Negotiating from Strength - August 15th, Hour 1

program from Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. This is where the summit has taken place between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, and in the last six seven minutes or so of Vladimir Putin has touchdown. Let me give you a quick rundown of what we expect the day to be like. Is Air Force one arrived, And sure enough, Vladimir Putin has arrived. President Trump has not come off Air Force One. He's but that I have the whole schedule.

This is all planned out, literally to the minute, so you know what the day's going to be like. Now, there are many unpredictable things that can happen. They'll guarantee this meeting will last more than five minutes. Remember President Trump said, I think I'll know in two minutes if he's serious. I don't think Putin would be here if there's not some level desire interest in coming to some agreement.

And President Trump has been very smart about how he's managed expectations about all of this and how this is a first step and that the next step if in fact Putin is really willing he's going to make that determination. He says he may know within two minutes. That's that's that's being able to read a room. I'll tell you that part. I wonder what he thinks of me when he sees me, you know, before the interview that I'm about to do with him tonight, He'll size me up

in a minute and a half. I'm like, that's it, Handedy, you're out anyway. I'll go through the itinerary for you, just so you know. Between they're both going to come off with the plane. Here's President Trump. As a matter of fact, now again this is all planned, all orchestrated. President Trump is making his descent down Air Force one. And you know, I would not be surprised any second now if you saw Vladimir Putin do the same thing. And I can tell you right now, I'm in an

airport hangar. If I were to walk out this door and hit the hangar and walk to the end of the hangar, I'd be watching this live. That's how close we are to what was actually happening here. Vladimir Putin now is coming down. I think that's Vladimir, comrade, how are you vodka? Again? All of this predetermined, all of

this orchestrated. So this is what they call a spray where the two men will meet, and what they'll immediately do is and they both have a red carpet that they're walking on, and they will then have a private meeting as I understand that, it'll be the two of them alone, probably with interpreters, although Putin does speak English, is my understanding, and then they will have a series of breakout meetings that will take us to about I

don't know, anywhere between you know, five six o'clock. Then they're going to have at some point in between, they're expected to have lunch together. And when all is said and done, and this is maybe scheduled for about seven point thirty tonight this evening, they would have a joint press conference. We don't know for sure. I mean again, that's going to be fluid as well. And at that point, immediately after that press conference, I will go up live.

It might be a little few minutes earlier before nine, so you might want to, you know, be watching like a five or eight fifty. I will have the first exclusive sit down interview with President Trump to find out how this whole day works out. You could see President Trump. He's greeting the troops. He's clapping to some group of people I'm not sure who. Probably I would assume the troops. I had the great honor opportunity to meet a lot of people that are here serving our country at Joint

Base Almendroth Richardson. There's the handshake and a flyover with what sounds like some fighter jet, and they're smiling, looks friendly, shaking hands, walking down the red carpet together. And President Trump is significantly taller than Vladimir Putin. I don't know if that means anything. I remember one time I was mad at President Trump over something that was during his first campaign. I said, all just sit down. As soon as he sat down, I stood up because I did

because I wanted to get as a tension. I was telling them something that was I felt was important in the moment. But optics matter. If I were to give you an overall, if you read the room, body language very relaxed, both sides, a lot of smiles, so maybe not a bad indication. They they add, it's it's actually on a delay, which just so you know the feed because they both looked up in the air. They're now standing. It says Alaska twenty twenty five. I don't know if

they're f thirty fives behind them. I don't it is f thirty fives, Okay, there are two f thirty fives behind them. And last time, I don't know. Did you see the shot where we had the the a wax plane behind me? How cool was that on TV? And it says Alaska twenty twenty five. And I believe ones is one American. No, they're both. They're all American. They're all American. I met kids that were that are surving here from all over the country. All right, So they

had the quick photo op. The Beast is there, that is the presidential limousine, and it looks like Vladimir is getting inside the Beast. When I was in the Ghost States, I got to go in the Beast as part of my you know interview and experience with President Trump. The doors are thicker than anything you've ever seen in your entire life. And I will not reveal secrets I may or may not have learned about that. What's interesting is I guess because it's I guess because it's on American terrorists.

