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President Zelensky could have solved this war or he could have made a deal many times. I've been there
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I mean, if you thought Donald Trump's shouting match with Zelensky in the Oval Office was disgraceful
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He'd better damn well stop. A US president calling for Ukraine to get a new leader just beggars belief
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I think it's time for Ukraine to get a new president. Why does Donald Trump always take Vladimir Putin's side
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What's going on? When Trump says, I think it is time for Ukraine to get a new president
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I have something very simple to say to him. I think it's time for the US to get a new president, actually
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One that stands up for a liberal democracy that has come under attack
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by an imperialist aggressor. A country whose sovereignty the US previously guaranteed
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alongside Russia, by the way, back in 1994 with the Budapest memorandum
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I think the US needs a president who wants to strengthen NATO, not weaken it, who stands up to autocrats instead of fawning over them
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A president who doesn't start trade wars with allies, who doesn't start new forever wars in the Middle East having campaigned to end them
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One that doesn't bankroll the slaughter of innocent Ukrainians through dodgy diesel deals
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A president who uses the office not to enrich himself, but to enrich the people he was elected to represent
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and a president who spends less time moaning about his lack of a Nobel Peace Prize
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and more time doing, I don't know, something, anything that might actually merit one
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It's time for the US to get a new president, not Ukraine
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And here's the other thing. It's time for Russia to get a new president too
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One who respects the territorial integrity of neighbouring countries. One who doesn't assassinate his enemies on British soil
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killing one of our own citizens in the process. It needs a president whose enemies don't mysteriously fall out of windows
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who doesn't loot his own country and divvy up the spoils for his corrupt cronies
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It needs a president with a basic respect for human life and a basic understanding of international law
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It needs a president who doesn't do away with democracy and cling to power through fear and oppression
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and whose allies don't include China, Iran and North Korea. It's time for Russia to get a new president
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What it is not time for is Ukraine to get a new president
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because we may live in an age of uninspiring leaders, but a rare exception, a noble exception, is Volodymyr Zelensky
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a finer profiling courage you will struggle to find. Remember this is a man who when the full invasion of Ukraine was launched back in 2022 was offered an escape route by the US They said we evacuate you if you want His response I don
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need a ride. I need weapons. He stayed and he fought and he's been fighting for his country
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ever since. The man is a hero. Volodymyr Zelensky displayed more courage in that one moment than
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the draft dodger in the White House is displayed in his entire eight decades on this planet
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Ukraine and the Ukrainian people need no lectures in courage and how to prosecute a war from Captain
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Bonespur. So when Donald Trump says Ukraine needs a new president, I say this, of the countries in
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this dispute that need new leadership, it is certainly not Ukraine. Now, look, I know there
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are people who are convinced slightly conspiratorially and we just don't know that
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Russia may have something on Donald Trump. They may have some kind of compromat in the Kremlin
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that they have blackmailed Donald Trump with for many years. And that is why time and again
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when the going gets tough, he caves and he sides with Putin. And the truth is, we simply do not
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know if they do have something on him. I mean, there was that remarkable scene in his first term
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when he stood up at a press conference alongside Putin and said
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oh, I believe Vladimir Putin over my own intelligence agencies about Russian interference in the 2016 election
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So he actually took the Kremlin's word over that of the CIA and the FBI
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So there are certainly instances where eyebrows can be raised over how Donald Trump has sided not just with Russia over Ukraine
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but often with Russia over his own intelligence services. But the truth is we don't know
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And I suspect that actually the explanation for why he tends to take Vladimir Putin's side is more straightforward
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Occam's razor. Look for the simplest explanation. He's never met an autocrat he doesn't like
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He liked Xi Jinping. He quite liked Kim Jong-un. He likes Vladimir Putin. He liked Viktor Orban
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He likes the tough guys. He likes the people who throw their weight around on the world stage
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He sees liberal democratic leaders as lily-livered nobodies, here today, gone tomorrow
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And I think that explains why he quite likes Vladimir Putin, why he takes his side
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because there's a bit of Donald Trump that sort of wants to be that kind of leader himself
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And look I am increasingly hopeful that any aspiration he may once have had to stay in office at the end of this term will now be disappearing because he going to get crushed in the midterms next month
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The American people are rightly turning on him, and I think even within his own party there is a sense that this cannot go on
