The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2161 - NASA Astronauts Return, Trump Brokers Putin CEASEFIRE?!
Wed, 19 Mar 2025
NASA’s stranded astronauts return thanks to Elon Musk’s SpaceX; Vladimir Putin and President Trump hold their long-awaited call over Ukraine; and the economy continues to rest on a razor’s edge. Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/3WDjgHE Ep.2161 - - - Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings - - - DailyWire+: We’re leading the charge again and launching a full-scale push for justice. Go to https://PardonDerek.com right now and sign the petition. Now is the time to join the fight. Watch the hit movies, documentaries, and series reshaping our culture. Go to https://dailywire.com/subscribe today. Get your Ben Shapiro merch here: https://bit.ly/3TAu2cw - - - Today's Sponsors: Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that searches the internet to deliver fast, unbiased, high-quality answers, with sources and in-line citations. Ask Perplexity anything here: https://pplx.ai/benshapiro Birch Gold - Text BEN to 989898 for your free information kit. Tax Network USA - For a complimentary consultation, call today at 1 (800) 958-1000 or visit their website at https://TNUSA.com/SHAPIRO Tecovas - Right now get 10% off at https://tecovas.com/shapiro when you sign up for email and texts. LifeLock - Visit https://LifeLock.com/BEN and save up to 40% your first year! - - - Socials: Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3cXUn53 Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3QtuibJ Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3TTirqd Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPyBiB
Chapter 1: How did NASA astronauts return from the ISS?
The NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Butch Wilmore splashed down in their SpaceX Dragon capsule off the coast of Florida just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday. So originally, that flight on the Boeing Starliner was supposed to last eight days, and they ended up up there for 286 days. Which has to suck, to be honest with you.
Imagine that you're going to space and you tell your family that you're going to see them in a little over a week. And almost a year later, you're still up there. Now, depending on your family situation, maybe that's an unpaid vacation. But whatever it is, it's not great. And the failures of the Biden administration to work with Elon to actually get those people down is pretty astonishing.
It really is. Because we are now... a couple months into the Trump administration, and Musk is sending SpaceX, the much maligned Elon Musk is sending SpaceX to, you know, rescue astronauts where they are stranded in space, which also probably is the beginning of an amazing rom-com that'll come out in a year or two.
The astronauts have said that they were actually prepared to stay longer, and they were eager to pitch in by conducting science experiments and maintenance aboard the orbiting laboratory. I'm sure they were. I mean, it probably gets pretty boring up there for a year. I hope that they at least liked each other.
NASA officials said the decision about when and how to get them home was made based on safety and keeping the space station occupied, not politics. They were joined on their return trip by the NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russia's Alexander Gorbunov. So that is a very cool thing.
Apparently, the reentry process is pretty rough because if you spend a lot of time in space, then that creates changes in your body. So it's not going to be there's a ticker ticker tape parade tomorrow or anything. So whenever I don't know something about a topic, the first place I go is to my friends over at Perplexity. This search, by the way, is sponsored by Perplexity.
I wanted to know what actual physical effects would a year long stint in space have on astronauts. And here is what my friend. Perplexity told me, quote, a year-long stint in space would have significant physical effects on astronauts due to the microgravity environment and other factors associated with space travel. Those effects include musculoskeletal changes like bone density loss.
You can lose 1 to 1.5% of bone mineral density per month in space. Wow, that is like a lot, actually. Basically like you get osteoporosis. You have muscle atrophy because the muscles weaken and waste away because you're not using them all the time. It can cause fluids to shift upwards, so you'll have a puffy face and some chicken legs. You don't get amazingly great looking in space, actually.
Apparently, you have significant arterial stiffness, like a 17 to 30% increase in arterial stiffness. You can also have eye structure changes, vision problems. You will get taller, so maybe I should try it. You know, I've been ripped a lot about my height, so, oh, worthwhile. I don't know, I'll have to talk to my wife. And space anemia, decreased production of red blood cells occurs in space.
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Chapter 2: What was discussed in the Trump-Putin phone call?
And the account from President Trump and the account from Putin, they don't quite match up. There's some good things that happened on this call. We can be hopeful that this is the first step toward a longer-lasting ceasefire. Let's just say that Putin is being extremely cagey about these negotiations and the United States really needs to take that under advisement.
