Sunday, during his show’s opening monologue, FNC’s “Life, Liberty & Levin” host Mark Levin told his viewers there was nothing to be “giddy” about regarding Friday’s blowup between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Levin, who maintains he supports Ukraine’s cause, said Zelensky “blew it” during the meeting with Trump.
Transcript as follows:
Saturday, before — this past Saturday, I spent the monologue discussing the genius of the Trump plan with respect to rare earth minerals in Ukraine, the partnership with Ukraine, and what would it do? It would involve American private sector investments, hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to extract rare earth minerals in Ukraine, which, for the most part, cannot do it, and certainly after the war, it can’t do it, which would help Ukraine in numerous ways more than the Marshall Plan.
Imagine that capital flowing into Ukraine, rebuilding its infrastructure. Imagine the number of Ukrainians getting jobs, the buildings going up, the highways being built.
Imagine the benefit to the United States. We would not only be making money, but we would have access to rare earth minerals that we need. We need for our defense, we need for our space system. We need for our medical industries.
Russia wants those minerals, in addition to geographic ideas and claims, all of which are ridiculous, Putin wants those minerals. China wants those minerals.
And so the idea is we have a real business relationship with the people of Ukraine, Americans working next to each other with Ukrainians. We have a significant presence there, and that significant presence there serves as a National Security buffer, a commercial buffer, as I explained last week.
So really, Ukraine wouldn’t even need to join NATO. We’d have a special relationship with Ukraine, critical to the United States and critical to Ukraine. Brilliant.
The Biden administration didn’t come up with that plan. The Democratic Party didn’t come up with that plan. Trump came up with that plan. That’s number one.
Number two, the blow up that took place in the Oval Office. In thinking about this, you know, people react immediately. I like to think about things a little bit. There’s two camps that are giddy about this, absolutely giddy. And there’s nothing to be giddy about.
Number one, the Democrats, they’re all over TV with their Democrat media trashing Donald Trump, accusing him again of being in Putin’s back pocket. That is a lie. He’s not in Putin’s back pocket, and he’s never been in Putin’s back pocket. He’s dealing with reality, and he’s trying to bring this thing to an end on terms that also improve the situation with the United States.
Number two, the pro-Putin forces on the right. I’m not of the right. I’m a constitutional conservative. We conservatives are not right wingers. That’s what the Democrats call us. We’re not right wing anything. We’re square in the middle of the political spectrum. We are the center of the political spectrum, constitutional conservatism.
The radical left, the Marxists; the radical right, the fascists. We are in the center. We need to take that political spectrum back.
That said they’re thrilled. They’re giddy. They support Putin. They actually want Putin to win.
But here’s the bottom line, Zelensky blew it and he blew it big, and I speak as somebody who supports Ukraine. Ukraine, which was invaded without provocation. Ukraine, the cities and the people are targeted. The infrastructure is targeted.
Ukraine, up to 700,000 of their children, children have been brought into Russia against their will, against the will of their parents, and adopted out to Russian families to become Russian citizens. That’s right, it’s grotesque.
I see how little people talk about Putin, how little they talk about his role in this war, how little you read about it or hear about it, very little condemnation of Putin as he sits back and watches.
Zelensky, you handed Putin a victory and only you can fix it. Donald Trump has offered Ukraine and you a lifeline, a lifeline to build your ties with the United States, to build your economy, to build up your country, so that you can contribute to your own defenses as well. But you blew it, and you blew it, and you need to fix it.
What was in this deal in part? It was a good deal.
BBC: The preliminary agreement envisions that an investment fund will be set up for Ukraine’s reconstruction. The fund would be managed on equal terms.
There was no America coming in and raping the land and all the rest of it. According to the deal, Ukraine will contribute 50 percent of future proceeds from state-owned mineral resources, oil and gas, to the fund. The fund will then invest to provide the safety, security, and prosperity of Ukraine. That was the language in this deal.
Meanwhile, the agreement says the U.S. while subject to U.S. law, maintain a long-term financial commitment, I quote, “to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.”
Nobody else is going to do this. Nobody else can do this.
Zelensky acknowledged the fund, but told the BBC last week it was too early to talk about money. We’re not talking about money. We’re talking about building up your country.
The agreement states the U.S. will own the maximum amount of the fund allowed under U.S. law. Ukrainian President rejected an initial request from the U.S. for half a trillion dollars in mineral wealth, but media reports say this demand has been dropped. Dropped.
There’d be co-ownership, there’d be no direct claims on anything.
In his wildest dreams, Zelensky should have grabbed this deal.
But before he met with Donald Trump, he met with a bunch of Democrats on Capitol Hill and others, and the story was broken by Michael Goodwin of “The New York Post.” Before meeting Trump, Zelensky met with anti-Trump Democrats who advised him to reject the terms of the mineral deal the President was offering.
According to Senator Chris Murphy — this guy is a loathsome reprobate from Connecticut. He is a cancer in the body politic. He’s constantly on cable T.V. trashing Trump, trashing Elon Musk, just trashing every single time he possibly can — “Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington” — this is what Murphy posted. “He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine.”
