Speaker 1: Yes, you are connected, and thank you for coming by.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Radio Show. It is Wednesday, the
Speaker 1: twenty eighth day of May twenty twenty five. My name
Speaker 1: is Tom Sullivan. So got some tariff. Keep kicking the
Speaker 1: tariffs around. You know, we'll see what We'll see how
Speaker 1: it works. I mean a lot of people I've told
Speaker 1: you historically it's not a good thing. That's why I
Speaker 1: in general am opposed to them. But could it could
Speaker 1: be much to do about nothing. I mean, it goes back.
Speaker 1: Did you Oh, by the way, did you hear.
Speaker 2: The name?
Speaker 1: It's it's actually become a trade on the trading desk
Speaker 1: here in New York, and it's the taco trade. And
Speaker 1: the taco trade is at Wall Street. First of all,
Speaker 1: they love acronyms. They love love acronyms, and so now
Speaker 1: they've got this thing called the taco trade. I told you,
Speaker 1: without using the term, that it is so predictable. The
Speaker 1: president announces that he's going to slap some big, huge
Speaker 1: tiff on some country, and uh wham, obamo, down goes
Speaker 1: the market.
Speaker 2: I mean liberation.
Speaker 1: What we lose two thousand points for a couple days
Speaker 1: in a row, is that what it was I know
Speaker 1: we had the I know we had the kazoo player
Speaker 1: for two or three days in any case, So down
Speaker 1: it goes. And then later on the President comes out
Speaker 1: and says, well, maybe we'll delay that, or we'll put
Speaker 1: that on a naughty day delay. Then he went after
Speaker 1: the European Union on Friday. We finished the show on
Speaker 1: Friday with oh my gosh, he's going after the European
Speaker 1: Union with fifty percent tariffs.
Speaker 2: We didn't even get the weekend over.
Speaker 1: By Monday night, Memorial Day, he's on the tarmac at
Speaker 1: Morristown Airport flying back to DC and he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: actually I had a good call with the head of
Speaker 1: the EU and so we're going to put that on
Speaker 1: a delay until July ninth. And I knew what would happen.
Speaker 1: Sure enough, Mark, it came roaring back. So it goes
Speaker 1: down on the announcement and comes back on the pause
Speaker 1: and they, I mean, it's to the point where I
Speaker 1: told you last week, I said, my gosh, you could
Speaker 1: trade this. I just wait, wait for the stocks to
Speaker 1: be pummeled on the announcement of tariffs, buy a bunch
Speaker 1: of the ones that got beat up the worst, and
Speaker 1: then just wait a few days and the minute he
Speaker 1: announces okay, maybe we're not going to be doing that
Speaker 1: right now, the stock will come roaring back and then
Speaker 1: you sell it and you make a nice profit. Well
Speaker 1: I wasn't the only one thinking about that, because they
Speaker 1: call it the taco trade. Taco you know, like in
Speaker 1: the food taco. What it stands for is ta ceo.
Speaker 1: Trump always chickens out. It is literally a thing. I'm
Speaker 1: not making this up. A reporter for CNBC was in
Speaker 1: the Oval office with the other reporters today. Janine Piro
Speaker 1: is being sworn in as the US attorney for DC,
Speaker 1: and so he had the media there and the CNBC
Speaker 1: report said, sir, do you know about the taco trade?
Speaker 1: And it stands for Trump always chickens out? And she
Speaker 1: asked them and he said, it's called negotiations. That's what
Speaker 1: it is. That's the way I negotiate. And I'm not
Speaker 1: going to give away the way I negotiate, so you
Speaker 1: believe what you want. But it is, it's become a
Speaker 1: thing on Wall Street for to buy on the on
Speaker 1: the the announcement of a tariff and to sell.
Speaker 2: When he when he.
Speaker 1: Backs off, pauses whatever it is. So yeah, he says,
Speaker 1: it's called negotiations. And I'm not going to argue with him,
Speaker 1: but he that's his style, that's what he does. My
Speaker 1: only point is it causes havoc chaos in the economy.
