Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson takes a hard look at the situation in Ukraine and poses the blunt question: Isn’t Russia actually winning? With Western narratives clashing against battlefield realities, Johnson offers insight into military developments, strategic momentum, and why the media might not be telling the full story. An eye-opening breakdown of where things truly stand. 🔍⚔️
#LarryJohnson #RussiaUkraineWar #RussiaWinning #Geopolitics #MilitaryAnalysis #UkraineConflict #WarReality #WesternNarrative #BattlefieldUpdate #UkraineWar #EasternFront #StrategicWar #GlobalTensions #ProxyWar #TruthAboutTheWar #CIAAnalyst #USForeignPolicy #ConflictUpdate #WarReport #WorldNews #UkraineCrisis
#LarryJohnson #RussiaUkraineWar #RussiaWinning #Geopolitics #MilitaryAnalysis #UkraineConflict #WarReality #WesternNarrative #BattlefieldUpdate #UkraineWar #EasternFront #StrategicWar #GlobalTensions #ProxyWar #TruthAboutTheWar #CIAAnalyst #USForeignPolicy #ConflictUpdate #WarReport #WorldNews #UkraineCrisis
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Transcription by CastingWords
00:30Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
00:36Today is Tuesday, May 27th, 2025.
00:40Larry Johnson will be here with us in just a moment on
00:44Does Donald Trump Know That the Russians Are Winning the War?
00:48But first this.
00:50While the markets are giving us whiplash, have you seen the price of gold?
00:54It's soaring.
00:55In the past 12 months, gold has risen to more than $3,000 an ounce.
01:00I'm so glad I bought my gold.
01:02It's not too late for you to buy yours.
01:05The same experts that predicted gold at $3,200 an ounce
01:09now predict gold at $4,500 or more in the next year.
01:14What's driving the price higher?
01:17Paper currencies.
01:19All around the world, they are falling in value.
01:22Big money is in panic as falling currencies shrink the value of their paper wealth.
01:29That's why big banks and billionaires are buying gold in record amounts.
01:34As long as paper money keeps falling, they'll keep buying and gold will keep rising.
01:40So do what I did.
01:41Call my friends at Lear Capital.
01:43You'll have a great conversation and they'll send you very helpful information.
01:48Learn how you can store gold in your IRA tax and penalty free or have it sent directly to your doorstep.
01:56There's zero pressure to buy and you have a 100% risk-free purchase guarantee.
02:03It's time to see if gold is right for you.
02:06Call 800-511-4620, 800-511-4620, or go to learjudgenap.com and tell them your friend the judge sent you.
02:18Larry Johnson, welcome here, my dear friend.
02:21Before we get into some of the work you've been doing,
02:25analyzing what the Americans and what Trump knows and doesn't know,
02:29I want to raise this issue that you and I texted each other about over the weekend.
02:34I was appalled, and I would imagine you were as well,
02:38to learn that the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard,
02:43contrary to many positions she took when she was in the House of Representatives,
02:48has now announced a central location from which various members of the various 17,
02:5618 federal intelligence surveillance communities can access warrantless surveillance.
03:06I thought she was going to dial back on warrantless surveillance, not make it easier.
03:11Well, I'm not sure so much dialing back on warrantless surveillance as we've got this problem
03:19that there's so much private information collected by so many private companies.
03:26And, you know, anybody who's logged on to Google, they're capturing your information.
03:31You know, whoever your cell phone company is, they're capturing your information.
03:35Your email provider, they're capturing that information.
03:38So I guess what, and I'm not sure this is her proposal, but she's certainly going along with it,
03:46is right now the government is accessing, they're going out and buying that information.
03:51Well, they shouldn't be buying it.
03:53The government's subject to the Fourth Amendment.
03:55No, they shouldn't be doing it.
03:57It violates the Constitution.
03:59But what we've created now is this, the state that George Orwell envisioned in 1984.
04:09And, you know, a little bit like Lord of the Rings with the eye of sovereign,
04:13that the government now has so much access to your private information
04:19that the line between private and public has been completely erased.
04:23So, you know, Tulsi is, at this point, she's just one of the symptoms.
04:30She's not the cause of the disease.
04:33Because this is a, the push to do this is, I think, within the bureaucracy.
04:39And it is dangerous.
