Trump Meets Zelenskyy & Europe, Troitskiy on Putin Summit & Bill Barr on Epstein | August 18, 2025

Hey Bill O'Reilly here, welcome to the No Smidt News. Monday, August 18th, 2025. Stand up for your country. Important broadcast tonight. We are very happy you are watching and listening cross-country on our radio affiliates. I've been doing a lot of work this weekend, getting you the inside stuff that nobody else has,

and we've been pretty successful on that. Some of it I cannot report because it's so national security sensitive, but I can give you a pretty good idea of what's happening and it changes by the hour. But you're If you are investing your time in other media operations, they're not going to come close to this one. I'm sorry to brag, but that's true. So let's begin with the talking points memo then Putin summit with Trump. So President Trump's angry. That was not a pleasant ride home from Anchorage to Washington DC. They landed at 3 in the morning and when President Trump is angry people stay away. Okay, same thing with me. So I know

how that is. He's angry because Putin's leading him along and he went out of his way as everybody knows to be respectful to this evil dictator. A lot of people object to that. But of course, as I wrote in my column on Sunday, in my message of the day today, there's no other way to deal with Putin. You can't threaten him, he's got nukes.

You can't diminish him because then he'll just dig in and you'll never get a deal. So the president rolls out the red carpet and the flyover and the car and all of this. And of course, the anti-Trumpers who don't care about their country at all or the world, they use that as a criticism.

And we'll get into that a little bit. But Trump really thought he was gonna walk away with something concrete like a ceasefire for 30 days so they could work out details of a peace agreement in Ukraine between Ukraine and Russia. And it didn't happen. And it wasn't even close to happening. So Trump believes that Putin is now, you know, disingenuous. And I think, to be fair, that President Trump overestimated

his ability to bring this madman in. And the key to it is, as you'll read in my book, Confronting Evil, which is coming out in, what, two weeks now, Putin likes to kill people. He enjoys it. And I'll prove it. And it's tough dealing with somebody like that.

And Trump was fairly successful the first four years using the same techniques, flattery, respect, whatever. And he had worked then. But now Putin's even further into his psychopathic cycle. Okay, so today there was a meeting in DC and we're still awaiting the micro details. I'll have it for you tomorrow.

Zelensky showed up and that was the right call. Gotta get Zelensky in here. And then a bunch of European leaders, the European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, British PM Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Frederick Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Maloney, Finnish President Alexander Stubb. So they're all at the White House. And what is their collective take? It's interesting because it's not what you think. They're hemorrhaging money over there. All these

countries, all the NATO countries, they got to pay for this Ukrainian thing. We've paid more than 200 billion, the USA, but we have the money. They don't have it. So they're really, really trying to get it some kind of leverage. Putin knows that. Now Putin's running out of money too, interestingly enough. So tomorrow on the NoSpin News I'll have a little bit more specificity on this.

Changes. I mean, you know, Zelensky goes in and goes, oh we're not going to make any deal that's going to change our borders. Yeah, you will. Okay? You'll have to. Unfortunately, it's not fair. It's not right. But you're gonna have to give up

some territory. And in return you'll get security guarantees, which is gonna be good for the Ukrainian people. But there's a lot of puffing and puffing going on over here. I will be on News Nation tonight at 9 p.m. with Leland Vitter. I may have updated specific information by that time. I don't have it now, we're taping this in late afternoon. So ahead of the meeting in Washington, Trump puts out a social post,

quote, President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started, no getting back Obama given Crimea 12 years ago without a shot fired, and no going into NATO by Ukraine.

Some things never change. So yeah, the NATO thing is the easiest. Ukraine does not have to join NATO and that, you know, Putin is using that. It's a straw cart. Remember, NATO is no threat to Russia. none. NATO's never gonna invade Russia. These European countries, this is the last thing they want. Putin is making, oh, NATO, they're gonna come after us. Oh, come on, you know?

It's just an excuse, but you take the excuse off the table by saying, okay, Ukraine's not going into NATO. Crimea's gone, It's gone. Not coming back unless you roll NATO tanks into it and it starts World War III. Again, the column that I wrote over the weekend is called Dancing with the Devil, What Should Happen Now. So Trump's got to get tough with Putin.

But here's the essential point. Trump does not have to get tough with Putin in public. He doesn't. Because that works against him. He's got to tell Putin privately, look, this is what's going to happen to you. I'm not going to make an announcement, so it's mano a mano, a cage match between you

and me. That doesn't get us anywhere. But you continue killing innocent people, and we're in a bankruptcy country. And you. And you're not going to be able to pay your generals millions of dollars to protect you, which is what it's Putin.

Putin's power is based on the fact that he pays his army an extraordinary amount of money to protect it. Yeah those payments go down the oligarchs that support Putin they're already gonna get getting hammered. Putin's gonna they'll throw him out. Not like Putin is one of these guys they love, they don't. So anyway, but to do it publicly is not the way to go. And that's a memo. The press coverage is pitiful. And I, you know, look I compete against all these people. I'm

up front about it. We're ten times better than they are every day. If you're watching them, you're wasting your time. They just don't report the truth. They're all ideologically infected. They're not interested in giving you what's really happening. Not only on Trump and Putin, but on anything. It's all spin.

