I want to pivot though to these meetings among China, North Korea, Russia, and China in particular, uh, this week feels pretty good about itself.

Um, Russia obviously feels pretty good about itself.

It, it, it got out of uh uh the pressure that came out from under the pressure Trump was putting on to come bring an end to the war in in Ukraine.

I want to read something that Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic yesterday.

The leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea are not good men.

They preside over brutal autocracies replete with secret police in prison camps, but they are nevertheless serious men, and they know an unserious man when they see one.

For nearly a decade they have taken Donald Trump's measure, and they've clearly reached a conclusion.

The President of the United States is not worthy of their respect.

Steve, that's rough stuff, but it's true that Putin didn't end the war.

because Trump came back into power and that China certainly doesn't seem intimidated at all by the United States, right?

Give us your analysis.

Well, if you look at this gathering earlier this week, you had, um, America's foremost adversaries, declaring that their goal was to bring an end to the rules-based post-war, um, international order driven by the United States, created and driven by the United States for our own benefit.

And it's as if the Trump administration, the United States, is looking at them doing this.

I mean, Vladimir Putin said that directly.

Trump administration is looking at him doing this and saying, in effect, maybe not intent, but in fact.

How could we help?

Picking fights with allies, trying to blame Europe just in the last couple of days for prolonging the war in Ukraine, tariffs on our allies, talking about, you know, invading Canada.

He's picking fights with our allies, and he's accommodating our enemies, right?

Vivian, talk about India's role in all of this.

It seems as if the Trump administration has fairly significantly alienated a country that traditional American foreign policy practitioners believe serves as a useful counterweight, apart from being a democracy useful counterweight to China, now Modi seems to have moved himself into the China-Russia camp.

What was the motivation to go and alienate Modi.

I could literally talk about this for 3 hours, we have a special.

We'll do that on the on the web Extra Vivian on India on foreign relations perfectly described this meeting as the access of the aggrieved and Prime Minister Modi of India is among the aggrieved at this point because of the fact that at one point Donald Trump a few months ago told the Prime Minister that he was essentially brokering a ceasefire with Pakistan.

Pakistan and India arch rivals, and folks don't know that at home.

And so the Prime Minister did not take lightly this well.

He likes for other countries to stay out of it, and so he proceeded to cozy up to uh you know, China and Russia.

He continues to buy Russian oil and suddenly when he told Donald Trump he didn't want him involved and refused to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, which the Pakistani defense minister proposed this did not go well, and so essentially a rift emerged and Modi has found new friends now in Vladimir Putin and she, which by the way is very telling because um, especially China and India have been at odds with each other for many years now, and suddenly they are closing up to each other, partially because the Prime Minister is being pushed into the Elizabeth, this doesn't sound like 3D chess.

No, I just I also want to add that don't forget Trump also slapped 50% tariffs on India, and this was our great economic, you know, friend, right?

It was supposed to be an offset to China and you know India is on its way to becoming the 3rd largest economy in the world.

Right now it's 5th, but it's going to surpass Japan, which is 4th, and pretty soon it's going to be along with the United States and China.

So why a Trump out of seems to be anger about Russian oil also perhaps because you know the Indians denied his claim that he had single-handedly resolved this conflict between Pakistan and India, and again didn't uh and there was no Nobel Prize nomination.

So, but the 50% tariff is devastating to the Indian economy right now.

Absolutely devastating.

We get the United States imports huge amounts of textiles, jewelry, other things from India, and they're basically they have to look for another market now, and that that they're cozying up to China as a result and the very theory that he's slapping tariffs on them for China as well does, but Trump has taken no action against China.

I mean, the way things are going, I guess it's a good thing that we now have a Department of War, rather than a Department of Defense.

I want to talk about that in a couple of minutes we have left.

President Trump has just announced that he's unilaterally renaming the Department of Defense, which was given that name in 1947, and he's even referring to Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, as the Secretary of War.

Leanne, what's is this all made for television drama?

What's undergirding this?

Well, a lot of Trump's presidency has been made for television drama.

Not only this, but also, you know, the National Guard on the streets in Washington DC you know, you just go on and on about, about that.

He's a marketing president.

He likes to to make things in his own image, the way he wants them to be, but I will say that to change the name actually takes an official act from Congress.

I would not be surprised.

I haven't checked legis legisorm or congress.gov in the past 30 minutes, but there probably is already legislation since then to go ahead and do that because Republicans will follow his lead, but the most poignant response from today was from Senator Mitch McConnell that said marketing doesn't matter.

You have to put the resources if you want a lethal fighting force, and he called on the president to actually do that.

Vivian, last word to you.

The interesting thing here, one of the interesting things here is that Trump with a MAGA base has promised no wars.

This seems like a bellicose move for someone who wants to disengage from the world.

Indeed, and I have no explanation for it other than the fact that he does like a good show.

Um also sending a message to adversaries as well, uh, whether or not that's the message going to adversaries that we are ready if you push us.

We don't want to start wars, but you know, in Trump's words we would finish it.

I would note only that we already have a $1 trillion defense budget, and we have the greatest military in the history of the planet, but details, details.

We'll talk about that in the coming show, but we are going to have to leave it there.