Mychael Schnell discusses the potential shift in foreign policy with The Hill’s Laura Kelly, as President Elect Trump is set to return to the White House. Trump campaigned on promises to end the war in Ukraine, while his incoming Vice President has been notably a critic of US aid for the country, how quickly could we see funds and military aid cease?
Trump says he has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, and he has revealed he has spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu three times in the past week.
Netanyahu has said he and Trump see ‘eye to eye’ on Iranian threats, as concerns rise the conflict could spread into Iran with US support.
President Biden honors veterans, military members and their families today during the Veteran’s Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, alongside Kamala Harris in their first public appearance since the election.
NewsNation’s Laura Ingle joins us from New York City where more than 20,000 people were expected to march in the 105th Annual Veterans Day Parade along 5th Avenue.
Trump says he has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, and he has revealed he has spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu three times in the past week.
Netanyahu has said he and Trump see ‘eye to eye’ on Iranian threats, as concerns rise the conflict could spread into Iran with US support.
President Biden honors veterans, military members and their families today during the Veteran’s Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, alongside Kamala Harris in their first public appearance since the election.
NewsNation’s Laura Ingle joins us from New York City where more than 20,000 people were expected to march in the 105th Annual Veterans Day Parade along 5th Avenue.
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NewsTranscript
00:00And as the election winds down and the world reacts to the outcome, the focus is now on
00:12the potential shift in foreign policy as Trump once again enters the White House.
00:17Joining us now to break it all down is The Hill's foreign policy reporter, Laura Kelly.
00:20Laura, thanks so much for joining us.
00:23Thank you for having me.
00:24Now, let's start here.
00:25Trump's ascension to the presidency will of course have major impacts on US foreign policy.
00:29He campaigned on promises at the end of the war in Ukraine and his incoming vice president,
00:33J.D. Vance, has been a noted critic of US aid for Ukraine.
00:37Do we have an idea on how quickly Ukraine could see US funds and military aid cease?
00:41And what exactly is the Biden administration doing before inauguration day on January 20th
00:47to prepare for Trump taking office?
00:49Yeah.
00:50Well, the Biden administration has about $6 billion, $7 billion in funding for military
00:58material to send to Ukraine, but it does face this kind of crisis of supply maybe.
01:04We think that the Biden administration will send Ukraine more air defense systems before
01:09January 20th to kind of fill out the $6 billion.
01:13They can maybe also send them some offensive weapons, some missiles and things, but they
01:17have to balance that out with not depleting US stocks.
01:21So I think it's unlikely we'll see in the next Trump administration, in the next Congress,
01:27that they'll want to pass a new aid package for Ukraine.
01:30There's also the question of kind of some of these long-term co-production deals that
01:35the US has been working to sign with Ukraine and maybe what the Trump administration might
01:40want to do with those.
01:42There was a deal signed between Ukraine and Northrop Grumman to build some weapons together
01:47and a memorandum of understanding between Boeing and Ukraine for the production of drones.
01:55And so these are all kind of good for American production, but it's a question of whether
01:59the Trump administration will kind of take part in doing the policy on the American government
02:06side to ensure that these companies can enter into business with Ukraine and be secure in
02:12their investment if the US ends support for things like air defenses, where these companies
02:17can't really operate there if they're scared that their investments will be bombed.
02:22So those are some of the questions that are coming up.
02:25I want to dive into Russia for a second, Laura.
02:27The Washington Post recently reported that Trump has spoken to President Vladimir Putin
02:31and the two discussed the war in Ukraine.
02:34How different of a relationship could we see between the two leaders, between Trump and
02:38Putin, compared to that of President Biden?
02:41And what impact will it have on the war in Ukraine overall?
02:46One thing that I'm trying to frame my thinking with President-elect Trump is that he likes
02:54to be shocking, he likes to take action, and there's not really a lot of clarity on the
03:00long-term strategy.
03:01So we hear President-elect Trump talking about wanting to hold a call with Russian President
03:08Putin, Ukrainian President Zelensky, and kind of getting them to talk about a negotiated
03:13deal.
03:14There's not a lot of clarity on what are Trump's red lines around such a deal, and that is
03:22really the open question.
03:23And if, let's say, President-elect Trump wants to enter into a deal that supporters of Ukraine
03:29feel is not good for Ukraine, Ukraine has some say in this, too.
03:34They could say that they don't want to enter into that deal.
03:36The U.S. could then pull support, and then Ukraine is really maybe reliant on European
03:40partners and itself to move forward.
03:44And there is also the element of if President-elect Trump feels that Russian President Putin is
03:51not giving him the respect that he wants and the deal that he wants, then he could go to
03:56the complete other side and say, we're arming Ukraine to the teeth and we're going to make,
04:01you know, Russia rue the day that it walked, it didn't give us what we wanted.
04:06So there is decisions that can be made, and it's just not clear what the consequences
04:14of those decisions, what the administration is most favorable to.
04:20Sure.
04:21And shifting gears now, Trump has been a vocal supporter of both Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu.
04:26And in the past week, the Israeli prime minister has revealed that the two have spoken already
04:30three times.
04:32Is Trump expected to give unwavering support to Israel in its war against Hamas and Hezbollah?
04:37And does that include increasing military aid and easing restrictions on how U.S. arms
04:41are used in that conflict?
04:45I think it's pretty safe to assume that the Trump administration will be very supportive
04:49of Israel and have a rhetoric that is more supportive of Israel compared to the Biden
04:54administration.
04:56But then there is also this question of what are the, what are the goals that president-elect
05:02Trump wants to achieve in the Middle East and in particular related to Iran?