So President Trump put out the following statement after the two-hour phone call, quote, my phone conversation with President Putin of Russia was a very good and productive one. We agreed to an immediate ceasefire on all energy and infrastructure with an understanding.
They'll be working quickly to have a complete ceasefire and ultimately an end to this very horrible war between Russia and Ukraine. This war would never have started if I were president. Many elements of a contract for peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed and both President Putin and President Zelensky would like to see it end.
That process is now in full force and effect and we will hopefully, for the sake of humanity, get the job done. Now, you will notice, first of all, that this is not a full ceasefire agreement by the Russians. So the Ukrainians have already said, President Zelensky has already said, that they are willing to engage in a full 30-day complete ceasefire.
Not on energy, not on infrastructure, completely. Remember, energy and infrastructure, that's the sort of stuff that is generally civilian-oriented in places like Ukraine. However, what Putin does not want to do, apparently, is stop attacking the actual military of Ukraine, and he refuses to do so. Ukraine is saying, listen, we'll go weapons down right now. We will stop this moment.
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Chapter 3: Did Russia commit to a full ceasefire in Ukraine?
And Putin is saying, no, I don't think so. We're just going to keep pushing. That shows that he believes that he has the military momentum. He wants to keep killing as many Ukrainian soldiers as humanly possible. Meanwhile, there is a story that emerged originally from Russian sources and now has been picked up by the U.S. Sun.
that President Putin kept Trump waiting for today's phone call and did not leave until one hour after the chat was actually set to begin. And apparently he even laughed off a warning that he was getting late for his phone call with the American president. The host of the event, a guy named Alexander Shokin, was actually looking at his watch, like openly on tape. And Putin laughed it off.
So that is, in fact, a sign of disrespect to the United States and should be taken as such. If Zelensky was disrespectful in the Oval Office, which he was, then Vladimir Putin, being an hour late to talk to the most powerful person on planet Earth, is also a sign of disrespect. Putin has made this one of his tactics, it's sort of his negotiating tactic, is to keep world leaders waiting.
The conference took place right before the high stakes call was scheduled with Trump between 4 and 6 p.m. Russian time. As the clock ticked past four, Putin's pal and the host of the event, Shokin, looked at his watch saying the call was scheduled for before 6 p.m. And Putin said, don't listen to him, that's his job. To which Shokin replied, now we need to see what Trump says about this.
And then Putin said that he was referring to the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. Eventually, he arrived about 5 p.m. According to a variety of different reports, the Russian takeaway from the call was not the same as the American takeaway from the call.
According to the White House readout, quote, the leaders agreed the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. So there will be no full ceasefire until technical negotiations, which means that Putin can keep pushing.
The negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East, presumably Saudi Arabia. The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside. This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has actually been achieved. Now, again, I think that the takeaway from this
the Russian side is not quite the same as the takeaway from the American side. And the reason that you can tell this is because while President Trump mentioned Russian commitment to an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, Moscow did not quite say the same thing.
Instead, Moscow apparently was taking the opinion that the ceasefire would begin with energy and transportation and infrastructure when it began, because minutes after the announcement of all of this, There was, in fact, a Russian guided bomb that took out the power in the Ukrainian city of Slovyansk. Fox News has added that Kiev is already under drone attack.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges facing the U.S. economy?
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Protect yourself from property seizures and bank levies. Do not let the IRS control your future. Call 1-800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com slash Shapiro. April 15th is just around the corner. Act now before the IRS acts first. Meanwhile, the president of the United States is running into some headwinds with regard to the judiciary.
An enormous amount of what's happening with the judiciary will in fact be solved by the Supreme Court. It will be taken up eventually. Chief Justice Roberts felt the necessity to sort of wrap President Trump on the knuckles on Tuesday.
The reason being President Trump demanded the impeachment of a federal judge who's been hearing a challenge to the removal of Trenda Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Now, I'm not sure why it's necessary for Chief Justice Roberts to sign into chat here and talk about this. President Trump says a lot of things.
But he did put out a statement, quote, for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose. Well, it was never going to happen. So I'm not sure precisely what the point of that is. And why is Roberts doing that?
