💥US turn to Zelenskyy’s DRONES —major defense deal to be MADE!

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Oh look, Mr. Trump, President Zelenskyy has a card.

[00:00:05]Uh I'm not sure whether it's a jack or a king or maybe it's the ace of hearts, but it's called drones at a time when the United States is almost depleted its stocks of interceptors, uh [snorts] especially missile interceptors, because of the war on Iran and Iran's retaliation. We have been discussing this in recent weeks where Zelenskyy played that card with the Gulf States.

[00:00:31]The United States got very upset. Oh, how could you visit Saudi Arabia? How could you visit Qatar or the UAE? Well, guess what? He could visit because he had something, which is a much cheaper form of air defense against Iran than what the US is providing.

[00:00:46]And now, because we're in what is an open-ended war in Iran, because the United States has depleted stocks of air defense, uh missiles or offensive stocks, because most of their missiles have been uh depleted, you can go over and talk to them about drones, not even necessarily for use in the Middle East. You know, what if the United States is preparing for possible confrontation, whether or not it's intended, with China or with North Korea. So, that's where the talks take place. Now, they are at working level. Uh what happens when they reach a higher level? Do we actually expect an agreement to be announced by the US Defense Secretary Popgun Pete Hegseth? Probably not. Do we expect Trump to announce an agreement? Probably not. But, these are the institutional links that matter. One day Donald Trump will be gone.

[00:01:40]Or one day he may be limited in what he can do in office. And when that day occurs, hopefully sooner rather than later, then the institutions, the American military, the intelligence services, uh the diplomats can work with Ukraine in terms of how do we have a cooperative defense security arrangement? And I have to tell you, I'm going to be watching very carefully as to whether the American position on security guarantees for Ukraine shifts.

[00:02:07]They had been saying in recent months, "You can only get security guarantees if you give up the rest of Donetsk to Russia." The Donetsk region.

[00:02:18]Now Ukraine can say, "If you want to work with us on these lovely drones that you might need, we would like to keep this lovely part of Donetsk that we need as well, as well as getting your commitment to our security." Let's see if it plays out that way.

[00:02:34]That's really a interesting take. I hope someone from President Zelensky's office will take and use your valuable advice on how to manage Trump's guys and his negotiating team.

[00:02:49]Let's also also cover Iran because US President Donald Trump is seriously considering a possible resuming of combat operations against Iranian regime as he feels humiliated, embarrassed by Iranian most latest response toward his peace offer. What is your assessment of the stage of negotiations and Trump's plan to to strike back to hit Iran again?

[00:03:22]Well, let's let's start with the military situation.

[00:03:25]>> [sighs] >> What would it have been? Probably uh just over a week ago, and the American officials were going to the meeting and saying, "Oh, he's he's considering those military options.

[00:03:37]There could be we could resume air strikes, or we could uh maybe even ground troops could be going in. Oh, we could do that.

[00:03:44]We could do it." And what actually happened is that there was a slight uptick on the American blockade of Iranian ports, where they boarded a few Iranian ships and where you had a bit of a skirmish where the Iranians fired on some vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the Americans fired back on a couple of Iranian vessels.

[00:04:04]You know, and and then everybody talked it back down because for all that bluster that Trump's making and his officials are making about returning to military operations, they've got a serious issue here.

[00:04:15]Um the 60 days are long gone. We're now uh in around what about day 73, day 74 of this US-Israel war on Iran and on Lebanon.

[00:04:33]And the reason why that's important is is after 60 days, the US is supposed the Trump administration are supposed to go to Congress to get authorization under the War Powers Act. And there were some Republicans, not just Democrats, who were saying, "Look, we're going to require this."

[00:04:46]So, what the Trump administration's been having to say is, "Even as we've had these skirmishes in the Strait of Hormuz, where both sides have fired on each other, they've had to say, 'Oh, no, no, no, no, it's still a ceasefire. It's still a ceasefire.'" Because the moment that they go back to to sustained air strikes, and especially if they have ground attacks or ground forces that attack, then Congress has to be in on the game. So, they've got themselves boxed in.

