Reaction to the Trump-Zelensky fight (02-28-2025--Hour3)

[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.

[00:00:30] Hang on. Hang on. I gotta get my glasses here to see what the crawl here is. Ukrainians were begging to reset talks but were told to leave by Rubio. Trump felt disrespected by Zelensky's rhetoric and demeanor. Trump-Zelensky meeting turns into shouting match. J.D. Vance calls Zelensky disrespectful. Vance says we need to engage in diplomacy to end the war.

[00:00:55] Zelensky says Putin occupied Ukraine and killed people. True. Zelensky trying to litigate war in media. Trump says don't tell us how to feel. You're not in a good position. I mean, this just... You're gambling with World War III. We played all of this audio. So this was... Without U.S. military equipment, the war would have been over in two weeks. That's what Trump said. Also, I see Banshee at Red State...

[00:01:25] Well, first, Emma Jo Morris, who is... I think she used to write over at the New York Post, I want to say. She said, Zelensky came in with demands like he's entitled to our money and then he started threatening America. This was the comment that he made about your oceans protect you but, you know, at some point you will feel this too. And that's when Trump lost it.

[00:01:53] And Trump is like, don't tell us how to feel. You're not in a position to tell us anything. You don't know that and all this like... And Banshee at Red State says... All he had to do was shake hands and sign the deal. Going in there to set the record straight, quote-unquote, was an ego move. He didn't have the leverage to pull off.

[00:02:17] Trump was never going to accept the argument that Ukraine is saving the United States as some sort of a negotiating tactic. Right? If... Because I've heard that argument made by, you know, people in America who want more support for Ukraine. They're like, you know, we have to stop this now because, you know, it'll eventually threaten us. Sort of a domino theory iteration.

[00:02:46] And Trump doesn't believe that. Trump is more than happy, it seems, to just wipe his hands and walk away and let Europe handle it. So, like, you're trying to pressure a guy into doing some deal. The only reason he was even going to talk to the Ukraine president, I believe, is because he was trying to get the mineral rights. Right? He was trying to get the mineral deal. The rare earth minerals. So...

[00:03:16] He said... And Trump says Zelensky isn't ready for a peace deal. And maybe that's true. I don't know. But, yeah, like, I don't know... Yeah. I don't know what Zelensky is thinking. Like, did you not know who Donald Trump is when you showed up? Why would you... Like, why would you engage in that... And maybe they just all lost their cool and maybe cooler heads prevail and they come back later. I don't know.

[00:03:45] Like I say, in the Trump era, let's just give it a minute and we'll see what happens. Because... I've never seen anything like that before. Let me go over and take some calls here. This is Gail. Hello, Gail. Hi. How you doing? Good. What's going on? Well, I'm going to hear you. Let me kind of speak off. I'm excited about coming on your show today. Well, thanks. I heard you talking about Elon Musk. He's the name in the media. And, you know, I'm a poet. So, you know, I've already written a poem about him.

[00:04:13] But anyway, what I wanted to say about the gentleman that was on the phone earlier before I was... Because I'm writing about famous people that I have never met and probably never will... I wanted him to know there are pictures out there that show these people like Elon Musk and all the other billionaires who do wear suits. But because they have so much money, people think they're arrogant or they are agitated because they want to look poor when they are not. But what I'm learning from Elon Musk, I read about him.

[00:04:43] And his story has impressed me so much. I was more interested about the story where he told about when he lived on $1 a day. So what I've done is I've cut my budget down. I'm losing town. And I'm excited that I don't have to eat as much as I thought I had to eat. So I like what I learned from him. And then even with Jeff, they saw me the other gentleman. They talked about where they come from. So I have a point. I think I did that on your show the last time. You did, yeah. Look at them now. Yeah, you... I won't do it today.

[00:05:14] But look at them now. So what they're saying to us is we must at some time in life see something that we want to learn from. As far as every time I hear the radio, I love WBT because I'm a John Hancock fan. Yes. What happened, I've been there listening a long time and wrestling by all that. I was on his show one time. I was able to be on Rush. But what happened is people don't understand. We all have a brain and a mind between our ears.

