Trump Loses Control as his Own Team Tries to set Trap for Him

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2:05Ben Meiselas:Agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com, so they see the full picture. My work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff, knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Donald Trump's own team has to set a trap for him because they realize how dangerous he is. That's right. MAGA Republicans, whether it's MAGA Mike Johnson, whether it's John Thune, who's the Senate Republican leader, whether it's Lindsey Graham, whether it's Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, they are setting traps for Donald Trump to try to do everything in their power, even if it's inadvertently or mistakenly by Donald Trump, just to try to support Ukraine.

2:59Ben Meiselas:They are pushing and trying to do anything imaginable. And they're even going a little bit public with it as well by trying to force potentially legislation that would require major sanctions to be brought against Russia to designate Russia as a terrorist state. And you can see behind the scenes the tension as Trump's inner circle, especially those, Donald Trump's very sympathetic to Russia, but the others who are very sympathetic to Russia are trying to push back against these public efforts by some MAGA Republican people as well, who you may be surprised, who at least in the past few days have said basically what's going down.

3:44Ben Meiselas:So let's break it down. So you had Donald Trump lash out this weekend when Donald Trump made a post about Russia invading Ukraine. Remember, over the weekend on Saturday, Donald Trump says it's Biden and Zelensky's war. If NATO does, as I say, the war will end quickly. And Donald Trump is like, NATO and Europe need to stop buying oil from Russia immediately. And then we can do sanctions once I have those guarantees. Look, Europe, by and large, has stopped getting most of its oil from Russia. There's still some, to be clear, which it admits it wants to move away from. But by and large, they're not buying direct oil from Russia at all.

4:26Ben Meiselas:You know who is, though? Hungary and Slovakia, part of Europe, are buying from Russia. And Donald Trump promoted that. He said, I like that Viktor Orban, my authoritarian buddy in Hungary, is buying oil from Russia. Viktor Orban wrote Donald Trump a love letter saying, you got to tell Ukraine, stop bombing those Russian oil depots. We depend on that Russian oil, Donald. And Trump responded to Viktor Orban in Slovakia, said, hey, Slovakia. And he goes, hey, Viktor Orban, my good friend. I'm very disappointed that Ukraine is hitting the Russian oil depots. So why would you be upset if Ukraine is hitting the Russian oil depots, Donald, if you claim to be upset that Russia's getting the oil from those deep, that Europe's getting the oil from those Russian oil depots.

5:10Ben Meiselas:That doesn't really make any sense, but it's all pretextual as ways for you to try to wiggle out of actually supporting Ukraine and issuing sanctions. So let's go behind the scenes because there was this global conference, which was very, very telling. So Keith Kellogg is Donald Trump's top guy in Ukraine. And he talked about confronting Donald Trump in the Oval Office with Donald Trump's top general, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Cain. They have that nickname for Raising Cain or whatever they call him. Dan Cain, who's the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And Kellogg told Trump, look, Russia's not winning the war.

5:53Ben Meiselas:Ukraine is not losing right now. And Donald Trump didn't believe it. Then they brought in Dan Cain. And these people are like super maggot up at this point. These people are Donald Trump, like allies through and through. And they even told Donald Trump in the Oval Office, look, Russia isn't winning. They may have taken over a little bit of territory, but they've lost like a million lives, Donald. Russia is not winning this. And Dan Cain came in and pushed with the offensive also. So watch what General Keith Kellogg said that he and the Joint Chiefs, Dan Cain, did. This is important because you're not really hearing this anywhere else.

6:34Ben Meiselas:But this global conference, I thought, was key. Play this clip. It's a great question because I was actually asked this question by the president, President Trump, in the Oval Office. Probably six weeks ago, same question. And I responded quite forcefully. And I finally said, Mr. President, don't just listen to me. Your chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Cain, is outside. He's out in the Auditorium. Bring him in. Ask him that question. He's your principal military advisor. And he did. And Dan said the same thing. Are they winning? Nope, they're not winning. So Putin could say he's winning all he wants.

