Now this is Australia Urbanize with Pat Panetta.
Great to have that company. It's the Thursday morning edition of Australia every night. Pat Paneta in for Tony McManus. As we take your calls into the we small hours this morning on that number one double three six nine three. But firstly, before taking your calls, I said to the US now in Los Angeles, California. Jonathan Kurzley is nine Radio's US correspondent and he's live on the line now. Good day, John O.
Hey, good morning to you ma, and good morning to all business.
Thank you gee. Not much on is there. It's amazing what we're seeing and hearing with this conflict in the Middle East, and of course the focus is on well Donald Trump and what's happening there in the US, So give us the very latest, please.
Absolutely well. Donald Trump has made his way to the NATO someone in the Netherlands of the Hague, where essentially he's been flanked by European leaders. He's been praised by Marco Rudder, who's nash of the NATO Secretary General as Daddy called him Daddy Trump for trying to solve the conflicts between Israel and Iran. He now says that he'll be managing to talk to a run next week over a nuclear deal. That is his hope, his belief. So let's see whether or not that.
Does play out. Because the other concern for him has been US intelligence reports that have been suggesting that the damage to Iran's nucleus was not exactly as Donald Trump had said. He had said they'd been totally obliterated. The intelligence report said that they weren't destroyed, that Around's nuclear program was only set back a matter of months, not years. Donald Trump today disputing that, insisting its decades and that this is simply too early in the system to know
exactly the full scale of this type of intelligence. So he obviously wants to see more. But in a matter of hours he will make his way back from NATO to Washington, DC and to the White House. He would think that this NATO someone would be successful.
And it's been successful because essentially NATO and the NATO nations have done everything that he wants them to do, largely that is increased defense spending to five percent of their GDP.
They've given a commitment in principle on that, and essentially he's had all of these nations and the NATO Secretary General bending the knee if you like to him. And clearly NATO has decided they need Donald Trump on board for the war between Ukraine and Russia, and the only way to have him on board in their eyes is to hit praise and lavish praise on him. So that is exactly what they have been doing over the course of the last day or so, and it seems, unsurprisingly
that that is exactly what Donald Trump likes. Yeah.
Well, this style of this straight talking, keeping people off balance, getting in there and you know, doing it the way, which is quite unique. As we know, looks like there's progress being made. I guess it has ebbed and flowed and their promise has been made. But in this case NATO, yep, everyone's changed their spending on defense, as you say, and the ceasefire sort of kicked back in after he was pretty strong with a few words there. So this style seems to be pushing things forward, John O.
It's a brash style and it's a style that the world was not accustomed to from an American leader under his first term. That is why things were a little bit rocky first time around, because the world didn't know how to deal with him. They didn't know how to contend with an American president that was essentially capable of trashing allies and partnerships and playing, in Donald Trump's view,
America first. So this time around, there are a lot of nations who seem to think they have worked him out and that the best way to deal with him is to just satisfy him, to appease him, because fear of not doing so means there could be punishment in store. And the problem with Donald Trump is that nations don't know exactly what the punishment could be. It could be cutting some sort of defense ties, it would most likely be centered around trade, but angering Donald Trump is something
that nations just don't want to do. So yes, you are seeing an appeasement of the American president, an appeasement of the United States administration. And Donald Trump still has more than three and a half years to go on his second term.
And just back to that point about the damaging around nuclear capabilities, As you say, those bunker bastards got down there and and blasted those areas, but we don't really know yet what it has achieved. Will that be fair to say we need to you said, the intelligence is coming through, but is it too early to tell exactly how far we have damaged their ability to make these bombs.
Well, it depends on who you speak to. I mean, it's very clear that this assessment came out of the Defense Intelligence Agency is just an initial assessment. There are going to be plenty, plenty more that will come over the course of weeks and months. Israel had said it was too early before deciding to back in the President of the United States of America and saying, yes, there had been significant damage to Aram's nuclear sites, but the only way to really know is you have to get
in underground. Because around nuclear facilities were underground, they were enrichment sites. And the concern from Israel is that Iran actually had secret facilities and they had been moving uranium around the country. The indication from this assessment is that yes, much of the four hundred and eight kilograms or so off uranium that Iran had was moved before the strikes. So the big question for the world now is where
is that uranium? Because there is clearly still a concern among the US defense system a network that Iran poses a threat to America and Americans and they him continue to do that if they have access to that uranium. So the big question ahead now is where is that uranium, How are they going to find it, how are they going to access it? And if they can access it, well,
then what comes next. But right now Donald Trump is trying to talk Iran back from building up its nuclear program again, and he finds himself in a very delicate position. Having claimed that he has essentially ended this war, this twelve day war, he now needs to try and find some sort of nuclear deal, some sort of way Iran to stop its enrichment program altogether.
Australia Vernita on the Line nine radio's US correspondent Jonathan Kurzley live from the US as a journo, and you're obviously he follow politicians around and do lots of this. I'm impressed or I notice he's you know, he's not a young man, but he's moving quickly. He's on Air Force one, he's at NATO and he's there and you know they often say successful people in business in the private sector are fast movers. You know, they quicker than
the competition and they make decisions quick. So he's bringing this mindset to the role of politics Is that just me thinking that, But is he enthusiastic? He's moving is fast, you know, for an older guy. He's got a bit of speed on him.
He's moving. He's seventy nine, so you've got to remember. And I think people are looking at Joe Biden, who was eighty one essentially when he laughed as being somebody who was incredibly slow moving, shuffling, wearing trainers runners, because people are concerned about his walk and the possibility of him slipping or falling. Donald Trump is certainly slower than he was in twenty sixteen, there is no two ways
about it. But of course he is eight years older, so you can expect that with that time passing, that age is going to creep up on him, and it has. He's certainly different to what he was in the first term, but he is carrying around plenty of gusto and his age are certainly keen to impress that he is showing energy on the world stage, that he is talking more than the last president did publicly, he's doing more things in front of the camera. But this is exactly the
presidential style that Donald Trump likes. I mean, he's got a clean bill of health from his own doctors. He says he's feeling in good spirits. But this is the way he does the presidency. It is entertainment in his show. It is front of camera. It is a reality TV show if you like. He's got three and a half years left. He will be eighty two or so by the time his time is up. So you know, the key concern for him over the next three years, well, how does he keep himself? How did he maintain a
healthy lifestyle balance? How does he have a healthy lifestyle balance under the pressures of the most high powered job in the world and at the same time being a rather large man himself. So he's obviously got himself to look after on that front. He's a good medical team around him. But you've also got to remember too, but he came into this with the overwhelming support of Americans.
Americans who would know that he was going to be eighty two by the time he pulls up stumps for the presidency, So they wouldn't have known that he was going to be old in office and years old.
You're right, I guess that that mandate from the American people would give you that enthusiasm to really get in there and do the job. John, it's always a pleasure. I'm feeling it for Tony Mack. I I love having on the program when I do the weekends and of course across the week. Thanks for a great report on the radio. We'll see you also on the Today Show. So you keep doing your great work and we'll talk to you next time in Australia overnight.
Pat, always wonderful to talk to you and the listeners where you may be. A wonderful morning. Thank you.
Jonathan Kurzley, the nine Radio NTV US correspondent live in Los Angeles, California. Your calls one double three six nine three, your thoughts and feelings on that and whatever's on your mind. Adam will chat to us next one double three, six nine three.