Trump gets Public Warning from his Own Top Generals

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1:30Ben Meiselas:For everyone who solves crime from their couch, knows more about forensics than their own job, and has trust issues with small-town sheriffs, Amazon Music's millions of podcast episodes are calling. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad-free. Included with Prime. Donald Trump just got a dire warning from his own top generals. The Supreme Allied Commander Europe, United States Air Force General, Alexis Gregory Grinkowicz, who goes by the call sign Grinch, was in Sweden where he issued a stern and very strong warning to Donald Trump saying that you are strengthening Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea, and you are weakening the NATO alliance.

2:19Ben Meiselas:Grinkovic was in Sweden where he praised Sweden and other European allies who Donald Trump is attacking. He said, for example, what he likes about Sweden as an ideal ally of the United States is how he refers to Sweden, is that you say things are made with Sweden, not made in Sweden. And that's how partners should be treating each other. Now, of course, with Donald Trump always being me, me, me, America, this America, that, and not talking about the NATO alliance and attacking the NATO alliance, this top general was clearly referring here to Donald Trump, but he didn't want to mention Donald Trump by name.

2:59Ben Meiselas:So I want you to watch what takes place here in Sweden as Grankowicz, as one of the top commanders in NATO, discusses the importance of this relationship with Sweden and NATO in general. Here play this clip. As governments remove barriers to work with defense firms, you're doing that here in Sweden, and we can learn from you. As you build transatlantic partnerships or pan-European partnerships or global partnerships with other like-minded nations, we can learn from you. And as you create opportunities for co-production and co-development, we can learn from Sweden. Sweden's industrial base is already doing these things and demonstrating that it can deliver.

3:43Yesterday, I heard the phrase made with Sweden in stark contrast to the other phrase that you might have chosen, a more protectionist phrase of made in Sweden. This is fantastic. All allies would benefit from adopting this mentality as a rising tide lifts all boats. So in conclusion, everything I'm seeing from Sweden, the collaboration, the modernization efforts, the defense investments, the health of your defense industry, frankly, I think someone gave you all a checklist for being a model ally and you just went down and started checking it off. So it's a real privilege to be here with you today with a model ally who's doing so much for the alliance.

4:31And I truly look forward to your questions.

4:33Ben Meiselas:And next, Grenkowicz, this top NATO general, this top Air Force general, call sign Grinch. Here's what he says about Greenland. Play this clip. The U.S. national strategy, along with the recent statements from President Trump, has changed anything when it comes to NATO priorities? Well, I won't comment on the political dimensions of recent rhetoric. It's not my place to do that as a military officer. But I will just observe the readout from the North Atlantic Council, where all of our permanent representatives from the 32 nations get together to discuss thorny issues. Those dialogues continue in Brussels.

5:12They've been healthy dialogues from what I've heard. And I think that's the most important thing. Members of the alliance who've worked together for so many years are talking together and working through these learning issues. You had this role for about six months now. Has your priorities in any way changed? Is it only six months? Oh, I'm sorry you feel that way. No, no. It's actually been truly a fantastic six months. One of the best jobs that exists on the planet, in my view, and I've truly enjoyed it. My priorities have been pretty consistent. I've got several of them. One of us, of course, I'm focused on taking care of our people, your people that you contribute to the Alliance and to our missions.

5:57They are the bread and butter of what we do every single day. And Michael Klaassen and I actually got an opportunity to go see some of the Swedish troops yesterday, Swedish Marines who, I mean, some of the most impressive young women and men that I've seen in uniform throughout my almost 33 years of service. So you all ought to be incredibly proud of what those young people are doing for your country and for the Alliance. So we need to take care of them. We need to focus on them, get them the equipment and the capabilities that they need. My second focus is warfighting readiness. And, you know, the Alliance is ready to fight tonight, but we need to continue to hone our readiness and be more and more ready every single day.

