Welker: Why lift the sanctions now? What has Putin done to deserve sanctions relief now?

Bessent: That's not true. No sanctions were lifted Friday. No sanctions were lifted.

Welker: There was a law that was supposed to put more sanctions in place, and the president effectively waived that.

Bessent: No sanctions were lifted. There was a 60-day period. Examine what's going on. The only thing that has been lifted is the diesel embargo.

Welker: Does the United States see Ukraine as an ally?

Bessent: We provide things to Ukraine. That's what you do for an ally. We are not providing those to Russia.

Welker: Does that mean the United States sees Ukraine as an ally? Can you say one way or another?

Bessent: I am not the president.

Bessent on Ukraine:

When President Zelensky asks for Patriots, NATO — the European members of NATO — they have plenty of Patriots.

Why aren't they forthcoming with the Patriots? Where is Germany?

Welker: Zelensky said he believes the U.S. slowed the speed of Starlink. President Trump said he had nothing to do with it. Can you say no one in the Trump administration ordered restrictions?

Bessent: Trump and Rubio have said that no one in the Trump administration did that.

And I think it is very reckless for President Zelensky to make such a charge.

BREAKING: Trump has given his "Complete and Total Endorsement" to Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel's October 27 election, warning that the U.S. would have to take on Iran itself if Israel chose another leader.

In a message addressed to Israelis, Trump called Netanyahu a "Great Warrior Prime Minister" and said Iran had been systematically destroyed militarily and financially, adding that unless it changes course, "we will soon finish the job."

He wrote that if Israel elects "anyone other than Bibi," America would have to do this work itself, which he said he is not inclined to do.

The endorsement comes as Netanyahu's Likud trails in polls behind former army chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party.

Trump’s endorsements in foreign elections have a 6–1 record so far, with Viktor Orbán’s defeat in Hungary his only loss, ahead of his newly announced backing of Benjamin Netanyahu.

🇵🇱 Poland: Karol Nawrocki won the 2025 presidential election after Trump administration officials urged Poles to vote for him.

🇦🇷 Argentina: Javier Milei’s party won October 2025 midterms after Trump threatened to withhold aid if it lost and the U.S. finalized a $20 billion currency swap.

🇭🇳 Honduras: Nasry Asfura won after Trump warned the U.S. would not keep funding Honduras if he lost, and pardoned Asfura’s party colleague, former President Juan Orlando Hernández, days before the vote.

🇨🇱 Chile: José Antonio Kast won the presidency after Trump’s endorsement.

🇯🇵 Japan: Sanae Takaichi’s party won a two-thirds supermajority in February’s snap election, three days after Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement,” and Trump later claimed credit.

🇨🇴 Colombia: Abelardo de la Espriella won the June runoff after Trump backed him.

🇭🇺 Hungary: Viktor Orbán lost in April to Péter Magyar’s Tisza party, which won about 53% of the vote and a two-thirds majority, despite a campaign visit by Vice President JD Vance.

🇮🇱 Israel: Netanyahu, endorsed ahead of the October 27 election, is the next test.

BIG: Itamar Ben-Gvir claims Netanyahu’s office has officially assured several European Union countries that he will not be part of the next Israeli government.

The National Security Minister said he received “verified” information that the message was conveyed to EU foreign ministers or higher-level officials, adding that he said it “with deep sorrow.”

Likud rejected the claim as “false political spins,” saying any future government will rest on the current coalition partners and urging voters to back Likud to prevent a left-wing government led by Gadi Eisenkot.

Netanyahu:

If the regime recovers, it will rebuild its nuclear capabilities and its weapons of mass destruction.

If we have to act alone, we will act alone.

We cannot live with enemy states that declare their intention to destroy us, aspire to destroy us, and act to destroy us.

Netanyahu on Iran:

This is not the Netherlands with nuclear weapons — although the Netherlands is starting to become a story too.

I'm joking, I'm joking.

Netanyahu:

An Iranian leader once said, "Israel is a one-bomb country. Drop one bomb on it, and it is finished."

Not only because you would kill several hundred thousand people in one strike, but because you would destroy the state.

It is very small, very concentrated. A nuclear bomb means the destruction of the state.

Netanyahu on Iran:

I came to Trump and said to him, "Here is what I am going to do."

I did not ask for your permission. Here is what I am going to do.

I am going to do this one way or another.

Take the B-2 and strike Fordow. That is what I am asking.

If you can, thank you. But in any case, we are going.

He joined on the tenth day.

The U.S. military fired roughly 19 years’ worth of Patriot interceptor purchases in about seven months of fighting against Iran.

CSIS estimates the U.S. had about 2,200–2,330 modern Patriot interceptors before the war and used around 1,060–1,500 of them, leaving roughly a third of its pre-war stockpile.

Before the war, the U.S. bought an average of only about 225 interceptors a year, while Lockheed Martin currently produces around 600–650 annually for the U.S. and its allies.

CSIS projects it will take at least three years to rebuild pre-war inventories, warning of a “window of vulnerability” in any conflict with China.

Source: Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Netanyahu:

When I was a child, we used to get into fights in the neighborhood.

And I discovered a very simple rule: Whoever strikes first has an enormous advantage.

You go and punch the person who is coming to attack you, and you strike first.

An enormous advantage.

Gadi Eisenkot responds to Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu, saying only Israeli citizens will decide the election.

Netanyahu:

If you want to survive, prepare for war.

If you want to prevent war, prepare for war.

If you want to prevent your enemies from striking you, strike them when necessary.

Netanyahu:

Our communications, energy, transportation, healthcare — everything operates on digital systems.

You can simply take control of them and paralyze a country.

You can paralyze the economy. You can paralyze life itself, from traffic lights onward.

Everything. Everything. Everything.

Netanyahu:

Our national security doctrine requires strengthening our independent ability to produce our own ammunition and weapons.

We can find partners for this, but the partners must be dependent on us, not us on them.

That is a very big difference.

And this rearmament must take place in industrial and technological facilities underground.

Netanyahu on Gaza:

In Gaza, you keep striking, striking, striking, eliminating the commanders, eliminating the Nukhba forces.

They are very afraid.

Netanyahu:

We have changed our approach to an offensive, proactive approach.

That is why we entered the refugee camps.

They were not refugee camps. They were actually terrorist fortresses.

We entered them, destroyed them, and we are staying inside.

Netanyahu:

I established the ground barrier between Israel and Africa along the Egyptian border.

It was primarily a barrier against infiltration.

Otherwise, there would already be another million Muslims here, and we would have been flooded like Europe.

Netanyahu:

We Israelis are the honey badger of nations.

Simply the honey badger of nations.