The President's Daily Brief
February 13th, 2025: Ukraine Negotiations Set To Begin & Gaza Braces For Renewed Conflict
Thu, 13 Feb 2025
In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: President Trump announces that negotiations to end the Ukraine war will begin immediately following his call with Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warns that Ukraine’s goal of reclaiming its 2014 borders is unrealistic. As the fragile Gaza ceasefire hangs by a thread, Israel calls up military reservists in preparation for potential renewed conflict. A bombshell revelation in Ukraine—intelligence officials expose one of the country’s most powerful men as a Russian mole. And in today’s Back of the Brief, President Trump secures a key victory as Tulsi Gabbard is confirmed by the Senate as the new director of national intelligence, adding another crucial member to his national security team. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Ramp: Get $250 when you join Ramp. Go to ramp.com/PDB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What major announcements did President Trump make regarding Ukraine?
Es ist Donnerstag, 13. Februar. Willkommen bei der Präsidenten-Daily Brief. Ich bin Mike Baker, eure Augen und Ohren auf der Welt-Stage. All right, let's get briefed. Wir beginnen heute mit Präsident Trump, der erklärte, dass die Negotiativen, um den Ukraine-Krieg zu beenden, sofort beginnen werden. nach einem Anruf, den er mit Wladimir Putin gehalten hat.
Chapter 2: What are the challenges faced by Ukraine in reclaiming its borders?
Die News kommt, als der US-Defensivsekretär Pete Hegseth die EU- und NATO-Defensivchefs beurteilt, dass Ukraines Ziel, seine 2014-Border zurückzukommen, nicht realistisch ist. Later in the show, as the Gaza ceasefire hangs by a thread, Israel has begun calling up military reservists in preparation for renewed conflict.
Chapter 3: Who was exposed as a Russian mole in Ukraine?
Plus a bombshell in Ukraine, where intelligence officials revealed that one of the nation's most powerful men has been secretly working for Russia. And in today's back of the brief, President Trump scores a major win as Tulsi Gabbard is confirmed by the Senate as the new Director of National Intelligence after a very tough confirmation battle. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
Chapter 4: What diplomatic moves are being made to end the Ukraine conflict?
In what could prove to be a major diplomatic breakthrough, President Trump revealed that he held what he described as a, quote, lengthy and highly productive phone call with Russian President Putin on Wednesday morning, seeking a peace deal to end Moscow's three-year-old war on Ukraine.
It marked the first conversation between the President and the Russian strongman since Trump's return to office, as well as Putin's first contact with a sitting U.S. President since February 2022, after contact was broken off following Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Now, the conversation reportedly lasted for an hour and a half, during which the pair agreed to start negotiations immediately to bring the war to a close. In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump said, quote, We both agreed we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the war with Russia and Ukraine. We agreed to work together very closely, including visiting each other's nations.
We've also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately." Now Trump said that a delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz,
Chapter 5: How is the Trump administration approaching peace talks with Russia?
and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will lead the talks and expressed hopes that a negotiated settlement could be achieved in the very near future, though he refrained from outlining a timetable. The call came in the wake of a prisoner exchange on Tuesday that saw Russia release Mark Fogle.
He's an American teacher who was detained in Russia for three and a half years, which White House officials said marked a thawing of relations between Moscow and Washington. Following his call with Putin, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Zelensky, who he said is also eager to pursue a peace deal.
Now, Zelensky has long expressed a willingness to engage with Putin on a, quote, just settlement to the war, and suggested earlier this week that he would consider trading areas of Russia's Kursk region, currently occupied by Kiev's forces, in order to gain back some of Ukraine's lost territory.
Trump added that a meeting is being set up on Friday at the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany between Zelensky, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, though details of what they will discuss were not disclosed. So, what might the Trump administration's plan for peace look like?
While the White House is keeping details of their strategy close to the vest, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a preview of some of the broader aspects of their plan during a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday. Hegseth echoed Trump's past statements that any negotiations must acknowledge some harsh realities, including...