6:38That's headquarters readiness, making sure we have the processes and capabilities in place to do the things we need to do. It's also individual unit level readiness. Michael's focused on that here in Sweden. All of the chiefs of defense are and I am as well. And it's by being ready that we continue to maintain that deterrence.

6:56Ben Meiselas:And here's how he discusses Russia, North Korea, Iran, China getting much stronger together because of Trump's weakness. Now, he doesn't mention Trump specifically, but he talks about how in the past American foreign policy would be to divide and conquer these countries. But now they're being brought closer together. They're cooperating with each other. And then Grinkowitz explains, this is why we need cooperation in the Arctic. It's why we need to work with our allies like Canada, like Sweden, like Denmark, like Greenland. This is a clear reference to Donald Trump's attacks on our allies. Watch as the top NATO commander, who's the supreme allied commander, Europe.

7:53Ben Meiselas:Watch what he says. And clearly, the message here is being sent to Donald Trump and the rest of the world. Here, play this clip. China continues to fund Putin's war machine. Iran continues to supply technology and weapons. and North Korean combat troops remain in Russia on Ukraine's border. And of course, there's a confluence between Russia, Iran, and Venezuela and their dark fleet of oil tankers that is helping to fund the war. In the Arctic and the high north, we see a similar trend. Russian and Chinese vessels are conducting more and more joint patrols. Chinese icebreakers and research vessels are in Arctic waters, and their research is not for peaceful purposes.

8:44It's to gain a military advantage. Russia, meanwhile, continues testing advanced capabilities in the Barents Sea. As new shipping routes emerge and new resources are discovered, the Arctic only grows in strategic importance. And all of this comes in the midst of an increasing hybrid threat, airspace violations, GPS and GNSS interference, and the Shadow Fleet in the Baltic Sea threatening underwater infrastructure. In short, the Arctic and Northern Europe by extension has become a front line for strategic competition. Within NATO, Allied Command Operations, the command that SACUR oversees, has taken steps to strengthen our deterrent posture, much of which is oriented in that northern region here.

9:39Just over a year ago, we established Baltic Sentry, an activity to protect that critical underwater infrastructure. In this past fall, we developed Eastern Sentry to increase our agility and further integrate our air and missile defenses on the eastern flank. More recently, in just the past month, we've realigned the boundaries of our Joint Commands, and now Joint Force Command Norfolk brings together NATO's activities in the Arctic under one command, allowing us to better defend all allies in Europe, in the Arctic, and the strategic approaches to North America. Allies are also working together closely on Arctic issues.

10:23At a recent Arctic Chief of Defense conference, we agreed to increase our understanding of activity in the Arctic, to enhance our domain awareness, and to increase our own activities and exercises in the High North. In short, military cooperation in this region has never been stronger. Moving forward, we intend to expand our intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, to improve our infrastructure and logistics for military mobility, and to strengthen our presence with Arctic-capable forces, many of those forces here in Sweden. With seven of eight Arctic nations inside the alliance, the other one being Russia, we will and we can get this right.

11:08Now, what's Sweden's role? As our newest ally, Sweden is instrumental. Two years in, and you have already demonstrated exceptional commitment. You're the framework nation for our forward land forces in Finland. You're filling staff roles throughout my command, especially in critical positions at Joint Force Command in Norfolk and our training and assistance command for Ukraine. You've contributed capabilities for operations and our vigilance activities across the entire European continent. You're a model for societal resilience. And Sweden is among the top supporters of Ukraine through the prioritized Ukraine requirements list, the Pearl, and a number of other venues.

11:52In short, Sweden is setting an example for all of us, and I truly appreciate your leadership. Now, as you're aware, transforming for the future and strengthening deterrence takes resources, a lot of resources. But while the defense investment pledge at the Hague Summit in 2025 was historic, money alone is not a deterrent. We need the equipment, the weapons, and the munitions to start showing up in our allied military inventories. And this is where Sweden really stands apart. You have an incredibly strong industrial base. And there are steps that we can use across the alliance to learn from your experience.

