DREW: New Developments with Russia-Ukraine
The NATO Summit is grabbing headlines, and Drew Mariani covered it all on his show. Last week at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump signaled he would be willing to license Patriot missiles systems to Ukraine. Recently on his show, Drew discussed the new developments in the four-year war.
“A little birdie told me about the fact that we’ll give them the right to make Patriots,” Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in front of reporters. “What I like about it,” Trump said, “is that it’s a defensive situation as opposed to offensive.” According to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, Patriot missiles are “ground-based, mobile missile defense” interceptors.
Trump’s offer of Patriot missiles is a direct response to Zelenskyy’s request to the U.S. last month. After a deadly drone attack in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said on X, “Assistance from the United States in supplying missiles for Patriot systems is absolutely necessary.”
At NATO, Trump said he thinks Presidents Putin and Zelenskyy are ready to make a deal. “I know when people want to make a deal, and I think he wants to make a deal,” Trump said of Putin. As for Ukraine, Trump, seated next to Zelenskyy, said Ukraine is ready to rebuild their country. “Ukraine has tremendous potential,” Trump said.
Though President Trump was light on specifics, Andrew Harding, a Policy Analyst for National Security and Indo-Pacific Affairs at The Heritage Foundation, told Drew Mariani that we should take the President at his word. “A lot of this is happening behind the scenes,” he told Drew, the public isn’t going to “get to know about every single thing that’s happening.”
NATO
Harding also told Drew the war in Ukraine underscores the need for NATO to have a strong defense. “I think deterrence and military strength is also a strong language to indicate to Russia that they should not take any provocative actions,” he told Drew. Ultimately, NATO is in a stronger place today because of the President, Harding said “but there is certainly more work to be done.”
On the flight back to the United States, Trump expressed his optimism about the summit. “I think NATO came a long way today,” he told reporters.
Pope Leo
Like his predecessor Pope Francis, peace is on the mind of Pope Leo XIV. In a letter accompanying the Pope’s special envoy to Ukraine, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy Father prays for those who have suffered the “brutality” of war.