Speaker 1: So the reporter said, uh, you know, this is what
Speaker 1: it stands for. And the President said, after all, after
Speaker 1: I did what I did, they said, we'll meet you
Speaker 1: any time you want. You call that chickening out. It's
Speaker 1: called negotiation. And then he said the question was nasty.
Speaker 1: Well it may have been, but it's it's the real thing.
Speaker 1: It's going on, call up your broker and ask for
Speaker 1: can we do some taco trades? See if they know
Speaker 1: that's a New York thing. Well else we got here. Oh,
Speaker 1: as far as the companies, these companies say that they're
Speaker 1: going to raise prices because of the tariffs. Walmart they
Speaker 1: announced that they will increase their prices because the tariffs
Speaker 1: are too high, particularly because of the fact that they
Speaker 1: get a lot of their products from China. So they've
Speaker 1: got a thirty tariff on most Chinese goods. There's a
Speaker 1: ten baseline teriff for most imports. Then on top of
Speaker 1: that you've got steel and aluminum face far higher rates,
Speaker 1: so Walmart said they would increase their prices because the
Speaker 1: tariffs are too high, particularly the products from China. Doug McMillan,
Speaker 1: who's the CEO of Walmart, said, we will do our
Speaker 1: best to keep our prices as low as possible, but
Speaker 1: given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced
Speaker 1: levels announced this week, we are not able to absorb
Speaker 1: all the pressure given the reality of the narrow retail margins.
Speaker 1: In other words, they don't make a huge profit. They
Speaker 1: got a very narrow profit line. So he says changes
Speaker 1: prices at Walmart will take effect by the end of
Speaker 1: May that would be Friday, and will increase much more
Speaker 1: in June. According to the chief financial officer over there, Mattel.
Speaker 2: Said it would raise prices due to tariff.
Speaker 1: Chief executives told investors under the current scenarios we are considering,
Speaker 1: he expects forty to fifty percent of its products to
Speaker 1: remain priced at twenty dollars or less. He advocated for
Speaker 1: zero tariffs on toys and games around the world. President
Speaker 1: Trump threatened Mattel, saying he would put a one hundred
Speaker 1: percent tariff on his toys and he won't sell one
Speaker 1: toy in the United States and that's the biggest market.
Speaker 1: So I don't know he's threatening. Nobody hasn't done anything
Speaker 1: about it. Best Buy. They warned that vendors across our
Speaker 1: entire assortment will pass along the levels some level of
Speaker 1: tariff cost to retailers, making price increases for consumers highly likely.
Speaker 1: Some electronic components and devices are temporarily exempt, but that
Speaker 1: won't last forever. Nintendo they have a new product out
Speaker 1: called the switch To, and like everything the Tender does,
Speaker 1: there's a waiting list and you've got to order a
Speaker 1: pre order online thing, and they have delayed allowing people
Speaker 1: to sign up for the pre order because of concerns.
Speaker 1: They don't know what they're going to have to cost.
Speaker 1: What the price will be Company laters at pricing won't
Speaker 1: change from the initial four hundred and fifty dollars, but
Speaker 1: the accessories will experience price adjustments, so whatever the accessories
Speaker 1: are for a switch To will cost more. They're going
Speaker 1: to try to keep the price at four to fifty
Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty dollars for a Nintendo.
Speaker 2: Shine and t Move. Chinese retailers.
Speaker 1: They were exempt because they always sold cheap products. It
Speaker 1: was called the deminimus exemption for anything worth less than
Speaker 1: eight hundred dollars. There was no tariff that has been
Speaker 1: done away with, So who's this TEAMU came out and said,
Speaker 1: due to recent changes in global trade rules and tariffs,
Speaker 1: our operating expenses have gone up. To keep offering the
Speaker 1: products you love without compromising on quality, we will be
Speaker 1: making price adjustments starting April twenty fifth. So that's already
Speaker 1: a month old. Ford in Subaru hit with twenty five
Speaker 1: percent tariffs. Most autoparts face a similar duty. Ford's chief
Speaker 1: financial officers that it expects to raise prices by as
Speaker 1: much as one and a half percent in the second
Speaker 1: half of this year due to tariffs.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 1: Subru, which is a Japanese car maker, if he didn't
Speaker 1: already know, said it will increase US prices to offset
Speaker 1: increase costs. Did not specify how much the price will
Speaker 1: go up. Procter and Gamble, Stanley and and Black and Stanley,
Speaker 1: Black and Decker. They own brands, believe it or not,
Speaker 1: Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I've owned Procter and Gamble forever. They own every they own, Pamps,
Speaker 1: Tied Charman. They said they're considering raising prices in some
Speaker 1: categories that there will likely be price increases because of tariffs.
