Nick Craig In For Pete Kaliner (03-31-2025--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] Well, over the weekend, there was a very interesting interview that ran over on the Fox News channel. Laura Trump, who is actually a North Carolina native, if you weren't aware of that, she grew up in the Wrightsville Beach area. Obviously, she is a Trump by last name and marrying her husband. She did a very interesting sit down interview with the White House chief of staff. This is an individual by the name of Susie Wiles. You've probably heard that name before, but you probably and

[00:00:57] unless you're following things super closely, you probably have never seen her before because she doesn't do interviews. She doesn't really do a lot of media. She is very much a behind the scenes individual. And a lot of what you have seen take place over the last couple of months. A lot of this is because of Susie Wiles.

[00:01:19] She is ran the first of all, the Trump campaign in the 2024 election cycle. And since winning that and Trump getting into the Oval Office in late January, she has been setting the direction of this administration in her role as chief of staff.

[00:01:36] And they joke about this at the beginning of the interview that she doesn't do a lot of media. She doesn't really talk to the press. She's very much a behind the scenes individual. However, listening to this interview and listening to the back and forth, Susie Wiles really has taken, you know, a lot of folks claim, oh, this is Trump 2.0 compared to what you saw in 2016.

[00:01:57] A lot of that can be attributed to Susie Wiles. And I just wanted to play a little bit for a little bit of it for you this afternoon, because it's really an interesting look into why this administration is so much different than what we saw in 16. Right. In 2016, we saw an administration of individuals that all did not have America's best interest at heart, individuals that were in the game, in the scene for their own personal benefit.

[00:02:24] And unfortunately, that caused some big time issues for the Trump administration that caused some big time issues for Donald Trump himself. He surrounded himself with individuals that were not looking over looking after his best foot forward. He surrounded himself with individuals that didn't think the same way that he did and were not going to necessarily go down that same path. And it caused some big time issues. So here's a little bit of the interview this weekend.

[00:02:52] Lar Trump with her Fox News show, My View, sat down with Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff. Take a listen. The first time I think you've ever sat down for an interview. So thank you for sitting down here with me. First and probably only. It seems like everything is running smoothly. And I wonder from your perspective as White House chief of staff, do you find that to be the case? And are you responsible for some of that?

[00:03:17] You know, the first month we were here, everybody was so thrilled to be here, euphoric about where we were and having won the election and having the president back. Now we're into the time where it's real work. It's really long hours. It's a slog to get his agenda accomplished. I think everybody here that was in the first administration, and they're probably about half and half, brings a maturity and a perspective that they didn't have in 2016.

[00:03:45] So it's less about a person and more about a mindset and people starting with the president being so comfortable and so sure of what we want to do and accomplish. Now I'm going to pause it right there. That cannot be understated. The maturity, the way in which this administration is tackling things compared to the way that they did back in 2016 is literally night and day. I mean, it's in many cases not even comparable.

[00:04:15] And I think this really shows when you look at all of the things that have been accomplished in, what are we, like 70 some odd days at this point? I mean, we're not even near the 100 day mark yet. We've got all of these things that are being done. All of the accomplishments, everything that this administration can point out as a major massive win in the last 70 some odd days. And it's because they are coming at this with a completely different mindset.

[00:04:43] And that mindset comes with experience. I mean, you had an administration of individuals in the past. Most of them had no involvement with government. And that's not inherently a bad thing. Of course, the reason that Trump was so successful in 2016 and one of the reasons that he rose to popularity during that whole process was because he was, in fact, an outsider.

[00:05:06] He was not the status quo government individual that we have become accustomed to running for major political office like president of the United States. But with that, it also has its downsides. And so when Susie Wiles talks about the maturity, talks about the individuals and the things that they are able to accomplish now because they have that maturity, well, it's pretty obvious and evident.

[00:05:31] So it's less about anybody, me or anybody else, and more about a team that really believes in the mission and the man. Well, let me ask you about the man, President Trump. Do you remember the first time you met him? I do. Crazy. You know, you don't expect this from that. But a mutual friend asked me to go to New York and meet him. And I did in late 2015.

[00:05:56] He was very interested in Florida and what I thought his candidacy would look like there in 16. We had a great conversation. And then about a month later or a little bit longer, he said, I'm putting my Florida team together. Would you like to be the co-chair of Florida? Here I am. I imagine that a successful 100 days here, first 100 days at this White House and overall the first two years is going to be very impactful for the midterms and the 28th election.