Obviously, I don't think that President Trump should be calling for the impeachment of judges based on decisions not going his way. That's why the appellate procedure exists. With that said, why is Roberts signing in here? Presumably to earn some sort of public credibility with a left that has already learned to despise Chief Justice John Roberts.
Tuesday's statement was not the first time that Roberts had scolded politicians for disparaging the judiciary. Roberts did this back in 2018 after Trump attacked an Obama judge for ruling against him in an immigration case. And Roberts said, then we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.
What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal rights to those appearing before them. which, of course, is very silly. Of course, you have Obama judges and Bush judges and Trump judges and Clinton judges. It's a fairly decent litmus test for precisely how they're going to view the Constitution of the United States. Trump was right at the time.
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Chapter 5: How is the judiciary impacting the Trump administration?
A third plane departed after that, but its passengers were not removed solely based on Trump's executive order, Cerna said. A separate filing says the government maintains there is no justification to order the provision of additional information and that doing so would be inappropriate because even accepting plaintiff's accounts of the facts, there's no violation of the court's written order.
So as of Tuesday, there are still 54 alleged Tren de Aragua gang members in detention. About 172 are on the non-detained docket. So that is going to be battled out in the courts. Meanwhile, another district court judge has now decided to basically enjoin the enforcement of the Trump cuts to USAID.
And this judge, Judge Theodore Chuang, has now ordered Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to immediately give USAID employees access to their email payments, security notification, and all other electronic systems. The basic notion here, apparently, is that they have a right to their jobs.
Now, presumably that right springs from the USAID enabling legislation, but USAID was originally set up by executive order, as in by the president. So in his ruling, he goes out of his way to suggest that then it was sort of recodified in the late 1990s by Congress, and that now USAID is almost untouchable by the president of the United States. Only Congress could change USAID.
I think there's a very flawed interpretation of the history of USAID. It seems like not a particularly strong argument. This is another Obama judge who is, again, trying to intervene here. He also claims that Musk does not have the ability to fire people. But, of course, it's not Musk technically doing the firing.
He's making recommendations via Doge to actual government actors who are approved by Congress who are actually doing the firing. That's particularly true in USAID. It's the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who's presiding over the dismantling of USAID, which, by the way, under the original executive order that established USAID, it was placed under the auspices of the State Department.
Judge Chuang, again, tried to bash Musk, saying that he, quote, usurped the authority of the public's elected representatives in Congress to make decisions on whether, when, or how to eliminate a federal government agency and of officers of the United States duly appointed under the Constitution to exercise the authority entrusted to them.
And this is a very flawed reading of the balance of powers. Basically, the case seems to be that if Congress sets up an executive branch agency and then creates sort of general rules and allocations to that agency, that is now untouchable by the executive branch.
And even the people inside the executive branch can't be fired by members of the executive branch, in which case you have now set up an unanswerable fourth branch of government. That branch of government firings and hirings can't be done by Congress. Cuts can be done by Congress. And meanwhile, the president apparently can't either cut or fire
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Chapter 6: What is the state of U.S. tariff plans under Trump?
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Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code BEN or go to lifelock.com slash BEN for 40% off terms apply. Meanwhile, apparently, Vice President J.D. Vance is taking on a larger role in Trump's trade agenda. He's been helming policy discussions, according to people familiar with the matter.
There were several lengthy meetings in recent weeks among top Trump aides, including an hours-long meeting at the Naval Observatory, which is, of course, where the vice president lives. The meetings have centered on how to create a comprehensive tariff policy that achieves Trump's goals, but also has some more flexibility.
The reciprocal tariff plan is expected to be introduced April 2nd, along with additional 25% duties on a handful of industries like autos, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals. And again, one of the big questions here is what does the U.S. Trade Representative's office do? They have like 200 people. How do they handle all of this? All of this is a very complicating factor.
The markets aren't quite sure whether this is going to be a rough Trump proposal where the edges get sanded down or whether it's going to be a blunderbuss that hits everybody. Vice President Vance. did an event yesterday in which he spoke about tariff policy and economic policy more generally. The vice president has sort of a foot in both camps.
He obviously is a representative of the sort of MAGA protectionist position on some economic proposals. At the same exact time, Vice President Vance has a long history of warmth towards Silicon Valley. And tech bros do in fact rely on a wide variety of free trade and technological advancements. He's trying to square a circle that I'm not sure can be totally squared right here.
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