Speaker 1: So this is going to depends upon what you're shopping for.
Speaker 1: Adidas said higher costs are likely for products in the
Speaker 1: US given the uncertainty around the negotiations between the US
Speaker 1: and differing exporting countries. We do not know what the
Speaker 1: final tariffs will be, according to Adidas. So there's some
Speaker 1: of the companies that are raising their prices and there's
Speaker 1: others out To dig the list out for you and
Speaker 1: add that to the show here today, but it is
Speaker 1: I think you're going to find some stores and some
Speaker 1: product lines you're going to notice are going up and
Speaker 1: others are not. So it may change the way that
Speaker 1: you go about your shopping. And trust me, if you
Speaker 1: start buying somebody else's product but not Company A, you
Speaker 1: buy Company B, Company A is going to pay attention
Speaker 1: to that, and they will if they can change their prices.
Speaker 1: So that's what's going on with tariffs. We've got still
Speaker 1: want to find about the Democrats. Looking for the Liberal
Speaker 1: Liberal podcast guy Joe Rogan. He was a liberal, he
Speaker 1: was a Bernie Sanders supporter. They lost him and the
Speaker 1: Democra after trying to figure out why So it does
Speaker 1: remind me of Air America and all that. What they tried,
Speaker 1: they tried, it wasn't that long ago, and it did
Speaker 1: not work. They think they got it this time. Phone
Speaker 1: number here eight five five two nine five sixty six hundred.
Speaker 1: You can find the phone numbers and the links to everything,
Speaker 1: including my podcast, by just going to my website, which
Speaker 1: is simply my name.
Speaker 2: It's Tom Sullivan dot com. We'll be right back. Hey, Hi, Tom,
Speaker 2: listen almost twenty years and have never once called her emails? Well,
Speaker 2: what took you so long? You're with Tom Sullivan.
Speaker 1: So we get back to Ukraine and Russia, and Russia
Speaker 1: obviously is Trump's getting a lot of heat about that too,
Speaker 1: going you're you're the last man on earth to believe
Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin. And so they asked them today again in
Speaker 1: the Oval office. They said, so, when are you going
Speaker 1: to know if Putin is going to be wanting to
Speaker 1: sit down and in this war? And he said in
Speaker 1: two weeks. In two weeks, I will know, because the
Speaker 1: question is is that, why aren't you putting like horrible,
Speaker 1: terrible sanctions? And now you know how I feel about sanctions.
Speaker 1: I don't think they work. People violate them all the time,
Speaker 1: but you could put something. At least you could try
Speaker 1: to do more than we're doing now, which is next
Speaker 1: to nothing. Russia's having a great time. They're not being
Speaker 1: held back by our sanctions in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: I remember when Biden put them on after the Ukraine
Speaker 1: War started, and they were a joke then. So there's
Speaker 1: plenty of room for Donald Trump to lay some severe
Speaker 1: sanctions on and see if they work. And if they don't,
Speaker 1: lay some, make them as severe as you possibly can
Speaker 1: right out of the gate.
Speaker 2: Don't play that game.
Speaker 1: So we've got He says that it'll be two weeks
Speaker 1: and he will know if Vladimir Putin is serious or not,
Speaker 1: because he's been talking about Putin. He said, Putin's crazy,
Speaker 1: and the Russians are writing back, well, we love Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: We think he's a wonderful, you know, praising him and
Speaker 1: doing all that. But we think that he's emotionally overloaded.
Speaker 1: So they're calling him emotionally overloaded. He's calling Putin crazy.
Speaker 1: He told the reporters in the Oval office today. In
Speaker 1: two weeks, I will know whether Putin is going to
Speaker 1: sit down and at the peace table and come up
Speaker 1: with the end of this war. Russian meantimes, they said, oh,
Speaker 1: why don't we have talks next week? And they're there.