That's why this program is The No Spin News. All right, I'm going to run it down. MSNBC got booted today from NBC. You might have known that. They're changing their name. What's the point?

Everybody knows what it is. One of their people is Nicole Wallace, she used to be a communications person for Bush the Younger in his first term. Sold out for money, makes about a million dollars over there, but now she works for a different company because NBC booted them. Here's what she said. Go. This was for Trump a

television production that may have been rooted in different motives, but one of them was likely to change the topic of news coverage. It succeeded in that. We've all been covering this all day, for better or for worse. But clearly Trump was not in control of anything. I mean, Putin was the alpha all day long, from Trump holding on his plane and waiting

for him like a middle schooler

waiting for their first date.

Yeah, so Trump should have split, right? Go down to Juno, maybe had a couple of cocktail. I mean, really, you know, talk about fifth grade. It's ridiculous. Trump organized a summit with Putin to try to end the Ukraine war to distract from another story.

I mean, come on. This is just, you sit in there and you go, I have never seen stupidity like this on national television in my life. I've been doing this 50 years. I've never seen stupidity like this. The second one is Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. He was Obama's guy over

there in Moscow. Hates Trump. Roll the tape.

So Ukraine is actually worse off under President Trump and this myth that he keeps going back to and Putin did him the the courtesy of underscoring the myth that there would be no war and everything's better under President Trump. The facts on the ground are

exactly the opposite. And this guy just isn't telling the truth. Okay so he says that Ukraine is actually worse off under President Trump. Trump was president four years, 16 to 20. Putin didn't invade Ukraine. So you're telling me now, Mr. Ambassador, that now that Putin has invaded under Biden, that they're better off than they were under Trump when there was no invasion? That's what your point is? Come on. Again, this is stupidity. Absolute rank stupidity.

And these people don't care because they didn't pay. Next soundbite. Farid Zakaria, CNN.

Look, the atmospherics of the entire summit was somewhat cringe-worthy. The fact that Putin was being welcomed on American soil. The fact that Trump gave him literally a red carpet treatment, the kind he has rarely given

to any, you know, democratic ally of the United States. So what? You nitwit. You don't have anything. You're like Bolton. You got nothing. So what? He comes to the United States, Putin. If they had a deal, wouldn't that have been fantastic? Does it matter where they are?

Jeez.

And finally, one of the strangest things I have ever seen. Mark Halpern, he's a journalist, he does a lot of internet stuff. He was on, he's been all over the the place this guy. Here's what he says go. I think they're gonna arrest me

I think they're gonna arrest I think that's the whole thing is this is to trick him to coming to us and gonna arrest him He's a war criminal

They really he says before Putin shows up that US authorities are going to arrest him.

Alright, they haven't hit my point, I think I have.

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9557 American financing dotnet slash bill Joining us now from Boston is a visiting process Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, one of the top schools in the country, Tufts University. Mikhail Troitsky, I think I have it right. Doctor, you were kind enough to join us a few weeks ago

and we really appreciate you coming back. So my analysis, where am I going wrong here?

Well, clearly President Trump is trying a different approach to the resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war. So apparently three years of this war before Donald Trump took office showed that there's no way under the circumstances to you know force justice upon Russia in the way that Russia has to be held accountable for its invasion and the atrocities and so forth. So Donald Trump is trying a different approach. He is trying to convince the sides, including Russia, to end the war while keeping the stick in his hand as well. He did hint about the possibility.

Did you object to the red carpet and Putin coming to Alaska? Did you have any problem with any of that?

Well, I mean it depends on your optics, no, I want you I want you so you You know both countries, you know Putin, you know, you're one of the top experts here. When you watch that exposition. Aggressors do not get red carpet treatment, but in a situation when the decision was made and it is supported by virtually everyone, including Ukraine and Europe and others, including, I guess, China, India,

that there needs to be a negotiation. Then you have to give the parties in that negotiation some kind of treatment to just make sure that there's nothing personal that can prevent the exposition.

Okay, so you didn't object to the exposition. You understood why it was happening. Now, Trump clearly was disappointed in the outcome. He wanted to get something. I understand that he was assured he would, and then of course, of course, evil Vlad didn't live up to what was suggested in advance.

You're not surprised by that, are you?

No, I'm not. Of course, Putin was supposed to be invasive yeah and that's what Donald Trump I think got out of him in Alaska.

Well you know Putin's words means nothing and that's why Trump's angry because he believes that Putin is manipulating him but now he's got to find a seam and the only seam that I can think, and you read my column, Dancing with the Devil, is harsh, really harsh economic measures against Moscow.

I don't see any other way to force Putin to stop the madness. Do you? Is there another way to do it? I think, you know, speaking softly is clearly one sort of part of reaching a deal. But yeah, the stick is there as well. So and I believe there are ways to kind of put additional pressure on the Kremlin short of, you know, having a showdown, a trade showdown with China or India over buying Russian oil. And I think the Trump administration has been doing some of that,

at least in the run up to today's meetings in the White House. So yeah, yeah, pressure needs to be maintained and I think Donald Trump does indicate that he wants a resolution soon. He wants a decision.