[00:06:26] We start with knowing that we have a very short time span. This is critically important. Listen to what she says about the time span and how things are going to play out. Every single person needs to hear this. Take a listen. Susie Wild's on with Laura Trump on My View on Fox News over the weekend. 18 months is our time frame. 100 days, certainly. Six months, a year, and 18 months are our sort of benchmark. The president came to the office knowing exactly what he wanted to do.

[00:06:53] He did four years to think about his agenda and what he maybe didn't do as well as he wanted to or didn't accomplish fully in the first term. So he was ready to hit the ground running, and it was our job to try to keep up. We know where our direction is. We know who True North is. And every day, all day, every day, seven days a week, that's what we're trying to get accomplished. Well, very, very good stuff there from Susie Wild's.

[00:07:21] And that 18 months, I mean, that's the truth. All right, you've got midterm elections that will be here before you know it as we head into the latter part of next year. And even before that, you're going to have things start ratcheting up as we get into the later part of this year. Once candidate filing begins and some of the lines in the sand begin to be drawn as to what are the midterm elections going to look like for both political parties in 2026.

[00:07:47] There's some things that we can have some previous things to go off of. Midterm elections are typically not very good for the party that's currently in power. And as we sit here this afternoon, it is a Republican president in the Oval Office. It is Republicans in control of the House and Republicans in control of the Senate.

[00:08:09] And so with that, you would look and say, well, if I was a gambling man, I'd have to bet that things in the midterms are not going to be great for Republicans. And we don't really know how that's going to play out. But using past history as an indicator of the future, that's what you would believe. And that would be a pretty strong assumption and a pretty good assumption.

[00:08:29] And so this administration is keenly focused on getting as much of their agenda passed through, get as much of their agenda rolled out in 18 months as anything else. As you just heard from her, it's 100 days, six months and 18 months. No discussion of two years, three years or four years. They're trying to get everything jammed in to these first 18 months before the midterm elections.

[00:08:53] Because depending on how those shake out, which again, using recent history as an example, could not be might not be beneficial for Trump and the Republicans. And essentially to a backlog in government as parties continue to change and as you may have a change in power. Very, very good insight there from Susie Wilds, who is the first, I'll note, first female chief of staff in U.S. history.

[00:09:17] I don't believe I've seen that discussed on any of the major news networks that love to promote those kinds of things within administrations. Hmm. Here's a great idea.

[00:09:55] Yep. Here's a great idea.

[00:10:27] And they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabins of Asheville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. I had the opportunity to watch the Susie Wilds interview that she did with Laura Trump on her Fox News show over the weekend. Played a little bit of it for you in the last segment.

[00:10:50] And I really don't think it can be understated how again, how different this administration is from the first. Now, obviously, Trump is still Trump. Still doing his Trump thing day in and day out. And some of the same individuals are still around. But the way in which they are focused. They are focused. The way in which they are tackling the issues is unlike what we saw in the first term. And of course, a lot of that just comes from, frankly, experience.

[00:11:19] I mean, there's no other way to describe it. When you've been in the position before. When you've gone through the issues that are likely to pop up because of whatever you're trying to do. And you've worked through those in the past. You're obviously going to be better at dealing with those the second time around. And that's a big part of it. But one of the other things is the fact that Trump's had four years to assemble a team and figure out how to go through his agenda.

[00:11:46] And he's doing it at an unbelievably rapid rate. He's doing it at an astonishing rate. I got an email over just in the last couple of hours from the White House press pool. And once again, all of their schedule for today. Trump is signing executive orders, I think, around one o'clock this at one thirty this afternoon. He's going to be signing more around five thirty. The media is going to be in the Oval Office. I mean, this is seemingly a daily occurrence at this point.

[00:12:15] I don't know that we've ever seen an administration hit the ground running as quickly as Trump two point oh is what we'll call it. I don't know that we've ever seen that before. And I think it has everything to do with the very short timetable that you heard from Susie Wiles. The 18 month restriction that they've essentially put themselves under the limit that they've said.

[00:12:40] This is how this is at least we've got to get most of this stuff rolled out or at least in the beginning processes of it being rolled out within 18 months. Because as you get closer and closer to the midterm elections, well, of course, you're going to have individuals on the other side of the political aisle that will use whatever the Trump administration is doing to demonize individuals that are running for both the House and the Senate.

