The President's Daily Brief
January 23rd, 2025: Trump Gives Putin An Ultimatum & The Stargate Project Explained
23 Jan 2025
In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Donald Trump warns Vladimir Putin of massive tariffs and sanctions if no deal is reached to end the war in Ukraine. Russia faces a major blow in Syria as its 49-year port contract is terminated by the new government, losing a critical foothold in the region. President Trump announces The Stargate Project, a $500 billion initiative to revolutionize America's AI infrastructure over the next four years. And in today's Back of the Brief: Yemen's Houthi movement releases the crew of a cargo ship seized in November 2023. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Thursday, 23 January. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We'll kick things off with President Trump's tougher-than-expected stance on Russia, threatening massive tariffs and sanctions if Vladimir Putin doesn't strike a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
Later in the show, Russia suffers a major setback in Syria as the new government of Syria terminates a 49-year contract for a critical port, costing Moscow a key foothold in the region. Plus, big news on artificial intelligence. President Trump unveils the Stargate project, pledging $500 billion over four years to revolutionize AI infrastructure.
And in today's back of the brief, Yemen's Houthi movement, the Houthi rebels, announced the release of the crew of a cargo ship that they seized back in November of 2023. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. Now that he's back in the Oval Office, it appears President Trump is talking a tougher stance with Russian President Putin than many had anticipated.
Trump took to Truth Social on Wednesday to threaten the Putin regime with massive tariffs and sanctions on Russian products if they fail to strike a deal to end the nearly three-year-old war in Ukraine.
It was the first time that Trump got candid about how he plans to pressure Moscow to come to the negotiating table and also included some direct shots at Putin's leadership, according to a report from Politico.
While Trump said he has a good working relationship with Putin and loves the Russian people, well, that's nice, he criticized Putin's stewardship of the Russian economy, which he said is, quote, failing due to the Kremlin's myopic focus on continuing the war on Ukraine.
Trump said he does not want to financially harm the Russian people, but warned that Putin will leave him with little choice if he refuses to negotiate. In his post, Trump stated, "...I'm going to do Russia and President Putin a very big favor. Settle now and stop this ridiculous war. It's only going to get worse.
If we don't make a deal, he said, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs, and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States and various other participating countries." The president added, quote, we can do it the easy way or the hard way. And the easy way is always better. It's time to make a deal. No more lives should be lost, end quote.
Now, just how effective these proposed sanctions would be remains an open question. Trade ties between the U.S. and Russia have already been severely diminished significantly. since the war broke out, with Russian exports to the U.S. dropping from some $29.6 billion in 2021 to just around $2.9 billion in 2024.
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