Posted originally on CTH on August 10, 2025 | Sundance

The ever-dramatic Margaret Brennan is in full pearl-clutching mode as she questions NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, about the upcoming meeting between horrible President Trump and even more horrible President Putin.  It is simply unfathomable to allow a U.S. President to create a strategic reset with a Russian President.

As Brennan acts out the role, she highlights how it is unimaginable, terrible, and just a no good bad thing. Horrid.

NATO Secretary Rutte is quite happy with the new funds flowing into the NATO alliance as organized by President Trump. Rutte sits atop a new cache of taxpayer funded treasure for the alliance to organize; from his perspective Trump is gold, and Brennan gnashes her teeth throughout.

Funnily, Brennan attempts to spin a Trump-Putin agreement for a ceasefire with Trump triggering World War III by getting the beginning of a peace deal over the finish line.  If Trump creates peace, the world will explode or something.  WATCH: 

Rutte missed the opportunity to ask Mrs Brennan if she can hear herself.  lol

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, who joins us from The Hague in the Netherlands. Welcome back to Face The Nation.

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL MARK RUTTE: Margaret, it’s good to be back on the show. Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning. Well, Mr. Secretary General, big picture here; is Russia’s Vladimir Putin still a direct threat to the Western alliance, or is he showing some signs of dropping his aggression?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: He is still the main threat to the Western alliance, there’s no doubt. And I think it is very good that President Trump will test him, and we’ll see how far he can get on Friday, starting this process. He basically broke the deadlock, President Trump, in February, starting the dialogue with Putin. I think that was crucial. We had a great NATO Summit under his leadership, committing to 5% defense spending, so that there is a clear signal to our main threat, which is Russia, that we are serious. And then he opened the floodgates, three weeks ago, of American lethal weapons to be delivered into Ukraine, coordinated by NATO and, of course, the secondary sanctions. He started them with putting them on India, which is one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that is certainly the groundwork being laid. The concern is, of course, as you know, among some critics, that in this conference room in Alaska, we’re going to see a 1938 moment. Where, in an attempt to immediately halt a war, the groundwork is laid for an even bigger conflict because of concessions that are made. Are you comfortable with Ukraine being excluded from these negotiations on Friday?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: What will happen on Friday is testing Putin by President Trump. And I commend him for the fact that he organized this meeting. I think it is important. And, obviously, when it comes to peace talks, the cease-fire and what happens after that on territories, on security guarantees for Ukraine, Ukraine will have to be, and will be, involved. But on Friday, it is important to see how serious Putin is. And the only one who can do that is President Trump. So, it’s really crucial that a meeting takes place. It will not be the final say on this. There will not be the final deal on this. Of course, Ukraine will have to be involved in Europe, but it is important to start the next phase of this process, putting pressure on the Russians exactly as President Trump has been doing over the last six months.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve been on these calls with President Trump, and I know that he briefed you on what Envoy Witkoff discussed with Vladimir Putin this week. Can you tell us, is Russia still demanding that Ukraine drop its bid for NATO membership?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Well, obviously, I cannot go into all the details, that would be strange. But let me assure you the following, that we are all on the same page; the Americans, the Europeans and Ukraine, that when it comes to the geo-strategic position of Ukraine in the future, when it comes to whatever is the size of the Ukrainian military when it comes to NATO’s posture on the eastern flank in countries like Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Poland, that Putin has absolutely no say on any of these issues.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you’ve said in the past there need to be strong security guarantees for Ukraine. Who is going to provide that if it’s not NATO?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Obviously, this is a discussion which is going on for some months now. We all pray for the moment when the ceasefire is there, and hopefully a successful peace deal is done, but at least a ceasefire. And the Europeans, led by the French and the Brits and NATO, has been involved in those talks, but clearly led by Macron of France and Starmer, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, in close cooperation with the US, are discussing, post-the-ceasefire, post-the-peace-deal, how do we make sure that the security guarantees are in place? And this will be important also post-next-Friday, if this would lead the Friday session to more serious peace talks, because when it comes to territory, it will always go hand in hand with the security guarantees for Ukraine.