It's in Alaska. That's why they're doing that. And so you know, again all of this is orchestrated. The spray is over Trump and Putin now will go into a meeting. The breakout sessions will then follow up with that. I'm sure a lot of the breakout sessions will result in First, let's queue you into what we discussed, and then let's take it a step further in a best case scenario. Now, how do we define success here? There's so much to tell you about the lead up to all of this.

There's some rays of hope and then there's some dose of reality in the lead up to today. For example, you know, we know Ukraine attacked multiple cities in Russia just yesterday, and we know that the Russians had also attacked. You know, the Ukrainians also hit a Russian oil refinery last night in air strikes, and similarly, we know that the Russians have been pounding Ukraine, and so, you know, both sides I think doing it for some type of advantage.

Maybe they think it's some type of negotiating advantage. I don't really know about Ukraine. Last night struck an oil refinery in Russian's Samara region in an overnight attack. Ukrainian forces also hit a Caspian seaport cargo vessel. You know, the war is ongoing, there's not a ceasefire, so both sides are doing the same thing. In Alaska, it was interesting.

I saw two contingencies. One is a bunch of leftists that were protesting and another group several hundred people gathering for a pro Ukraine rally here in Anchorage where the president is and with hundreds of Russian soldiers. I mean both sides, both Ukraine and Russia. Both sides have you know, they have been fighting, you know now for going on three years. And if anyone would have told me Ukraine would still even be in the game, I wouldn't have believed it. Now, for the most part, it became a

proxy war between Joe Biden's administration and Russia. Now, there are certain things that have happened that I think really got Putin's attention. First of all, I think there is a genuine relationship between the two of them. I don't think this is like a lot of other summits where there's a predetermined outcome. I don't really see that here.

But if you look at, for example, the fact that the President kind of has gotten fed up with Putin and him dragging his feet, and he's trying to push this thing along, and he's put a lot of political capital into this, I think finally said okay, fine, if you're going to be difficult and you're going to continue to attack innocent women and children, we're going back. We're going to arm Ukraine. Although President Trump is doing it differently than Joe Biden did is he's selling the weapons.

The second thing that I'm certain got Russia and Putin's attention is the EU trade deal, where close to a troph million dollars Europe is now committing to purchasing American energy. That's money coming directly out of Putin's pocket. The heart and soul of Russia's economy is energy. The fact that the European Union has been purchasing so much energy from Vladimir Putin has actually worked against them because they're funding

his war machine in the process. Another big part of this is the tariffs the President Trump put on India if they continue to buy Russian oil, and when the President says over and over again, there will be severe consequences if Putin doesn't make a deal. Here not talking about going to war with Russia. He is basically saying he's going to do everything in his power to prevent Russia from being able to sell their energy, which will

just devastate their economy. The last thing that I'm sure got Putin's attention is President Trump was able to get NATO to double their commitments. So all of this is happening simultaneously. As we continue our coverage, it's going to

be an interesting day for me. I mean, the show's going to be a little bit more fluid than normal, and we'll get some expert analysis, but for the most part, for the next two hours, they're disappearing in a room and I'll try to work some sources and find out, yeah, your name and see if you know I can get any indication. But Russia's paid a very dear price too. Radio Free Europe had a peace out after mounting losses in Ukraine, the Russian government appears to be intensifying their

coercive recruitment tactics. They're now having to target prisoners as conscripts and ethnic minorities from remote regions, as well as Central Asian migrant communities. Remember, they've also been importing fighters from North Korea, and, according to testimonies collected by Radio pre Europe, mail inmates and prisons and parts of Siberia describe routine beating, psychological torture threats aim to force them

into military service. And then on the other hand, then you have reports that there might be you know, President Zelenski is taking guys that are over sixty years old to go fight this conflict. I mean, nobody's doing great here, nobody's winning in this There's no winners and have been no winners here. Fortune magazine pointed out Russia's coming financial

crunch could derail Putin's war machine. Yeah, well, okay. The Kremlins oil and gas revenue, their main source of revenue, tumble twenty seven percent in July from a year ago to seven hundred and eighty seven point three billion rubles to about nine point eight billion, or about down nine point eight billion. That's a lot of money, especially if you're trying to fight a war, and it's probably about to go down significantly more. Now, what is the endgame?