04:42And it's something that, you know, but it's not just confined to the United States.
04:46It's global.
04:46So we've really entered an age where the ability of these, with all this data that's out there,
04:55they can, they can monitor what you do.
04:58You know, for example, if you're on YouTube, and like if you're on your broadcast,
05:03if an ad pops up about, say, hey, we've got this shampoo that's going to grow hair for bald men.
05:10And if you happen to click on it, all of a sudden, you are going to get targeted with that.
05:16You're going to get, you know, the influx.
05:19So that shows that there's the ability to take this information.
05:23So if the government then decides, hey, we want to identify people who are speaking out against the genocide in Palestine,
05:33then, you know, it becomes very easy to quickly identify and then target.
05:39And this is, you know, this is the threat.
05:41So in the old days, if the government wanted to follow me as I move about the countryside with my mobile device,
05:53they'd need a search warrant.
05:55Today, they would buy that information from my carrier.
06:01Correct.
06:01And she, or not she personally, but somebody that works for her, would post that information.
06:08So NSA can get it, DEA can get it, FBI can get it, any one of the three or four-letter agencies that wants it can get it.
06:16The Constitution, the Fourth Amendment, the right to privacy be damned.
06:21Yeah.
06:22She never would have done when she was in the House of Representatives.
06:26She was on our side in those days.
06:28She'd be screaming about it.
06:30You know, the only saving grace here is that the government is collecting so much data.
06:37And thank God the government is generally incompetent.
06:40And so the volume of information is so large that they don't necessarily have the ability to fully exploit it.
06:49It's only when they decide to go after one or two or, you know, a few individuals that they can then turn the power of the government against them.
06:58And we saw that.
06:59And actually, Trump, ironically, was a victim of this with Russiagate.
07:03Yes.
07:03Where those capabilities were used against him.
07:06And you would think that he would be leading the charge to eliminate this, but he's not.
07:11You and I, this is public knowledge, cut our teeth in the past 10 years on this issue, revealing the spying that was going on against Mr. Donald Trump before he was the president and then President Donald Trump.
07:29And now his director of security is making that spying easier.
07:37Yeah.
07:37In fact, you know, the very time that I was talking with you and trying to help you fend off the attacks that were coming against you from both Fox and the media.
07:47I asked, I called Devin, got in touch with Devin Nunes and asked to meet with him because, you know, I had been asked to brief him about the House Intelligence Committee when he was first assigned to it.
08:02He had no experience whatsoever.
08:03And so when I met with him, I went in and I informed him.
08:07I said, look, Devin, here's what's going on.
08:10The British are collecting intelligence on all these presidential candidates, but particularly on Trump.
08:17That information is passed to the National Security Agency and the CIA is also getting that information.
08:24It's a loophole.
08:25And he goes, what?
08:27And I said, well, you know, that's why Robert Hannigan resigned.
08:30And he goes, who's Robert Hannigan?
08:32Now, remember, here's Devin on the Intelligence Committee.
08:37He didn't know that Robert Hannigan had been the guy in charge of Britain's GCHQ.
08:42But my point in that was Devin had no idea until they went and he went to the White House and then all of a sudden got briefed.
08:51You know, I'd given him the name of someone that he should ask for that would be able to divulge to him what was going on.
08:58So this this kind of massive spine is it's only accelerating as people become more and more dependent upon their social media and electronic devices.
09:11And as you said a few minutes ago, it's really information overload.
09:16There's so much data there that they can't even claim we're collecting this for national security because they're not they're not scrutinizing it.
09:26It's too much to scrutinize.
09:28Yeah, it's like suspicious activities reports that banks are supposed to file.
09:33You'd think that the way ideally you think the system would work is every day those reports come in and somebody sits there and goes through them and says, oh, this is an issue.
09:43We should look at this.
09:43So, you know, no, they get into this like it was like that warehouse out of Indiana Jones where, you know, at the end they put the Ark of the Covenant in this massive warehouse.
09:55It gets stored there until somebody decides to go looking in it to see what they can find.
10:01Wow.
10:01All right.
10:02Does Trump even remotely understand the status of the special military operation or does he follow what the Washington Post, New York Times headlines and the Lindsey Grahams and Tom Cottons whisper into his ears?
10:21Trump is coming off as a buffoon and someone who has no clue as to what is going on.
