Former US Ambassador Richard Grenell Discusses Trump, the US Election, Germany | RONZHEIMER [ENG]

Mr Ambassador you're considered as one of Donald Trump's close confidence and you've defended him in the past years and now there's a discussion ongoing if you would become the next secretary of state oh Paul come on if that's going to happen oh no we got look we got an election we're concentrating on the election if you know Donald Trump you know that that he is concentrating on this election and so all of that is just silly talk right now it's what reporters do they like to figure out who's in who's out uh you know it the the reality is as I tell my European friends and consider you a European friend uh you know exactly what you're going to get from Donald Trump exactly what you got in the first term there's no surprises but what do you think German politicians would like you to become Secretary of State on the do I don't care what they think where this is about America look I I have this belief that when uh we follow Donald Trump's lead and we put America First just like every other country putss first I spent eight years at the UN 193 countries put themselves first I've been in tens of thousands of diplomatic meetings with other countries there's never been a meeting that I've been in where the other country doesn't ask us to do something we have to put ourselves first we have a $35 trillion national debt Paul think about that Germans get a budget surplus every year we have a $35 trillion national debt we'd like airports like Munich Airport we would love to have an opera house on every corner we would love to have the infrastructure that Germany has we are spending too much money and so from our perspective when we put America first we're a rules-based country we don't go in and Conquer we don't take your oil when America puts itself first the rule of law follows democracy follows capitalism follows it benefits the world when we put ourselves first ol Schultz said in 2019 he had been moved to Tears by GD W's best-selling book and in an interview exactly one year ago the chancellor said and described it as a tragedy that W seems to have turned from a self- declared conserv conservative opponent of Donald Trump to a fury supporter of this right-wing populist in order to gain his support So Schultz is calling Trump the right-wing populist what do you make out of that well I would say that JD Vance and me who who were were were friends we are right we are a populist and I don't take offense to that because uh the opposite of that is a left wi elitist do you think Schultz is a leftwing elitist I do I do I think that um what has happened is is that a lot of parties in Germany have been overtaken by a few people who like the system and they want to keep the system but it doesn't benefit the people I mean look at the German economy right now um I I I like all options I actually uh really enjoyed my limited time with him I thought he was very smart but you know politicians do politician things and they do double speak and they say things like I love the book and then oh suddenly the the author of the book is a republican they're like oh I don't I don't like that and that's silly we all see that we all see the double standard of that he thinks he's getting away with it but he's not rard Lang the head of the green party just um commented on Van's nomination and said it's Waring for Europe Europe has a war going on you didn't have a war When Donald Trump was President so but like what do you make out of it that German politicians think look Paul you and I know that when I was in Germany I was defending Donald Trump's policy the the Germans the German government I I wouldn't say the German people I want to bifurcate the German government from the people the German government was really harsh against against the America's policy on nordstream 2 the German government was incredibly uh terrible towards Donald Trump's policies on the 2% NATO instruction the German government hated and moved around the Donald Trump policy un Iran to sanction that country now I could argue that nordstream 2 was one of the reasons why we have the war in Ukraine the German government didn't listen to Donald Trump I'd like an apology on that because you all have a war in Europe because of the weakness of Joe Biden and Chancellor Merkel who lobbied to drop the sanctions that Trump had remember all those nasty headlines you should play some of those attacking us for wanting sanctions on nordstream 2 all The Nasty headlines on the 2% uh push all of the nasty headlines on telling German companies to don't do business with Iran when you squeeze Iran and they don't have money they don't have money to support Hezbollah and Hamas and to start a war in Israel so I could go back and say if the German government had followed the 2% the nordstream 2 and the Iran policies of Donald Trump I don't believe we would have two major Wars I don't hear them apologizing but I do hear them changing their position quietly they now agree with Donald Trump but they won't say we were wrong what would be your advice to the chancellor to the ministers in Germany now because we have a discussion in Germany Ono what to do now that the possibility um yeah is pretty high that Donald Trump could become president what's like should these politicians do experts say it makes sense and is a great advantage to talk to Trump again and again or even to play golf with him what what advice would you give them look I I I think it's pretty simple I don't think it's it's complicated I think governments that take care of its people that listen to the people uh are the ones that really do well so I I don't think that the German government should do anything but listen to its people let the people be more in charge listen to what they want they they they like Americans want the government to put themselves first and to take care