What it all right? More important? Let me let me give you what the reality is. All right, let me be very let me let me keep it real here, because the best, the best case scenario coming out of today would be they have a good meeting, they agree to the meeting that Donald Trump has called for, and adds Zelensky uh the idea that European countries that have enriched Putin are trying to tell Donald Trump how to negotiate as a joke to me, because they themselves have

compromised their own security. So if that in fact happens and the and President Trump has said he wants that next meeting very quickly. Okay, at that point, then what are we really dealing with? Okay, Well, Putin's going to retreat and he's going to go back to run. That's not going to happen. It's going to be a very complicated needle to thread that will involve land swaps. But also, well Putin doesn't want to get of Ukraine, which is

security guarantees so they won't be a third invasion. What's the point of doing this? And what you get a democratic president in next time and you get another conflict. That's not a win to me. All Right, I'll give you what the most likely outcoming scenario is here in a second. Anyway, we continue. We are at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. We're in Anchorage, Alaska. We're literally feet away

from where Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are. I do have the first interview with President Trump tonight, Hannity, Fox News. Hope you'll tune in and watch that. That's going to be very interesting. I love knowing what's going on behind the scenes. What happened, tell me the real secret? What did did Vladimir eat anything? One of the more interesting things in one of the Kim Jong un summits was to find out that nobody in the delegation of North Korea ate a bite of food. They must have thought

it was poisoned. And at the time, Tucker Carlson went in and started grabbing the desserts and handing them out. True story. There's there's a lot happening here that I want to get into. I want to start with this is this is not Donald Trump's fault. You look at the timeline we have talked extensively about. You know, Joe Biden, Joe Biden couldn't even pick up a phone and call Vladimir.

He Vladimir, why do you have two hundred thousand troops and all this military equipment on the on the border with Ukraine And you know, maybe we could talk this out, Maybe we could talk this through. And Joe Biden never bothered to lift a finger. So you know, Joe Biden just didn't care. And this is the point. You know, if you look at Crimea when it was annexed in twenty fourteen, Hello, Instagram, how are you good to see you? By the way, we here at the Sean Hannity Show

support David Sunflower. I prefer the ranch flavor. But this all happened Crimea happened under Obama. And in the case of this military build up that you know, weaponry and troops along the Ukrainian border, it was so obvious. And Joe's answer don't and Kamala's answer don't. What is don't mean? And oh it depends if it's a minor incursion. What does a minor incursion. Mean, this is madness, this is insane. So because President Trump now again a lot of negotiation

is an art, it's not a science. And then what's fascinating is is President Trump saying I'll know within two minutes whether or not he's serious. Well, two minutes is coming gone. Because where you are right here, you know, literally we're not. I honestly, I'm sure I could probably throw a football to whatever room they're in at Joint Base Almendorff Richardson. It's a beautiful place. Wonderful people by the way that work here. I I've met these young,

you know, soldiers from all around the country. They're just phenomenal people. But because President Trump, what happened because of Biden and his weakness and the minor incursion became a full on, blown out war in Europe. What the end result is is that Joe Biden ended up providing all of the weaponry and funding it. So it evolved into what was nothing short of a US proxy war with Russia.