7:13I know what he wants to do. I know he's trying to do it. But right now, he wants to take all of Donetsk and Kursan and Zaporizhia as well. that it's a slog for him. And it's the Russia, by the way, so how the Russians fight.

7:32Ben Meiselas:Now, Maga Mike Johnson gave what I thought was a pretty reprehensible interview over this weekend where he blamed the left and leftists for everything that went down regarding the shooter of Charlie Kirk. And there's no, it's not a leftist thing, but this is what they want. The leftists did this. It's a trans ideology. I mean, they're saying the most heinous and ridiculous things to try to sow further political division, which is the exact opposite of what you should do. But I'll save that for other videos as I've already covered that at length. But one of the things that Maga Mike Johnson said when he was asked on CBS about sanctions against Russia, listen carefully.

8:16Ben Meiselas:Maga Mike says that the House supports sanctions against Russia. But the problem, listen carefully how Magamike says this, is that, well, you have to have the White House's support. So we're trying to get the White House's support. Then Magamike has to, like, suck up to Donald to be like, well, I think he's trying to do everything he can to secure peace. No one does it as good as he can, which is obviously the most false and ridiculous thing imaginable. But you can see Magamike here trying to say, look, you could be a public hero if you support this, Donald. So look here, play this clip of Mag and Mike saying that the House would support the sanctions against Russia.

8:56Ben Meiselas:So next, I'm going to show you the Senate. Here's the House. And the first clip I showed you were the generals, general, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the envoy to Ukraine. Right. The two top military people. Now, here's Mag and Mike. Play this clip. And when Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, says, as he did this weekend, now is the time for Russia sanctions. President Trump opened the door on terrorists against India and China as a way to create economic leverage to end the war in Ukraine? Where do you stand on all that? Well, listen, I do believe that desperate times call for desperate measures.

9:31And I think appropriate sanctions on Russia are far overdue. I mean, I think there's a big appetite for that in Congress. So we're willing to work with the White House and our Senate colleagues in the House to get that done. And I'm anxious to do it personally. Are you waiting for the president to give you the green light or might Congress act on this on its own volition? Well, Congress really can't do this on its own volition because, of course, the president would need to sign whatever he do into law. So it has to be a partnership. But we've deferred to the commander in chief. I mean, the president is a strong and bold leader on the world stage.

10:06He has brokered peace around the world and other conflicts in a way that no one before him has been able to do. And so we're trusting that he can use that same force and that same approach to bring about finally an end to this war in Ukraine. Everyone in America wants that bloodshed to end. And President Trump is forcing that.

10:24Ben Meiselas:Now, here is the Republican Senator Thune, Senate Majority Leader. And here's what he has to say. Let's play the clip. Well, we will. And Lindsey has got another bill, the Russia sanctions bill, which has broad bipartisan support in the Senate. And also, I think hopefully at some point we'll get a vote. Both of those are steps that I think identify Russia for what they are and for what the what you know, for the Putin, for what he is. And and clearly make a statement to the rest of the world that hopefully the rest of the world will follow. At least certainly the West and freedom-loving countries in the world, I think, can rally around the cause of these children and Russia's role.

11:11And then also, I think, even more broadly than that, the sanctions issue, which would impose economic penalties on countries that do business with them. You want to make sure the president would sign this. Yeah. Because you don't want to put him in a bad place if he's not ready. And so we have been working with the White House on that legislation. And we want to make sure that when we move it, it's something that they are comfortable with and that they think enhances their ability to get a deal with Russia and gives them the tools that they need. And so when the administration's ready to move, we will move.

