Evening Edition: A New Trump Term Promises Pivots On Foreign Policy
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I'm Abby Hornacek. I'm Ben Domenech. I'm Dana Perino, and this is the Fox News Rundown. Wednesday, November 6th, 2024. I'm John Saucier. You know by now Donald Trump won last night's presidential election, so now that it's settled, what's next?

President-elect Trump has a ton of work today after making many campaign promises about the economy, crime and immigration. He also promised to quickly end the war in Ukraine and help Israel defend itself. So how will he do it? And a bigger factor to these big global issues play on the minds of the American voter. I think this was a national security election. I think this was a lot of Americans looking past the noise, looking past the media, saying, who keeps us safer?

and then lets us prosper. This is the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. This is Jimmy Fallon inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at foxacrossamerica.com.

President-elect Donald Trump has been very bold in his predictions of what he can accomplish on the world stage in a short period of time. He says he'll quickly end the war in Ukraine, and there have been reports he's actually been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now that we know Trump will be the next president, we wonder, can he actually successfully negotiate an end to this terrible and bloody war?

And I think that what the former and now president-elect will bring to the table is the respect of both President Zelensky and President Putin of Russia. He's well known to both of them, and they know that he means business. Our guest today is former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Trump, Victoria Coates. These days, she's Vice President of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. And

And that he will not be as shy as the Biden-Harris administration has been to deploy the might of the United States to bring this to a resolution. And I mean by might, yes, there's military assistance. The president-elect did not block the most recent emergency supplemental that came through Congress. He didn't try to stop it in any way. So clearly, he doesn't particularly want to cut Ukraine off. But at the same time,

Biden and Harris have not used the really crushing economic measures that the United States has at its disposal to affect Russia's behavior. So I think that he will just signal that very clearly.

You've got everybody at the table. The United States has leverage over both parties under that scenario. And I do think he could bring this to a pretty rapid conclusion because I think two and a half years into the war, pretty much everybody's ready to wrap it up. Yeah, absolutely. And I thought it was pretty interesting when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his endorsement speech of now President-elect Trump. He said the big reason why he's supporting Trump is because he does believe

that Trump can resolve this war in Ukraine. And like you mentioned, it is just dragged on for too long at this point. Too many people have lost their lives and it really has just wreaked havoc in the region. One of the concerns though here, Victoria, about resolving the war in Ukraine is that

As it stands right now, Russia has been gaining a little bit of ground. I know this has been a huge grind in Ukraine, but Russia has been gaining ground. So the concern here is to wrap up this war. Would the United States and Ukraine have to cede some territory to Russia? And if so, is that actually appeasing Putin?

Now, that's a really critical question, because I think what President Trump, you know, the author of The Art of the Deal, would be very conscious of is you don't want a bad deal. You don't want to just, you know, hand chunks of Ukraine to Russia with no return. And so I think that's why, as I said, he would want to make very, very clear to Putin that this isn't Putin issuing terms. This is a negotiated settlement that is acceptable.

to both parties and to the United States. And so that's why I think he would threaten much more severe economic repercussions for Russia than what we've seen over the last two and a half years, either from the United States or for the EU for that matter. And I think that's a very important issue as well. The EU has to step up to the plate here.

Another place, Victoria, where I think Trump may have a little bit of leverage is when it comes to NATO. Now, he famously was tough on NATO while he was president. He wanted the NATO nations to increase their defense spending as they had previously agreed to upon. Once Russia did invade Ukraine, we saw NATO spending go way up by these countries, I think as a result of the fact that they're worried about Russia and the influence there. How do you think that Trump is going to play things with NATO? Do you think that might be another bargaining chip with Russia? Yeah.

I would actually cast that a little bit differently. I mean, President Trump started his pressure on our NATO allies immediately after he came into office and demanding that they make good on the 2% of gross domestic product

in your budget for defense that they had pledged in 2014 in Wales under President Obama. There was a big ceremony. Everybody agreed to this. When President Trump came into office three years later, precious few had actually gotten to that number, except of course for the United States, which is well over 2%.

And so he started making this a major issue. And yes, we did get a lot of folks much more with the program, but we still have major NATO allies. John, we've got Germany, France, Italy, Canada. Canada is the 10th largest

economy in the world. They're only at 1.38% of their GDP for defense. The Netherlands, the new secretary general of NATO is from the Netherlands. They're not at 2%. They're promising they might be next year, but I mean, that's kind of pie in the sky right now. So I think President Trump was 100% correct to do this. I don't think Ukraine has focused enough of their attention on how critical the

this issue is and I hope he raises the benchmark to 3%.

Victoria, I think that one card Ukraine may be able to play in negotiation to potentially ending this war with Russia is the Kursk region. It was a pretty interesting move made by the Ukrainian military when they made an incursion into Russia. They're controlling the Kursk region. We have word that these North Korean soldiers who have joined up with Russia are now fighting on the ground, trying to retake Kursk. Do you think that that might be a card that Ukraine and Trump plays in a way to end this war?