[00:05:42] Everybody doesn't do the same thing. Just like me, I hope one day I'll make some money from being a poet, but I won't be Maya Angelou or some of the other writers. I'm not trying to be them. I just want to make a few dollars. People need to stop talking about Elon Musk's money because his mother tells a story about his life and her life when she could not afford to buy a mint for her three children. She talks about when they came out of South Africa, they came out with no money.

[00:06:09] So we need to stop talking about what this young man has done because he is in his 50s. I'm 74. He's in his 50s. He has learned a lot from all his mistakes and he has become rich. So, therefore, we must learn how to be rich or stop talking. I am going to do a post that says one of my mottos and my not the little big mouth I call mine, big mouth too, but not the little big mouth I call mine. I'm going to have a newsletter.

[00:06:36] It tells you that you should speak up or shut up. But at my church, they tell us, please learn what lane to be in before you come out and talk. And like that man, he should have looked at all those disremedia and found out what people wear. A lot of rich people don't look like we look. We like to look rich. We like to look rich. We like to fake it till we make it. They don't do that. No, that is true. Gail, that is true. I appreciate the call and it's a fair observation.

[00:07:06] And look, everybody's abandoned the necktie too, right? Everybody's wearing just the blazer, the open collared shirt, right? There is this casualness, the abandonment of the tie. That is part of the trend. And yeah, rich people have been dressed like really, really rich people have been dressing down. Now, if you look at the price tag on some of those clothes, like it's a T-shirt. Yeah. And that T-shirt is like $3,000 or some ridiculous amount of money, you know?

[00:07:33] So what's the old what's the old line from the philosopher Billy Joel? You can't dress trashy till you spend a lot of money. So that's part of it. Let me see here. I got some messages. This is from Void who says, Zelensky won't wear a suit because he's ashamed to shop in the boys department. Wow. That's just mean, Void.

[00:08:03] Let me see here. Jeff says, Andy, caller Andy, your dumbassery and stupidness is noted. Like you can have a different opinion. I know Andy has called before. I've talked with Andy before. So I think it was about Elon Musk if memory serves correctly. So I know his opinion about Musk. He doesn't like Elon Musk. I don't know if he's a Tesla owner. Maybe he's like got buyer's remorse or something.

[00:08:33] Russ says, Pete, I would consider you to be an influencer. I mean, you've been back on WBT. You've influenced me to take a strident stance on mayonnaise and to work the word votainer into daily conversation, which gets a little awkward when you just blurt it out at the cashier just to make sure you have used it that day. Well, you never know when the conversation will require the use of the word votainer. So, Russ, I appreciate that.

[00:09:01] And Minsky says, I agree with the vice president and the president that there's not enough respect for those. Sorry, for what this country does. And there's a palpable, spoiled sense of entitlement that must be dialed back before we're asked for more assistance. And I appreciate the transparency. Yeah, I don't know. Like that seemed. Yeah, I would not have said that.

[00:09:30] I would not have said, you know, you should be thanking us or show some gratitude. I don't that that would not have been me. But I'm not president. I'm not vice president. So I would not have said that. But I understand that Vance was channeling an opinion that is held by a great number of people. And Ukraine is not in NATO. They are not in NATO. So we don't owe them mutual defense.

[00:10:01] And we can say it's a cause worth fighting all of that. But there's a lot of history with Ukraine and there's a lot of history with Ukraine in relation to Donald Trump. Right. Donald Trump's first impeachment came after that phone call with Zelensky. The accusations of rampant corruption and bribery going on in Ukraine that has enriched a lot of Democrats and a lot of, quote unquote, deep state actors as a long history, too.

[00:10:27] So, you know, it is what it is, to quote John Fox. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. 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.

[00:10:55] You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description, too. I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete.

[00:11:22] Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Let's get over to the phones. We'll talk with Tim. Hello, Tim. Welcome to the show. Hey, Pete. Thanks for taking my call. I really enjoy your show. Thanks, sir.

[00:11:48] It's what we heard in the White House, the Oval Office today. Was that considered a press conference or was that like a WWE broadcast? I don't know. Maybe a little bit of both. I'm going to tell you, Pete. After the last four years we had, I have not laughed at a press conference or an appearance by the President of the United States in a long time. And it is so refreshing.