11:43Ben Meiselas:Okay. So, right. The Speaker of the House, the majority leader in the Senate, the military generals all agree. And what Senator Thune was also referencing was Lindsey Graham's legislation, where Lindsey Graham was like, we got to call Russia a terrorist organization. They are terrorists. And Lindsey Graham is trying to appeal to Donald Trump's ego and say, look, you could be a hero here, Donald. Here, play this clip. So what we're going to do is we're going to roll out our bill today. We're going to ask leaders of both parties to give us a chance to debate this and vote on it. And we want to put in motion right now a process that would lead quickly to Russia being a state sponsor of terrorism, telling everybody in the world who props up Putin, you're running afoul of U.S.

12:37law, and we're watching what you're doing, and you're going to pay a heavy price. It's one thing to go after their oil sales. We're doing that. But somebody needs to speak up for the children. We're doing that today. And we're going to have all of our colleagues lend their voice to our cause. And we're going to make Russia, under U.S. law, what they are. Terrorists. This is what terrorists do. They rape, they murder, they kidnap. So I'm looking forward to this debate, as you can tell. I'm looking forward to this vote and if Russia doesn't want to be a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law return the children the older I get the more I find myself wanting to be more intentional about the way I live eat and take care of my body that's why I'm so happy I found Mosh Mosh which you may have heard about on Shark Tank was founded by Maria Shriver and her son Patrick Schwarzenegger with a simple mission to create a conversation about brain health through food, education, and research.

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15:13Ben Meiselas:Now, I thought there was another powerful point at that speech. By the way, this was the Yalta European, what was that global conference? It was the Yalta European Security Conference in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Here you have the special envoy to Ukraine, Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg. Just saying though, let's be very clear, Russia is losing this war. Play this clip. If he was winning, he'd be in Kiev. If he's winning, he'd be west of the Dnieper River. If he's winning, he'd be on Odessa. If he's winning, he would have changed the government. Russia is, in fact, losing this war. Now, they may make movements and say, well, they're advancing in the Donbass region and the Desk.

15:54But if you consider advancing moving by meters, not miles, well, then, okay, that's successful. But at the cost that they're having, it's enormous. And I don't think people truly appreciate it. It's a number. But the numbers they have lost, when you're talking dead and wounded, well over a million. They left Afghanistan after losing$18 ,000. We left Vietnam after losing 65 ,000. They've lost over a million dead or wounded. These numbers are World War II level numbers when you think about it. They're stunning in the loss. And their first-line units that they came and tried to take Kiev with a little over four years ago, those first-line units are gone.

16:35So they've gone through a second or third or fourth iteration of wartime commanders. They're pulling tanks out of mothballs, out of museums, to put on the battle line. They can't operate in large movements because the Ukrainians would kill them.

16:48Ben Meiselas:And here Keith Kellogg talks about the courage that he saw of Ukrainians during attacks. Let's play this clip. Ukraine will survive. And the reason for that is because you look at the resiliency of the people. Look, I'll give you an example. And I actually put it on my phone. And it gives you, and I tell people, this kind of gives you an attitude of what this looks like going into the future. And there was a recent, it was put on TikTok or something, that the attacks had gone on. And there were people, Ukrainian citizens were in the subway. And sitting in the subway, and they weren't huddled down eating or drinking.

17:31You know what they were doing? They were singing their national anthem. You cannot replicate that. You can't. And that's the fighting heart of a country. That's not going to happen to Ukraine.

17:44Ben Meiselas:So then you have President Zelensky chime in and Zelensky says, today I want to especially thank all our warriors who are inflicting truly significant losses on Russia. Losses at the front, losses along the border, losses on Russia's own territory, thanks to our long range strikes. The most effective sanctions, the ones that work the fastest, are the fires at Russia's oil refineries, its terminals, oil depots. To significantly restrict Russia's oil industry is to significantly restrict the war. So do you see the trap they're setting? Donald Trump says to Europe, you need to stop buying the oil.

