Donald Trump claims to be a "peacemaker"—but does his record prove it? As Ukraine burns, Gaza is destroyed, and global tensions rise, we analyze:
🔍 Key Questions:
✔️ Trump’s "Peace Through Strength" – Tough talk or real diplomacy?
✔️ Ukraine War Rages On – Did his policies prolong the conflict?
✔️ Israel-Palestine Crisis – Did Trump’s Middle East deals fuel today’s fire?
✔️ Global Instability – How does his "America First" approach impact the world?
💥 The Verdict:
Is Trump a deal-maker or a warmonger? CrossTalk dives deep into the contradictions of his foreign policy legacy.
#Trump2024 #PeaceThroughStrength #UkraineWar #GazaCrisis #IsraelPalestine #CrossTalk #Geopolitics #ForeignPolicy #NATO #Russia #MiddleEast #BidenVsTrump #DiplomacyOrWar #GlobalSecurity #TrumpLegacy #MilitaryIndustrialComplex #PeacemakerOrWarmonger #USPolitics #WorldAffairs
📢 Watch, Debate & Share Your Thoughts! Who REALLY brings peace? 🎤🌍
🔍 Key Questions:
✔️ Trump’s "Peace Through Strength" – Tough talk or real diplomacy?
✔️ Ukraine War Rages On – Did his policies prolong the conflict?
✔️ Israel-Palestine Crisis – Did Trump’s Middle East deals fuel today’s fire?
✔️ Global Instability – How does his "America First" approach impact the world?
💥 The Verdict:
Is Trump a deal-maker or a warmonger? CrossTalk dives deep into the contradictions of his foreign policy legacy.
#Trump2024 #PeaceThroughStrength #UkraineWar #GazaCrisis #IsraelPalestine #CrossTalk #Geopolitics #ForeignPolicy #NATO #Russia #MiddleEast #BidenVsTrump #DiplomacyOrWar #GlobalSecurity #TrumpLegacy #MilitaryIndustrialComplex #PeacemakerOrWarmonger #USPolitics #WorldAffairs
📢 Watch, Debate & Share Your Thoughts! Who REALLY brings peace? 🎤🌍
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Crosstalk, where all things are considered.
00:25I'm Peter Laveau.
00:25Donald Trump likes to refer to himself as a peacemaker.
00:29However, how does his record in his second term stack up to this claim?
00:33The war in Ukraine continues.
00:35Israel's destruction of the Palestinian people continues.
00:38And the jury is still out when it comes to Iran.
00:51Crosstalking Peace Through Strength, I'm joined by my guest, Yves Engler in Montreal.
00:55He's a Canadian Foreign Policy Institute fellow, journalist, and author.
00:59In Florida, we have Craig Pasta-Jardula.
01:01He is co-host of The Convo Couch.
01:03And in Cardiff, we cross to Johnny Venmore.
01:05He is an investigative journalist and founder of Newspace.
01:08All right, gentlemen, Crosstalk rules in effect.
01:10That means you can jump anytime you want.
01:11And I always appreciate it.
01:12I want to go to Pasta first because it's his birthday yesterday.
01:16Congratulations, my friend.
01:17You're looking very, very youthful.
01:19And speaking of youth, this is a very early administration.
01:22We're not even at 100 days.
01:24And I keep hearing this phrase, peace through strength.
01:27I don't know what that means.
01:28We've heard it before.
01:30It even goes back to the Reagan administration.
01:32And Donald Trump likes to call himself a peacemaker.
01:35I don't see much peace.
01:37I don't see much peace being made.
01:39Pasta.
01:40Yeah, I guess it's really supposed to be about deterrence.
01:43And I'm glad you pointed out the fact it was made famous by the Gipper.
01:47You know, it's one of those old phrases, you know, walk softly and carry a big bat.
01:51But in this case, let them see that bat.
01:53And even though it really hasn't led to deterrence, it really leads to record-breaking contracts.
01:59It sidelines diplomacy.
02:01It seems like that Donald Trump and his foreign policy is making very much use of that, or at
02:06least following along with that Marian Adelson money.
02:09It seems our foreign policy is driven by Israel.
02:13And Donald Trump is not slowing down whatsoever, even is going so far to go ahead and bomb
02:18Yemen without the consent of Congress.