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Chapter 6: What are the key elements of the proposed Ukraine peace plan?
that Ukraine will not be able to regain the roughly 20% of territory seized by Russia since the war began, along with Crimea and the eastern Donbass region. He also said Kiev's potential membership in the NATO alliance is not, quote, a realistic outcome. Hegseth told his fellow NATO military allies, quote, End quote.
Hegseth added that any durable peace deal would need to rely on robust security guarantees from European allies, not the US.
He endorsed proposals to send a coalition of European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine to enforce any potential settlement, but, most critically, said they should only be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, meaning, importantly, that they would not be covered under the alliance's mutual defense clause.
The Defense Secretary's remarks reflected Trump's intent to make Europe shoulder most of the financial and military burden of any settlement to the war. But Zelensky said earlier this week that U.S. muscle is critical to achieving any lasting peace deal and suggested he could woo Trump with economic incentives. Now, I'm not sure if Zelensky actually used the word woo.
As we discussed earlier this week on the PDB, Trump has spoken of striking a $500 billion deal with Ukraine to access the country's rare earth minerals in exchange for continued financial and military assistance from the U.S. Still, the Defense Secretary said the U.S.
has other global priorities that require our focus, namely the threat from China, and said Wednesday that Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine. He added, "...the United States remains committed to the NATO alliance, but the U.S. will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship, which encourages dependency." Alright, coming up next.
Israel calls up Reservists as the Gaza ceasefire teeters and in Ukraine a top official is exposed as a Russian mole. I'll be right back. Running a business isn't easy. I know that firsthand. As a business owner, I have seen how managing finances can turn into a time-consuming headache, right? With endless receipts, approvals and expense tracking slowing everything down.
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Chapter 7: What is the current status of the Gaza ceasefire?
Following an emergency meeting with Israel's security cabinet, which unanimously backed his stance, Netanyahu vowed, "...if Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated."
As our listeners know here on the PDB, Netanyahu's statement closely followed President Trump's own warning to Hamas on Monday, in which he threatened that if hostages weren't released by, quote, Saturday at 12 o'clock, then, quote, all bets are off and all hell is going to break out.
However, on Tuesday, a Hamas spokesman reaffirmed the terror group's commitment to the truce, though he did not reverse the delay in hostage releases. In an interview with NBC News, the terror group's spokesman dismissed Trump's threat, stating that Gaza was already, quote, living in a state of hell.
The Hamas spokesman added, of course, that's entirely the fault of Hamas, given that we started this mess by slaughtering Israeli citizens during the 7 October attacks. Okay, fair enough. He didn't actually say that last bit. I mean, frankly, the Hamas spokesman is not known for being self-aware and contrite. The stalled exchange would have been the sixth such swap since the ceasefire began.
Under the first phase of the truce, which took effect on 19 January and is set to last for 42 days, Hamas hat so far released 16 of 33 hostages, along with 5 Thai nationals. In return, Israel freed over 730 Palestinian prisoners. Still, 76 hostages remain in the Strip, at least 35 of whom are believed to be dead.
Meanwhile, Trump has continued to push his own vision for Gaza, arguing that its over 2 million residents should be relocated so the U.S. could take control and develop the territory into the Riviera of the Middle East. On Tuesday, Netanyahu confirmed that Israel's Security Cabinet had formally endorsed Trump's proposal.
The fragility of the ceasefire has also spurred a flurry of regional diplomatic efforts. The Arab League Secretary General announced plans to revive the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which offered Israel normalized relations in exchange for Palestinian statehood.
Egypt, a key mediator in the ceasefire agreement, is set to host an emergency Arab summit on 27 February, shortly after Trump extended an invitation to the Egyptian president for discussions at the White House. As uncertainty mounts, Israel has begun mobilizing military reservists in preparation for a possible return to full-scale combat.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reinforced Netanyahu's warning, bluntly stating, quote, End quote. Katz ging weiter, suggerierte, dass eine, Quote, neue Gaza-Wahl die Wege für Israel aufbauen könnte, um Trumps steigende Vision für die Enklave zu implementieren.
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