[00:12:17] I mean, I was rolling, man, when Trump lit into him and all that. And that is classic Trump. I'm so glad to see somebody keeping it real in the White House. I mean, he don't pull no punches. He don't make no bones about it. And his tag team partner, J.D. Vance, is right there with him. Man, I really am enjoying the time. I suffered through the last four years with a lot of people. But now I'm having my sunny day.

[00:12:47] I do wonder, you know, there's a couple of things come to mind with what you're saying. Like the first is there is a management axiom, which is that you praise in public and chastise or correct in private. Right. You don't dress an employee down in front of all of their fellow employees.

[00:13:04] But, you know, when you have an employee and I know Zelensky is not an employee, but when you've got somebody that's going to like if you're at like some public, you're at a company wide meeting and you get an employee that starts challenging you and making disparaging comments or whatever. Like then, like, yeah, then the boss is going to assert himself because that's especially a guy like Trump because and it's not an employer employee relationship.

[00:13:33] But if you're like you're trying to get into a whizzing match with Donald Trump, first off, secondly, with the president of the United States in the Oval Office in front of the American press. How did you think that this was going to go? Exactly. And I can't recall even went back years ago when Trump was on Oprah and Trump was doing his TV shows, reality shows and all that. Nobody ever won a whizzing match with Donald Trump that I can remember.

[00:14:03] Yeah. And that was before he had Secret Service armed Secret Service agents all around him, you know? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Tim, have a good weekend. Thank you. All right, buddy. Take it easy. This is another thing. The second point that I thought of while listening to Tim is that. This is unlike what we just saw in the Oval Office is unlike anything that we have ever seen. Right. Right. Because there has always been this sort of status quo.

[00:14:33] This understanding that you don't do that. Why? Why do we not do that? Why do we not pay? Like, why? Like, why does the the parliament over in England yell at each other all the time? Right. Why did they bring the prime minister in there and they start yelling and screaming and stuff like that? Why does the I know it's been a while since this happened, but it was it was a Taiwan or Hong Kong? I forget.

[00:15:00] Like they would get in their parliaments, they would get into fistfights and stuff. Right. But we never saw that here. Right. So why? So why do we assume that the way we do it is the better way? And when it comes to this kind of diplomacy, when you you come to our country, you sit in our seat of power and you're talking to the people that you're trying to do a deal with.

[00:15:26] And you then start trying to play a leverage game and you just got through campaigning for their opponent. And you expected what some norms to hold. Right. You expected there to be that status quo norm that. They wouldn't yell at me like they wouldn't say these types of things. They wouldn't challenge. They, you know, they'll just be like all diplomatic.

[00:15:55] Right. They'll they'll play nice in front of the cameras. Because that's the way it's always been done. But first off, Donald Trump doesn't really adhere to a lot of those norms. Right. And that's been his criticism. But it's also been a selling feature for people who love him. So. But you got to know that the norms he doesn't feel bound by. So. I don't understand why you go in there if you're Zelensky, why you go in there. And you.

[00:16:23] And you take this kind of an aggressive combative stance. Unless, of course, you didn't want the deal. Right. Or. Or. As I threw out there last hour. It's possible. That. And I don't think this was coordinated. I don't think it's scripted. Let me say it that way. I don't believe it was that this was scripted. This was, you know, designed to make Trump look like a better mediator in the eyes of Putin. Right. I don't believe that that this was intentionally done.

[00:16:52] Now, it could have been like it could have been like a reality show where you don't have a script that you follow. But you have the outline. You have a story arc. And then how you how you do that story arc, like in wrestling. Right. That there is a story arc and how you get there is up to you. But the story arc has to be abided. And if the point here is to send a message to Putin that we don't really care for this Zelensky guy.

[00:17:21] So if you want us to negotiate an end to this war, we're happy to do it because we don't really care about this dude. Then I think that message got through. Now, if you are of the status quo opinion that we have to defend Ukraine in this war and we have to. And I don't even know what that means, because any realistic view of this. And again, I'm not a Ukraine expert. I'm not a foreign policy expert. I spent all of my time researching the deep water submersibles a couple of years ago. And that's and I have not done the Ukraine research.

