Zolan Kanno-Youngs
speaker
266 appearances
9 recordings
2 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard 4d ago
Zolan Kanno-Youngs’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Right. And while you're cutting spending, the question that we have to keep asking are going to be following is also what programs get cut with that. And if you're looking at $800 billion over 10 years, there's very few ways to do that without cutting something like Medicaid, providing health insurance for lower income Americans. Many of which are supporters of the president.
Many of which are supporters of the president as well. And if they were to do that, You know, Democrats who up until this point have been really cautious in choosing what to swing at when it comes to the Trump administration.
I've talked to folks who think they have an opening there in attaching cutting of a government program that many of the president's own supporters rely on to this administration. Right.
So we've talked about how President Trump's approach to foreign policy can best be described as transactional. And we got some examples of that early on when after coming into office, you know, when it came to aid for Ukraine, it started out as sort of amusing over having an exchange of the natural resources in Ukraine for aid to Ukraine.
And that has really become a focus of the negotiations that we've now seen in recent days and in recent weeks. So a pivotal point in this is when Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Besson took a trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, and presented an initial version of this deal. And the initial version, Ukraine balked at it. What was the initial version? First, the U.S.
basically wants back pay for the aid they already sent to Ukraine. Trump is basically saying, you have these critical earth minerals in Ukraine, and the U.S. is going to get a significant amount, half of the revenue from that up to $500 billion. That's a lot. The maybe even more significant thing is what's not important. that proposal.
And that's the assurance Zelensky wants of a long-term security guarantee. The concern for Ukraine is that any pause in fighting that U.S. and Russia agreed to, well, what if Russia uses that to build up its forces and then Ukraine is left without the assurance, the knowledge that the United States will come to their defense, that the United States will actually support Ukraine?
Why? Well, for one, I mean, a late version of a U.S. proposal did vaguely say that the U.S. would support Ukraine security. But then Trump came around the next day in a cabinet meeting and said, essentially, that was going to be the responsibility of European nations that are closer to Ukraine. Zelensky's in a really tight spot here. I mean, he knows Ukraine has been relying on a lot of U.S. aid.
And, you know, he's now put in a position where, like many other world leaders, he now needs to come to Washington and try to placate Trump, try to use old-fashioned diplomacy to try and secure any kind of assurance for Ukraine.
Even when the administration is trying to reassure Ukraine that the United States will be here, they actually point to the fact that, look, if we have an investment in your critical earth minerals, that is impossible. in a form, you know, the best kind of security assurance that you could get because we don't want Russia to take over all of this territory.
If we have an agreement with you to continue to financially benefit, you know, from these critical earth minerals, isn't it more likely that we will continue to support your defense of your land, which I think says a lot about Trump. It says a lot about him.
That's right. It's also worth noting just some of the criticism that's come from some other European leaders who have said that this does echo colonialism as well, right? And a colonialist approach where you are looking to extract the resources of a country that you have leverage over or even power over.
I think that's right. And it's a little bit of what have you done for me lately approach to foreign policy. And you're seeing other nations react in a way to try and give him something that he can cite that they've done for him lately. And it's not just today. The Japanese prime minister came to the White House and was showering Trump with compliments, complimenting his appearance on TV.
Netanyahu also showered him with compliments. When he threatened tariffs against Mexico, Mexico agreed to new border security measures. You saw Canada also threatened with tariffs and talked about different things they were going to do at their northern border.
So you're seeing Trump make clear what his approach to foreign policy is, and you're seeing other world leaders respond by giving him something, whether it be something tangible on the ground or Or simply even the appearance of placating at the White House. Right.
That's right.
Thanks, Michael. Thanks, everyone.
You should be thanking the president for trying to bring it into this conflict.
Sure, so I think it's smart that you started this with the fact that Trump had this significant call with Vladimir Putin. That conversation basically prompted concern amongst Europeans as well as Americans that Ukraine was not going to have a seat at the negotiating table. The country that was invaded in this case was not going to have a say in any potential peace talks that could end the war.
There are talks then in Saudi Arabia between U.S. officials and a Russian delegation. And Zelensky does not attend because he was not invited to those talks, even though it was his country that was invaded. So after he doesn't attend, you have President Trump come out and criticize Zelensky. Right.
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