Hour 3 - Trust but Verify
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
iHeartPodcasts
4.5 • 11.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Hour 3 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, the hosts dive deep into the breaking news from the White House, where President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid a historic summit involving top European leaders and NATO officials. This hour focuses on the high-stakes negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war, with Trump positioning himself as a mediator and signaling the possibility of a trilateral meeting with Vladimir Putin.
Key highlights include Trump’s insistence on a long-term peace agreement, not just a short-term ceasefire, and his refusal to rule out U.S. troop involvement in Ukraine as part of potential security guarantees. The discussion explores the complexities of structuring a durable peace deal, comparing possible arrangements to the Korean DMZ model, with Ukrainian forces on the front line, European peacekeepers in secondary positions, and U.S. forces in a tertiary role safeguarding American economic interests.
The hosts analyze NATO’s role, Trump’s push for increased European defense spending, and the leverage his strong connection with the Republican base gives him in negotiations. They also examine the geopolitical risks, including the possibility of direct U.S.-Russia conflict, the role of China in enabling the war, and the need for secondary sanctions on nations like China and India buying Russian oil.
Former Reagan-era defense official Frank Gaffney Jr. joins the conversation, offering insights on why security guarantees for Ukraine are critical yet challenging, the likelihood of Putin’s compliance, and the strategic necessity of holding China accountable. The hour also touches on historical parallels, the future of NATO, and the long-term implications for global security.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:04.8 | Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. |
| 0:08.6 | Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. |
| 0:10.4 | We are rolling through the Monday edition of the program, and it is a super newsworthy one. |
| 0:17.9 | We just got finished with an Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelensky. |
| 0:23.9 | And I would say as we work towards the idea of a trilateral meeting, |
| 0:31.6 | Trump is effectively playing the role of mediator. |
| 0:35.4 | There are also probably more European leaders in the White House at one moment than we've |
| 0:42.7 | almost ever seen before. |
| 0:44.2 | I mean, you've got the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, England, the head of NATO, basically |
| 0:52.8 | everyone arrayed there for a meeting to discuss the future of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. |
| 1:01.0 | And I do think the meeting that we just saw between Trump and Zelensky was light years, light years different than the last time we saw Zelensky in the Oval |
| 1:13.2 | office when they were negotiating the so-called mineral rights agreement. |
| 1:18.1 | And all of this is moving in rapid speed. |
| 1:22.4 | One bit of news that came out at the end of the press conference, and I don't think we've |
| 1:27.1 | hardly even mentioned it, if at all, on this program. |
| 1:31.0 | Melania Trump wrote a letter that Trump hand-delivered to Vladimir Putin, calling on Putin to end |
| 1:39.0 | the war and stop the murder suffering that is going on in Europe. |
| 1:43.3 | That matters on some level because Melania Trump, |
| 1:48.0 | Buck, you may remember the exact country. |
| 1:51.1 | Was it she was from the Czech Republic area? |
| 1:54.6 | If I remember, where is Melania from Slovenia? |
... |
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