President Trump just threatened Russia with a massive increase in tariffs if it doesn’t reach a ceasefire deal in 60 days, and also announced a new shipment of weapons to Ukraine through NATO. Glenn Beck and former Department of Defense intelligence analyst Jason Buttrill explain why this is a negotiation tactic, not a push for more war.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: The president is giving a -- a press conference right now. Very severe tariffs coming on Russia, if no Ukraine cease-fire deal is within 50 days. He's also sending weapons to Ukraine via NATO.
Which I don't know if that makes it better, does it, Jason?
JASON: No. It's basically the same thing.
GLENN: I guess it's not -- we know they're not going to be sold into corruption.
It won't go to some Nazi.
JASON: Right.
GLENN: That's an upgrade.
JASON: It's actually a very good point.
Because there was no transparency at all.
GLENN: None.
JASON: Just talk about chain of custody. I saw, was it Lindsey Graham over the weekend, talking about he was expecting an announcement today?
I don't know if this was what it is or not.
GLENN: Yeah. I think it is.
JASON: We all know at the core what President Trump is about.
Which is stopping war. Which is not having it happen.
I've seen a lot of negotiating power shifting in his corner.
Especially after the-Israel thing.
GLENN: Yes.
JASON: He's definitely got the -- I don't know. It's hard to describe his negotiating.
Or the way he does foreign policy. It's almost like shock. Shock --
GLENN: It's Overton window.
JASON: They don't really know what to expect.
I think this is feeding into that. I think that's part of it.
We know Trump is not wanting to go to war.
But now Vladimir Putin is not so sure.
So I think this is the president testing the waters here. Letting that, you know, what he's done, especially with Iran and Israel.
Let that speak for itself.
And see --
GLENN: This is one of the things that kills me about the critics of Donald Trump.
The ones who like him.
I heard all kinds of people saying, oh, now, look, we're going to go to war. Do you really think that's what Donald Trump is doing.
Do you really think he spent his whole life talking about two things.
His hatred for foreign war. And his love for tariffs.
That's been a lifetime ruse, just so he could get in, and then bring us to war?
He -- he is doing everything he can to stop this war.
You -- you saw it in the frustration he had, what was it?
A week ago. Where he let the F bomb go be into the reporters with his he's going into Marine One.
He just thinks, this is just stupid. This is just stupid in Israel and Hamas and Iran. And also, with Ukraine and Russia.
But he's got to -- you know, you -- peace through strength.
He's not going to send, you know, a pallet of cash to our enemy.
Not going to be like, hey, Glenn, you're Putin. Look what showed up on your tarmac. A trillion dollars, and expect that to work.
It's not going to work. It's not going to work.
He knows that has to be tough.
And that's what's got to happen.
I don't like sending arms to Ukraine. I guess I'm better with them going to NATO.
But then NATO will give them to Ukraine.
And what difference does that make. And I don't understand that one.
I will tell you, he is meeting with the NATO secretary general of the White House right now.
And he's talking about this.
And, you know, you've got to give the guy some credit on being a negotiator.
GLENN: Oh. Absolutely.
He's -- he set all of this up, through how he's dealt with all of our situations that has come before this one.
He's actually in a very, very good position. He's shown that he's willing to -- not only willing to -- but prefers to go to the negotiating table.
He tried to force Vladimir Putin, which he did a little bit. Got some concessions.
But they did something that they have not done since Russia invaded Ukraine. They sat down and talked.
GLENN: Yeah.
JASON: If anything, he should get credit for that right there.
But now, since this is not really working.
He's also showing, that he's willing to get tough.
He's willing to say, okay.
Fine, that's not working.
This has to work. Now the Russians will have to weigh these two things.
I don't want to see a B2 flying over some area. Any time in the near future.
No one wants to see that.
Maybe we should start looking at this negotiating thing a little bit more.
Now, all of the options appear to be on the table. And that's a good thing. The confusion is a good thing on the Russian side.
GLENN: So there's a lot of talk about, you know -- from our side.
On Donald Trump, and he's really -- and I've got to tell you. I don't see it this way.
I see Pam Bondi making some bad. And, you know, maybe I'm signaling her out, unfairly.
I don't think so. But maybe I am.
I see a real problem on that. Real problem.
And that's not a problem they can't correct. They just have to do it.
But I see, you know, now people are saying, see, he's just getting us into a foreign war.
You really -- maybe it's just me.
You don't understand what this guy is doing.
And, quite honestly, tell me one thing that is easy for him to solve?
How is he going to solve -- how do you solve the immigration thing?
How do you solve that?
He's already solved.
Nobody is coming in.
He solved that. Now he's got to fight with these kangaroo courts, all over the country. Where the Supreme Court said with be you can't do it.
You're still doing it.
You're dealing with actual Marxists and communists. Who are funded by our own government, in some cases. Who are putting radicals on the streets to burn things down. And to cause havoc and chaos.