Speaker 1: They really are. They're not that good at it, because
Speaker 1: it's very obvious what they're doing. They're they're stalling. They're
Speaker 1: doing everything they can to stall. The meantime, they're ramping
Speaker 1: up their attacks on TV and all of Ukraine. I
Speaker 1: mean they are bombarding those places. They're trying to get
Speaker 1: as much as they can right now. I don't think
Speaker 1: from what the way you observe what's going on, Russia
Speaker 1: certainly doesn't want to stop. They think they have the
Speaker 1: upper hand. And now Germany got involved again in the
Speaker 1: last twenty four hours and they said, all right, fine,
Speaker 1: nobody else is going to do this, We're going to
Speaker 1: step up. So they're going to be working with Ukraine
Speaker 1: on missiles and all kinds of military hardware. Germany wants
Speaker 1: to ramp things up, but Germany also has done a
Speaker 1: lot of business with Russia.
Speaker 2: So I mean it's.
Speaker 1: Putin wants NATO to say they will never ever ever
Speaker 1: allow Ukraine in and I'm going so fun I do
Speaker 1: it just sign the I don't think they have any
Speaker 1: business in NATO.
Speaker 2: But that's my two cents.
Speaker 1: Brett McGirk, national security guy under a bunch of administrations,
Speaker 1: says the sanctions look like they're getting bipartisan support.
Speaker 4: I think what we'll likely to see is back to
Speaker 4: Russia's maximalis sayings because they do not want to cease fire.
Speaker 4: I spoke with you the morning before that Trump call,
Speaker 4: and we said we will know after this call. Is
Speaker 4: this all diplomacy, Is this all just motion or is
Speaker 4: there actually movement towards the goal of a ceasefire? And
Speaker 4: I think we have the answer. There's movement backwards because
Speaker 4: days after that call, Russia launched the largest aerial attacks
Speaker 4: against Ukraine since the war started, three hundred missiles and
Speaker 4: drones two nights in a row, mostly Iranian drones. Also
Speaker 4: dovetail here with Iranian diplomacy, kind of a wave of
Speaker 4: the future, no pun intended. These massive drone and missile
Speaker 4: strikes very reminds me of the attacks against Israel that
Speaker 4: US military helped stop. So look, bottom line, I want
Speaker 4: to cease fire. Okay, I think this diplomacy is hitting
Speaker 4: a bit of a dead end. So President Trump has
Speaker 4: two choices. He can back off as he kind of
Speaker 4: suggested after that call, which I think is exactly what
Speaker 4: Putin wants. Or he can stand up and support Ukraine
Speaker 4: a little. But there there's an option here that's interesting
Speaker 4: is in the center right now there is a bill
Speaker 4: by Senator Graham and Blumenthal with eighty two co sponsors.
Speaker 4: When does that ever happens, like bipartisan basically imposing the
Speaker 4: sanctions that Trump is threatened. So President Trump can go
Speaker 4: back to Putin or Steeve Wick coughing, go back to
Speaker 4: the Russian and say, look, you know more at a
Speaker 4: sorrow than angrily given your actions no movement towards the ceasefire.
Speaker 4: These sanctions are coming, so we really have to get
Speaker 4: something moving here. The second thing, though, Kate, is the
Speaker 4: military supplies for Ukraine. They're starting to run out this summer.
Speaker 4: Trump has not authorized any more military is basically ammunition
Speaker 4: stuff Ukraine needs to defend itself, and I think that
Speaker 4: should also be turned back on. So long as Putin
Speaker 4: is showing no indications of getting to a ceasefire.
Speaker 1: Yeah, some are worried that we're going to get into
Speaker 1: a big problem with Russia.
Speaker 2: Believe that it actually wants to.
Speaker 3: I can't tell you that but I'll let you know
Speaker 3: in about two weeks. Within two weeks, we're going to
Speaker 3: find out very soon, we're going to find out whether
Speaker 3: or not he's tapping us along or not. And if
Speaker 3: he is, we'll respond a little bit differently. I can
Speaker 3: say this. I can say this that I'm very disappointed
Speaker 3: at what happened a couple of nights now where people
Speaker 3: were killed in the middle of what you would call
Speaker 3: a negotiation.