02:21So, I mean, it really is nothing to do about peace through strength.
02:24It's peace through the military.
02:26And let's be honest, Peter.
02:28It's just more of the same.
02:29It's it's this is just a continuation of the last administration.
02:33It doesn't make a difference if it's a Republican or a Democrat in office.
02:37We are addicted to war, the United States.
02:39And I don't see this slowing down at all.
02:41Well, you know, I couldn't disagree with any of that.
02:45You know, Johnny, we've all been following what's been going on with the Trump administration's
02:49approach to Ukraine.
02:51I'm all for phone calls with major leaders.
02:54No problem with that.
02:55But the fact is, and to kind of echo what Pasa already said, there's no real difference
03:00between the Biden administration and the Trump administration when it comes to Ukraine.
03:05Maybe the tipping point will be the new appropriation.
03:09We're not there yet.
03:10But until we're there, I don't see the difference.
03:13Johnny.
03:13No, I see peace through strength actually meaning, like you say, the same a continuation is peace
03:19through perpetual limited warfare.
03:21It's a continuation of Kissinger and Khan's ideas of perpetual limited warfare, mutually assured
03:27destruction.
03:27But it's coming up to the new technocratic model of it.
03:33I think that's partially what we're seeing.
03:35What we're seeing at the moment is a selection of great things happening, a great reset.
03:40There's a great taking.
03:41But there's also a great change happening in neoconservative circles, because, of course,
03:47all the neoconservative infrastructure that led to Ukraine and other countries being destabilized
03:53is now being taken down by Doge and the Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency, which
04:00I think is more like the Department of Geopolitical Efficiency.
04:03And it's not actually disappearing.
04:05They're making it look like they're destroying this neoconservative infrastructure.
04:08But in actual fact, they're resetting it.
04:10It's another reset.
04:11It's a reset for the technocratic era.
04:13Technology has changed.
04:14They no longer need a massive amount of NGOs on the ground.
04:18They don't need to have these people within these countries.
04:21They can do this all via technology.
04:24And I think we're seeing the same thing as we've seen for the past 75 years or so.
04:29It's just perpetual limited warfare to distract us, to destabilize, to reform the world in their image.
04:36So what you're saying, putting a lipstick on a pig is still a pig, yes?
04:41Yes.
04:42All righty.
04:42Eve, let me go to you in Montreal.
04:44What does peace through strength mean to you?
04:47Because the Pentagon is getting a trillion dollars.
04:53I mean, I thought the government was supposed to be dismantled.
04:56This is incredible.
04:58What are they going to do with that money, Eve?
05:01Well, they're going to do what they've been doing, which is to intimidate the world and bomb the world.
05:05And we see that in Yemen, of course.
05:08And, no, I don't think there's any sense to the greatest military power the world has ever seen with bases all around the world, 150 countries, special forces in most countries of the world.
05:24The idea that there's anything, the idea of peace through strength makes no sense in the context of such overwhelming U.S. military power.
05:33So, no, I don't think, you know, this is just a justification for more of the U.S. empire.
05:40But I think even if you look at some of the kind of, you know, less militaristic things that Trump's done, you know, the sanctions on Venezuela that have been imposed.
05:50I mean, these are essentially acts of war.
05:52I mean, just, you know, secondary sanctions on oil and stuff like that.
05:56So, the Trump administration is incredibly belligerent.
05:59Obviously, in the Middle East, you see it the most egregiously where they're, you know, bombing Yemen and they just announced a new huge aid arms shipment to Israel.
06:09It's already $12 billion in weapons during the Trump administration to Israel, which is an astronomical sum.
06:17And this is obviously to kill in Gaza, but also to prepare for attack on Iran.
06:23And so, it's more of the same.
06:25And, you know, the Miriam Adelson is obviously part of behind that.
06:30There's all these arms companies that are behind that.
06:33And Trump is, you know, the MAGA supporters just go along.
06:36They claim he's a peaceman and they just go along with his bombing and they go along with his attacks against those trying to end genocide within the U.S.
06:47And this isn't to be surprising, you know, it's not surprising, of course, because the people who run the U.S. are the military industrial complex, is the Israel lobby, is these different forces.