[00:17:50] OK, but it doesn't seem like the Russians are going to give back the land they grabbed and it doesn't seem like Ukraine is strong enough to take it back. So I don't understand what is it that you're doing besides learning how to fight the next generation war. And maybe that's what you're in it for at this point and whatever. I don't know. But surely some deal is going to have to be reached a ceasefire, a truce of some kind. And.

[00:18:21] Unless you're saying that the world needs to somehow forcibly remove Russia from the land that it took, then I think you're advocating for an escalation to a global war. No. Do you think Russia allows that? Do you think Russia is going to. Like, honestly, do you think Vladimir Putin is like, OK, you know what? Now everybody's against me and they're all committing troops and they're amassing millions of troops on the border.

[00:18:50] And, you know, rather than just drop a bunch of nukes on everybody, I'll just retreat. Right. If he is truly trying to retain or retain or win back the glory of the old Soviet Union, why would he retreat? I just I don't understand the calculations being made. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations.

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[00:20:19] Hey, what's going on, Pete? Hey, how are you, Brian? Yeah. What do you think about that conference there, that meeting? Oh, I've been talking about it for like the last hour and a half. Oh, well, yeah, I've been working. So I just got to hold up. I'm working. Hey, I'm working here. I had to sit through that Oval Office thing. We listened to the whole thing. So did you get a chance to listen to it or watch it if you were working? Well, I passed it out on YouTube when I came home. I just passed it out a little bit. So have you seen the whole thing?

[00:20:48] So have you had a chance to see the whole thing? Well, no, I passed out a little bit. I think I've seen the most interesting parts about it, though. Like towards the end? The tantrums that was being thrown in the Oval Office there. But I wanted to get your view, man. I mean, you know, you voted for Trump. How do you think that worked out? How do I think it worked out? Not well for Ukraine. I think that makes America look good. I don't know if it makes America look good. I think that there are a lot of people that voted for Trump.

[00:21:18] And the Ukraine issue was not the issue that animated any of my voting whatsoever. My vote was animated. I talked about it. I wrote an op-ed that appeared at The Blaze. Like I explained why I voted for Trump this time versus the previous two. And it was to punish the media for its behavior in covering up the Joe Biden scandal. So that's why I voted for him. You voted for Trump so he can do what again?

[00:21:45] I voted for Trump as a screw you to the media that gaslit me and all of America about Joe Biden's cognitive decline. That was why I voted for him. You voted for him for spiteness and not the betterment of our country. Well, my options were very limited, Brian. And I've never voted for a major party candidate ever in my life because I've never been very happy with any of the candidates either of the parties have given me.

[00:22:13] So, yeah, my protest vote at the presidential level went this time as a protest vote against the media. Well, OK, well, I tell you what, man, you certainly you chose one that was if you if you looked at that, if you look at that conference, I've never seen anything. Me neither. Nobody's ever seen anything like that. No. I've never seen it. But here. Hey, Brian. Hang on. Let me ask you this, because I agree. I've never seen it. And that's what I said literally as the thing was unfolding.

[00:22:42] So I'm curious, though, do you think that do you think that that kind of stuff has ever happened before without us seeing it? How long has the media been coming? Simple question. It's a simple question. Do you think? I don't know. That's why I ask you. No, no, no. Do you think, Brian? Look, do you think that there has ever been a meeting? I don't think any other president has been that disrespectful to another foreign president. No, I don't. I don't think. Really? Not in the manner, not in the childish manner that Vance.

[00:23:12] And then and then look, Vance is being trained by Trump. So you tell me, oh, my God, man, this country is in trouble. You can't see that. Oh, I believe that the country's in trouble, but for different reasons. Brian, I believe the country is in trouble, but for different reasons. Oh, my God. OK, well, look, Brian. See, here's Brian. Here's the difference. Here's here's a big difference. OK, I don't filter all of my thoughts through the prism of Donald Trump. I don't. You said I could filter your thoughts through Donald Trump.

