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You're listening to the no Spin News Talking Points edition.
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So let's begin with the Talking Points memo. The Putin summit with Trump. So President Trump's angry. That was not a pleasant ride home from anchorage to Washington, D.C. they landed at three in the morning. And when President Trump is angry, people stay away from. Okay, same thing with me. So I know how that is. He's angry because Putin's leading him along and he went out of his way, as everybody knows, to be respectful to this evil dictator. A lot of people object to that. But of course, as I wrote in my column on Sunday and my message of the day today, there's no other way to deal with Putin. You can't threaten him. He's got nukes, all right? You can't diminish him, because then he'll just dig in and you'll never get a deal. So the President rolls out the red carpet and the flyover and the car and all of this. And of course, the anti Trumpers who don't care about their country at all or the world, they use that as a criticism. And we'll get into that a little bit. But Trump really thought he was going to walk away with something concrete like a ceasefire for 30 days. They could work out details of a peace agreement in Ukraine between Ukraine and Russia, and it didn't happen, and it wasn't even close to happening. So Trump believes that Putin is now, you know, disingenuous. And I think, to be fair, that President Trump overestimated his ability to bring this madman in. And the key to it is, as you will read in my book, confronting Evil, which is coming out in what, two weeks now. Putin likes to kill people, enjoys it, and I will prove it. And it is tough dealing with somebody like that. Trump was fairly successful the first four years using the same techniques, flattery, respect, whatever, and he. It worked then, but now Putin's even further into his psychopathic cycle. Okay, so today there was a meeting in D.C. and we're still awaiting the micro details. I'll have it for you tomorrow. Zelensky showed up, and that was the right call. Got to get Zelensky in here. And then a bunch of European leaders. The European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, British PM Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Frederick Mertz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander stopped. So they're all at the White House. And what is their collective take? It's interesting because it's not what you think they're hemorrhaging money over there. All of these countries, all the NATO countries, they got to pay for this Ukrainian thing. We paid more than 200 billion USA, but we have the money. They don't have it. So they're really, really trying to, trying to get it some kind of leverage. Putin knows that now. Putin's running out of money too, interestingly enough. So tomorrow on the no Spin news, I'll have a little bit more specificity on this changes. I mean, you know, Zelensky goes in and goes, oh, we're not going to make any deal that going to change our borders. And yeah, you will. Okay. You'll have to, unfortunately, it's not fair, it's not right. But you're going to have to give up some territory. And in return you'll get security guarantees, which is going to be good for the Ukrainian people. But there's a lot of huffing and puffing going on over here. I will be on News Nation tonight at 9pm with Leland Vitter. I may have updated specific information by that time. Okay. But I don't have it now. We're taping this in late afternoon. Okay. So ahead of the meeting in Washington, Trump puts out a social post. Quote, president Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started? No getting back obama Given Crimea 12 years ago without a shot fired and no going into NATO by Ukraine. Some things never change. So, yeah, the NATO thing is the easiest. Ukraine does not have to join NATO. And that, you know, Putin is using that. It's a straw card. Remember, NATO is no threat to Russia. NATO's never going to invade Russia. European countries is the last thing they want. Putin doesn't make, oh, NATO, they're going to come after us. Oh, come on. You know, it's just an excuse. But you take the excuse off the table by saying, okay, you know, Ukraine's not going into NATO. Crimea is gone. It's gone, not coming back unless you roll NATO tanks into it. And that starts World War Three again. The column that I wrote on over the weekend is called Dancing with the Devil. What should happen now? So Trump's got to get tough with Putin. But here's the essential point. Trump does not have to get tough with Putin in public. Does, because that works against him. He's got to tell Putin privately, look, Vad, this is what's going to happen to you now. I'm not going to make an announcement. So it's mano a mano, a cage match between you and me. That doesn't get us anywhere. But you continue killing innocent people, and we're going to bankrupt your country and you. And you're not going to be able to pay your generals millions of dollars to protect you. Which is what? It's Putin. Putin's power is based on the fact that he pays his army an extraordinary amount of money to protect it. Those payments go down. The oligarchs that support Putin, they're already going to get hammered. Putin's going to. They'll throw them out. Not like Putin is one of these guys they love. They don't. So anyway. But to do it publicly is not the. The way to go.
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You're listening to a special edition of the no Spin News.
