The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | March 15th, 2025: Trump Calls Putin’s Bluff & Syria Erupts in Violence
15 Mar 2025
In this episode of The PDB Situation Report: A major development in the war in Ukraine—Kyiv has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire following high-level talks in Saudi Arabia. But will Russia do the same? We break it all down with Fred Fleitz, former National Security Council Chief of Staff and Vice Chair of the America First Policy Institute's Center for American Security. Syria is on the brink once again. A surge of violence and reports of massacres are pushing the country further into chaos as the fragile government struggles to maintain control. We get expert analysis from David Daoud, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 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
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. Oh, is it that time of the week again? I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start things off with a major development in the war in Ukraine. After high-level talks in Saudi Arabia, Kyiv has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. But you ask yourself, isn't there another player in this? And there is.
What will Russia do? And will they agree at all to the terms of a 30-day ceasefire? We'll break it all down with Fred Fleitz. He's a former National Security Council chief of staff and the vice chair of the America First Policy Institute's Center for American Security. That's hard to fit on one business card.
Later in the show, we turn to Syria, where a major outbreak of violence is threatening to push the country deeper into chaos. Reports of massacres are emerging as the fragile government struggles to maintain control. We'll get analysis from David Dowd, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. But first, today's Situation Report Spotlight.
Ukraine has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire with Russia following high-level negotiations in Saudi Arabia. Now, the announcement came after hours of discussions in Jeddah on Tuesday, where the US also confirmed it would immediately lift its paws on intelligence sharing with Kyiv and resume military aid.
Now, the talks mark a significant shift in ceasefire negotiations, which had stalled, of course, after a tense exchange, I think we all saw that, between the Ukrainian and U.S. presidents at the White House. Now, attention turns to Moscow, with American and Ukrainian officials making it clear that the next move is up to Russia.
The Kremlin, however, is treading carefully, saying it won't rush to a decision. You have to ask yourself, why would they? They appear to have the upper hand on the battlefield currently. Russian officials are waiting to hear directly from Washington about a possible call between Presidents Trump and Putin later this week.
Okay, joining me now to break it all down is Fred Fleitz, former National Security Council Chief of Staff and Vice Chair of the America First Policy Institute Center for American Security. Fred, thank you very much for taking the time to join us here on the Situation Report. Good to be here. But most important, like you, I'm a former CIA officer. That is very, very true.
And I do believe our paths crossed a handful of times, at least in the hallways. I never had the good fortune. I don't even know if you'd call it that. Maybe the bad fortune of doing a headquarters tour. during my time. But yeah, I know how you felt about your time in. I loved it. I had a wonderful career with the organization. I really enjoyed it.
I don't know whether they would say the same thing about me with them, but I certainly had a good time.
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