06:57And Trump is just more of the same.
06:59You know, Pasta, maybe one difference, maybe it's only a nuance here, at least the U.S. is acting like an empire.
07:07You know, it's not a rules-based order anymore, okay?
07:10We're the big guy and you're all vassals.
07:12At least that's different and at least it's a little bit more transparent.
07:16Pasta.
07:18Yeah, that's right.
07:18It's in your face.
07:19But I think, too, Peter, that we have to point out that, you know, it is more of the same.
07:24The empire is the empire.
07:25They're just a little bit more out front and transparent about what they're doing and they're selling this whole peace through strength.
07:32I never really thought, Peter, that we would ever reach the level of hero-worshiping, of praising of a politician that we have with Barack Obama.
07:41But here comes the Trump people.
07:43They're coming along and saying, hold my beer.
07:46They will go along with anything this guy says as he's bombing Yemen.
07:51We saw that awful tweet that he made where he was bragging about bombing people in a tribal circle.
07:57You see people repeating that slogan.
07:59This is what it means about peace through strength.
08:01I mean, the trick here is to say that, you know, it's not the system that needs to change, Peter.
08:06It was the management.
08:08Biden was incompetent.
08:09The last administration was incompetent.
08:11We're competent over here.
08:13We're smart guys.
08:14You know, bobbleheads like Peter Hegseth and all these Marco Rubio guys that are out there and stuff.
08:18But that's what they're selling.
08:19And unfortunately, the people in America, especially the Trump movement, the MAGA movement, they're buying it.
08:25And it's everything opposite he said he would do.
08:28Remember when he told us he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours?
08:31Well, I'm still looking at my watch, Peter, and he hasn't ended it.
08:34And now he's – we're all seeing – when he said that, I think all of us out there were saying, you're not being realistic.
08:40If anybody's been paying attention, we know you're not going to end that war in 24 hours.
08:45But people are going along with it, and that's the sad part.
08:48Well, you know, who's going along with what?
08:50Johnny, I think it's really interesting.
08:51As time passes, we see Trump has a team around him.
08:57They're not going to do what he wants.
08:59Marco Rubio's name has already been mentioned here.
09:02There's Keith Kellogg character as well.
09:04I mean, Steve Bannon said before the inauguration that if Trump doesn't end the war in Ukraine, it's going to become his Vietnam.
09:11It is, is Vietnam now.
09:13Yeah, I totally agree with that.
09:15But I also think what we're seeing, if we look at each of Trump's actions, what he's gone back on especially, they're all expressions of the American intelligence deep state.
09:24They're all expressions of exactly what organizations like the CIA and others have been doing for donkey's years.
09:31And it's not a surprise that Trump has so many intelligence links.
09:35From the past, even with his links to people like Epstein, et cetera, his links to Roy Cohn, he's been traveling in these circles.
09:42He's been growing up in these circles.
09:44All he knows is these circles.
09:46So what else would we expect?
09:48And we're not seeing necessarily the old-fashioned boots-on-the-ground type wars.
09:52We're seeing lots of malevolent proxy sort of wars happening.
09:57And I think what we saw in Syria was just before Trump got improperly, got inaugurated, what we saw in Syria was the preparation for the destabilization of the Middle East so he can come in as a savior.
10:12So I think what will happen in Ukraine, there will be a shift across.
10:17Eventually, he doesn't want to end it straight away.
10:19I think he'll roll it down slowly, have a very fancy big summit, which I'm sure we'll talk about the possibilities of that later.
10:28And he will look towards looking like the peacemaker while destabilizing a region so he can say, we need to go in and we need to sort out this area now.
10:39It's all on fire.
10:41Well, you know, Eve, it's interesting that the Trump administration has put a lot of effort in trying to mend the Russia-U.S. relationship, meaning that that will somehow end the war in Ukraine.
10:53Well, that's just silly.
10:55And plus, as things go on, relations, as bad as they are, will only get worse with Russia.
11:02I don't see any traction anywhere for Trump on anything.
11:05I want to talk about Iran in the second part of the program.
11:07There may be some daylight there.
11:09But everything he says is counter what he ran on.
11:13Go ahead, Eve.