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In the first four years of Trump's presidency, 16 and 20, Vladimir Putin was under control because Trump used the same techniques in negotiation that he used to be successful in business. And those techniques are basically saying to whoever you're negotiating with, be my partner. And if you're my partner, we're all gonna win, we're all gonna prosper. That's the art of the deal. Flattery, all of that. It comes all into. It's you and me against the world. And it's worked very well for Trump, and it worked for four years with Putin. You'll remember who went to Crimea under Obama. He did not respect. Obama took it. Boom. And Obama didn't do anything. But then Trump came in and Putin calmed it down. He was still a villain, he was still evil, doing bad things behind the scenes, but nothing was that was roiling the world. And then as soon as Trump lost to Biden, then again, no respect on Putin's part for the Democratic machine in America. He marches into Ukraine to kill more than a million people. If you count up the Russians and the Ukrainians and all of the people who've been wounded and all that displacement. And then Trump gets back. One of the keystones of Trump's campaign to be reelected was, I'll solve this Ukraine thing on day one. He said it many times, and if I were president, it never would have happened. Putin confirmed that in Alaska. You know, I mean, it's subjective, but it's not out of the realm of possibility, certainly, but I'll solve it on day one. That obviously didn't happen. And the reason it didn't happen is because Putin has changed and President Trump did not recognize the change. I believe, and I can back it up in my new book, Confronting Evil, that Putin is mentally Ill. So I went on NewsNation last night, and here's what I said. Go. So now there's going to be a reset. You have to do whatever you can, all right, to try to get Putin to stop. And that means a third meeting. It means this. It means that you've got to placate him to some extent. But the bottom line is you're not dealing with a rational person here. You're dealing with a person who would kill millions of people. So you've got to be very methodic. But the way to get him is Putin doesn't want to die. Now, when I say Putin doesn't want to die, I mean it literally. That's why the mullahs stopped, because the mullahs knew the next step was to kill them. That's why they stopped in Iran. If Putin feels that his own life is in jeopardy because his people are starving, and you can do that by very, very stringent sanctions or military action, which I would not do. Not over Ukraine, okay? He feels that it's his neck in the noose, to use a cliche. He'll get paused. Now, if you think that I'm overstating this, I am absolutely not. And again, I'll go back to confronting evil. Adolf Hitler got progressively worse as he maintained his power in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He became a total lunatic. He wasn't stable to begin with, and neither was Putin. And you'll see we chronicle his childhood and everything like that. You'll see it. But most of these violent dictators, they just lose their minds. And that is what has happened to Putin. I have information that says that Putin was ready to use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine in the early going. Now, I think the information comes at a ultra high level. I can't confirm it, but I'm not surprised by it. I believe firmly that if his back's to the wall, Putin will use nukes. He doesn't care who dies. He doesn't care about his own people either. When you're dealing with that, then you become a totally different negotiation because the person's not rational. Now, I don't know whether Donald Trump can bring the economic pressure to starve the Russian people. I think he can. The EU is backing them. It's China that needs to get on board. And again, I have the best contacts in the world with China. Nobody has better contacts than me. And you know that I was over there in May, all of that, but I don't know whether they're going to turn on Vlad. Ok. If they do, then Putin will have to deal. If they don't, it's going to be a slog punch out for Trump. But I don't criticize the president for what he's done. I don't care about the red carpet. I don't care about the flyover. I don't care about the limo. I don't care about any of that. I want the killing to stop. One more point, and this is an important point. I say that Putin's mentally ill and you're going to write me. Go prove it, O'Reilly. Right. Because that's my audience bill@billorilly.com if you want to write it right now, okay, you're Putin. You're coming to Alaska. You get on a plane in Moscow. You fly in, there's a red carpet there. There's a president of the United States actually applauding. There's pomp and circumstance. You're being treated as an equal. You get to write in his car to the negotiation spot. All of that you get. He did not pause the bombing on the drones one minute. He was killing babies and innocent people while he was in Alaska. Who does that? He couldn't pause for the weekend. You couldn't give peace a chance as John Lennon once sang, for two days. No. Is that the action of a rational man? No.
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You're listening to a special edition of the no Spin News.