[00:13:06] That are, of course, Republicans that will be running irregardless of whether they're big Trump fans or not. We'll be running on Trump's agenda. We'll be running on Trump's narratives. That's how it goes when you've got somebody like him up in Washington, D.C. When the president, as strong as he is, as forceful as he is in the Oval Office, it's a trickle down effect. And that comes with its pros. It comes with his cons.

[00:13:30] And that's going to be a major hurdle for Republicans to deal with as we get into the middle parts of 2026, maybe even the earlier parts of next year. Anything that Trump does, anything that Republicans do, they are going to have to answer for out on the campaign trail.

[00:13:46] And so it is very, very smart for this administration to know what is coming, to know what they are looking down the barrel at in terms of the time frame on all of this and figuring out how do we go through the process? Susie Wiles notes is seven days a week, 24 hours a day as they're working through this stuff day in and day out. How do we do this in an effective manner? And I'd say for the most part, it's been pretty effective thus far.

[00:14:16] The things, the changes that you've already seen in less than 100 days are remarkable. The complete and total compare and contrast from the previous administration to where we are right now is night and day. It's not even close in terms of its comparison. And there's a variety of issues where it's relevant. Coming up in a little bit, we'll talk about some of the news this weekend between Russia and Ukraine.

[00:14:44] Some things going on both with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian President Zelensky. This was a war that started over three years ago. This is a war that has been brewing and did brew under previous administrations, not only here in the United States, but all throughout Europe. Nothing was done with it. Yeah, there was a lot of rhetoric coming out of the President of the United States and Joe Biden.

[00:15:10] There was a lot of rhetoric from European leaders and the one world government group, the European Union. A lot of great rhetoric from them. But what did it end up, what did it relate to? What did it end up causing? Well, nothing. The war still broke out. Bloodshed still happened in hundreds of thousands of people when you count the militaries and everybody surrounding it. All the death and bloodshed. And for what? For nothing. But nobody else wanted to handle this.

[00:15:39] The previous administration was unwilling to do anything about it. So now you've got Trump who's been in office 70 some odd days at this point. He's already opened the line of communication with the Russian President. Something that the previous administration didn't do at all. And now you're starting to see things, at least as it seemed as we headed into Friday, things that seem to be coming together. There seem to be some path forward for a peace deal. Hopefully that's still on the table after a little stutter step over the weekend.

[00:16:09] But it's amazing how calm, cool, and calculated this administration is with everything that they're doing. Oh, and by the way, at the same time, I always love to mention this. You've never had more access. You and I, as regular everyday people, have never had more access to an administration than right now. With the media avails, with the individuals that they're inviting into not only the White House press briefing room,

[00:16:35] but into other areas of the White House to chat with the President, to chat with his senior advisors, we haven't seen this before. It's never been done. Yet, individuals will still claim there's no transparency or that things are being hidden behind the scenes. I'm not sure how that's possible with Trump on TV seemingly every night signing executive orders. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events.

[00:17:02] And I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news.peet. I put the link in the podcast description, too.

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[00:17:55] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Turning our attention now to some very interesting international news over the last couple of days. And things between Russia and Ukraine have essentially been stagnant now for quite some time. I mean, obviously in the early days of the fighting, you had Russia with their attempt to make their major land grab.

[00:18:22] That was an abysmal failure on their behalf. And really, after the first few months after this war broke out, it's for the large part been a very big stalemate since then in the eastern part of Ukraine. For whatever reason, the previous administration thought it was a good idea to not open the channel of communication between the United States and the Russian President Vladimir Putin. So no discussions ever took place.

[00:18:48] Now we've got a new guy in the Oval Office, a guy that campaigned on getting this war to an end, getting a ceasefire, getting a peace agreement. And well, he is following through on that. He had a conversation with Putin. It was either last week or the week before. Seemingly, talks were going well. Obviously, a little bit of a mess up there by the Ukrainian president back about three weeks ago when he was in the Oval Office with J.D. Vance and Trump.

[00:19:15] Tried to make a little bit of a plead in front of the American media, in front of the American press, to then quickly be slapped down by the vice president and the president himself. Things were a little rocky there for a period of time. But everything seems to have healed. So it actually happened late Friday night. It didn't really get into the American media until about midday through Saturday.

[00:19:38] But the Russian president in Vladimir Putin has essentially claimed that the Ukrainian government is illegitimate. claiming that the government doesn't really even exist and made the point, quote, that there should be some sort of transnational government, end quote, might be necessary for Ukraine, which would mean overthrowing the current government and bringing some other governing body in.