Well that's never going to end well. And President Trump has a whole different strategy, and he said to put he said in the lead up to today, there will be severe consequences they're going to spell out what that will mean. But if you go back just a number of months ago and you look at the polling data, the polling data was clear Americans they want no part of these forever wars and they don't think we should

be involved in foreign conflicts. So I got pinned by these these Russia media people sticking cell phones in my face. I'm like, how do you even know who I am? And I said, you got to understand Donald Trump will walk away in five minutes. Five minutes has passed, so okay, he can't walk away now. But when I said that to them, it was a reality. And Donald Trump, probably the United States, on paper, gets the least out of

this deal. There's not one European leader that could possibly pull this meeting off, not one, not one that would even expend the political capital to try. But they don't have the strength to do it. But Donald Trump got them to commit to more than twice of what they were paying for NATO. So many nations weren't paying their fair share. And Donald Trump did a trade deal with Europe which resulted in a trillion dollars and committed money for energies that they're going to buy from US that

stops funding Putin's war machine. That's a smart thing to do. President Trump said to India, you keep importing Russian oil at We're going to slapping you with a fifty percent terror Guess what. India now has to think twice about whether or not they're going to take on any more Russian energy, which would not be a good idea for

them anyway. But in the case of Europe, it's more infuriating because they're paying all this money for national defense and at NATO alliance well against two against the possibility of Vladimir Putin or hostile regimes coming in. It's insane. But because Donald Trump has been very, very skillful in making sure both sides have something to lose here. You see the polls have now reversed and reversed quickly and rather dramatically, and it shows sixty two percent of Americans

overall support sending military assistance to Ukraine. Now, one of the reasons for that is that President Trump is not giving them the equipment it is, but he is recognizing that Russia's handling of this and their lack of a conscience, a heart, and a soul when it comes to you know, just taking out innocent women and children, which they have been targeting, has got to stop. And that is in the world's best interest. It is in the world's best interest.

You know, if countries would focus more on economic partnerships over you know, geopolitical conflicts, do you think, just think how much better off the world would be. It's like some of these people that come up with the most sophisticated criminal schemes, You wonder what might they accomplish if they ever put all of that energy, all of that thought, all of that creativity into something productive. But they don't

do that. So the one thing that Trump wants it he wants a lot of things out of this meeting. And but one of the things, if you want to look at the big picture, what do we expect? What is the realistic outcome here? I don't want to play games with all of you out there. Donald Trump's been clear that this is a first step. Donald Trump's been clear that if this goes well, he wants phase two

to come very quickly and expeditiously. Phase two would include Zelenski then, of course, but then we're talking about a ceasefire. Then we're talking about an end to the hopefully the hostilities. Then we're talking about a negotiated settlement. That's that would be the ultimate goal. That is not what's that's not in the cards today. President Trump's been clear that's not

in the cards. If you want to know what I think the realistic outcome is, and maybe some of you like this, maybe some of you won't like to hear the reality I can. I can sit here and BSU and tell you things that just aren't true. But the reality is, if this war goes on for a protracted period of time, I don't see the odds of Ukraine ever winning back any of the territory they currently have lost. Ukraine is completely dependent on other countries to fight this conflict.

The Russians are not. If the Russians find other avenues where they can sell their oil, they will be able to continue to fund their war machine. Now do I think they are foolish enough to want the entire land mass of Ukraine and need an occupying force, Because that's what it would take, and it would they would have their own problems in terms of they would constantly Russian

soldiers would constantly be killed constantly. You'd be a resistance that would go on for decades and decades and decades. I don't think that's what it is. But you know, Putin would argue that the Dambas region eighty percent Russian national if you gave people a vote, they would go with Russia. So what is the likely outcome? And again, don't shoot the messenger. I'm giving you just a straight up analysis on this. I would imagine a landswap is

probably going to be part of it. What does that mean? It probably means at this point because Ukraine has lost the territory in a war, right or wrong, historical precedents, whatever, it doesn't matter, and that's going to be what Russia wants. Now what does Ukraine want? Ukraine is going to want security, and by the way, they will. There's no deal worth having for Ukraine if now they're not going to have