of Germany first but how to talk to Donald Trump should Olaf schz learn go no I I I don't I mean I think Donald Trump is a pretty simple guy um he's fantastic at the back and forth of talking about so just present your ideas and you can talk to them and there's a deal to be made um should Schultz call him now of course I mean look Joe Biden hasn't spoken to to Vladimir Putin in three years and there's a war in Europe going on because the Russians invaded Ukraine and the leader of the world Joe Biden has not even spoken to Vladimir Putin I I think speaking to people is a tactic it's not a goal it's not the uh the solution but it's how you start talking about the goal and solutions before we talked about the war on Ukraine I would like to talk was a little bit more in Germany um because we're wondering what would happen if if Donald you know what would happen the same as the first term Camp's president so what will happen to you as military bases in Germany look I we're not going to talk about uh what would happen in a Donald Trump Administration specifically because we're we're in an election we're trying to win but again there's no secret there's no secret I mean it's exactly what you're going to get from the first term which which is um you know we we want to see American money spent well we want to take care of the American people first and we got to somehow deal with this $35 trillion national debt according to an agreement between Biden and schz US missiles and Cru missiles was arrange as far as Moscow are to be stationed in Germany from 2026 would a president Trump stick to these plans we we're concentrating on the election Donald Trump has said that he will no longer defend defaulting allies not no no no that's not true let me let me be clear on that that's not true Paul okay but the question was the question was that somebody came to him and said if the Allies said to you no we're not going to pay our 2% then what would you do would you still defend them now I know you don't have children but if you had a child and a child said to you I know the rule I'm not going to obey it do you let him Slide the question was what do you do if an ally looks at you and says I will not abide by the 2014 Wales pledge there is only one answer that you could give if someone stands up and says I as a country will not abide by the 2014 Wales pledge I'm not going to pay my 2% Schultz's reaction was and I quote any Rel ization of the mutual assistance guarantee is dangerous again I think the most dangerous thing is undermining NATO and not paying your fair share if you are trying to pretend like you're a full participant in NATO and you're not paying your obligations then I think that's very dangerous to be part of a club and not pay your dues the slogan at the NATO Summit now in Washington was more or less we must make the alliance Trump safe that's what people sat there what do you think about it I think that's what the media said what do you think about it I know world leaders I know members of NATO uh who who are heads of state and privately they'll tell you NATO was much stronger under Donald Trump the NATO states have also decided in Washington that Ukraine's path to Nato is irrev visible will Ukraine join NATO well first of all no one can commit the United States to Future policies but no one you can't you can't tell us that what our policy is in 2028 or 2027 or 2026 you can't do that that that's undemocratic it's unamerican so we have one president at a time Joe Biden is the president he gets to make all the decisions we have an election in November we'll see what happens so let's talk about Ukraine there was many statements from Donald Trump the most uh outspoken was probably that he could achieve peace in 24 hours with sitting down with Putin and zelinski do you really think this is realistic 100% I mean look Donald Trump had um peace agreements between Arabs and Israelis Donald Trump had no Wars in Europe and I think the reality is is that he has uh what what I would call a a credible threat there's a difference between a threat of military action and a incredible threat of military action and the difference is the messenger so I'm going to give you an example to to answer the question when uh an Evangelical Pastor by the name of uh Pastor Brunson was held against his will in Turkey it's very disheartening for many Americans we were very upset by it because this NATO Ally was holding a pasture against his will and we didn't get a lot of action from the Turks and it bubbled up and finally went to Donald Trump and he said to erdogan if you do not release this pastor I will ruin your economy starting tomorrow now Pastor Brunson was released by the next day and I think the difference is is that that erdogan believed that Donald Trump was going to do something immediately he didn't think that Donald Trump would send a white paper down to the treasury and to the state department for a thoughtful process of three months to figure out what to do he knew that the next morning there would be tariffs or isolation or whatever my point in telling you this story is that there's a difference between a threat of action whether it's sanctions or military action tariffs the difference between a threat and a credible threat is totally known by the parties and I believe that uh the Ukrainian leader and the Russian leader absolutely understand that Donald Trump has credibility on these issues and so yeah do I think that he could solve this fast absolutely let's talk about Putin a little bit longer because now there were statements coming in from the foreign minister lavro who's happy about JD Vans BEC yeah well I describe it okay becoming um nominee so what J van said he doesn't care about Ukraine and you know shouldn't put more money in is that how it will go okay first of all let me correct you J Vance has never said he doesn't care about Ukraine uh and the reality is