10:28His comments over the weekend labeling Putin as crazy and that for no reason Putin launched these missile and drone attacks at Ukraine.
10:40Apparently nobody had told him, you know, the initial number I saw reported in the West was 700, but it turns out that from May 19th on, Ukraine launched over 1,400 drones into Russian territory, attacking Russian civilian targets,
10:57including airports that you and I have flown in and out of Moscow.
11:03And fortunately for the Russians, their air defense system was quite effective.
11:07It defeated those drones.
11:09And then on top of it, there was a reported attack of those drones trying to assassinate Vladimir Putin during his trip to Kursk.
11:19Well, here's Trump said, Putin just launched these missiles and drones for no reason.
11:25And then one of the reporters asked him to say, hey, well, are you aware that they tried to assassinate Putin?
11:34Oh, I haven't heard that.
11:35Well, he's not hearing a lot of things.
11:38He's, it looks like he may be getting the mushroom treatment, you know, kept in the dark, covered with manure.
11:43But his comments were simply not helpful.
11:50And frankly, I think from the perspective of the Russians, reaffirmed that the man is, he's an intellectual lightweight.
11:59And his word, you cannot trust his word.
12:03Here's, you know, this stuff makes me wonder, you wondered aloud about this over the weekend, what the hell they're going to say to each other the next time they talk.
12:13But here's what he said at Morristown Airport yesterday as he was, or over the weekend on Sunday, as he was flying from Bedminster, New Jersey, back to Washington.
12:25And Chris, it's just what you said, Larry.
12:27Chris, cut number three.
12:36Tick tock.
12:38I think we have it.
12:40Chris, can you get it?
12:41Yeah, I'll give you an update.
12:42I'm not happy with what Putin's doing.
12:45He's killing a lot of people.
12:46And I don't know what the hell happened to Putin.
12:48I've known him a long time.
12:49I've always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people.
12:55And I don't like it at all.
12:57Okay?
12:58We're in the middle of talking, and he's shooting rockets into Kiev and other cities.
13:02I don't like it at all.
13:04President, what do you want to do about that?
13:06I'm surprised.
13:07I'm very surprised.
13:08We'll see what we're going to do.
13:09What am I going to tell you?
13:10You're the fake news, aren't you?
13:12You're totally fake.
13:13All right, any other questions?
13:15I don't like what Putin is doing.
13:17Not even a little bit.
13:18He's killing people.
13:19And something happened to this guy, and I don't like it.
13:24Can I follow up on that?
13:25A Russian commander reportedly said that Putin was almost caught in the middle of a drone attack from Ukraine.
13:32So do you have any...
13:33I haven't heard that, but maybe that would be a reason.
13:37I don't know, but I have not heard that.
13:40Isn't it inconceivable that he wouldn't know that, Larry?
13:45Well, yes.
13:46Yeah, he's not reading.
13:49I mean, it's that kind of stupid comment by him.
13:52They're really...
13:53I haven't heard that.
13:54Maybe that might be a reason.
13:56Oh, you think?
13:58You think someone trying to kill you might be a reason for retaliation?
14:02Not that you'd know anything about that, Donald Trump.
14:05I mean, look how Trump reacted to the assassination attempt on him, okay?
14:10Number one.
14:12But then, oh, the Russians are killing lots of people.
14:15The Russians, from May 24th through May 25th, the Russians fired well over 750 drones.
14:23It may have been in the 800 range.
14:25And they launched 83 ballistic missiles.
14:29They killed a total, according to Ukrainian sources, 30 people, 30 civilians.
14:36They're not reporting the military casualties.
14:38They're not reporting possible U.S. casualties, but civilians, 30.
14:43Now, that alone shows you that Russia's not trying to kill civilians, because if all they
14:51were doing was bombing and hitting with drones and missile civilian targets, the casualties
14:56would have been in the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands.
15:00So, and again, this just highlights how ridiculous Trump looks saying stuff like this.
15:08How many civilians did Trump kill in Yemen, where no war is declared, no moral, legal, or legitimate
15:18military purpose was served by those bombings?
15:20And finally, they gave up the ghost after, I think, your estimates were they spent over
15:24a billion dollars.
15:26Oh, well over a billion dollars was just lost equipment.