Murphy’s office posted that 11:15 AM on Friday, just an hour before Zelensky was meeting with President Trump, and then Murphy attached a picture of Zelensky at a conference table with Murphy seated on the opposite side. The purpose of the meeting was to sign the mineral agreement he and Trump represented had negotiated.
So this was supposed to be a formality, but he had twice refused to sign it after promising to, so he went back on the deal multiple times, and thanks to Murphy and his ilk, we now know he had no intention of signing it on Friday when he met with Trump.
Like the original Russia hoax, Goodwin writes, that consumed much of Trump’s first term. Russia 2.0 was born, a political desperation.
So the Democrats wanted this. The Democrats were trying to set up Trump, and Zelensky was foolish enough to go along with this and embrace it. Zelensky has to fix this for the sake of his own country.
But don’t worry the Western Allies, they’re rallying around Zelensky, you know, after the event with Donald Trump, says CNN, rallying around Zelensky.
You know what, America? It’s about time somebody tell you how pathetic the Europeans have been in their support of Ukraine.
Poland has stepped up. The Baltic States have stepped up. A few other countries. The four worst countries have the leaders with the biggest mouths — France, Britain, Germany, Italy, although I like their leader, but Italy, they have not stepped up to the plate like they could and should. Why? This is from the Center for Strategic and International Studies by Max Bergmann: Europe’s approach to supporting Ukraine’s war effort is no longer fit for purpose. There’s a desperate need for Europe to ramp up its defense industrial production.
But despite a clear consensus behind this urgent need, European production lines are not maxing out their capacity.
The root of the issue is not so much a lack of political will, but as is frequently the case with European defense, a failure to cooperate and a lack of funding.
What the hell? They are all rallying around Zelensky, talk is cheap. Why don’t they step up and do more?
Europe has not yet shifted to the new reality that Ukraine faces a long war, he wrote, and this was several months ago.
Now, Europe is contributing, as a collective 0.2 percent of their gross domestic product, 0.2 percent, not even one percent, not even a half percent.
If Europeans had to foot the entire bill, it would be 0.4 percent. In other words, if the United States withdrew altogether, they would have to double it to 0.4 percent still not even one percent of their GDP from countries that are telling us this is a vital defense issue, and I happen to think it is. I happen to think it is.
He says the new paradigm is urgently needed for Europe’s military support for Ukraine. The challenge now is less about incentivizing countries to give weapons to Ukraine, but about getting European defense industries to ramp up production. This requires significant new funding and requires Europeans to do something they rarely do in defense — work together.
They’ve been unloading their post-World War Two type weapons and some of their World War Two weapons to Ukraine, some new weapons, but mostly not. And now that those stockpiles have run out, and now that President Trump is the President and not Biden, Europe has an issue.
The war in Ukraine has awakened European governments to the need to invest in defense. European defense spending is up across the board with production increases as well. But it’s not happening at the speed and scale it requires.
If this is the prelude to a potential World War Three, they need to step it up. They need to step it up. Donald Trump’s idea of peace is a brilliant idea. We engage with Ukraine. We help build their economy while we’re building ours. We help exploit their rare earth minerals that we don’t have access to while we access them, which benefits them.
It keeps the Russians off their tail. It keeps the Chinese off their tail. Meanwhile, for us, China, Russia, India, are all competing throughout the third world, mostly for these minerals.
Russia is taking over the Arctic Circle with 10 military bases, with the support of China. Donald Trump says, wait, that’s a huge problem. Greenland, you’ve got minerals. Greenland, you’re there through their navigable waters to the Arctic Circle, we need to have a new relationship with Greenland. So the President sees this. He’s not a Putinoid.
No, the Democrats did more to serve Putin by advising Zelensky to kill this deal than anything Donald Trump could possibly have done. And for the Putin supporters out there, you think you’re giddy? You think you’re funny? You’re pathetic, as a matter of fact.
But let’s go on. The biggest challenge to establishing what is the European Union fund will be getting approval within the European Union. Complacency and frugality are beginning to take over European politics, and European leaders, particularly Finance Ministers, they’re used to claiming helplessness when it comes to funding defense.
So this is the realpolitik, America. This is the realpolitik. Ukraine is the victim. Russia is the aggressor.
Ask the families in Syria, a half a million people Russia helped slaughter citizens. Ask them.
Russia, under Putin. He’s invaded Crimea, and he stole it from the Ukraine. Before that, he invaded the country of Georgia, and he stole 20 percent of that. He’s got a thousand warheads aimed at us, a thousand.
He’s got nuclear submarines off our shores. He keeps threatening our coasts. They keep buzzing our ships. They keep threatening the coast of Alaska.
They have a presence in Central and South America, hypersonic missiles. They have advanced hypersonic missiles aimed at us. They’re not aimed at Ukraine or anybody else. They’re aimed at us.
They now have a military relationship with China, and China’s enemy is us. They have a military relationship with Iran. Iran’s enemy is us. They have a military relationship with North Korea. North Korea’s enemy is us.
So you Putanoids, you’re pathetic. You’re the 1930s isolationists. You Democrats, are a disgrace, a disgrace in trying to undermine this deal that Donald Trump is putting together.
Honestly, the only one who has a sound policy, the only one who thought this through, the only one that actually has a plan that can work is Donald Trump.
Follow Jeff Poor on X @jeff_poor
