Independent Veterans of America founder Paul Rieckhoff and conservative journalist Charlie Sykes on MSNBC on July 9, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via MSNBC / YouTube)
Since his second term began six months ago, President Donald Trump is viewed by the United States' biggest adversaries as a "blowhard" who is easy to control, according to two analysts.
During a Wednesday segment on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," conservative journalist Charlie Sykes and Independent Veterans of America founder and CEO Paul Rieckhoff opined to host Nicolle Wallace that the second Trump administration is one of the least respected administrations in recent memory, given how foreign adversaries have been treating the White House. Wallace began the segment by playing newly released audio of Trump bragging to donors about how he threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"With Putin, I said, 'if you go into Ukraine, we're going to bomb the s--- Moscow. I'm telling you, I have no choice,'" Trump is heard saying in audio obtained by journalists Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey and Tyler Pager. "So he goes, like, 'I don't believe you.' ... But the truth is, he believed me 10%. And I told you this. He, believe me, when I was with President Xi of China, I said the same thing to them. I said, you know, 'if you go to Taiwan, I'm going to bomb Beijing.' He thought i was crazy."
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After hearing the audio, Sykes said he was personally "a little skeptical" that Trump ever actually made those threats to Putin and Xi, but that if he did, Putin and Xi likely would have viewed him as a "bulls--- artist." He added that Putin's ongoing escalation of the war in Ukraine has showed that if Trump did indeed threaten him, he likely didn't view the U.S. president as a serious person.
"Rather than a deterrent, I think it made him seem a little silly, like 'this guy's a blowhard,'" Sykes said. "And, by the way, When you watch Vladimir Putin, the way that he treats Donald Trump — his willingness to humiliate Donald Trump — that his willingness to have these phone calls with him and whatever he does, hangs up and then says, 'let's bomb the hell out of Ukraine, let's find a way to show how little respect I have for what Donald Trump is asking me to do."
Reickhoff piled on, noting that Putin had been playing Trump to his own ends since the Robert Mueller investigation during his first term by taking a complimentary tone. He also pointed out that the United States' allies are seeing it all play out in real time, and that the international reputation of the U.S. is suffering as a result.
"It's been consistent. They're manipulating him," Reickhoff said. "The former KGB agent and war criminal is manipualting our commander-in-chief and the entire world can see it."
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Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.