Gilbert Doctorow : The Trump–Putin Call Everyone Is Trying to Decode

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1:01with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly pre-society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes, to love your country, you had to alter or abolish the government? What if Jefferson was right? What if that government is best which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish, fighting for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone. I'm Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, pardon me. Wednesday, March 11th, 2026. Oh boy, a frog in my throat. Gilbert Doctoro joins us now.

2:02Gilbert, bear with me for a second. But before we get to your analysis of this mysterious phone call between President Putin and President Trump, to some breaking news. About an hour ago, the Kremlin accused the United Kingdom of being responsible for a missile strike on a Russian munitions factory in Bransk, which is hardly in the border, which killed six civilians and did material damage to the munitions factory. The missile was a British storm shadow, and the Russian foreign ministry said British operatives, I guess that means MI6, or responsible for them. Can you shed any light on this and how serious it might be, it just happened? Well, as you said, breaking news, I don't have any commentary from the Russians on it. I was looking at Russian news just a few minutes before we've come on air,

3:04and there was actually no mention. The this pushing question, something that you and I have discussed in the last week, that is the determination or lack of determination of Vladimir Putin, to follow through on his very clearly did not do the needed policy, for what happens if something like this should occur. According to the position that in June of September 12 back in, I think, 2024, he should now have a military strike against the Great Britain. Or against the British military assets. If he does it, then his deterrence is held in place or restored. If he doesn't do it, then it will be a further enormously erosion of Russia's sovereignty and deterrence. Okay, hang on to that, because I want to come back to it. I know this is important in informing your thinking and your analysis,

4:10a big picture, Russia, US relations, but before we get to all of that, how does the war in Iran playing in Europe, particularly in northern Europe, where you are, or central Europe, I guess, where you are? There is division of youth, the most craven seeker of publicity and pretend to, to be at the head of the band in Europe, of course, is Macron. And Macron, his throne, he is in France's state with the most, what's called, unqualified and risky policies of Donald Trump. He's sending the Shadigal aircraft carrier and task force to the Eastern Mediterranean. He is doing everything to demonstrate that he is ready to help with the British, for these stumbled beginning, and we're refusing assistance. But you've got France out in the lead.

5:12You've got Germany more or less following Mr. Trump's lead. And you've got the Brits, of course. On the other hand, you have Spain coming out very vocally condemning the entire operation in Iran and calling Mertz. Some say it's called the head of the Prime Minister of Spain, called Mertz, a Trump-ass vessel. So you've got, this is explosive language in the European community. So the European community is dividing. Some countries are, of course, viciously anti-Russian, like Denmark. And they will go along with Trump, whatever he does, or says it along, as it is not concerning the fate of Greenland. But other countries are reconsidering and listening more closely to what Fizzo or Slovakia, Urban and others are saying, taking a distance. Of course, there's also the factor of the very visible Ursula from the land,

6:14who has finally also stirred up discontent and divisions within the EU community, by her backing the Trump actions in Iran's, speaking out on the favor of freeing the Iranian people, giving liberty and democracy a chance. And as of yesterday, first statement that no, there should be no return to using Russian hydrocarbons. That also creates us, clearly, because Europe is short of gas and oil. And this disconnect, viciously anti-Russian stand, by the president of the European Commission, is not going down well. Wow, I was just going to ask you about Haran, her crazy side, Kekaya Callis. I'm going to assume Ms. Callis, who I guess we can loosely call the foreign minister of the EU, is in the same boat as Ursula von der Leyen.

7:19Well, definitely, they are, they may hate one another, which is publicly known. They are both extremely ambitious and backstabbers. But on the issue of Russia, they are singing from the same Callis book. Of course, we know that before she became the European chief diplomat, and she was still the prime minister of Estonia, the last month before she made this transition, she was saying that Russia has to be brought to its knees. And essentially, she wasn't changed that too much. Even if it means the other destruction of your war with Russia. Wow, American press has been reporting, I'm sure you've seen this, that the Russians are providing intel to the Iranians to help them locate American personnel and American assets. Do we know if that is true? No, there's no proof positive. The Russians neither confirmed enough. There's also the Chinese are in the act.