Speaker 2: I'm very disappointed by that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he's he what does what does? What's you
Speaker 1: going to do? What is Donald Trump going to do?
Speaker 1: This is the anti war president, and yet he's getting
Speaker 1: pushed by Putin And there's a lot of stories about
Speaker 1: is this going to be World War three? Because it's
Speaker 1: ramping up between us and them? I what one more
Speaker 1: from Well, let's get Arett mcgerkin here again, talking about
Speaker 1: the fact that Trump knows he has to maintain a
Speaker 1: relationship with Putin.
Speaker 4: When you're negotiating, even with a counterparty who's an adversary,
Speaker 4: you have to have a bit of a rapport and relationship.
Speaker 4: I think that's something Trump says, It's something I think
Speaker 4: Steve Wicoff understands. But you also have to have some leverage.
Speaker 4: You know, diplomacy is not all just arguments at the table.
Speaker 4: It is actually interests and leverage. And that's where the
Speaker 4: Senate bill is really interesting. I think if the White
Speaker 4: House was seen to be working with the Senate towards
Speaker 4: imposing those sanctions, it might it might mix things up
Speaker 4: a little bit here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, Eiler, what do you how far do you
Speaker 1: think Donald Trump will go? At the very least, He's
Speaker 1: got to lay some sanctions down if Putin doesn't come
Speaker 1: to the table, and I doubt that he's going to
Speaker 1: come to the table and actually agree to anything. Dan Hoffman,
Speaker 1: former station chief for the CIA in Moscow, said war
Speaker 1: might not end until Putin is no longer the head
Speaker 1: of Russia.
Speaker 5: I think it's important not only to see the world
Speaker 5: through the twisted KGB eyes of Vladimir Putin, but also
Speaker 5: to see ourselves through Putin eyes, because Putin is a
Speaker 5: KGB guy who's sizing up the president and his administration.
Speaker 5: Putin knows that President Trump promised to end the war
Speaker 5: within a day when he was on the campaign trail.
Speaker 5: He knows that the United States would like to expand
Speaker 5: our commercial relationship with Russia and he's certainly well aware
Speaker 5: of the contentious relationship between President Trump and President Selenski.
Speaker 5: Putin probably thinks he has some leverage right now to
Speaker 5: carry on this war. The question, the penultimate question that
Speaker 5: I think President Trump might want to be asking Director
Speaker 5: of CIA Radcliffe, is would Putin even be interested ever
Speaker 5: in stopping the war? This is Putin's war. He's spilled
Speaker 5: massive amounts of blood and treasure to topple the government
Speaker 5: of Ukraine, and so far he's failed. I'm not so
Speaker 5: sure that the war is going to end until Putin
Speaker 5: is no longer in the Kremlin. I think that's the
Speaker 5: question we need to be asking. And then a follow up,
Speaker 5: what can we do to test? So we may not
Speaker 5: know the answer. We haven't really used all the leverage
Speaker 5: we have. We've got secondary sanctions warmed up in the
Speaker 5: bullpen thanks to Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrats who have
Speaker 5: supported that proposal as well. And then we've got arms
Speaker 5: that we can provide Ukraine, patriot air defense and offensive munition.
Speaker 5: So there's a lot more that we can do to
Speaker 5: test that hypothesis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Donald Trump really has him. Joe Biden was
Speaker 1: the one who held them back. And said, you can't
Speaker 1: use our weapons for anything outside of you can't shoot
Speaker 1: them into Russia. The German leader today said, not only
Speaker 1: are we going to work with the Ukraine, We're gonna
Speaker 1: work with you on provider to use more missiles, but
Speaker 1: we're also not going to hold back on you can
Speaker 1: use our German made ar towery and everything else anywhere
Speaker 1: you want. You can fire it right into Moscow. We
Speaker 1: don't have a problem with it. So the military aid
Speaker 1: Dan Hoffman thinks is pretty darn important.
