Cenk Uygur

You can tell if it's a small or a big one, right? So that's them saying, we don't really want war, but for our domestic crowd, we have to bomb you back, right? And that's when the military-industrial complex comes to Trump and says, no, you have to show them who's tough and bomb this area. And Trump says, no. They did a small bombing, not a large bombing. I don't want the war.

I'm not going to do that bombing. That was this shining moment.

So... On the one hand, almost all other politicians are going to be controlled by the military-industrial complex, and that complex wants to bleed Russia dry. And that's what the Ukraine war is doing. It's a double win for the defense contractors. Number one, every dollar we send to Ukraine is actually not going to Ukraine. It's going to U.S. defense contractors.

And then they are sending old weapons to Ukraine. The money is to build new weapons for us. So a lot of people don't know that. So the defense contractors want that war to go on forever. And they're an enormous influence on Washington. The second win is they're depleting Russia. And Russia's gotten themselves into a quagmire like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they're bleeding out.

So the military industrial complex wants Russia to bleed out for as long as humanly possible. They actually care more about their own interests, of course, than they do about Ukrainian interests. So, in fact, there's a good argument to be made that Ukraine could have gotten a peace deal earlier and we prevented it. So, but the bottom line now is...

Probably how a deal gets done is they let go of three more areas in Ukraine. They already lost Crimea. They'd have to let go of three more regions. And that is tough because at that point, Russia's a little bit encouraged. Every time they do an invasion, they get more land. They might not get all the land they wanted, but they get a lot of land. So that's, it's a very difficult issue.

Trump will end that war because Trump will go in and he loves Russia and Putin anyway.

So I don't like talking about Russia because there's so much emotions that go into that topic. The right wing, the minute you mentioned Russia, they're like, oh, it's a hoax and all this baggage that comes with it, et cetera. To me, Russia is not any different than Saudi Arabia or Israel for Trump. You give me money, I like you. You buy my apartments, I like you.

If you don't give me money, I don't like you. It's not that complicated. Don't worry about the Russia part of it. The bottom line is... Trump thinks, what do I care about those three regions of Ukraine? I want to get this thing done, right? So he'll go and he'll say, Ukraine, we're going to withdraw all help unless you agree to a peace deal with Russia and Russia wants those three regions.

That's the peace deal. That's it. So Ukraine will lose a part of their country and we'll get to a peace deal.

He's not... His anti-war record is so complicated because... Moving the embassy in Israel and killing the top Iranian general were super provocative and they could have easily triggered a giant war there. And then you know what's going to happen if you get into any kind of real war. Trump's going to want to prove his buttons larger. So then he's going to do massive, ridiculous bombings.

I mean, I worry about nukes. And so we had Giuliani on the show on the RNC, and I asked him this question. I said, you know, I keep saying, oh, they wouldn't do it if I was in charge. I'm like, what does that mean? Because it sounds like what it means is they wouldn't do it because they know if they did it, I would do something insane, like attack Russia. Or use nukes.

And Rudy said, yeah, that's what it means. So that means you have to at least bluff that and you have to get them to believe that he's a madman. That's the madman theory of Nixon. And Rudy said that too. He was very clear about it. But the problem is if you get your bluff called. And so if you actually attack Russia, you're going to start World War III. So that's why...

Yeah, if you could just get away with bluffing, maybe. But he's playing a very dangerous game. And he massively increased drone strikes. On the other hand, he didn't bomb Iran further. And on the other hand, he started the process of withdrawal from Afghanistan. So not black and white, complicated record. And one thing, I'll give him another piece of credit here.

I think I'm taking the steel manning too far. Uh, but the, the credit was that, um, he changed the rhetoric of the right wing. They went from the party of Dick Cheney. War is great. Uh, Uh, and let's, you know, all Muslims are evil. And so he hates Muslims too, but that's a different thing. Right. But like, oh, we have to attack the enemy. We have to start wars, et cetera.

To now Republican voters are generally anti-war and hate Dick Cheney. Oh, I'll take it. I'll take it. So that's a great thing that Trump did, even if he didn't mean it. Even if he does these provocative things that could lead to a much worse war. Even if I'm worried that he'll be so reckless, he'll start a bigger war. At least he did that right.

And so I'm happy to have our right-wing brothers and sisters join us in the anti-war movement. And I'm not being a jerk about it. Like, I love it. And so this is another thing the left does wrong from time to time, which is If you agree with a right-winger 2%, they'll be like, oh, welcome in. Come on, vote for Trump. Come on in. Yeah, woo-hoo. Water's warm, right?

If you disagree with the left 2%, they're like, that's it. You're banished and you're a Nazi. Well, brother, how are we going to win an election if you're banishing everybody there is, right? So hold up. These Republican voters are coming at your anti-war position. Take the win. No, they're MAGA and I won't deal with them. Even when they agree with you, that doesn't make any sense.

That doesn't make any sense. Take the win, right? So when Charlie Kirk says yes to paid family leave, when Patrick Bet-David on his program says yes, roughly says yes to paid family leave, take the win.

Yeah. So he, he was on our show. People love that interview. You could check it out anytime. Right. Um, and, and why do people love it? Whether they're right or left, because we're fair. We actually asked him about his policy positions. He explained them. I challenge him. And then he explains and we give him a fair hearing.