8:19And let's remember that before this war started, some of my colleagues who appeared on the show, were saying that Chinese have provided exactly the same thing, the most remarkable state-of-the-art radars and other command and control systems to enable a gradient defense, which of course failed on the first day completely. The Russians probably using the older systems, but probably reliable satellite systems, and possibly their own airplanes equipped with massive radar detection equipment. They know it's likely they're providing assistance, but of course no one will say that. How fragile, in your view, is America slash Russia diplomacy? Or stated differently, will Trump's duplicity in the Iranian negotiations affect the credibility

9:23with which the Kremlin approaches Whitkopf and questioner the next time they come knocking? If Mr. Putin put my recommendations, which he hasn't got to do, he wouldn't be speaking with Russia with the United States at all. However, well, I heard it's a kind of apology for this life data on the very authoritative talk show, The Great Game, in this segment that is led by the friend of yours on the past Jimmy Tree Science. He concluded last night's edition of that Great Game by saying that no one believes at all in any trust in the United States, but we have to go through these exercises. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Manus is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight,

10:24a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. So that was the best that you could hear at present. It is not a load of confidence in Mr. Trump, not at all. And let me follow something up because it bears on what you're asking. We know that the little that we know of the content and that phone call between Trump, which should initiate it by Trump for an hour spoke with Putin. Both sides said almost nothing about the content, other than they say it lasted one hour, and that it was constructive, which means which is meaningless. But the Russian side said one little tidbit of that, was that Mr. Trump had indicated that he is ready to relent on sanctions on Russian oil,

11:26and exchange for Russian assistance with their friends or allies in Tehran to get them to to raise the to reopen the Straits of War next. No, one of the follow-on, which is highly relevant to this, is what actually happened, what did Putin do? Well, we know that yesterday, last night, he initiated a phone call to the president of Iran, Gazeshkhan, and they probably discussed this. But let's remember something. The point is, as Trump, he's nobody. He's not a control of anything. He's lucky he wasn't for a statement he made in the middle of last week that zupology to our brethren for the attacks we made on them, and we go to it again. That remark must have taken him very close to a lynching

12:29because of an hour or two later, he was saying that he was misunderstood, blah, blah, blah, and any country that used... Why would President Putin call him? Because he knows it's useless, worthless. It sounds good. The two presidents confer, but everybody knows that Pezashkhan now is zero. The, as soon as the war entered, he lost all of his power. The power went to the Supreme Leader, and the power went to the revolutionary guards. No sooner did Pezashkhan make this idiotic and unpitriotic statements that opologies to the arch-states than the revolutionary guards started firing missiles like mad with those very same brotherly Gulf states. Right. You have argued. You have argued that President Putin should not have taken this phone call from President Trump. What is the basis for that view? It's unseemly. It makes me back to where we were. You and I were talking in the mid-fall

13:35where Mr. Putin made his grand speech to the preliminary session of the Baldi discussion call, which he does every year. It takes place in Sochi, and his behavior was craving, pandering to Donald Trump. He had this little segment on Charlie Kirk. He had a number of issues that he raised, which made him look sycophantic and pleading for good relations with Donald Trump, which left me very disappointed, because on a great nation, great power doesn't behave like that. And what we've just seen by Donald Trump's call getting through to Putin, just about 10 days after, is the Trump and his team ex-f and George launched his barbaric utterly illegal and murderous attack on Iran,

14:36decapitating the top leadership of the country. This is barbarists. And here Mr. Putin just accepts the phone call. No, that doesn't look good at all. Adding to the allegations of barbarism as a report this morning in the Guardian that the Israelis and the Americans, because it was an American missile, intentionally targeted the girls' school because this was a high-end grammar school for the children, the female children of revolutionary guard officials. So, in order to degrade the Iranian military, the Israelis and the Americans, this argument goes slaughtered their children, incinerated them. This is a barbarity of almost unimaginable heights.