[00:23:41] I do not filter my thoughts through Donald Trump. Right. You see the world and you see our issues through the prism. I'm telling you, Brian, if you Brian, if you stop talking for a second, you're you're going to hear as I'm literally saying what I mean. You can't do it. Not even didn't even make it a second. You didn't even make it a second. Let's try it again. You when you filter all of your ideas and your thoughts and opinions through the prism,

[00:24:10] through the prism of Donald Trump. Right. It warps. It warps your vision. But that's not what I'm doing. Oh, you absolutely do. We've talked enough, Brian. We've talked enough over the years. I know that. Absolutely. So you see, Brian, you see the problems. You don't know me. Brian, I didn't say I know you. I said I've talked to you enough over the last few years that I know that this is how you view things, because every time we talk, you just did it. I know you. You can say you can deny it all you want.

[00:24:38] But the proof is in your words. All I want to really need is to say this, man. That was such a disgusting, disgusting for America. I mean, that makes us look bad. How? And for all you voted. How? How? How? How does it make America? How did it make America look bad? I mean, he had no skills, man. At all. How did it make America look bad? How did it make, Brian, how, Brian, how did, Brian, how did it make, no, you made an

[00:25:08] assertion? I'm going to tell you. Then say it. But doesn't, doesn't, doesn't, isn't Ukraine an ally of America? No. Well, why are we sending almost $390 billion of help over? My God, Brian, you sound like a Trump supporter now. You're MAGA. That's what the MAGA people are asking, too. They're like, why are we sending all this money over to Ukraine? That's what they're asking. Listen, Trump said he, Trump said he sent him. What did he send him? Javelins. Javelins. So why are we sending that if they're not allies? Right.

[00:25:37] Because they were invaded by Russia. Russia's invaded a lot of countries, but we had to send any military equipment over there for them. Right. Because they're not allies. Right. You sound like MAGA. Hey, listen, man. If they're not allies, why are we even worried about them? Again, that's MAGA's position. What do you mean it's MAGA's position? That is the make America great position. They were not allies. But MAGA is not controlling the government, right?

[00:26:07] MAGA is not. It absolutely is. Oh, I thought it was the Republican Party that was controlling the government. No, that's Donald Trump. And Donald Trump has taken over the Republican Party. MAGA has taken over the Republican Party. That happened a couple years ago. OK. Yeah, that happened a couple years ago. I'm not sure if you were aware. There was a big fight inside the Republican Party and Trump won again and again and again. And so now it's his party. So now it's MAGA. OK. Now I know. Yeah. So and you and when you are, Brian, and see, here's the thing.

[00:26:34] The very question that you have asked about why are we doing all this for Ukraine? That's what MAGA has been asking. That's what Trump supporters have been asking. And that's what a lot of people. Why did Trump if he's doing this thing? What do you think he's doing? He was sending over javelins. That was his first in his first term. He said he sent the javelins when the Russians first invaded. Why did he do that? Right. Well, that's a good question. Why did he do that? I mean, don't you have any answers? You don't have all the answers. I don't have all the I've never said I have all the answers.

[00:27:04] OK. All right. It was that they were in this call. But it was. Oh, thank God. Yeah. You haven't made any sense at all. But I'm glad to hear that you are on the same page as MAGA. And if you would stop talking for a second, you would have heard me trying to tell you that that's actually one of the reasons why a lot of people who were not Trump supporters were attracted to his message, because when people start asking questions like Brian just stumbled into right there and they don't have an adequate or sufficient answer. Right.

[00:27:34] When they're not getting this answer from the quote unquote experts, you know, from the foreign policy experts and we're you know, we know what's best and we're the ones who are going to be able to navigate all these foreign policy decisions and stuff and stuff just gets worse and worse. And question or actions get taken that don't make any sense because that's what that's what was advising Trump in Trump's first term, too. He had those same quote experts. This time around is different.

[00:28:01] He's got a bunch of different people in the stable advising him now. There's a different kind of team in place. But when non-Trump voters started paying attention or asking questions and they weren't getting adequate answers, that's why they went and voted for Trump. And it's why Trump ended up with a much larger vote total and more people voting for him. And he he swung all of these different demographics.

[00:28:26] See, if you're actually interested in getting answers to the question that you just asked, Brian, you might, I don't know, break free of the the orange man bad prism through which you view. Politics. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina? Just a quick drive up the mountain and cabins of Asheville is your connection.

