The President's Daily Brief
February 7th, 2025: Trump Prepares Long-Awaited Peace Plan To End Ukraine War & North Korea's Major Leap In Ballistic Missile Technology
Fri, 07 Feb 2025
In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: First, we'll discuss reports that the Trump administration is preparing to unveil their long-anticipated peace plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine at a security conference in Germany next week. Later in the show, Ukrainian officials say they have observed a marked improvement in the accuracy of North Korean ballistic missiles fired on their cities, suggesting the hermit kingdom is using the conflict to successfully test and improve their missile technology. Plus, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces he will be skipping the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa later this month over their controversial land seizure bill, while accusing leaders in Johannesburg of pushing "anti-Americanism." In our 'Back of the Brief' segment, President Donald Trump turns his ire on another foreign institution, signing an executive order Thursday imposing sweeping sanctions on the controversial International Criminal Court for targeting the U.S. and Israel. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is Trump's peace plan for Ukraine?
It's Friday, 7 February. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, still on the road, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First up, we'll discuss reports that the Trump administration is preparing to unveil their long-anticipated peace plan to end Vladimir Putin and his Russian regime's war in Ukraine at a security conference in Germany next week.
Later in the show, Ukrainian officials say they've observed a marked improvement in the accuracy of North Korean ballistic missiles fired on their cities. Now, that's suggesting that the Hermit Kingdom is using the conflict to successfully test and improve their missile technology. Plus, U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces that he'll be skipping the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa later this month over their controversial land seizure bill while accusing their leaders in Johannesburg of pushing anti-Americanism.
And in the back of the brief, President Trump signs an executive order Thursday imposing sweeping sanctions on the controversial International Criminal Court for targeting the U.S. and Israel. But first, today's PDV Spotlight. Reports suggest that President Trump's administration is preparing to unveil their long-awaited peace plan to bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to an end.
According to White House sources, who spoke exclusively with Bloomberg, retired General Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, will lay out their blueprint for peace at the Munich Security Conference in Germany next week.
European allies will reportedly be briefed privately by Kellogg ahead of a public announcement by Trump at a later date, though it's not clear yet when the president will reveal his plans to the world. While details remain scarce at this time, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the plan will likely involve
freezing the conflict along the current front lines, leaving the roughly 20% of territory currently occupied by Russia in limbo, while providing Kiev with robust security guarantees to ensure Moscow's forces can't attack again down the road. But what those security guarantees will look like, well, that's unclear.
Ukraine's ultimate goal is to be granted membership in the NATO alliance, though Trump has previously said that he opposes the idea. And even leaders in Kyiv have acknowledged that such an outcome is unlikely, at least in the short term. As we discussed on yesterday's PDB, Ukrainian President Zelensky has floated alternatives to NATO membership, including having the U.S.
provide Kiev with a nuclear deterrent or for European allies to deploy a multinational peacekeeping force consisting of at least 200,000 troops to enforce any potential peace deal. The Bloomberg report also notes that Kellogg has signaled in recent weeks that the U.S.
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Chapter 2: How are North Korean ballistic missiles improving?
Chapter 3: What did Marco Rubio announce about the G20 summit?
And in the back of the brief, President Trump signs an executive order Thursday imposing sweeping sanctions on the controversial International Criminal Court for targeting the U.S. and Israel. But first, today's PDV Spotlight. Reports suggest that President Trump's administration is preparing to unveil their long-awaited peace plan to bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to an end.
According to White House sources, who spoke exclusively with Bloomberg, retired General Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, will lay out their blueprint for peace at the Munich Security Conference in Germany next week.
European allies will reportedly be briefed privately by Kellogg ahead of a public announcement by Trump at a later date, though it's not clear yet when the president will reveal his plans to the world. While details remain scarce at this time, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the plan will likely involve
Chapter 4: What sanctions did Trump impose on the International Criminal Court?
freezing the conflict along the current front lines, leaving the roughly 20% of territory currently occupied by Russia in limbo, while providing Kiev with robust security guarantees to ensure Moscow's forces can't attack again down the road. But what those security guarantees will look like, well, that's unclear.
Ukraine's ultimate goal is to be granted membership in the NATO alliance, though Trump has previously said that he opposes the idea. And even leaders in Kyiv have acknowledged that such an outcome is unlikely, at least in the short term. As we discussed on yesterday's PDB, Ukrainian President Zelensky has floated alternatives to NATO membership, including having the U.S.
provide Kiev with a nuclear deterrent or for European allies to deploy a multinational peacekeeping force consisting of at least 200,000 troops to enforce any potential peace deal. The Bloomberg report also notes that Kellogg has signaled in recent weeks that the U.S.
would like to see elections held in Ukraine once a hypothetical ceasefire is in place, and many expect that the Trump administration will push for guarantees from Kyiv on that score as part of any peace proposal. Now, as a reminder, Ukrainian elections were scrapped during the war, and Zelensky has been leading under an extended period of martial law since the invasion by Putin in 2022.
Zelensky, for his part, has repeatedly said that he's open to holding elections once the war is over and martial law is lifted. He's also said in recent weeks that he's ready to engage in direct peace talks with Putin alongside leaders from the U.S. and EU.
Putin has also signaled a willingness to engage in negotiations, though he's qualified his statements, warning that Russia's territorial gains in eastern Ukraine must be accepted by the West if they want talks to get off the ground. But many in the West, well, not surprisingly, remain skeptical that his supposed interest in a peace deal is genuine.