15:46If there were justice in this world, which sadly there isn't, the whole Trump and his whole crew would be hauled off to the head right now, and the leader would go to exit. Between us, the only satisfaction I can take from this is after this Iran war degenerates into a debacle from that state, which some of your other very well-regarded panelists on this program have predicted in the last day or two, starting with Professor Mishnahmer. After that happens, I think Mr. Vexeth will be fired preemptively so that Trump can blame it all on him. I have no regrets. Trump is, of course, responsible for his actions and his decisions, but Vexeth is the most vicious and despicable people who have been in American power in the last decade. We've had quite a few of them. Yeah. What is your view? And I think your view may have changed

16:48about these two people the more you learned about them because you are an academic at heart, seeking evidence to inform or challenge your views. What is your view now? Of what co-op and question there? When I spoke of them, I was speaking of them not as an academic, but as a former business executive, who has seen a lot of top-level business people, board-level people of major corporations, who has accompanied them to negotiations, going back to the 1980s, and who had a high regard for the negotiated skills. So the criticism of these two people as being incompetent or real prepared for the big tasks given to them was something I contested. However, I've changed completely my thinking about them for an unrelated reason, their card sheets, their thieves, their people, utterly without any sense of personal honor or personal self-respect. If we'd cough at any

17:48self-respect, he would have quit Trump when this force in Iran started. He was the lead personal responsible for relations with Iran. How could he stay on working for the man who double-crossed and committed barbarism against the people who he was negotiating with in Tehran? Should the Russians meet with Whitcuff and question them? We don't even know where they're going to meet or when they're going to meet. You have told me that the Russians still want to go to Geneva again. You can tell us why. But apparently, Whitcuff has come knocking and someone has answered the knock. I don't know if it's President Putin or Foreign Minister Lavrov or Demetri Peshkov. Somebody has answered that knock. What should we expect next in Russia, US relations

18:52involving these people you call card sheets? This was a very big and I don't want to pretend that the fear is a way of calling it or the risk of aversion is a kind of way of putting it, that Mr. Putin is exhibiting in relations in the United States, is his alone and he is solely responsible for our possible escalation towards nuclear war because of his failure to properly respond my estimation of a proper response to the provocations from the United States and the Saudis. Look at China. I am flabbergasted to hear that she is still the intent on receiving Donald Trump's invasion. What can we say about that? Well, how can he possibly do that without enormous damage to his international standing? Just saying that he wants to receive him has already damaged, I mean, to people like myself,

19:59it contends him to position of a weakling and an undersized person who is inviting disaster for China. You don't shake hands with people whose hands are full of blood, as is the case of Mr. Trump and his team. You don't pat him on the back. And so I can't how critical can I be of Vladimir Putin when a still bigger figure on the stage, she is behaving in the most injectors and inexcusable way. Will President Putin agree to meet with Whitcoff and Kushner, and if he does, will it just be for show or to flatter Donald Trump? Will it not be substantive? It will be to buy time. I think what we heard through the mouth of Bimes last night was the Kremlin speaking.

21:02We don't like this, but we have to go through it. He's buying time, and why do I say that? Because on the same show, there was an evaluation of what Russians are doing with their production and storage of armaments. There was the clear conclusion that the Russians have prepared to take the stage a major attack on Ukraine this summer, a white out of tech. And let's be specific because it alludes to something else that was on Russian television last night. This was an interview. Well, Mr. Putin meets with each of the 50, 50, 52, however many governors there are, with the call of subjects in the Russian Federation. He would call them states or provinces. He met with Pushilin. Pushilin is the governor of Danyevsk. And they talked about this and that reconstruction, but the punchline was when Putin asked him,

22:04by a few months ago, we knew that Ukraine held 25% of Danyevsk province. Tell me, please, Mr. Pushilin, how much do they hold now? Answer 17 to 18%. You see the point? They're going to wipe out the Ukrainian presence in Donbass in their summer offensive. So he's buying time with Trump just to shred him up. Wow. Gilbert, have a fascinating conversation. Very, very informative. Thank you very much for your time. I know it was deeply appreciated because I can see the comments flowing in, but it's a great conversation, my dear friend. Have a good day. We'll look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you so much. Thank you. Coming up later today, at 10 o'clock this morning, on many of these very topics, Professor Glendizin, at 2 this afternoon with an emphasis on China,

23:04I think he's there, Pepe Eskobar, and at 3 this afternoon with an emphasis on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his latest murderous stunts, filigirality. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.