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, I understand that there were NATO representatives listening in that meeting with Vice President Vance and European national security advisors yesterday. NATO has been coordinating the delivery of weapons purchased by NATO members to help out Ukraine. About a billion in military aid, I understand, has been facilitated from the US to Ukraine. Are there plans that those weapons deliveries will continue, regardless of what happens on Friday?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Absolutely, they will continue. So, we had the first two packages committed by the Dutch and then by the Scandinavians. I expect further announcements in the coming days and weeks. And this is crucial. Basically, President Trump, as I said, opening the floodgates of lethal military aid into Ukraine again. Paid by the Europeans and Canada, which I think is only logical and fair. And this process has started, of course, on top of what the Europeans are already doing, including investing in the defense industrial base in Ukraine. And, as you said, NATO is coordinating all of this through our commands in Wiesbaden, making sure that Ukraine has what it needs to stay in the fight and be in the best possible position when it comes to negotiations on a ceasefire, slash a peace deal.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And that’s not up for negotiation on Friday?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: My absolute conviction on Friday is that this is President Trump making sure that Putin is serious, and if he is not, then it will stop there. If he is serious, then from Friday onwards, the process will continue. Ukraine getting involved, the Europeans being involved. And the US is already coordinating, like you said, last night in London, with Foreign Minister Lammy of the United Kingdom, senior officials from NATO and European countries in the European Commission, with the Vice President, to make sure that we are all on the same page. Putin will never, ever be able to divide the alliance. The biggest foreign policy success of President Trump is the NATO Summit. A United NATO, a united alliance, and Putin will never get in between us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we have to take President Trump at his word, and on Friday, when he spoke in front of the cameras, he said there will be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both Ukraine and Russia. I mean, you know, Ukraine does not hold Russian land, and Russia has about 20% of Ukraine. What is he talking about?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Clearly, what will be on the table when real peace talks, slash the ceasefire discussion, will take place is this issue of, on the one hand, security guarantees, on the other hand, how to deal with the factual situation that the Russians are holding, at this moment, Ukrainian territory. Crucially important here is that when it comes to this holding of Ukrainian territory, that there might be a factual situation that they are doing this, but that we can never accept that in a legal sense, in,, as this is called, a de jure sense, as you know, the US hosted embassies with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia between 1940 and 1991 acknowledging that the Soviet Union was controlling those territories, but never accepting, in a legal sense, in a de jure sense, that fact. So all these issues will be on the table, hopefully, post-Friday, if Putin is serious, and Putin then has to commit to sit down with Zelensky. He cannot do this through President Trump. In the end, it has to be, as President Trump has stated himself, a three-way conversation, at least, with the Europeans heavily involved.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, do I understand what you’re saying here correctly? When you are talking about legal recognition versus de facto, are you saying that, basically, the world is preparing to allow Russia to hold on to Crimea, the Donbas, the eastern part of Ukraine, but then just not legally recognize it?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: No. What I’m saying is that, in the end, the issue of the fact that the Russians are controlling, at this moment, factually, a part of Ukraine has to be on the table, that any discussion going forward from there will be with Ukrainians deciding on what they want to do in terms —

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, because that sounds like you’re saying they don’t have to withdraw their troops.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Obviously, they have to, but factually, they are controlling a part of Ukraine at this moment, as you said. And as Ukrainians have said before, if a ceasefire discussion takes place as soon as possible, and hopefully negotiations on a peace deal, there will be the debate on how to take that forward, starting at the present line of contact. But it is crucial to know that when it comes to the future geopolitical situation of Ukraine, their sovereignty, there will be no infringement on that, and that it’s always Ukraine itself deciding on what they want to do or not want to do in terms of a peace deal.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, Secretary Rutte, thank you for your time.

[END TRANSCRIPT]