11:15Well, I think that the initial stuff with Russia, I think, is positive.
11:21I think to, you know, we start—
11:22I agree.
11:23But, I mean, where's the beef, OK?
11:25I mean, everybody knows what Russia's position is, OK?
11:29It's not being dealt with.
11:30They're not—they're still not listening.
11:33Improving bilateral relations is not going to change geopolitics.
11:37Go ahead, Eve.
11:39Yeah.
11:39Well, I think it's a potential step towards some shift.
11:43And I agree that clearly Trump is not prepared to wind back the U.S. empire, is not prepared to seriously wind back NATO's belligerence, both in Eastern Europe and across the globe, because the U.S. empire and the U.S. military and the deep state and these different forces don't want to do that.
12:06But I think it's a—you know, the diplomatic relations on that front, that's not where I would put the biggest criticism of Trump.
12:13I'd put the biggest criticism of Trump is in the really—I mean, I think Yemen is the clearest example where they are reverting to just the really open, naked, militaristic aggression that Trump claimed to oppose.
12:29And I would also say with regards to—
12:31But I guess that's what peace through strength is.
12:34We've solved it, gentlemen.
12:35All right, guys, I'm going to jump in here.
12:37We're going to go to a hard break.
12:38And after that hard break, we'll continue our discussion on peace through strength.
12:42Stay with RT.
12:51Welcome back to Crosstalk, where all things are considered.
12:53I'm Peter LaVelge.
12:54I remind you, we're discussing peace through strength.
13:05Okay, let's go back to PASTA.
13:08I think we all agree here if there was ever any kind of initiative to end the Ukraine war, it's stalled, at least at this point.
13:16And we see all this ridiculous juvenile bickering within the administration itself.
13:22Whitcoff, Kelly, Marco Rubio, you know, who—you know, I'm sick of it.
13:27I'm tired of it.
13:28You know, why should I waste my time when it looks like a high school lunchroom?
13:33But let's shift a little bit to Iran here.
13:37We all saw the meeting Trump had with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
13:42Now, the big question is, you know, was he—was he a head fake?
13:47Was Netanyahu surprised?
13:49We can go on and on.
13:50And then they had a—the U.S. and Iran had a indirect and then for, I guess, a photo shot, direct meeting in Oman.
14:00What do you make of all of that, PASTA?
14:03A step back, or is this—are we being propagandized for the future war?
14:08I'd say the latter.
14:10We're being propagandized for the future war.
14:12I remember, you know, at the end of the day, you know, I hear this all the time.
14:16You know, Donald Trump is putting Netanyahu on a leash.
14:18But I think Eve pointed out, I think it was somewhere around $11 or $12 billion.
14:23Hey, that's a really fancy leash he's putting there on Netanyahu.
14:27And at the end of the day, I think he's going to do whatever Israel tells him to do.
14:31They actually drive that foreign policy in the Middle East.
14:35And, you know, when I look at these talks, I just can't help to think about, you know, Soleimani or Israel, you know, I mean, this kind of like Donald Trump mafia style, let's whack the guy at the top kind of mentality as we go into these peace talks.
14:51So when I see this going on, I see nothing more than them sizing it up.
14:56And I'm wondering if he's going to try to attack or take somebody up out at the end of the day.
15:00Listen, I think the military understands the military-industrial complex.
15:05I believe there was some simulated kind of war game years ago.
15:10I can't remember what it was called.
15:11Oh, multiple ones, multiple ones.
15:13Keep going, yeah.
15:13Looking at Iran, and that was like seven, eight, ten years ago.
15:18Well, Iran has changed.
15:19They've become masters at drone warfare.
15:22We have no shot with Iran whatsoever.
15:25I think the United States knows that.
15:27I think this is just more about political posturing and letting, you know, once again, the peace through strength kind of puffing out their chest.
15:34And Donald Trump, you know, and when you hear Peter Hegseth on Fox News, he says words like dead serious.
15:41Like five or six times over there.
15:43Lethality.
15:44Lethality.
15:45He loves lethality.
15:47Word comes out every time he speaks in public here.
15:50What do you think, Johnny?
15:51Because, I mean, a lot of other people are saying that the U.S. is, it has limitations taking on, okay, you can pound sand in Yemen and kill civilians.