is you should have started this question with me by saying Vladimir Putin announced that he wants Joe Biden for president he said I prefer Joe Biden because he is predictable goes back to my other point about the unpredictability and The credibility you think that wasn't opinion of of of Vladimir pu well why do you think that lavro gave an honest opinion about JD so you're you're switching when it's convenient what I'm telling you is that Vladimir Putin went public and said I prefer Joe Biden because he is predictable he gave you a reason and guess what Paul Vladimir Putin is right that Joe Biden is predictable how there is no unpredictability so so I I think it's really important for the Europeans to understand this because the media are going to Cloud this issue Vladimir Putin wants Joe Biden to win this election he doesn't want to have to deal with an unpredictable credible Donald Trump So when you say when you say to me that lavro says something like oh JD Vance is on the ticket he's being nice and he says something of course what are they supposed to say like they don't attack it right away how how would you describe the relation between Trump and Putin look uh you know first of all uh I think you just got to look at the evidence because Donald Trump is somebody who absolutely is fighting for American Safety and looks at threats and looks at friends or opponents um or and even enemies he looks at them and says I have to do everything I can to keep Americans prosperous and safe so that's why he crossed the line and went into uh see Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un was is firing missiles very hostile towards us threatens where I live in Los Angeles I know a lot of East Coasters don't really pay that much attention to North Korea we on the west coast absolutely have to to pay attention threatens Los Angeles where I live and so I was happy to see the president go in and engage with Kim Jong-un I wouldn't say that they're friends but I would say that they talk and I would say that he's maneuvering to protect Americans it's the same way Vladimir Putin look Vladimir Putin and his media operation attacked Donald Trump and me consecutively over nordstream I constantly they didn't like that they didn't want sanctions it was Chancellor Merkel and Joe Biden who got together and dropped those sanctions because that's what Putin wanted you can go look at the speeches that Senate Democrats made in Washington DC on this issue and they literally said we have to drop these sanctions cuz if we stick it in the eye of the Russians it would be more dangerous now Paul they were flat wrong because what was more dangerous is weakness how could peace look like from your perspective because when I talk to ukrainians they say that Vladimir Putin has no interest for peace that Vladimir Putin wants for region in Ukraine that's what he says under Joe Biden that's what he says under Jo bid so here's what I would just say about that I don't want to get into great details I haven't talked to president Trump about this I know you guys are really hungry and you should be pushing us on these issues um but the reality is is that I I would sit here and talk to you about Michigan and Pennsylvania and how we win for hours and hours that's what we are concentrating on so what a peace plan looks like I haven't talked to Trump uh let me just give you a little bit of my perspective just my personal again I don't speak for the president I haven't talked to him about this this is literally just Rick grell's thoughts I I I think that there were problems with Minsk and Minsk to but I think there are some elements there that are good I think autonomous regions sound pretty good um I think territorial Integrity is a must and yet uh you know there's a whole bunch of other elements that we have to worry about the Russians signed Minsk I don't know if they ever really wanted to implement it but one lesson that I learned from the Kosovo Serbia negotiations is that the person who does the negotiations who looks at both sides and tries to pull in both sides to say need you to move this way and I need you to move this way the person who does that knows the vulnerabilities and knows where they didn't quite want to go but for an agreement and so the most important part when you finally get two sides to come together to agree some on something the most important thing is the followup and holding them to account the person that needs to do that are the ones who negotiated because they know where the weaknesses are where they slightly moved and they didn't want to move but they did you have to be able to use the carrots and the sticks and that instance remind them why they signed we know you don't love moving this way we know you don't love making this uh concession but it's really important to do so and I would say that that the failures of Minsk where we didn't have any follow-up once it was signed a whole bunch of people celebrated and moved on well there were follow-ups and even meetings with zansky and Putin and not with credible people Merkel and um not with credible people well I would say the two are credible but let me ask you um there would be different under a trump Administration there would be absolute uh holding people to their commitments talking about what would happen if Donald Trump becomes president also in regard of Ukraine do you expect Germany Europe to pay more for Ukraine than they're doing now sure of course it's a war in Europe that means it's in your backyard if there was a war in Mexico we would be doing the majority of the the work if not all of the work and we certainly wouldn't uh ask the Germans to help us uh if there was a war in Mexico so I I would put it this way are the Germans helping us with our border War are they sending us money because we have this problem at the border um shared values NATO we're having an invasion on our border but I don't