Trump determined to end Ukraine war, says former National Security Council Chief of Staff

We’re joined by Fred Fleitz, who has worked for the CIA and the Department of Defence, and who worked for the National Security Council during the first Trump administration. He is now at the America First Policy Institute.

Matt Frei: Let’s go through a number of key issues. Let’s start with Nato. Is he going to pull America out of Nato?

Fred Fleitz: No I want to start with Fred Trump. I saw your interview with Fred Trump. I thought that was one of the most tawdry and irresponsible pieces of journalism I have ever seen. Donald Trump wins a conclusive mandate to remake American politics, to remake global security. And you pull up some relative I’ve never heard of, I’ve never seen on TV, to whine about Trump for five minutes. It simply goes how the liberal British elite are out to get Trump. They’re not interested in objective journalism. That’s why the British people were so surprised at this outcome. They’ve seen these lies on your channel, on the BBC, in The Economist. So, I mean, I don’t even know what the point is talking with you. You’re so incredibly biased. I think Trump is going to remake global politics. What you’re not saying is…

Matt Frei: May I respond to that?

Fred Fleitz: What you’re not saying is Trump’s tenure as president was pretty good for the UK, was pretty good for Europe. I seem to remember the Ukraine war started under Joe Biden. That’s something I don’t think we’re going to hear on your channel.

Matt Frei: Let me just say, I was hoping to get to all those points. And I’m glad that you’ve done that. But he was talking about family. And as far as I know, you’re not a member of the Trump family. We were talking about personal stuff and that was very much his personal view, he wasn’t talking about the election. He wasn’t talking about political strategy.

Fred Fleitz: It was irresponsible journalism.

Matt Frei: Okay, whatever. Let’s try and be responsible then and talk about the issues at hand. Nato – will he pull out of Nato or not?

Fred Fleitz: Donald Trump has made very clear in his America first approach to U.S. national security that he wants a strong president, a strong national security policy, a strong military – to work in cooperation with our allies and alliances. But also to make sure the members of these alliances carry their own weight. I’m not going to speak for Trump on how he’s going to do this. I will say he’s going to be pretty tough with Nato members who are not paying their 2 per cent of GDP, as they’re required to under their agreements, to other Nato members.

Matt Frei: Okay. He has said that he would end the war in Ukraine in the first 24 hours of being in office. How do you think he’s going to do that?

Fred Fleitz: You know, the issue for the war in Ukraine is that we have a situation where we had American and British and European politicians who were sending weapons to Ukraine for ‘as long as it takes’. But there’s no strategy to end the war. They’re basically doing this for virtue-signalling, they think Putin is evil, they want to send weapons there. But this is promoting a war of attrition that is killing all the Ukrainian soldiers. There’s going to be a shortage of Ukrainian young men. We’re going to start to end the war – and this is my opinion of what Mr Trump will do – by having a president determined to stop it, to start negotiations. So – how he’s going to do that, he hasn’t told me his plan. But I think the first step to ending the war is to have a world leader who wants to end the war.

Matt Frei: Let’s move on to Iran. I know that in the first Trump administration, correct me if I’m wrong, that there were divisions within the cabinet about how to deal with Iran. Some people wanted intervention, others didn’t. You now have got this war with Iran and Israel. What do you think he’ll do about that?

Fred Fleitz: Well, I heard Mick Mulvaney complaining about who might be in the Trump cabinet. I’ll tell you, there will be quite a few very qualified national security experts working for Mr Trump. A problem in the first term is that the president brought some people in who did not support his objectives with Iran on either fixing, or pulling out, of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the JCPOA. I believe that Mr Trump will restore maximum pressure. He’s going to bankrupt Iran until it stops sponsoring terrorism and meddling in the region. But as in the first administration, he’ll be willing to talk to America’s adversaries, whether it’s Iran or China or Russia.

Matt Frei: Right. Actually, as I remember the interview with Mick Mulvaney – I think he said there were some good people around that Trump could call upon to join him in the Cabinet, but maybe I misheard that. Would you be one of those people? Are you waiting for a phone call from Mr Trump?

Fred Fleitz: Look, I’d be honoured to work for the president. I worked for him before. He hasn’t asked yet. We’ll see.