Why Trump Acts Like a Russian Asset and Miliband’s West Bank Sanctions

Rory Stewart (0:00)

Trump's envoys, Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner, have just held talks with Vladimir Putin and President Zelensky. It's the latest chapter in a betrayal that goes back to the start of Trump's second term. And here's what that betrayal actually means. In August, Russia fired 27 missiles at Kiev, and Ukraine was able to shoot down just one, because there were no US patriot interceptors left. The reason has almost nothing to do with Ukraine, nothing to do with Russia. It's because they've been firing almost half their stock at Iran. Which brings us to Mark Carney's idea, a constellation of middle powers combining their weight to matter without Washington. But is that a real answer to the world that we're in now?

Or is it just what you say once you've discovered you can't build a missile?

Welcome to The Rest Is Politics Question Time with me, Rory Stewart.

Alastair Campbell (1:02)

And me, Alastair Campbell.

Rory Stewart (1:04)

Today in Question Time, we are going to be discussing firstly, what's happening on the ground in Ukraine after the Kushner-Witkoff visit. Secondly, we're going to be looking at Mark Carney's idea of a constellation of middle powers. And we're also going to talk about the extraordinary funeral of the convicted genocidal war criminal, Miladić, apparently greeted with a hero's welcome in Serbia. Alastair, we're starting actually with a question from a listener who is in Kiev. Beatrice, after the US's latest betrayal of Ukraine, is it finally time to admit that Trump is a Russian asset?

Alastair Campbell (1:39)

Well, I've believed that Trump is a Russian asset for a long, long time. We talked in the main episode about this book, Betrayal, that Luke Harding has written, which is essentially about how the Americans, by the way, including Biden, have sort of sold out Ukraine, but Trump has taken it to a completely different level, and essentially how Trump and Putin are both coming at Ukraine from both sides. And one of the things we talked about when we talk about Russian asset, there's a line in Luke's book where he, you know, you and I have said this before, that if he were a Russian asset, would he have done anything differently to what he's actually done in his second term? And the thing about, you know, people have all these sort of rumours and sort of guesses about this thing, what does Putin have on him?

I can remember when we were in government, we used to be told in advance, there was this little bubble inside the embassy where they assured you that you could speak freely. But they basically said there is nowhere else that we are going to be where you can speak freely. We now know as a fact that the hotels that most visiting Westerners stayed in, in the time that Trump was being cultivated, he was, it's not as if he went, I'll go and find out about Russia.

The Russians approached him and said, we think you'd find Russia really interesting. He was sort of fated.

Rory Stewart (2:54)

He was looking for commercial opportunities and ways when his business was not going very well.

Alastair Campbell (2:58)

Russia has often helped him out when his business has been in trouble.

The idea that Luke was saying, for example, he discovered, as he said, I'm just a journalist who's a bit annoying to the Russians. He discovered that his bedroom was bugged for sound and film. The idea that Donald Trump wouldn't be bugged for sound and film, forget it.

Rory Stewart (3:18)

Regardless of how much it's directed by him or whether it's just that he shares Putin's worldview, it would be impossible if you were the head of the KGB, or the SVR now, to imagine any more perfect scenario. If you were literally sitting there, 2015 and thinking, what would be the type of US president which would be most in Russian interests? Why don't we come up with a guy who could totally wreck confidence in NATO and take away basically any guarantee of the US security guarantees, back the pro-Russian parties in Europe, undermine European Union, if we invade Ukraine, remove all American financial support for Ukraine, to facilitate our entry? I mean, it's very difficult to think of anything that Trump has done, which is not like a dream. I mean, in fact, actually I worry that if you're sitting in SVI headquarters trying to think of something more for him to do, he's already done it all.

Alastair Campbell (4:22)

Well, we talked a lot last night at the event about Alaska, the thing in Alaska, based upon, I mean, honestly, you should read this book for his descriptions of Whitcoff and Kushner. This was before this week stuff, okay?