hear a lot of talk about that and look I'm half joking I I'm not suggesting that let's not have a headline that says Rick is asking the Germans for for money for the Border but my point is is when we talk about shared responsibility it goes two ways so doesn't mean the US won't pay anything anymore to Ukraine or less that's look that's a decision for Donald Trump and Donald Trump alone we're concentrating on Michigan Pennsylvania Wisconsin and uh we got to win talking about this um right now there's an kind of open revolt against Joe Biden and the Democratic party uh the majority of Democrats say he shouldn't run do you still expect that b will run against Trump first of all we had an election in this country through the Democratic process the Democratic primary the Democrats chose Joe Biden the people across this country in all 50 states voted voted for Joe Biden what you're talking about is some Elites in the Democratic party in Washington DC that don't like the poll numbers so they want to throw out what the people voted for I remember hearing something about undermining democracy blah blah blah if we're going to talk about undermining democracy I think throwing Joe Biden off the ticket that he just ran on and just won on should be an outrage of EX Springer media but it could still happen that Joe Biden says he doesn't want to run anymore okay well that's a separate story um I think he's being shoved off the stage by a lot of Elites who are undermining democracy they voted for Joe Biden by the way are you telling me that suddenly in July of 2024 Joe Biden suddenly got dementia we all saw it last year they voted for knowing exactly who he was they they should not undermine the vote of the people and so I I think when you say the majority of Democrats want them off the stage the majority of democrat Elites the the people still want Joe Biden the Democrats I asked you at the beginning what um Olaf Schultz should do and yeah what I asked you at the beginning what Olaf Schultz should do now um with Donald Trump is there any politician in Germany this my last question um who he respects a lot who's he Donald Trump look uh I love the German people I mean I have so many friends who are Germans and I love the the camaraderie that we have Germans and Americans are a lot alike German businesses American businesses are so intertwined I think it's the problem is the German government and I think the German government uh is just not listening to the people and that's just my opinion um I I think when it comes to Donald Trump there's no mystery um you just have to deal with him like he's another leader of a country um who's fighting for his people and so talk to them talk to him talk to his people if he's elected uh I I want to make sure that that throughout this whole interview that that we're really sensitive to the fact that I'm not putting the cart before the horse as we say in America we're concentrating on the elected I have no idea what's going to happen in November I certainly hope that Donald Trump wins we're fighting hard but the you know ideas of what's going to happen in a in a second term I I want in no way to to make it seem like I think it's a done deal but is there one politician he respects the most um I've said this for a long time and I really believe it that Germany has the ability to be Donald Trump's favorite country it's well-run it's got a great economy uh and by well-run I mean it the society works right it's got great structure and the people are uh have a strong voice um and and the economy can be enormous it's very powerful country and so I I would say the person that leads Germany in a way that um that pays attention to the people and makes decisions for Germany and doesn't try to you know get in other countries businesses that's what we're trying to do in America we're trying to concentrate on ourselves with a $35 trillion national debt that doesn't mean we're we're going to go it alone or we're going to be an isolationist no again I believe that when America puts itself first the rules-based system is celebrated and everyone benefits from that we're going to be great Partners uh but we're going to form coalitions around things like we think Iran should be uh sanctioned and so we might try to do it through the UN if the UN doesn't want to do it then maybe we would go somewhere else just like we did in the first term um form a coalition of the Willing for sanctions uh we we need to be able to rely on our friends to help us on things like that but we we want to not start any new Wars we want to end Wars we want to concentrate on the economy Donald Trump's tenure is about growing the economy and helping people be prosperous instead of War but I do think that we're in this cycle where a lot of governments uh just like to push war as the only option and I I'll leave you with this it's my last point it still bothers me very much that for 30 days 45 days all we heard from Joe Biden was the Russians are coming into Ukraine the Russians are coming the Russians are coming we have evidence we have Intel we shared that inel the Russians are coming why didn't Anthony blinkin take his plane and get European foreign ministers to Kev or Moscow to stop a war why wasn't there a well there was Schultz there was mcon there was many trying it wasn't we we did not have a serious effort of of going in and saying a war is coming we're GNA stop this you Joe Biden Anthony blinkin all they talked about is get the money ready get the war machine going cuz we're going to have to help cuz a war is coming do you support what Victor Orban is doing now the Hungarian prime minister talking to Putin talking to seninsky talking to Chinese well let me let me just step away and say I think talking to people is a really good idea I'm a diplomat and I think that the way that you solve problems is we talking so thank you very much for your time Mr best Paul thank you