Evidence receipt / belief
Published · transcript-backedDave Smith: belief
9 Apr 2025 Lex Fridman Podcast #464 – Dave Smith: Israel, Ukraine, Epstein, Mossad, Conspiracies & Antisemitism
“I think maybe that might be the best thing that came out of that Oval Office thing, is that maybe that Donald Trump is going to be very tough to do business like this, and it’s like we shouldn’t be doing this business deal anyway.”
Source trail
Everything needed to verify it.
- Speaker
- Dave Smith
- Attribution
- Verified speaker
- Claim type
- belief
- Recorded
- 9 Apr 2025
- Publisher
- Lex Fridman Podcast
Transcript context
…What do you think is the path for peace there? I think what Trump is pursuing is infinitely preferable to what Biden was doing. What puts Donald Trump… And I don’t think everything he’s done has been perfect, and I really did not like that mineral deal that he was floating out for a while there. I think maybe that might be the best thing that came out of that Oval Office thing, is that maybe that Donald Trump is going to be very tough to do business like this, and it’s like we shouldn’t be doing this business deal anyway. And by the way, I don’t think we should do it on a few… Number one, principally, I think it is like bullying Ukraine out of resources. From what I understand, they don’t even have that many fine minerals, but whatever. But it’s also, if he was selling it to Zelenskyy, that’s a security guarantee. Because, hey, if we’re in business, then if Putin messes with you, he’s messing with us. But from my perspective, that’s the whole point, is you don’t want to get into the business of giving out security guarantees. This is why George Washington was against entangling alliances. You give out war guarantees to too many places, you might have to fight a lot more wars than you otherwise would’ve fought. And also, there’s simply… We’re in this weird position where America postures like they’re so tough. But really, when it comes down to it, we’re not going to war in Ukraine. There’s no political will here. I’m sorry, try to convince the American people we should send our boys to… I understand you’re from the region or you have roots from there, but to the average American, the idea of going to war over whether Luhansk is ruled by Kiev or Moscow is just… They don’t even know what Luhansk is. And if they met someone from there, they would probably just assume they were Russian. You know what I mean? And they might be, but whatever. I think the first step to a path to peace is that you have to want to get a path to peace. I think Trump’s doing a good job in that. Do you think all three sides want peace, from what you understand? Obviously Trump legitimately, fully, with an urgency wants peace.…
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