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[00:29:46] Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. One of the things to keep in mind is that just because you see something a certain way doesn't mean everybody else sees it that way. And you can have your opinion about how you see it, but that doesn't mean your opinion is correct, right?

[00:30:12] It's like, um, well, it's like in an HOA when people are like, oh, I don't like that color house. And other people are like, I do like that color house. And that's fine difference of opinion, right? It doesn't mean that your preference is correct. Because honestly, I don't know how other countries are going to look at what Trump did. I think some people, some other leaders might think, man, I wouldn't want to be Zelensky in that situation. And that might actually redound to our benefit. I don't know.

[00:30:43] But speculating as to what might happen because of this, it's like predicting who's going to win the football game. You don't know. Stop acting like you know. I've been very clear. I don't know. Let me go over to Mike. Hello, Mike. Welcome to the show. Yeah, good afternoon. I, for one, think a lot of our allies are quite exasperated with Mr. Zelensky. Because what Mr. Zelensky wants is unrealistic. He's no longer dealing in reality.

[00:31:10] What Mr. Zelensky wants is a tens of thousands strong international peacekeeping force. If he can't get NATO, he wants to pay the United States back absolutely nothing. And he wants to be territory that Russia has taken. And that's just not a realistic outcome. And I, for one, am proud that Mr. Trump pointed that out to him publicly. It's unfortunate it was public. I think a lot of allies would point that out to him privately.

[00:31:38] But, I mean, clearly, Mr. Zelensky is intransigent and unrealistic. And there's no way this war is going to end. And it's just going to be a continual sink of American resources and Ukrainian lives. And that's what Mr. Zelensky seems to want. Well, and if Trump is a dealmaker and he wants to end the war, right? I mean, think about it. That's the deal he wants to cut. He wants the war to end and hopefully get America repaid.

[00:32:07] So, if he can do those things, he's going to be satisfied. And it doesn't really matter to him what the terms of the deal are as long as there's a deal. But if Zelensky doesn't want a deal, then there's no point in trying to make a deal. Well, this stage of the negotiations is called the walkout, right? Like in a real estate deal, when you walk away from the House. And then hopefully, and we can hope this, we hope that Mr. Zelensky will have his opportunity on Fox News tonight

[00:32:34] to extend an olive branch and you make the deal before you leave the country. But anybody who doesn't see that what's going to... I would say that anybody who disagrees with this should volunteer for the International Peacekeeping Force and take up arms and go over to Ukraine. Because that's what they're going to do with our boys. That's what Mr. Zelensky wants. And anybody who agrees with him down the line, that is the outcome you are going to end up with.

[00:33:03] And Mr. Biden didn't want that either. He just didn't have a gun to call him on it. Yeah, Mike, I appreciate the call, buddy. Have a good weekend. You do. All right. See ya. Let me jump over and get Alex. Hello, Alex. Welcome to the show. Hi. How are you doing? Hey, I'm all right. What's up? Yeah, I just want to say I think Zelensky is an ungrateful parasite. I mean, this country's given him over $350 billion already. He wants more and more and more. It's like, gimme, gimme, gimme. I mean, the American taxpayer shouldn't be the piggy bank of the world, you know?

[00:33:33] Well, yeah. And I went over this the other day. All of the money didn't go to the Ukraine. It's important to point this out because it wasn't just like, here's a pallet of cash, like there's some Iranian mullahs or something like Obama did. But a lot of the money went to U.S. defense contractors who built stuff and then sent it over there at no cost to the Ukrainians. So the money did help our military industrial complex, no doubt about that.

[00:34:00] But the point is still the same about the taxpayer funds that were used in support of that. And again, if you're trying to build a case for war and support of a war against a nuclear power on the other side of the planet, I don't think Zelensky has done a good job of doing that. I think he tried to by saying, oh, you know, you will feel insecure at some point if we lose or something. And it didn't go over very well. I just I think it's a it's a difficult it's a difficult hand for him to play.

[00:34:31] Alex, I appreciate the call. So, yeah, the American public is not all in on support for Ukraine. And the longer it goes on, the less support the Ukrainians have. And if he doesn't want to make a deal, then that's it. 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.

[00:34:59] You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete calendar show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.