Rus­sia has had Crimea. Putin does not have to make con­ces­sions to Ukraine. We want to have a deal done. Zelen­sky is the prob­lem and the media is run­ning the nar­ra­tive that Zelen­sky wants to meet with Trump at the pope’s funer­al. The UK and France can’t go into Ukraine with­out the US.  
• Trump shouldn’t meet Zelen­sky again. Trump wants him gone, Putin wants him gone. Zelen­sky is a bad per­son, he doesn’t want the war to end. 
• Dick Durbin to retire after 44 years in con­gress. Num­ber 2 demo­c­rat in the Sen­ate.