05:07And does that match up exactly with what the Israelis want?
05:11And so ending this war against Hamas, this war against Hezbollah, the Trump, people in
05:17Trump's world talk about going after the primary source of these threats, which is Iran.
05:22And we had the maximum pressure campaign during the first Trump administration.
05:26But during that time, also the Trump administration, president-elect Trump wanted to negotiate
05:32a new nuclear deal with Iran.
05:34So it's a question of whether, how, how much president-elect Trump wants to have diplomacy
05:40with Iran versus the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, where it is much more,
05:49much more forceful, much more military focused.
05:51Speaking with this topic, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he's also said that the
05:56two see eye to eye on Iranian threats.
05:59Are there any concerns that the conflict could spread into Iran with U.S. support?
06:05Again, this is the question of which side is president-elect Trump going to fall on.
06:12The maximum pressure campaign was all about really isolating Iran, bankrupting Iran, pressuring
06:17Iran.
06:18We saw the Trump administration in the first term hit top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani,
06:29that the Israelis felt was a bridge too far and the Israelis didn't go into it.
06:33But then on the campaign trail, you hear president-elect Trump talking about how he wants peace.
06:38He wants the end to wars.
06:40So does he really want to escalate militarily with Iran, whereas we saw the Biden administration
06:47kind of warn Israel off of hitting Iranian nuclear sites, Iranian oil fields as a way
06:54to manage this back and forth that was happening?
06:59And so it's not clear.
07:00Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, sometimes he is a little bit cautious.
07:05Sometimes he doesn't want to enter into a full escalatory military strikes and uses
07:13the U.S. as kind of like holding him back.
07:16So it could be that Netanyahu goes out forward and they've already demonstrated that they
07:21have a lot of intelligence in striking Iran and having air superiority.
07:28So they definitely have an advantage there and could have, you know, president-elect
07:33Trump kind of play like the good cop, like we're holding Israel back and we can use this
07:40to kind of lead towards diplomacy in some essence.
07:43All right.
07:44We got to leave it there.
07:46All right, Kelly, thank you so much for joining us.
07:49Thank you for having me.
07:50I will stand here at Arlington as commander in chief.
07:55It's been the greatest honor of my life to lead you, to serve you, to care for you, to
08:03defend you just as you defended us generation after generation after generation.
08:11President Biden right there honoring veterans, military members and their families today
08:16during the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
08:20Alongside him was Kamala Harris in their first public appearance since the election.
08:24News Nation's Laura Engel joins us now from New York City where thousands are marching
08:28in the 105th annual Veterans Day parade along Fifth Avenue.
08:33Well the crowds have been out in full force all day long.
08:36This is the largest Veterans Day parade in all of America.
08:40The historic Fifth Avenue you see here behind me filled with 20,000 participants for Veterans
08:46Day.
08:47They have represented all six branches of the military.
08:50This year's Grand Marshal Dakota Meyer of the Marine Corps who received the Medal of
08:55Honor after serving in Afghanistan.
08:57Unlike some federal holidays that are celebrated on the same day of the week each year, but
09:01not necessarily the same date, Veterans Day is observed annually on November 11th.
09:07November 11th, 1918 marked the end of World War I and the holiday was first commemorated
09:13as Armistice Day the following year.
09:16In 1938 it was made a legal holiday and in 1954 President Eisenhower renamed it to Veterans
09:23Day.
09:24The day honors all who have served in times of war and in times of peace.
09:28Today the U.S. Census Bureau reports that there are 15.8 million U.S. military veterans.
09:34That makes up just over 6% of America's adult population.
09:38And only about half a percent of veterans today served in World War II.
09:42The largest share served in Vietnam.
09:45The theme of this year's Veterans Day is a legacy of loyalty and service.
09:51And this was the 105th Veterans Day parade here on Fifth Avenue.
09:55Today's event started off with a wreath laying ceremony at Madison Square Park.
09:59Back to you.
10:02Thank you, Laura.
10:03And for months Americans have been inundated with political ads and footage of candidates
10:08campaigning across the country.
10:10And now the 2024 election season is coming to a close.
10:13In today's Political Minute, NewsNation Chief Washington Correspondent Blake Berman breaks
10:18down the stats behind the 2024 presidential campaign.
10:22The 2024 election just about behind us.
10:25I'm Blake Berman, host of The Hill on NewsNation.
10:28President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris battled it out for months before
10:32Election Day.
10:33We covered it all, from campaign stops to political ads.
10:36Here's a look at the stats behind the race.
10:39Now in total, this election saw nearly $16 billion in spending, $10 billion spent on
10:45political advertising alone.
10:47The country saw nearly 4 million minutes of political ad time.
10:52That's more than seven and a half years worth of content, $2.7 billion in outside spending
10:58in support of candidates as well.
11:00Now since mid-July, we saw more than 300 events by the Trump and Harris campaigns.
11:05In September and October alone, Trump and Harris visited a total of 100 cities and pollsters
11:10conducted approximately 5,800 polls.
11:15The next big campaign cycle comes two years from now with the 2026 midterms.
11:20I'm Blake Berman and this is the NewsNation Political Minute.
11:25You can find more news and analysis from Blake and our colleagues 24-7 on NewsNation.
11:30To find NewsNation on your screen, go to joinNN.com.
11:35And that's today's Daily Debrief.
11:36I'm Michael Schnell.
11:38Be sure to like, share and subscribe to The Hill's YouTube channel and come back here
11:41soon for the intersection between politics and policy.