15:30When you put a factor in the cost of the aircraft carriers and the accompanying ships and the
15:36other ordnance expended and the air operations, it was probably in excess of three billion dollars.
15:42So, this is, again, Donald Trump taking, missing the opportunity to be presidential.
15:52Because what's important to note is how the Russians responded.
15:56Instead of getting into it back and forth or casting any insults or aspersions, you know,
16:03Peskov, the spokesman for Putin, comes out, takes the high road.
16:08He goes, well, listen, we really, we really appreciate the efforts of the United States
16:13to try to help promote peace.
16:15And, yeah, we understand that sometimes people can get overly emotional.
16:19Kept it very diplomatic.
16:22And that's why, you know, I don't know if, but what it did, I think, behind the scenes
16:28is the Russians realize Trump's a flake.
16:33You can't count on him.
16:35He's not a trustworthy negotiating partner.
16:38No matter what he tells you in private doesn't mean that that's something he's going to do in public.
16:43He's not reliable.
16:45And I think they take that into account.
16:49They will flatter him.
16:51They will cater to his narcissism.
16:55But at the same time, Russia is not going to take the foot off the gas with its offense to demilitarize Ukraine
17:03and, in the process, demilitarize NATO until the job is finished
17:10and there's going to be an unconditional surrender by Ukraine.
17:13That's where this is headed.
17:14But here's the Truth Social that he posted.
17:18The clip that we saw was in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday morning.
17:22Here's what he posted back at the White House Sunday night.
17:27Chris, if you want to put it up, I'll read it.
17:29I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia,
17:34but something has happened to him.
17:35He has gone absolutely crazy, exclamation point, and in caps.
17:39He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I'm not just talking about soldiers.
17:45Missiles and drones are being shot into cities in Ukraine, and for no reason whatsoever.
17:50I've always said that he wants all, in caps, of Ukraine, not just a piece of it.
17:55And maybe that's proving to be right.
17:57But if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia.
18:00It's hard to read this with a straight face, Larry.
18:04Likewise, President Zelensky is doing his country no favor by talking the way he does.
18:11Everything out of his mouth causes problems.
18:13I don't like it, and it better stop.
18:15This is a war that would never have started if I were president.
18:18This is Zelensky's, Putin's, and Biden's war, not Trump's, in quotes.
18:23I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires that have been started through gross incompetence and hatred.
18:32So what is Putin going to say to him the next time they have one of their phone calls after listening to this drivel?
18:38Well, Putin will say to him, say, well, Mr. President, you obviously are not being properly informed about events.
18:46Here's what happened, and we'll explain all the different drone attacks, all the attacks on civilian targets, attacking a church, for example.
18:55And, you know, at that point, I can see Trump going, oh, well, I didn't know that.
19:01Okay, yeah, now I understand.
19:04But what's shocking, though, is what he put out on True Social.
19:08You know, that was like 10 hours after that meeting with the reporters in New Jersey.
19:13Yeah.
19:14Well, at that point, he said, well, I haven't heard that.
19:16Okay, so you think you'd get on the plane and say, hey, what about this?
19:19Was Putin attacked?
19:21Instead, you know, 10 hours later, he's still putting out the same...
19:25Who is responsible for informing him of what's going on?
19:29Is it his national security advisor, who's also his secretary of state, who's rarely in Washington, who tells him, hey, by the way, they tried to kill Putin.
19:38The drone came within half a mile of his helicopter.
19:42Who would have told him that?
19:43Yeah, it's Rubio, Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, and Tulsi Gabbard, you know, and John Radcliffe.
19:52You know, somebody in that chain.
19:53They need to keep, they need to tell him that.
19:55But if he's not asking, if he's just taking what's being spoon-fed to him, but it just makes him look ridiculous.
20:03And this, you know, I would recommend that anybody that, if you've never watched Oliver Stone's four-part series, it was done nine years ago, his interview with Vladimir Putin.
20:18It covers, it's roughly about two hours, two and a half hours.
20:23It will give you all the insight and understanding you need to, you need in order to understand what's taking place now.
20:32And how Putin, you know, the kind of man he is.
20:36He's calm, rational, thoughtful, but also has a memory and remembers the various betrayals he has experienced at the hands of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and then Joe Biden.
20:59So it is, it's incumbent on people to get a sense of Putin because the cartoon figure that we're presented with is Trump.