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Now, I made a lot of headlines all over the world by saying flat out I believe that Vladimir Putin is mentally ill. And that's the reason that Trump got fooled and campaigned. I'll solve the Ukraine war on day one. You remember all that because in the first four years of Trump's presidency, Putin was at least somewhat rational. It's gone. And my book Confronting Evil comes out September 9th. You'll see almost every single one of these heinous mass murderers in the book. They didn't start out absolutely insane, but that's how they ended up. And I believe that Vladimir Putin is in the that category. So after going to Alaska where he was greeted as an equal by President Trump, Putin has not relented one bit. Okay. So it's Wednesday. On Monday he killed a bunch of people in Kharkiv, including a family with toddler, 16 year old boy, 23 injured there, another southeastern attack, another 23 wounded. The Ukrainian Air Force says 25 locations were hit by Russian drones and military. Ukrainians air force also says that 270 drones, 10 missiles were launched into Ukraine by Putin. So he's obviously not stopping. He's not pausing. He didn't pause even when he was in Alaska. What kind of is that? What is that? Okay? If you really want to get a peace deal, if you really want to get a compromise on issues, and Trump is willing to compromise, all right, you don't keep bombing and killing women and children. But Putin likes it. He enjoys that. Okay? He enjoys bringing terror into the hearts of what he perceives as an enemy. And Ukraine is not an enemy of Russia. Ukraine can't do anything in Russia. NATO would never invade Russia. And it rankles me, and I will call him out. Any Americans who say, hey, Putin's got a legitimate beef here. Anybody does that, you're going to come up against me just like John Bolton did because he hates Trump so much, his analysis is dishonest. Bolton pulled him back a little bit. I don't know whether you noticed him. He's still around, but he's not as hateful as he used to be. So I think we accomplished something there. Overall, civilian deaths. Civilian deaths. Okay? And this is from the United Nations High Commissioner in Ukraine, closing in on 36,000 innocent people. Injuries. I think this is a low number myself. 14,000 total. Almost 50,000 hurt by Putin. For what? For what? Ukraine is no danger to you, all right? Even if you get Ukrainian territory, it doesn't do you any good. None. Ridiculous. President Trump has canceled his vacation to Bedminster, where he has a club in New Jersey to try to work this out. There is a rumor that Zelensky and Putin might meet. That's a total waste of time. Putin doesn't respect Zelensky. He's gonna go out like a peacock and. Okay, you want to know the spectacle? Fine. It's not gonna lead anywhere. The only thing that's going to stop Putin is if Putin thinks that his own life is in danger. And the only way that could happen is if Trump slaps onerous economic sanctions on Russia and the people there begin to starve and they'll kill Putin. If that happens, his own people will kill him. His generals will kill him. We can't kill him because he has nukes. And he'll use those nukes. Putin's mad enough to use them. So just keep that in mind. We're not dealing with person here. Got any compunction about wiping out 100,000 people in Kiev. He'd send a nuke to Keith. Absolutely convinced he would. Again, I will back up everything I say in the book. Coming out September 9th. Confronting Evil. And we do expect here that President Trump will put major sanctions on Russia soon.
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Release Date: August 23, 2025
Host: Bill O'Reilly
This episode centers on the aftermath of the recent summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, and analyzes the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict. Bill O’Reilly unpacks President Trump’s approach to negotiation, Putin’s state of mind, the Western alliance’s position, and the prospect for peace. O’Reilly draws on his reporting, historical context, and forthcoming book “Confronting Evil.”
Tone: Direct, urgent, critical, with O’Reilly’s signature confidence and “No Spin” approach.
| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:07 | Talking Points Memo—Trump-Putin Summit & Trump’s Anger | | 01:45 | O’Reilly on Trump’s Overestimation & Putin’s Psychology | | 03:49 | Western Allies’ Dilemma – Economic Cost | | 04:43 | Ukraine Expected to Give Up Territory | | 05:01 | Negotiation Tactics: Private Threats vs Public Pressure | | 09:59 | Putin’s Mental State—Not Rational, Warnings About Nukes | | 11:34 | Dictatorial Mental Decline: Putin & Hitler | | 13:34 | Turning Point – Putin’s Rationality Is Gone | | 15:10 | Civilian Deaths and Casualties Figures (UN) | | 15:57 | Only Effective Pressure: Economic Sanctions | | 16:55 | Nuclear Escalation—Putin’s Mad Enough To Use Nukes |
O’Reilly offers a sobering, forceful analysis of the Ukraine-Russia situation post-Trump-Putin summit. He warns that traditional diplomatic and economic pressures must be taken to their extreme, as Putin is no longer rational and enjoys inflicting suffering. O’Reilly is skeptical of both European resolve and the utility of further Zelensky-Putin engagement, placing the onus on the US for stringent sanctions and clear-eyed realism. The episode is grounded in his characteristic skepticism and historic analogies, serving as both a news update and a preview to the themes in his forthcoming book, “Confronting Evil.”