18:25Ben Meiselas:even though the only big purchasers of Europe, again, Hungary, Slovakia, Donald Trump's closest friends, Hungary and Slovakia, Viktor Orban, particularly from Hungary. And Donald Trump said, yeah, get your oil from Russia. I want that. But Zelensky and others recognize, okay, so Donald Trump says, no, you know, no oil, no oil. Okay, well, great bet. We're going to blow up all the oil refineries. We're taking your advice, Donald. You seem to, you, this is why Trump is so stupid also as he's trying to, and this is why our, you know, why Zelensky so smart and why Europe so smart. Do you see what I'm, you see what I'm talking about here, right?

19:07Ben Meiselas:Because Donald Trump's trying to use, oh, you're getting oil as an excuse not to sanction Russia. So then Ukraine uses it to say, got it. So you want us to blow up more oil refineries with long range missiles. You were prohibiting our long range missile use, but now you must want us to destroy the oil refineries. Gotta bet we'll do it. Brilliant move right there. Russia's war, Zelensky goes on to say, Russia's war is essentially a function of oil, of gas, of all of its other energy resources. I thank the special forces of the security service of Ukraine, who did a great job recently hitting Russia's largest oil terminal in the Baltic Sea.

19:47Ben Meiselas:There is substantial damage. Everything has been verified. And this is a tangible hit for the enemy. Our special forces are also keeping an eye on the port of Usluga and all of other Russian points of access to the world market. Today, the security service of Ukraine's drones are capable of operating at distances of more than a thousand kilometers. The special operations forces, the unmanned systems forces, the foreign intelligence service, and the defense intelligence are also involved. I thank them all for their accuracy. And then you have President Stubb of Finland say Putin failed at all of his goals.

20:26Ben Meiselas:This whole effort right here is being coordinated in response to Donald Trump's foolish post about Europe and I'm not going to do sanctions unless Europe stops buying oil from Russia. When again, Hungary is the big buyer. Watch President Stuba Finland. Let's play this clip. If you look at this thing from the perspective of Putin and the Kremlin, you have to ask yourself, how did I do? First, the aim was to take over Ukraine in a special operation in four days. Here we are four years into the war. Second was to create disunity in the West. I've never seen it more united before, including actually the transatlantic partnership.

21:14Third was to minimize the defense expenditure of NATO members. Trump has just hiked us up from 2 % to 5%. And the icing of the cake is, of course, that Putin doubled his border to NATO through Finland, and then eventually Sweden. So he has failed in all of his strategic goals, including the fact that Ukraine became very European and not Russian at all.

21:37Ben Meiselas:And then here you have President Stubb again saying, Russians have tolerated a lot of pain, but we'll see. Here, play this clip. There is this element of Russians, you know, not only through Soviet era, but before tolerating pain to a point that for us in the West is quite difficult to understand. But I still think that an incentive to end the war is when you're not anymore paid the so-called Putin maternity packages of$80 ,000 for a dead soldier or bonuses for basically funding the military. And I think that's a good beginning. And then Stubb talks about the situation on the ground. Let's play it.

22:18The situation on the ground is not as bad as people want to make it for Ukraine. Look at the process of advancement of Russia in the past 1 ,000 days. They have advanced one percentage point of Ukrainian territory. That's about 18 square kilometers a day at a cost of roughly 7 ,000 dead or wounded on the Russian side per week. The cost is humongous. And you have to ask yourself the question, how long can Russian society accept this?

22:49Ben Meiselas:And then Stubb talks about what real security guarantees mean at this Yalta conference. Let's play it. So the range of the political arrangement is somewhere from security agreements that most of us have already bilaterally signed with Ukraine. to Article 5. And that's why we need to sort of find a comfortable zone there. But the system for me is simple. Number one, responsibility, the Ukrainian army, 800 ,000 strong. Number two, Europe supports. Number three, the US provides a backstop. And that in and of itself, in my mind, is a strong enough deterrent so that Russia won't attack again. So you have Trump's own party, his own generals, and NATO setting these traps for Trump, knowing, and as Trump's out there trying to justify further not putting sanctions against Russia.

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