I think it's a very interesting issue. And, you know, there's absolutely no reason North Korean shock troops should be on the ground in Ukraine. This shows us that we've got a bigger syndicate at work here. And, you know, I think this is going to be a big difference that the incoming Trump team will find that we didn't face when we went in in 2017, which is now these nations of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are increasingly

increasingly acting in concert and under the direction of China, because there's no way that North Korea does something so potentially provocative as sending these troops into Europe without absolutely express instructions from Beijing. Because if China chooses, North Korea ceases to exist economically on very short order. So yes, they are listening to them.

So we have this really awful situation, I think, where we have all of America and the West's enemies starting to create this kind of consortium.

But I think at the same time, if you have a leader like President Trump, who does have the respect even of America's enemies, coming to the table and saying, this is absolutely unconscionable, we can't have this, you might see that reversed. And if the Ukrainians continue to make incursions, yes, I agree, that is something they could potentially bargain with that would give them a point of leverage over Russia.

I'm so glad you brought up China because this obviously is another major issue. And it really was a big push during the Biden administration to counterbalance China's influence, especially in that region of the world, the Asian Pacific, with the deals with the Philippines, also new military deals with Australia as well. How do you think Trump is going to navigate China, especially now with this kind of conglomerate that you described where North Korea, China, Russia teaming up a little bit?

Now, I think he'll be very, very tough with China. And what he also knows, the president-elect knows, is that China is facing some fairly serious economic issues of their own. They've got some systemic problems. I'm not sure they can fix them. And right now, they're trying to do a stimulus program to try to restart economic growth because that's become quite anemic for them. So I think what you'll see President Trump do is try to put as much pressure on them as possible in the economic sphere.

because despite the mismanagement of the Biden-Harris administration, you know, I think that the sort of engine that is the U.S. economy is ready to spring back into action under his far more pro-growth policies. And instead of just printing and spending money, which is the road that

that China is also going down right now. I think he's going to try to spur real growth in terms of creating new businesses, inspiring growth, particularly in the energy sector, the innovation sector, the technology sector. These are all places China can't play. And so I think he has got a really strong hand to play against China, particularly in the economic sphere. Peace through strength.

A familiar phrase during all three Donald Trump campaigns, and now that he's heading back to the White House, he's faced with a much different global situation than ever before.

Can Trump successfully end some of the major wars in the world that the United States is involved in one way or another? We're discussing this today with former Trump deputy national security advisor, Victoria Coates, who now serves as vice president of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Ahead, she'll give us some insight on how she believes the president-elect is going to navigate the ugly situation that has formed in the Middle East. Stick with us for much more next. All right.

Our guest today is Victoria Coach, former Deputy National Security Advisor during the first Trump administration. These days, she is Vice President of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Victoria, I think that everyone knows the Middle East is a mess right now. We've seen it deteriorate over the past couple of years and years.

It seems like it's only gotten worse, not better. Now Israel is defending itself on multiple fronts here. The war in Gaza continues on. Still no ceasefire despite the death of the Hamas leader. And everyone wants to see the Middle East just calm down. What steps can President-elect Trump make to make that happen?

I think you're already seeing him do it. And he had a phone call with Prime Minister Netanyahu today. I believe he also spoke to the leader of Egypt. He's immediately reaching out to our friends and partners in the in the region and saying, you know, America is back.

We, you know, all of the Middle East knows where he stood on the Israel issue during his first term, which was he was the most historically pro-Israel president in U.S. history. And what did that result in? That didn't result in breakages of relationships between the United States and Arab nations. It led to the first peace deals in 25 years, the Abraham Accords between Israel, Morocco,

Morocco, UAE and Bahrain. And there are lots more of these deals on the table that President Trump could get to. I think he's been very clear. He does want the war in Gaza to end. He would like the conflict in Lebanon to end. But he wants to do this on terms that are a victory for Israel. And he's talked about this, that we mean a negotiated ceasefire. We've had these over and over again over the course of the last 50 years. It just leads to more conflict. Israel needs to win.

President would like to get this wrapped up before he's inaugurated. And then we can start a new, as I said, with hopefully some new peace deals. Victoria, last question, and forgive me for this, but I just have to ask, are you surprised Trump won the election last night?

I am not. I'm from Pennsylvania, so I actually watched the returns from Philadelphia and just the feel of Pennsylvania was much more like 2016. So I think what we saw was a triumph of common sense. And I would tell you, John, I think this was a national security election. I think this was a lot of Americans looking past the noise, looking past the media, saying, who keeps us safer?

And then lets us prosper. And the answer to that resoundingly across the country. And this is where the popular vote is so important was Donald Trump. And so I think he can take that as a mandate. And my hope is he brings all Americans together. And as he said, inaugurates a new golden age for America.

Former Deputy National Security Advisor during the first Trump administration, Victoria Coates. She's with the Heritage Foundation now and Davis Institute for National Security Vice President. Victoria, love hearing your insight because, you know, you were right there during this first administration. And we'll see how the next one goes. Until then, thanks for being with us on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition podcast. Thank you. ♪

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