Speaker 5: You know, you're getting to putin a little bit when
Speaker 5: you hear the nuclear rhetorical brainkmanship. When the Biden administration
Speaker 5: was talking about giving Ukraine the weapons they needed when
Speaker 5: they needed them, that's when Putin's stalking horse, Dmitri Medvedev,
Speaker 5: the Deputy National Security Advisor, was threatening nuclear war and
Speaker 5: that really got to Joe Biden, and I think it
Speaker 5: really induced the Biden administration not to give Ukraine Javelin
Speaker 5: anti tank weapons and aircraft and other things that Ukraine
Speaker 5: needed when they needed it. But look, Putin's strategic objective
Speaker 5: has never changed. He wants to topple the government of
Speaker 5: Ukraine and install a puppet regime what we need to
Speaker 5: do is make it clear that's just not possible. And
Speaker 5: where the rubber is going to meet the road is
Speaker 5: whether Putin will ever accept that. And I don't know
Speaker 5: the answer to that question, Bill, and I don't know
Speaker 5: whether we can know until we really take serious action
Speaker 5: against Russia in the form of economic pressure that we
Speaker 5: haven't taken so far, as well as military support Ukraine.
Speaker 5: Now President Selenski's in Germany right now and the Germans
Speaker 5: are talking about giving Ukraine the Taurus long range ballistic missile.
Speaker 5: That would be a good thing for Ukraine to have
Speaker 5: in their arsenal.
Speaker 1: So Donald Trump, I don't want any wars. A guy
Speaker 1: is now faced with what to do. Major Generals James
Speaker 1: Spider Marx said Putin his whole thing is he doesn't
Speaker 1: want NATO to be anywhere near him.
Speaker 2: Clearly Putin wants that.
Speaker 6: I mean, he has stated all along he's looking for
Speaker 6: some type of a protection from a near abroad. He
Speaker 6: wants a buffer between NATO and Russia, and he essentially
Speaker 6: has it with Belarus. And his intent for the invasion
Speaker 6: three years ago was to achieve that with Ukraine. He
Speaker 6: failed in Ukraine, but he achieved a bit of it
Speaker 6: right from Karkiv all the way down to the Crimea.
Speaker 6: So I think in his mind this is essential and
Speaker 6: through his perspective, you got to put this in his perspective.
Speaker 6: NATO stated early after the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Speaker 6: the United States stated in a concert with NATO that
Speaker 6: we would not expand it inch eastward. Well, we did
Speaker 6: that over the course of the intervening years. We chalked
Speaker 6: up a number of NATO partners, and we went right
Speaker 6: up to his doorsteps. So from his perspective, we're lying bastards.
Speaker 6: We don't do what we say we're going to do.
Speaker 6: So we have to be able to understand this from
Speaker 6: his perspective. But to assume that he's going to embrace
Speaker 6: a written accord or a statement from anybody and be
Speaker 6: a signatory to that is foolish, A hard part.
Speaker 1: No, Yeah, so we told him that we would not
Speaker 1: do certain things that we did it. Anyway, back to
Speaker 1: General Mark, she talks about what a peace agreement could
Speaker 1: look like.
Speaker 6: President Trump especially called President Zelenski a jerk in the
Speaker 6: White House, and I know they noticed that Russia noticed that.
Speaker 6: So I don't fully understand what the intent is here.
Speaker 6: I really don't. I can't into the head of Putin,
Speaker 6: nor can I into the head of our president. But
Speaker 6: clearly what our president is concerned with is Putin has
Speaker 6: embraced none of the offers for some type of an
Speaker 6: engagement that would bring us to some type of a seafire,
Speaker 6: and then you've got to sustain that seafire, and then
Speaker 6: maybe you move in the direction of some longer term agreement,
Speaker 6: whether that's a peace agreement, an armistice, a division of
Speaker 6: Ukraine not unlike Berlin post World War Two, I don't know,
Speaker 6: but you would think that Russia would realize that this
Speaker 6: is an opportunity for them to get exclusively off their
Speaker 6: war economy, which is what they're on, and they can
Speaker 6: only sustain that for the next maybe twelve to eighteen months.
Speaker 6: Canato in the inter do the same thing. Can they
Speaker 6: continue to support Ukraine over that period in a fulsome
Speaker 6: way that gives Russia every incentive in the world to
Speaker 6: stop this thing?