[00:05:14]And that takes us back to where we are on both the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and then the talks. And the situation in the Strait of Hormuz is the Americans don't control the Strait.

[00:05:24]I don't care what the Defense Secretary B. T. Harris said yesterday because he doesn't tell the truth. The Americans don't control the Strait. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz.

[00:05:34]And as long as Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, then the Trump administration will be under pressure to go back to negotiations because of the oil, the gas prices, the effects on other commodities, including fertilizers.

[00:05:51]The question just simply is, when do we get back to that second set of talks, weeks after the first set took place?

[00:05:58]The status on that is that you had an Iranian 14-point proposal, which says, let's talk about the Strait of Hormuz.

[00:06:07]We will talk about an arrangement for security in the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for a long-term ceasefire.

[00:06:15]Long-term ceasefire.

[00:06:18]Then we'll talk about our nuclear program.

[00:06:21]And the Trump administration was saying, "No, no, no, no, no, no. We have to talk about your nuclear program first before there's a long-term ceasefire."

[00:06:30]Which side blinks first?

[00:06:32]Or is there some way to square those two positions?

[00:06:35]And right now, having just come back from the United States, I'll just tell you this, that a lot of people were in Florida, where I was visiting my mother. They don't talk about Iran that much. They don't talk about Israel or Lebanon.

[00:06:51]They don't even talk really that much about Donald Trump in terms of specific issues, but they do talk about gasoline prices. And I was paying 50% more for gasoline than I did 3 months ago. So is everyone else in Florida. So is everyone else in the United States. And that domestic pressure, I think, will mean that the Trump folks will have to compromise and go back into the talks while they continue this saber-rattling that that doesn't really give them a military option to get regime surrender.

[00:07:23]US President Donald Trump is meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week in Beijing.

[00:07:30]Um US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was wearing the same um sports suit as Nicolas Maduro did.

[00:07:40]I I I I you you saw those photos on X and other social media platforms. Uh Don't you Don't you see Marco Rubio as so-called rising star in Trump's uh administration who could uh try to become the next US president?

[00:08:02]Well, I I'm sure Marco Rubio would like to be US president. So would J.D. Vance, the vice president. So that gives us this internal political dimension of what takes place here. But the question here is is is how does that connect to the wider issues we're talking about?

[00:08:18]What Marco Rubio is doing, by the way, is he's not saying a word really about Iran. He's leaving that to others, including J.D. Vance, when Vance, either because he wanted to be there or he was forced to, um led the Americans in that first set of talks with the Iranians a few weeks ago in Pakistan. You have Rubio referring back to Venezuela cuz that's a win, right? It's a win because, let me just remind everybody, they kidnapped the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, um who may or may not go through a trial. Whether or not you want to call it a show trial is up to you uh in the United States. But meanwhile, the rest of the Venezuelan regime is still in place. It's not like they actually put in a government and they've got democracy uh elections and a democracy in Venezuela.

[00:09:04]Uh they did get the regime to accommodation, if you will.

[00:09:09]That's Rubio's play, right? Don't want to talk about Iran, talk about Venezuela. Uh J.D. Vance right now, after having led the US in those talks a few weeks ago in Pakistan, has gone really quiet. Because things aren't going well with Iran. He has opposed that war in Iran. He doesn't want to get stuck with it.

[00:09:30]So Rubio doesn't want to get stuck with the war in Iran. Vance doesn't want to get stuck with the war in Iran. But guess what? The Trump administration is stuck with a war on Iran. So, we can talk all we want to about Rubio and Vance trying to get Trump's favor, trying to make their play for the 2028 election, but in 2026 no one can escape Iran.

[00:09:53]And here's the fundamental. If things don't go well in Iran, and they don't go well for the US economy, and things continue not not to go well in Iran in the Middle East and the US economy over the next 2 years, you won't have a President Vance, you won't have a President Rubio, because that president will be coming from the Democratic Party.

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