NATO security, that's a non starter. But they're going to want security guarantees and other European leaders Macron for example, said Trump was supportive of continued security guarantees for Ukraine. Putin's not going to like that part of the equation. Putin would like to have the ability or the option to go back in any time. He damn well pleases, and that would mean the possibility of a third invasion, And what's the point of even starting this process if

that's going to be the end result. Bad bad idea, bad consequence. So, you know, the hope is coming out of today is that Vladimir comes in with the right attitude and he understands that he's not going to get everything he wants. The President has spoken to Zolensky many, many times. The President is now funding uh Zolensky in terms of you know, it's American weaponry that he's buying

that is keeping him in the game. You know. So it's uh, you know one other thing I think strategically for the president's very smart too, because you have the you know, how close does does Donald Trump want China to Russia? And don't think that Vladimir Putin's not competitive

with President she because he is now. Putin has praised Trump's sincere desire for peace and the lead up to today, I thought this was pretty interesting comments that he made late yesterday praising the US for making sincere efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is raged

on now for over three years. And he said on TV that the US was making, in my opinion, quite energetic and his sincere efforts to stop the hostilities and stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in the conflict. It doesn't sound like somebody that is against a deal. That sounds like somebody that is recognizing that this might be my off ramp. That's why it's going to be so fascinating to interview President Trump tonight. I want to know what you all

want to know. I want to know what goes on. I mean, if I could be a fly on the wall in another room at this airbase we're at, I would love to be a fly on the wall. I'd like to know what's really going on. You know, there's been talk and there's been a lot of speculation about, well, what what might this all look like? You know, US and Russia possible peace deal that would include a West Bank style Locke patient. I think what most people are not factoring in is probably the most the most obvious

answer is everything comes down to money. Everything comes down to money. You know, how can they benefit financially? That's what a lot of these, you know, deals end up being about. In the end, they end up being about money and how much money they might be able to extract or how much, you know, does it provide what they need? What are the things that they need? Now if you're making a business deal, what are the things

that people need in life? Fortune magazine has put pointing out that Russia's, you know, fiscal crunch is that bad that it can, in the end derail Putin's war machine. And it's about to get worse. And I think that's where the severe consequences are coming in. Also, we talk a lot about the price that Ukraine has paid militarily. The Russians have paid a price militarily. They paid a huge price militarily. And you know, but you know what

form manifestation this takes on. I don't know. I just know that it really is nobody else in the world that's capable of pulling this off than Donald Trump. You know, Trump said his game plan. He said, well, it's kind of like chess. He's not wrong. And if it's chess, that means that Donald Trump has ten steps ahead, because it's not checkers. And this is not for the faint hearted.

And if you read the Art of the Deal, go back to Trump in his early career He's always said to be a good businessman, you have to be able to walk away from any deal up until the last seconds. So the last words that Trump said publicly on the way to this summit was that he threatened very severe

consequences if Russia doesn't agree to end this war. Couple that with what Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said, which was the warning that tariffs on any major purchaser of Russian oil could go through the roof if in fact these talks fail. So what did I just say? I said it all comes down to money, didn't I? In the end, it's always going to come down to money, you know, And you know, at some point, do I think it's the issue of civilian casualties in Ukraine that Vladimir Putin's

going to be motivated by a don't you know? Ukraine is now targeting Russian oil facilities with drawn attacks. They did it last night, you know. Ukrainian media reported that two days ago, nine hundred and ninety Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in the last thirty six hours, not

that long, and the Russian economy. Bloomberg got an interesting piece about this is faltering under the strain and now President Trump may have taken away too of Putin's biggest energy company customers, the European Union and India if India goes along with the tariffs, and they might not have any choice because India needs access to American markets just like China does, and China is another big customer. So anyway, it's it's interesting. The Telegram had an interesting article. Trump

to offer Putin minerals. That's that's already kind of been part of the deal. Eight nine. If you want to be a part of the program, we continue our coverage. We're live President Trump and Vladimir Putin. The summit is officially underway. We are at Joint Base Elmendorf, Richardson. They will have not only a lunch, a meeting and then breakout sessions and then we expect a joint presser and then the most important part of the day for President Trump is seeing me. What just saying