Speaker 1: Well, the way the Soviet Union was brought down was
Speaker 1: because of the economy in Russia. And if they're only
Speaker 1: got twelve to eighteen months of where they can do
Speaker 1: a wartime economy, then now that gives. I would think
Speaker 1: that would give Zolensky an upper hand if the United
Speaker 1: States and Germany or the rest. I'm good for Germany,
Speaker 1: But where is France, Where is England? Where are the Caspain?
Speaker 1: Where are the other countries of Western Europe that are
Speaker 1: part of NATO? Are they stepping up? The only one
Speaker 1: that is is Germany now they're just starting. So where
Speaker 1: this will go? Has got a lot of nervous editorial
Speaker 1: writers out there talking about we may be on the
Speaker 1: verge of World War three. I don't think we are.
Speaker 1: I think I don't think. I think Putin is a
Speaker 1: great poker player, and he doesn't dare do anything that
Speaker 1: will upset us too much. The fact that he could
Speaker 1: scare Joe Biden off by saying, yeah, I'm going to
Speaker 1: use my nukes if you keep pushing me and jebaih
Speaker 1: and went running off into the corner and started crying.
Speaker 1: So Trump has to if he's really the tough guy,
Speaker 1: he has to stop with the hey my buddy, Vlad
Speaker 1: and start talking about you better shape up Russia or else.
Speaker 1: And I don't think he has a lot of desire
Speaker 1: for or else. We'll be right back.
Speaker 7: You do what you're doing toyl I'm loud. You bought
Speaker 7: the topic that, oh Tom, you are so wise.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. If he walks away, he will look
Speaker 1: like he is not willing to put up a fight.
Speaker 1: And I know in this audience it's been very mixed.
Speaker 1: Some of you are very much in support of Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Some of you are going, it's not our war. What
Speaker 1: are we doing? Who cares? It's the same thing in
Speaker 1: the House and the Senate, And it seems to be
Speaker 1: bipartisan about whether or not you're in the mood to
Speaker 1: support Ukraine or walk away. But that is where we are.
Speaker 1: That's what's coming down to. And I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going to happen out of that phone number here eight
Speaker 1: five five two nine five sixty six hundred Ray in California.
Speaker 2: Hi, Ray, what's up?
Speaker 7: Hi? Is this Tom Sullivan from the Financial Friday?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what what's up?
Speaker 1: Ray?
Speaker 7: Well, I'm just going to say we're going to miss you.
Speaker 7: I think that that the President should start talking to
Speaker 7: the leaders of the other countries about an embargo on
Speaker 7: all of Rushton's products and get the attention. Doing nothing
Speaker 7: is just you know, that's a no go.
Speaker 1: That's one of the options walk away. I mean that
Speaker 1: is an option. But to your point about sanctions, Joe
Speaker 1: Biden put some sanctions on. They were very weak and
Speaker 1: then lifted a bunch of them off for no reason.
Speaker 1: They're they're they're they're toothless.
Speaker 7: So Joe, Joe was afraid of his own shadow.
Speaker 2: True.
Speaker 7: Trump's not that type of person, I don't.
Speaker 2: Think so, he doesn't appear to be that way.
Speaker 1: But I wonder if he's going to muster up the
Speaker 1: you would think with all the again, the bravado and
Speaker 1: everything else that comes with Donald Trump, like him or
Speaker 1: dislike him. He he likes to be the New York
Speaker 1: tough guy. And I assume he's going to be tough
Speaker 1: with Vladimir Putin. I'll be shocked if he's not. And
Speaker 1: to your point, put some sanctions on and but we
Speaker 1: had here's the problem India. We we like India, India
Speaker 1: likes us. We think they're important. In Apple's moving a
Speaker 1: bunch of production to India. India was buying the oil
Speaker 1: from Russia under the table because they got it for
Speaker 1: a discount. What do you do with that kind of problem.
Speaker 7: Well, I think you can go talk to India and say, look,
Speaker 7: unless you want putin controlling more of the world, then
Speaker 7: you need to align with us and stop buying for
Speaker 7: a period of time until it can breaking. They've got
Speaker 7: to do it one way or the other. This stagnation
Speaker 7: and two years of war doesn't make sense. I'm a
Speaker 7: Vietnam vet, so I have seen what happens to soldiers.