[00:20:06] Now, this, of course, has very much frustrated President Donald Trump. Nobody else seems to have wanted to end this war. And I don't say that lightly. But, I mean, there was all this grandstanding from European leaders like three or four weeks ago after Zelensky came to the United States and got laughed out of the Oval Office by Trump and Vance. All these European leaders talk about how they're going to bring the fight and they're going to solve this war and bring it to an end.

[00:20:35] And all of these guys have been around this entire time. At any point over the last three years, all of the great leadership throughout Europe, all the great countries of the European Union could have ended this war if they wanted to, right? That's what they claimed. Why didn't they do it? I mean, why did they allow hundreds of billions of dollars worth of aid from the United States and all of these other European countries to flow into Ukraine

[00:21:02] if it was as simple as just ending the war like they would want you to believe? Because, of course, it's not that simple. When you're talking about a major geopolitical conflict like this, it's not that simple. It's hard to get everybody to the table. And it's hard to begin the process of talking about a ceasefire and talking about an eventual peace agreement and an end to the war. Right? Because when you don't have a clear winner or loser, which there's not going to be here,

[00:21:31] Russia wants all of Ukraine. They're not going to get it. Ukraine wants to be part of NATO. That's not going to happen. There are going to have to be concessions from both sides. And when there has to be concessions from both sides, neither party is 100% happy. We get back to a word that we hear often in U.S. politics but doesn't often play out. Compromise, the C word. We hear it all the time about, well, we need to compromise on this, compromise on that.

[00:21:59] What we're talking about as these talks continue in the coming weeks and months, we're going to be talking about true and actual compromise. Both of these groups, both of their high-up officials and the presidents of both countries, Ukraine and Russia, are going to have to come to the table and give up serious concessions. There are going to be compromises made by both entities.

[00:22:27] And for the life of me, I cannot figure out why the Russian president would be making these comments the way that he did on Friday. I mean, he is in an awful situation right now in Ukraine. Just based on sheer military might and military capability, this war should have been no more than a couple of weeks, maybe a month or two at the absolute most.

[00:22:52] With the amount of military muster that Russia had in comparison to Ukraine, this thing should have been over before it started. That didn't happen. Russia did not bring their A-game for their war trying to hold up this national persona or this international persona of the big, bad, mighty Russia. That didn't happen. And since then, we've been in a stalemate. Putin needs a ceasefire.

[00:23:19] Putin needs a peace agreement just as much as Ukraine does. And so the idea that he's out in speaking to Russian media about the Ukrainian president, about the Ukrainian government really ticking off President Trump seems incredibly stupid to me. The Russian people are against this war.

[00:23:42] The morale on the front lines with the individuals that are currently fighting this war for Russia is incredibly low. I mean, this is not a good situation for him to be in. And the fact that he is seemingly pulling a plan out of the Zelensky playbook of ticking off Trump and messing him up on the national stage is a really, really bad idea. We saw how that worked for Vladimir Zelensky.

[00:24:10] We saw what happened when he came to the White House and tried pulling back the curtain on all of this in front of the American media to try and paint a different picture. It didn't work in his favor. And when you heard from Trump some of the comments, you heard it in the news reports over the weekend when Trump's saying, I'm really ticked off with Vladimir Putin. I'm really ticked off with his comments that he's made about the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian president.

[00:24:37] That's not a good situation for Putin to be in. Trump is going to broker this deal. Nobody else has the willingness to do so. And anybody that says that they're going to is full of it. They've had years to broker this deal. They've had years to bring peace between Russia and Ukraine, and they've done nothing. It's been the United States that has been the largest funder of this war. And now, once again, it's the United States that is bringing the two parties together.

[00:25:05] So why Zelensky is saying this and doing this, knowing that it's going to irritate Trump, who at this point is the only one that's going to give him any shot at getting any sort of decent peace deal or agreement, makes absolutely no sense to me. And it's not just Putin. Zelensky over the weekend as well, trying to redraw the mineral rights agreement. All right. So spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations.

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[00:26:27] Get all the details at createavideo.com. We are discussing this afternoon the ongoing in Europe as you've got both back and forth comments over the weekend from both the Russian president in Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian president in Vladimir Zelensky,

[00:26:46] both of which equally irritating President Donald Trump, who has been the only one that has seemingly been willing to bring these two parties together and to get an eventual ceasefire and peace agreement between the two countries. Putin over the weekend claiming that the Ukrainian government is illegitimate and throwing shade on Zelensky, questioning whether a third party government agency needs to be brought in to lead that country.

