Joe: We are abandoning an ally, a friend and a democracy

of course the shocking news that I guess we shouldn't be shocked by now that Donald Trump is cutting Aid to Ukraine and justifying it based on facts he's been saying for the past week that just aren't true Europe as you said Europe has given more money to Ukraine than the United United States has we haven't given $350 billion it's been uh half of that uh zalinski has not been an ingrate Willie yesterday we played a clip where he said thank you more than Andrew golden thank you for being a friend I want to thank you

thank you thank you I thank the American people I think I mean I mean seriously somebody should actually do a dance version of Andrew gold and zalinsky saying thank you uh because it would be like about a 10minute dance Mi so again they cut off funding for a country invaded by Russia and they're blaming it on him being an ingrate and not wearing a suit I would say some people Dr binski har to Ronald Reagan to Harry Truman would be shocked at the State of Affairs but I think it's important today that we dig into

why of course there have been a lot of conspiracy theories and there's always been a question hovering over Donald Trump's um relationship with Vladimir Putin and how far back it goes and how far back it goes with Russia and when he visited the former Soviet Union in 1987 um we don't know what it is it may be a lot more simple than that he he he may just be beating down and trying to berate seninsky to get him to the table to talk peace uh but of course then the real obstacle is Vladimir Putin who

does not want peace he wants to reconstitute the Soviet Empire so if this is Donald Trump's art of the deal because somebody close to him called me yesterday saying listen I think everybody's got this wrong Barack Obama got a p got a Nobel Peace Prize Donald Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize for ending this war and he thinks this is the way he does it the why though doesn't really matter it's the what that matters and what is happening is we are abandoning an ally a friend a democracy against Russian aggression and it's just frightening

as Europe rallies to its Aid to its side gathers uh in London over the last day or two to support uh zalinsky and to support Ukraine and you can add all this Joe together and Putin cannot believe his luck there's a reason he preferred Donald Trump in 2016 and this time but talking about halting offensive uh cyber attacks on Russia from the defense department a talk about easing the sanctions on Russia as you say why why is he tilting so hard in the direction of Vladimir Putin right now two US officials tell NBC news this

morning the Trump Administration is in fact pausing military aid to Ukraine this follows Friday's 10 Oval Office meeting between President Trump vice president Vance and Ukrainian president zalinski the White House says the pause is to ensure Aid contributes to finding a peaceful solution to the war the news comes as President zinski says he is working with American and European Partners on a path to peace zinski made the comment on social media yesterday just days after that contentious meeting with President Trump he also said he's ready to open up Ukraine's minerals to us investment yesterday president

Trump signaled that deal is not dead but he continued to criticize the Ukrainian leader specifically calling out zelinsky's comment to the Associated Press that a deal to end the war is quote very very far away now president zalinski supposedly made a statement today in AP I'm not a big fan of AP so maybe it was an incorrect excitement but he said he thinks the war's going to go on for a long time uh and and he better not be right about that I think everybody has to get into a room so to speak and we

have to make a deal and the deal can be made very fast it should not be that hard a deal to make it could be made very fast now maybe somebody doesn't want to make a deal and if somebody doesn't want to make a deal I think that person won't be around very long that person will not be listened to very long uh because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal I believe certainly the people of Ukraine want to make a deal they've suffered more than anybody else we talk about suffering they've suffered

well Jonathan that that may be news if Russia wants to make a deal that's something that the Trump Administration itself over the weekend said they don't know if Putin wants to make a deal Marco Rubio doesn't know if Putin wants to make a deal most people most observers who see this say Putin does not want to make a deal so okay you're going to get everybody around a table and going to try to make a deal fantastic but the idea that you bloody and and and rhetorically beat up your side to get them to the

table without even knowing if Vladimir Putin wants to make a deal when people in Donald Trump's own Administration said this weekend they weren't sure if Putin even wanted to make a deal it seems like quite an interesting way to go about it yeah the negotiation puzzling to to many zilinski of course has has wants peace he has said that he'd like to regain the territory seized by Russia there's many in in ke recognized that won't be entirely possible but this is his country 3 years now continues to be bombarded even amid the last few days

in the in the aftershocks of what happened in the Oval Office on Friday Russia continues its attacks on Ukraine and let's put a fine point on this Trump's decision yesterday to Halt Aid it's about a billion dollars worth of arms and ammunition uh in the pipeline and on order arms that that Ukraine desperately needs the front and what this pause does let's think about this for a second it benefits Putin in so many ways first of all this just of course these arms aren't going to be in the battlefield that will allow Russian troops there

to take advantage potentially to press forward this is largely a frozen conflict but Russia has made slow very slow grinding gains over the last year or so in part just because of its Manpower uh advantages and the drone strikes that it's been using but this might allow them to press the advantage he also this might not spur Russia to the negotiating table it might do the exact opposite here where if he thinks this fight between Trump and zinski could keep these Americans arms on the sidelines why not keep going why CAD k Why would Putin

suddenly realized I should come to the table when I'm getting everything I want here yes we know the Russian economy is weak we know he's suffered huge losses but it's also his War Machine just in terms of pure numbers dwarfs what Ukraine can do this would seem to be an incentive for him to keep going right now uh and not bring this conflict to an end yeah if you look at the actions of the White House over the last few days including of course the decision not to continue with cyber uh uh cyber offensive attacks

against China against Russia then you might think that the White House was actually trying to put Russia in as good of position as possible going into these negotiations it's hard to see how the White House could have done much to improve Russia's chances at the moment this cut in Aid coming after such a dramatic you know few days in Russia Ukraine American relations but actually if you just combine that and pull back for a second with what Donald Trump did to Ukraine last night with overnight imposing tariffs on America's closest allies the strategy from the

White House seems to be to shed as many friends as possible as fast as possible and the long-term question is does that leave America safer stronger and greater or does it leave it weaker I mean if you just you just look we've at the risk at the moment is you push the the Europeans closer to China you push the Canadians closer to China you push the South Koreans closer to a nuclear weapon and it's hard to see how this strategy plays out well for the United States in the long run it's hard to see how

it plays out well in the short run um as well I mean I think what the Trump people would say is that um if you cot them in private moments is that friendship and economic deals between the US and Russia between Trump and Putin will un leash all all kinds of animal spirits and energy deals and all the and of course the deal for Ukrainian minerals which assum presumably in one form or another zalinski will be coralled into accepting that's going to be boom time from American businesses his view of the world is about deals

um it's also about an affinity with Putin I'm I'm not overlooking that but it's chiefly his if you want to summarize Trump's uh view of Economics it's about having lot of deals um and punishing those who are in Surplus with the United States there are no friends in that world there's just deals that Trump has skin in the game in um and so that's how they would justify this as a success because there is no sort of ethical philosophical or strategic justification for what he's doing for