It's worth noting that Trump has threatened the Putin regime with massive tariffs and sanctions on Russian products if they fail to come to the table, and a growing band of Russian elites are reportedly pressuring Putin to seek a negotiated settlement to the war to alleviate their mounting economic problems.
According to White House sources, discussions have progressed between the Trump administration and Ukrainian and Russian officials, and plans are currently underway for Trump to meet face to face with both Putin and Zelensky, though a timetable for these meetings remains unknown. In the meantime, Zelensky is attempting to keep the Putin regime on their back foot.
According to unconfirmed reports from Russian military bloggers, the Ukrainian military launched a new offensive in Russia's partially occupied Kursk region just this week. Ukraine mounted a military operation, by way of background and a reminder, back in early August inside the Russian territory, catching the Putin regime by surprise.
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Chapter 5: What role does Ukraine's military strategy play in negotiations?
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Sticking with Ukraine, North Korean ballistic missiles used by Russian forces against Kyiv have displayed a dramatic increase in accuracy in recent weeks, raising fears that Pyongyang is using the battlefield to refine its missile technology in real time. According to a Ukrainian military source, some of these weapons now land within 160 to 320 feet of their intended targets.
That's an alarming leap in accuracy from past performance when they would veer wildly off course, sometimes missing intended targets by as much as two miles. The troubling advancements seen in the more than 20 North Korean ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine since late January suggests that Pyongyang is exploiting the war as a testing ground, gaining invaluable data to improve its arsenal.
The military source reports that forensic analysis of missile debris has not revealed major design changes. But experts speculate that North Korea has likely enhanced its navigation systems, incorporated Russian guidance components or fine-tuned targeting protocols based on battlefield feedback.
Since late 2023, Russia has launched an estimated 100 North Korean K-23, K-23A and K-24 short-range ballistic missiles at Ukraine. a weapons expert at Seoul's Asian Institute for Policy Studies, warns that these developments have disturbing implications that extend far beyond Ukraine.
If North Korea has indeed mastered the process of iterative battlefield testing, its missile program could pose an even greater threat to South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Not to mention that Pyongyang could leverage this newly honed technology to ramp up arms sales to rogue states and militant groups.
Adding to these concerns, South Korean intelligence suggests that in exchange for North Korean munitions, Russia is supplying Pyongyang with missile components, financial assistance, and space technology, an arrangement that's allowing Pyongyang to boost weapons development at an unprecedented pace.
Despite official denials of formal arms agreements, Moscow and Pyongyang have visibly strengthened their military partnership since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with Putin back in September of 2023. Last year, the two powers signed a treaty on a comprehensive strategic partnership, further cementing their military and economic ties.
During a visit to Seoul in late 2023, then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sounded the alarm, warning that Moscow Pyongyang alliance represents a major threat to global nonproliferation efforts. While North Korean ballistic missiles still make up only a fraction of Russia's total strikes, they are uniquely concerning.
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Chapter 6: How could North Korea's missile advancements affect global security?
But U.S.-South Africa relations have been deteriorating for years, driven by a range of foreign policy disputes. Under the Biden administration, tensions flared over South Africa's refusal to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine – yeah, that's a tough one – and its deepening ties to BRICS, the economic bloc originally composed of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
The friction intensified when South Africa brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide in Gaza, an allegation that the Biden administration dismissed as, quote, meritless. All right. Coming up in the back of the brief, President Trump signs an executive order imposing sweeping sanctions on the controversial International Criminal Court.
I'll be right back. In today's back of the brief, the U.S. administration is taking action against the International Criminal Court. That's a body that's faced mounting criticism over their targeting of Israeli leaders since the war in Gaza broke out.
On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC, accusing the body of failing to remain impartial and harboring a severe bias against the United States and Israel. The order includes both financial sanctions and visa restrictions on ICC officials and their family members found to have assisted in investigations of U.S. citizens or allies.
That's according to a report from Reuters. The action comes just one week after U.S. Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-led effort to pass a bill called the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, which would have imposed similar sanctions on the ICC. A fact sheet on the executive order provided by the White House states, quote, The ICC was designed to be a court of last resort. Both the U.S.
and Israel maintain robust judiciary systems and should never be subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC. The timing of Trump's latest executive order is no coincidence, coming during Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's first visit to the U.S. since Trump's return to the Oval Office. As you may recall, the ICC sparked U.S.
bipartisan backlash in November after issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Golan for alleged war crimes related to the conflict in Gaza. Their arrest warrants were issued alongside warrants for several Hamas leaders, something that Trump's executive order decries as a, quote, shameful moral equivalency.
In Europe, however, the court's ruling divided leaders, with several countries vowing to arrest Netanyahu if he set foot on their soil and others appearing torn about how to proceed. But the U.S. and Israel are not members of the ICC and therefore not subject to its rulings.
Analysts have said, given the diplomatic pressure that Trump's new sanctions will put on the court, their influence will likely start to diminish among America's allies. The ICC has long faced criticism for acting with extreme bias towards Israel while saying next to nothing about countries with long records of human rights abuses, such as Iran.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of U.S. and North Korea's military collaborations?
He's written excellent books on both JFK and Martin Luther King's assassinations. And we'll dive into U.S. government waste and spending with former Congressman Rene Seed. And I know you might be shocked to learn that the U.S. government possibly isn't an efficient steward of taxpayer money. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin.
Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.