16:01Wow.
16:01It doesn't take a lot of talent to do that.
16:03It's a huge waste of money, by the way.
16:06But Iran's a different case.
16:08Go ahead, Johnny.
16:09Most definitely a different case.
16:11But this is the wonder of Henry Kissinger's perpetual limited warfare, is that you don't have to intend to win.
16:19You don't have to intend to take down Iran.
16:22You just have to continuously destabilize it.
16:26For that, though, you need a foothold in the region that's secure.
16:30And that's hard when Israel, it's really, it looks like it's a way to make greater Israel happen at the moment, that they're pushing towards Syria and pushing towards the other areas.
16:41But I think there's also an element that suits a perpetual war with Iran for however long, 10, 20 years, look at Afghanistan, look at Iraq, see the format from before.
16:54Again, these are the same techniques used.
16:57And I think it would be, it would be, wouldn't be right to think that they're looking to have a war that they can actually end.
17:06That's not the game.
17:08That's not the game.
17:09Well, I mean, Johnny, a lot of people are saying this is just an attempted regime change, OK?
17:15My good friend, our good friend, Professor Morandi, has told me on multiple occasions that, you know, they treat Russia and Iran as the same.
17:25All you have to do is knock the door down and the roof will come down, OK?
17:28This is illusory thinking.
17:30Let me go to Eve here.
17:31One thing that, you know, you know, we've already mentioned Ronald Reagan.
17:34We can go before that Richard Nixon, the madman theory.
17:38Is that what this foreign policy is?
17:39It's just madman theory on steroids?
17:44It could be.
17:44Yeah, I'm not sure that Trump is sufficiently sophisticated to be making those kind of thinking.
17:53But I do think that they are preparing.
17:56I think that Netanyahu is a complete madman.
17:59I think Netanyahu does want the U.S. to bomb Iran and wants to unleash a fairly significant war with Iran.
18:08And I think, unfortunately, there's too many Zionist forces within the Trump administration for them to hold back Netanyahu's craziness.
18:21And the sort of constant expansion of Israel into Syria and obviously in Lebanon, obviously in Gaza, West Bank, it does set this stage for just constant tension and destabilization of the region.
18:39And then, you know, obviously the big one is bombing in Yemen as well, but also going for a full-on war with Iran.
18:50Whether they think they can win it, I agree with that.
18:53That it's unlikely that the planners in Washington think they're going to, you know, just take over Iran.
18:59But they are going to, I think they're likely going to create a lot of destruction.
19:07And Iran is able, Iran on its part, is able to counter.
19:10But it's not clear to me how far, you know, the whole region could be lit into a major conflict.
19:20But I think that, yeah, whether it's a planned madman theory, I think the person in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu is a madman, and there are people around him are madmen.
19:30And whether the Israeli military, the upper echelons, are sort of withstrained enough to hold back Netanyahu and stuff, I don't know.
19:41But I think that they definitely, forces in Israel want to do this.
19:46And there's enough forces in Washington that will probably go along with it.
19:50You know, Pase, this is, you know, we're told this is all about Iran striving for a nuclear weapon.
19:56And if Iran is attacked, the result will be that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon.
20:01Yeah.
20:02Listen, I kind of got, I have to agree with Johnny, too, as well.
20:06You know, they're going to always use that excuse.
20:08It's about Iran having a nuclear weapon.
20:10It's okay for Israel to have a nuclear weapon.
20:13Illegally, by the way, I just want to point that out.
20:16But, you know, it's that old saying, it doesn't make a difference who wins the war.
20:19It doesn't make a difference who loses the war.
20:21All that matters is that they have the war.
20:24Therefore, the billions of dollars can keep flowing.
20:27But I also want to point out, I do think this is about the technocrats modernizing our warfare.
20:33It's all about implementing also track and trace policies and programs on the people.
20:38Because I've always said this before, Peter, that the greatest threat to the empire is its own citizens.
20:43So they're not only at war with the Middle East and at war with Iran and want to push this perpetual war.
20:49They're also at war with us.
20:52And that's what this is all about, modernizing the war itself.
20:55But, you know, I mean, if you're really going to look at this on paper, I think we have to understand.