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But I have little doubt in my mind that there is a part of Donald Trump that if he could stay in power forever, just like Xi Jinping, just like Vladimir Putin
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just like Kim Jong-un, he probably would. Of course this man has authoritarian tendencies
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It's one of the reasons I have been incredibly critical of him from day one
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because it's so transparent to me that this is a man who loves power for power's sake
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not what it can do for others. He wants to enrich himself and his cronies in the way that Vladimir Putin has enriched himself and his cronies
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and he frankly doesn't give two hoots about the American people in the way that I don't think Vladimir Putin gives two hoots for the American people
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So look, you may have some conspiracy theories as to why Donald Trump tends to take Vladimir Putin's side
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For me, it's simpler. He's got a bit of a man crush on him. He just likes autocrats
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He's never met a dictator that he doesn't quite like. Isn't it just that simple
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There is some good news. here's what the Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick posted on X yesterday
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in the wake of this intervention. He said, quote, We will be introducing bipartisan legislation to block any and all purchases of Russian oil
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It will be called the Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act. It will be forced to the floor via discharge and it will pass overwhelmingly
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Hashtag Peace Through Strength. strength. That is a Republican. That is a member of Donald Trump's own party. And I, for one
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hope that bipartisan legislation does pass through the Congress and does make its way to Donald
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Trump's desk. Now, the problem is, as far as I am aware, he will have veto power over it
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So maybe he will be able to get away with his dodgy diesel deal. But it is a disgrace to me
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that he is trying to mitigate the effects of his own policies. The reason the cost of diesel is
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going up in America is because of what the numpty in the Oval Office has been doing in the Middle East
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with the Strait of Hormuz effectively being shut because of the consequences of his own policies
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That's why diesel is going up. That's why the global oil price is going up. If he wants to fix
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that, negotiate an end to the war in Iran. But he's trying to mitigate it by freeing up extra
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diesel supplies by doing a deal with Vladimir Putin And how will Vladimir Putin spend that money it help fund his war effort and it lead to the slaughter of innocent civilians in Ukraine It is utterly utterly depressing And I wonder what you think
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explains it. Why does Trump consistently take Vladimir Putin's side? And I also wonder what
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you think the response should be from the rest of us, from Ukraine's true allies here in Britain
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here in Europe and other countries as well, Canada, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand
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what should we be doing right now to row in behind Ukraine
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Rare bit of praise from me for Sir Keir Starmer. One of the best things he did in office was that moment
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after the shouting match in the Oval Office when he organised an impromptu summit of European leaders in London
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in Downing Street. He invited Volodymyr Zelensky over. And as Zelensky walked up Downing Street
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Starmer walked down the other way, greeted him halfway and gave him a big bear hug
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and it was a moment of solidarity that the world needed to see
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and he deserves credit for that. And I wonder if we need something similar from Andy Burnham in this moment
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Do we need a show of support? You know, you've got the leader of the free world here
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the most powerful man on the planet, saying Ukraine needs a new leader. Do we need to do something to symbolically show our support for Ukraine right now
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And, I mean, frankly, we need more than just symbolism. and we need to increase weapons supplies
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We need to do more to help them with intelligence sharing. We need to increase sanctions on Russia
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We need to do all we can to help Ukraine win this war
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because that bill, that bipartisan bill I just mentioned, is quite well named the Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act
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Ronald Reagan would be turning in his grave if he were around right now
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because he understood the basic principle. He understood the basic principle that you can only defeat expansionist tyrants by standing up to them
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I don't know if you saw that exchange recently between the far-right American commentator Tucker Carlson and Jacob Rees-Mogg
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But Jacob Rees-Mogg, whatever you think of him, did us a service by making the point to Tucker Carlson
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who's gone completely off the reservation, that actually you have to stand up to expansionist tyrants
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Now Putin, then Hitler. you had Tucker Carlson rewriting history saying well Hitler posed no threat to the UK
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why did you need to go to war with him well first of all because it's a classic case of good and
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evil we understand the difference between right and wrong but also because you threaten yourself
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you imperil yourself if you do not stand up to expansionist tyrants and if Putin gets Ukraine
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he'll go for the Baltics and if he gets the Baltics he'll go for Poland and then you're into World War Three