No, he's going to have to. But I don't think it should be made public. You don't have to do all this stuff in public. You can do it behind the scenes. A lot of this stuff. I understand that Putin is running out of money to fund his war machine.

Is that what you're hearing?

Yeah, of course, I mean even if you don't look at the figures and of course statistics coming out of Russia is certainly completely skewed these days and you cannot know what to believe and whatnot but running a war, waging a war like that for three and a half years is unbelievably expensive. I mean you can just refer to the cost of the wars the United States was waging in the past. This is very expensive.

And in Russia, what the Kremlin wants, what Putin wants is to keep the semblance of normalcy for everyone else, for those who are not involved in the fighting and those who do not want to make money on volunteering to fight. And that puts additional pressure on Russian state coffers. So for sure,

you cannot go on like that for forever. You'll destabilize your economy. And I guess the Kremlin has finally come to terms to that. And they did loosen up some of their conditions to end the war, which made the Alaska meeting possible and today's engagement also.

All right, professor, we really appreciate it. Keep an eye on it and thanks for your time tonight. So Ambassador John Bolton, you know, if you follow my broadcasts at all, that I don't have any regard for him. I think he's a Trump hater.

There's an article in the Wall Street Journal today. Again, it's the same old stuff. He's got no solution, Bolton. His solution is keep funding Ukraine and they'll defeat Russia on the battlefield, which is impossible.

All right?

It's not ever going to happen. But Bolton just spits this stuff out and the Wall Street Journal puts him on the op-ed page. I mean, I don't know what's going on here. Anyway I called Bolton out on NewsNation and then Leland Vittert interviewed the ambassador himself. Roll the tape. Is Bill O'Reilly on to something that you have it

out for Donald Trump? Look I do my best and I'm sure I fail to talk about the merits of the policies and to say what I think is right with them and what I think is wrong with them. I'm not going to debate Bill O'Reilly. I'm not going to

get down in the gutter with him. What gutter are you talking about, I didn't attack you personally. I just said the truth. You have no solution. None. You do what Biden did. Pump trillions of dollars, because that's what it would be. We're into for more than $200 billion now, USA alone. You combine all of that, you pump trillions of dollars into Ukraine. Nobody watching the money. Okay, and you think that they're gonna defeat Russia? When the Russian army is four times the size of the Ukrainian army? This is just ridiculous.

And I, and, but this guy is all over the place and the only reason he's doing it is because he hates Trump. He wants to diminish Trump. But he doesn't want to debate me, because it's some kind of gutter thing. And I can run out 30 soundbites, at least, of Ambassador Bolton smashing Trump, one after the other, not all on Ukraine, just on everything.

All right, back home. Epstein is back. Bill Barr, former Attorney General under President Trump, called to testify today in front of the House Oversight Committee in a secret testimony. Okay, now the secret will be out shortly because the Congress people on the Oversight Committee will leak it. They don't care whether it's secret or

not. But it's not been leaked yet because Barr spent a lot of the day there. That means he didn't take the Fifth Amendment or he didn't do any of that. I don't know what he said but I will. Tomorrow will be a very important day on the No Spin News. So this starts today. Bill Barr appeared before the House investigators

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All right, final thought of the day. You may remember that I had four movies produced of my non-fiction books. We did Killing Lincoln, we did Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus, and Killing Reagan. All were fabulously successful and made the companies that produced them lots of money. All right? I think Killing Jesus was the best movie. One of the movies was what they call a docudrama, where you had film scenes and all that, but

you had a major star, Tom Hanks, kind of set the movie up throughout. I'll give you a clip in a moment. So the people who developed this movie work for a company called Scott Free, Ridley Scott, brilliant director. They form their own company now it's called Fifth Season. They just bought Confronting Evil. Boy, that's a big break for us. And they're gonna do do it as a TV adaptation, which is a streaming thing. So I think this is the way it's going to come down.

Roll the tape on Lincoln.

In the aftermath of the assassination of the many witnesses who claimed to know Booth or to see him on the evening of April 14, 1865. Booth's friend and fellow actor John Matthews later said, those who were the wisest knew the least. And the stage is set for the most dramatic and resonant crime in American history.

That is what I think the Confronting Evil series is going to look at. I don't know who, I'm an executive producer, but I don't know who I want yet. A couple of people I have in mind. But it's going to be big. And we are so happy to be working with Fifth Season.

Because I work with them with the other four movies and they're great. You know, I don't like a lot of Hollywood weasels. You know that. But't like a lot of Hollywood weasels. You know that. But these people were really good. So that was a big break. And, you know, we sent them the book and they loved it.

You'll love it. Get it now so you get it first. It's coming right up. Confronting Evil out September 9th. Thank you very much for watching and listening to the No Spin News. I'm Bill O'Reilly, see you again tomorrow.

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