[00:27:12] And then Zelensky over the weekend as well is now talking about backing out of the mineral rights deal. And so, you know, my question is a legitimate one, I think, this afternoon. Do either of these guys actually want peace? I mean, we hear them say, well, we hear at least from Zelensky all the time. We don't hear much from Putin with all of the state-run media in Russia. But we hear from Zelensky all the time about peace this, peace that.

[00:27:39] Why are both of these guys seem hell-bent on screwing up the deals that are in front of them right now? The report over the weekend on Sunday was that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is trying to back out of the mineral rights agreement with the United States, adding that only this goes forward if he becomes a member of NATO. No. He's not going to become a member of NATO. That's just not going to happen.

[00:28:07] I was just talking about earlier how both sides are going to have to have concessions. Neither side is going to get everything like what they want. Neither side is going to get 100% of what's on their wish list. This isn't Christmas Eve. Santa Claus isn't coming down the chimney in just a couple of hours. And we're talking about war. We're talking about a war that neither side is going to win. There are going to be losses, and there already have been, major losses on both sides.

[00:28:35] And so now that you've got Zelensky, who's seemingly got a decent deal in front of him with this rare earth mineral rights deal, which would give the United States a vested interest in the recovery and the rebuilding of his country, why is he trying to screw this up? I really am struggling to wrap my head around why he continues to go back and potentially gum up this agreement. For Ukraine, it's a pretty good deal.

[00:29:03] It makes the United States have a vested interest in the future of their country. The way that the mineral rights agreement, at least the original one that was supposed to be signed about three weeks ago, the way I understood it and the way that it was explained by administration officials, was that it would give the United States a certain cut of new rare earth minerals that are mined out of Ukraine. And with that, there would be a huge encouragement for those to be exported out of the country.

[00:29:31] It would keep the United States and give us something to look forward to out of Ukraine. Begin the process of paying back the $300 plus billion that we've shipped over there. And the fact that the United States would have a vested interest would be a very good thing for Ukraine. It would be a very good thing for the long-term sovereignty of that nation.

[00:29:56] And so the fact that Zelensky is once again complaining and crying about NATO, that's never been part of this discussion. Trump even said over the weekend, quote, quote, we made a deal on rare earths and now he's saying, well, you know, I want you to renegotiate the deal. Trump's saying, quote, he wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he thinks, well, that's never going to happen. He's never going to be a member of NATO. And he understands that.

[00:30:25] So if he's looking to renegotiate the deal, he's got big problems. Sounds pretty accurate. I mean, I don't think that Trump is embellishing anything in his comments there. Zelensky is going to have some big problems if he wants to renegotiate this deal and kind of stand the line on getting into NATO. It's just not going to happen. As much as he might want it to take place, it's just not going to.

[00:30:52] And so this whole thing seemed to be trending in the right direction. Like Thursday, Friday, last week, things looked like they were heading in a pretty good direction. In the middle part of last week, it was an at least temporary ceasefire over some waterways that was agreed upon by both countries, at least tentatively agreed upon. It seemed like the ball was beginning to move down the field, which is something that we have not seen in quite some time with this conflict.

[00:31:21] Something that we have not seen for quite some time with this war. There's been very little progress, very little movement all over the board, from the physical war itself to any sort of agreement being made. Trump, the powerful individual that he is, the individual that has campaigned and talked very clearly about bringing some sort of conclusion here, getting some of this stuff squared away,

[00:31:47] finding how we get both of these parties to the table to begin the process of negotiating. Trump seemingly was making some really good progress. And now both of these guys, independently of each other, are now both irritating Trump and potentially putting some of these peace talk agreements, some of these ceasefire deals on hold. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why. I mean, did Zelensky not learn his lesson three weeks ago, four weeks ago when he was here in the U.S.?

[00:32:14] Did he not learn that he's going to have to take essentially whatever deal gets given to him? Yeah, he can negotiate a little bit here and there, but he's still going back to this NATO thing. Did he not learn his lesson? And with Putin, he's not going to win. He has no path forward to, quote unquote, win the war. So why is he claiming that the Ukrainian government is illegitimate? Why is he irritating and ticking off Trump, who at this point is the only individual that's going to get him anything in this at all? Right?

[00:32:43] The rest of Europe's not going to get him anything. I mean, to me, it just makes absolutely no sense why both of these leaders are acting in the manner that they are. We'll see kind of what comes of this news-wise over the next couple of days. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here.

[00:33:09] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetekalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.