21:00And the people of the United States, they don't understand what Iran's about.
21:02They don't understand the territory, the terrain.
21:05We can never beat Iran in a war nowadays.
21:08This isn't back in the days in the 1950s.
21:10This is today.
21:11And they're going to fight to the very last soldier.
21:14So if people think that they can have this G.I. Joe mentality that we're just going to go in there and change things and wipe them off the map, they're terribly mistaken, Peter.
21:23Yeah.
21:24Can I just jump in very quickly and say, you know, it's definitely not the days of Mazadek.
21:30But remember what the October Surprise Task Force taught us.
21:34It taught us that the Iranians were secretly dealing with the Americans and the CIA behind the scenes.
21:39So people like Riza Passandida and others were working on behalf of Bani Sada and represented them at meetings with the CIA.
21:51And I think there's a lot of things that will be going on behind the scenes in secret.
21:55And one other thing is that the development of the ability to have a nuclear bomb is one thing.
22:01To missile technology to carry that bomb is very different.
22:04As India found out when it managed to do its first nuclear test in, what, the early 70s, about 1974.
22:12And it wasn't until the 90s that it had a delivery effort.
22:16Well, from what I've been told, Iran has all of the components that are necessary to have a weaponized program.
22:25It's to the point of breakout.
22:26And they haven't gone there because they are willing to negotiate.
22:30Unfortunately, the Americans and the Israelis never can take yes for an answer.
22:37Yves?
22:39Yeah, because it's not about the nuclear weapon.
22:41It's about domination of the region.
22:43It's about domination.
22:44Yeah, right.
22:44It's about constant war.
22:46It's about all that.
22:47So the nuclear weapon is secondary.
22:49The Iranians have been very, obviously, very restrained in all this.
22:52You know, if I were sitting in Tehran, I would have thought, you know, the only thing you can do to avoid getting further attacked by the U.S. and Israel is to break out.
23:04Now, I understand the calculations and not doing that.
23:08But, yeah, it's about domination.
23:11And, you know, the U.S. intelligence still says they don't believe Iran has decided, doesn't want to go that route.
23:18But that's never been what it's about.
23:21I mean, there's been proposals to have a nuclear-free Middle East for a long time.
23:26The countries that oppose the nuclear-free Middle East, of course, are Israel and the U.S., because they are the big nuclear powers, right?
23:33So, you know, that's the direction, I think, for most of humanity we should be going in.
23:39But that's not, you know, humanity is certainly not what drives calculations in Washington and Tel Aviv.
23:45You know, Pasta, we're not even at the 100-day mark.
23:48I think it's like 86 or something like that right now.
23:52Does Trump have any opportunity to achieve the goal of being peacemaker at this point?
23:59No, I think that's long gone.
24:01You know, what's more scary to me right now is we talk about this perpetual state of war.
24:06But what's upsetting, like I said, is just seeing American voters and American people caught in this two-party illusion of sorts.
24:15I mean, they have the same funders, the same backers.
24:18It's AIPAC.
24:18It's BlackRock.
24:19But now Bernie Sanders and AOC are drawing big crowds out there.
24:23And I'm like, oh, my Lord, haven't we played this game before?
24:27Possibly.
24:28We have one minute left.
24:29I want to ask you one more question here.
24:30I mean, these foreign policy imperatives, they're bleeding into domestic politics.
24:36Look at what's happening to free speech.
24:40Yeah.
24:40Well, listen, Americans don't understand foreign policy.
24:43And there's an old saying when we're out there that whatever the empire uses outside its borders,
24:49well, eventually they'll bring it home to use on its own citizens.
24:53And it's happening right in front of our very own eyes.
24:55But unfortunately, we have a bunch of zombies just continuing to walk into this same two-party paradigm.
25:00It's really sad.
25:02It's what's even, well, it's not sad.
25:04It's terrifying seeing videos of people being abducted off the street by plainclothes people with unmarked cars.
25:12I never thought that would happen in the United States, but it is.
25:15That's all the time we have, gentlemen.
25:17I want to thank my guests in Florida, Karthiv, and in Montreal.
25:20And, of course, I want to thank our viewers for watching us here at RTC.
25:23See you next time.
25:24Remember, cross-talk rules.