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14:37Ben Meiselas:He was special operations. He also was a leader of command in Europe. He was in the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War. He's received numerous awards from the Army Distinguished Service Medal, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Defense Superior Service Medal. He was Trump's envoy to Russia and Ukraine. Putin did not want Kellogg to be there because Kellogg wanted to hold Putin accountable. So Putin told Trump, get rid of Kellogg. Then Kellogg just became the envoy to Ukraine and not Russia. And then he basically got pushed out of the Trump regime, which we always knew that Kellogg was not going to make it that long in this Trump regime.

15:22Ben Meiselas:So here, Kellogg similarly echoes what you heard from Grinkowitz warning Donald Trump. You've got these malevolent actors out there, North Korea, China, what's left of Iran and Russia who are joining forces. Watch what Kellogg says here. Play this clip. But it's clearly with Russia, there are some malevolent actors out there. You have North Korea, you have China, you have what's left of Iran. that's falling apart and you have russia now and in the past uh we didn't allow those four to come together we kept them kind of separated and now they're coming together now the point is to kind of not break them apart but move some separation that you don't have to worry about them anymore and and you get to a point where you separated north korea you separated china you separated uh iran from russia and you keep them isolated and then kellogg praises zielinski i want you to watch this for yourself play this clip but he's stubborn he has his opinion he's unafraid to say that he knows how to use media uh and i made a comment i took some criticism for at the time that I said he was in a battle and courageous leader.

16:45And I've said people within the administration, we in the United States have not seen a leader like him since Abraham Lincoln.

16:55Ben Meiselas:And then Kellogg makes it very clear as well that Putin does not want peace with Ukraine. Putin is a KGB officer who wants total submission. That's what he is after. Here, let's play this clip. Putin wants Ukraine to succeed. Do you think that Putin wants Ukraine to succeed? No, I don't. I think Putin, as a former KGB officer, and I don't think he ever outlived their roots. I think he's got a goal in mind. And what we want in the West is not necessarily what he wants. And I think he was I don't think Putin wants Ukraine to succeed at all. And then finally, you had a meeting that took place recently with Mark Rutt, the Secretary General of NATO.

17:51Ben Meiselas:You see Mark Rutt here talking about the Arctic strategy. And I want you to take a look here how he describes things. Take a look at Mark Rutt at this press conference moments ago. Play this clip. What is your comment, approximation on the latest statements from Donald Trump, who said that if necessary he will take military action on Greenland? And I'm just going to read it. Commissioner Kubilius from European Commission has said that EU members are obliged to come to Denmark's assistance under EU treaty if faced with military aggression. And as we know, 23 countries of EU are also members of NATO.

18:37including Croatia, yes? Mr. Plenkovic, please, your comment. Thank you.

19:05and is there that when it comes to the high north, the Arctic region, I was myself visiting Iceland only I think six or eight weeks ago, and we also extensively discussed this, and I was in Norway and visiting all our allies, discussing with the US and with Canada. I was with Prime Minister Carney last week in Paris, discussing the importance of the Arctic. So collectively, as an alliance, and particularly, of course, the southern countries who are bordering on the region, We do make this analysis that the collective defense is crucial. We all see that through changes in weather patterns that sea lanes are opening up.

19:44And we have to make sure that we do everything to protect that region. It is a vital part of NATO territory. And that is exactly why, where in the past NATO was not so much involved when it came to the Arctic, that since 2025, on the request by the seven High North allies who are bordering on the Arctic, that NATO has become more involved. This has led to a few, as I said, very successful discussions within the NATO alliance with our ambassadors in Brussels and our ministers. We discussed this importance and currently we are working on the next steps to make sure that indeed we collectively protect what is at stake here.

20:27Ben Meiselas:So you see everybody there seems to be warning, Donald Trump, you're making a big mistake. High alert. What the hell are you doing? You see it for yourself there. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. And thanks for watching.

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