Speaker 7: But the whole country is just being tore up, and
Speaker 7: that's that's not good either.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the number, I mean, thank you for your service,
Speaker 1: by the way, that's important, But the the numbers are
Speaker 1: supposed to be up near a million people have died
Speaker 1: of that huge We're getting up to World War two
Speaker 1: numbers here, and it hasn't There's no there's no end
Speaker 1: in sight. They're just job owning.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we we, uh, those of us who served, served
Speaker 7: with the idea that you know, we would serve so
Speaker 7: our kids wouldn't have to serve sub day. And yet
Speaker 7: again here we have two fronts uh in in the
Speaker 7: world that are in the midst of war. And you know,
Speaker 7: I shake my head. I guess I was, you know,
Speaker 7: uh in dismay and and just it just you know,
Speaker 7: didn't make sense. And I didn't think I'd ever see it,
Speaker 7: But boy did it get me.
Speaker 1: I remember when my boys were born back in the
Speaker 1: late seventies, and at the time, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I thought, hmm, here are these little babies. Are they
Speaker 1: going to have to grow up and fight a war?
Speaker 1: I thought, well, the forties were World War Two. Then
Speaker 1: throw in the early fifties for Korea. Add twenty years
Speaker 1: onto that for quote a generation. Now, you're into the seventies,
Speaker 1: that's when Vietnam was going. Add twenty more years onto
Speaker 1: that into the nineties, that was when a rock was going.
Speaker 1: Now or twenty more years later. I mean, it seems
Speaker 1: like we are on a cycle that every generation is
Speaker 1: going to have. Our people from our country are going
Speaker 1: to be out fighting wars every twenty year, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five years, almost like clockwork.
Speaker 7: So yeah, some some leader or person or faction in
Speaker 7: the world has not learned from the lessons of war.
Speaker 7: I just I can't imagine the presidents that make those
Speaker 7: decisions to send young young men and women into war.
Speaker 7: I I've got other views about that, well happening. You know,
Speaker 7: their kids need to go first, and maybe they would
Speaker 7: think a little harder about it. But certainly aggression makes
Speaker 7: choices really tough.
Speaker 1: I don't know what Putin's, what his family is, how
Speaker 1: many does he have children or not? Are they Have
Speaker 1: they ever been in military conscript in Russia? I have
Speaker 1: no idea Donald Trump did. He avoided the draft, so
Speaker 1: he does. I have found talking to two men like
Speaker 1: you Ray that have seen the battlefield. You're and I
Speaker 1: mean this as a compliment, you're the most anti war
Speaker 1: people in our in our country.
Speaker 2: You've seen war. You know how ugly it is.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if anybody who has ever seen
Speaker 1: battle that likes it the things that's a great idea,
Speaker 1: So it's too bad, But we don't think so we
Speaker 1: don't have Trump doesn't have that experience. I don't know
Speaker 1: if Putin does or not. So maybe they're not thinking
Speaker 1: like you are on that. But I I think you're
Speaker 1: right on with your with your observations. It's uh, it's
Speaker 1: trust me, every every every guy I've ever met, doesn't
Speaker 1: matter which war. If you've been on the battlefield, you
Speaker 1: don't want your kids or anybody else going.
Speaker 7: So it's you see, you see a country devastated and
Speaker 7: and just not only does it affect the people, it
Speaker 7: affects the soil, the dirt, you know. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 7: you know bad. So I hope that it ends. I
Speaker 7: never thought it was going to last this long, and
Speaker 7: but I thought NATO would have more pressure. But that
Speaker 7: doesn't seem to work either.
Speaker 1: Well Putin's surprise too, he didn't think it would last either,
Speaker 1: So yeah, whoops. Good for the Ukrainians. Ray I got
Speaker 1: to hit or break. Thank you for your kind words,
Speaker 1: thank you for your service, and we'll take a short
Speaker 1: break and be right back. Phone numbers eight five, five, two,
Speaker 1: nine sixty six hundred short break, don't go away.