You have -- you have people now in the press who would rather take down Donald Trump, and start a -- some sort of a ground war against ICE, by using video of children running from ICE, most likely not because of ICE. But because they were trying to escape. They were there without any parents.
They were there, as individual children.
God only knows what these people have -- what these kids have gone through.
And they were working illegal in the pot fields.
So I mean, it's bad enough, California. You have pot fields.
On top of that, now you have children.
You know, picking the pot fields for you?
And you're still standing with the communist radicals?
I mean, what do you do?
What do you do?
I mean, it's easy for an authoritarian. They say, he's an authoritarian.
He's, you know, Mussolini, he's Hitler. No, Hitler would have had all of this taken care of a long time ago. Trains would have been running on time by this point.
He's not. He's doing everything he can constitutionally. And, I mean, tell me the thing that is going on his way.
We wouldn't have to -- we wouldn't -- he wouldn't have had to waste his time, today, on Ukraine. In Russia.
He wouldn't have to waste his time on Iran, and Israel.
Had Biden not screwed both of those places up!
He's been working on other things.
Look how much time it's taken. And they love it. They love it.
And they love it, that we're tearing each other apart.
It's hard. You have to question these things. But you have to question them in a way, that you're not tearing them apart. And I don't know how to do that. I don't know if I'm doing a really good job or a bad job.
I don't know if, you know, you perceive me as a giant sellout. Or, you know, too tough.
I have no idea. No idea.
I don't really care. Because I'm just saying what I believe to be the right thing.
But the one thing I don't want to do is cause more problems. Because look at the problems, that the left is causing. And, no, we were not paying attention to it. We're not paying attention to it. We've got Mamdani.
Who is -- is -- he might be the next -- he's a communist! They're shooting themselves if the foot, over and over and over again.
I don't know. I don't know.
I don't -- I mean, you know, we talked earlier about, there are some things that we can do.
That we should be doing.
VOICE: I think that you always said to me way back when I started doing this job. When I was just -- came on with the chief researchers.
When you were finally -- if you're stuck, just start following the money.
GLENN: Yeah.
VOICE: That will tell you so much.
I feel like right now, we are stuck with the Epstein thing. Whether it's because of chain of custody.
Whether it's because it's been 15 years. Whatever it is.
I think that's something that a special counsel. And a grand -- a grand jury focused on weaponization of government, as a whole, so Russia-gate. Everything. I think a lot of the Epstein stuff will come out with that. I think if you just started following the money just on the Epstein stuff.
We can block out a lot of the other things that seem suspicious. Let's say the intelligence connections. Things like that. That we can't prove.
We probably will never prove.
We all think are there. Let's not go there for now. Let's just concentrating on following the money.
That could lead us to the intelligence connections.
That could lead us to a lot of the other things. Look at Epstein's financial network, for instance. It is a maze.
This is not how things are supposed to go. Offshore Shell companies?
These are facts. Offshore Shell companies in places like Bermuda, where we get money coming in by the millions. Then we get black. They're black coming in. They're black going out.
Why is that, Glenn?
Isn't that something that our financial experts, nerds can say, wait a minute. Let's focus on that. Maybe that will lead us --
GLENN: Yeah. The question to the Treasury, were there any warnings from banks. Because banks were supposed to warn. That's what happened with Hunter Biden.
Remember, there were 80 some.
Or 180 some warnings to the treasury, from banks, saying, this looks like money laundering.
I would like to know from the treasury.
Were there any warnings on that?
Because with that many offshore accounts.
That's what those are for.
You know, it's either sheltering money against taxes, or something really nefarious is going on.
Money is going in and out, that shouldn't be going in and out.
And where is this money coming from?
And where is this money going to?
JASON: Yeah. Banks that were supposedly. Turning a blind eye to some of these transactions.
Maybe we look at some of those.
What about the charities. This is another thing.
I want to put some of these things -- maybe we can share it on Wednesday, on TV show.
Just the money alone. Is just a total mine screw.
It's insane. But like charities. Why were major billionaires, going to Epstein, to then funnel money.
Not -- I don't want to say funnel money.
But to have Epstein do major contributions to some of these charities.
Why?
Why would major billionaires. After Epstein has already been outed through a case.
What was that?
2008. 2009.
He's already been outed as this person. Which you then go to this guy. And then say, let's funnel money into some of these charities.
Why?
Unless you're trying to hide money. Unless you're trying to direct it many ways.
Again, these are tangible things that you can follow. This is money!
It tells a story. We can follow it. Now, why isn't the mainstream media concentrating on that?
Why isn't the New York Times saying, Bermuda?
There's money. And show companies in Bermuda.
The US Virgin Islands.
This makes no sense.
This is like cypress. And gangsters. And Ukraine. For crying out loud.
GLENN: Which they also didn't cover.
JASON: It's right there. Which they didn't cover. Come on, guys!
GLENN: I know. I know.
Well, we'll cover it, on the Wednesday night special.
Don't miss it. This Wednesday. Only Blaze TV.
And my YouTube channel. YouTube.com/GlennBeck.