21:09He's crazy, you know, without saying, you know, why, why did Russia retaliate with such force against Ukraine?
21:18Well, because they had Ukrainians that attacked them with 1,400 drones.
21:22It was natural.
21:23Can you imagine what Donald Trump would do if the Mexican drug cartels launched 200 drones into Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Albuquerque?
21:38Trump would have the bombers loaded and flying into Mexico.
21:42And can you imagine what he would do if they sent a drone after a helicopter that was carrying him?
21:48Exactly.
21:48I mean, and we're not suggesting this should happen where we're putting Trump into Putin's position and asking Trump to see that Putin's behavior is rational and justified.
22:03And Trump is still saying, this is where I stopped and said, you can't say this with a straight face, that Putin wants all of Ukraine.
22:11Larry, there is not a scintilla of evidence.
22:13It's the last thing in the world he wants is to attempt to govern a country with guerrilla warfare fighting his government.
22:24Yeah, no, I think they're going to go back to what I call the natural western boundary of Russia, which is up to the Dnieper River.
22:32I think they'll ultimately cross that river and take Kiev as well.
22:36But Russia is going to end up controlling all of the territory east of the Dnieper before this is over.
22:44They're not going to stop.
22:46And the West continues.
22:47You know, people like Jack Keane and members of Congress, Lindsey Graham, they operate in a world of complete delusion.
22:56And they actually think that there's something that we, the United States, can do militarily to thwart Russia, to prevent Russia from defending itself.
23:08And, you know, the Russians, the Russians have exercised extraordinary patience with this.
23:15You know, one of the, one of the sort of interesting intelligence points that comes out of that interview with Oliver Stone and Putin is back when George W. Bush walked away from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Agreement.
23:29That agreement that George, that Ray McGovern was president for back in 1972 when it was signed in Moscow, that Putin said, hey, why don't we work together and develop a ballistic missile system as well for Europe so that we'll all be covered and protected?
23:50Think of that.
23:51That's what the Russians offered.
23:53And Bush walked away from it.
23:55So the Russians have made repeated efforts to try to work with the West, to try to trust the West, and we're the ones who are in the position of being the actual aggressors, yet we continue to paint Putin and the Russians as bad.
24:12Does Putin give a damn what Macron and Starmer and Tusk and Mertz and von der Leyen in Western Europe have been saying?
24:25Well, yeah, no, he absolutely cares about it because it shows this level of unjustified hostility directed at Russia.
24:32Again, the history of the last, well, going back to 1991, so 34 years, is one in which the West has repeatedly lied to Russia.
24:48Russia has, you know, it was during, you know, remember when the United, when George W. Bush was leading the war on terror, were fighting terror at the same time the CIA was providing intelligence support, financing to the Islamic rebels, the radical Islamists that were carrying out terrorist attacks in Russia.
25:07And the Russians have, and the Russians have, they have full proof and evidence of that.
25:13So we've always been playing this double game, and we continue to do so today.
25:20How do you see the war ending?
25:25Do you see Donald Trump just throwing up his hands and walking away from it?
25:31Do you see him turning off the spigot of arms, which, though authorized by a previous Congress, are all subject to the discretion of the president?
25:42Do you see Zelensky being overthrown and a new government suing for peace?
25:48The United States, no matter what it does, is not going to be able to stop the Russian military victory over Ukraine.
26:00This war of attrition will go to a point at which the Ukrainian army will crumble.
26:06Whether it's this year or next year or the year after, I think it's going to be sooner rather than later.
26:14When it crumbles, Zelensky will be out.
26:16I don't know whether he'll be killed or exiled or will flee on his own.
26:22There will be a new government reconstituted in Ukraine under the guidance and direction of the Russians,
26:29in much the same way that the United States reconstituted the government in Germany at the end of World War II and in Japan at the end of World War II.
26:38Russia is going to put in place a government that may go along with the existing Ukrainian constitution, but they're going to make sure that the neo-Nazi elements are out, are excluded, and frankly, are going to be hunted down.
26:54They're not going to live with that anymore.
26:56What's left of Ukraine is going to become a buffer zone.
27:01And the United States will holler, we can impose sanctions as much as we want.
27:07It's not going to stop Russia.
27:09For the Russians, this is legitimately existential.
27:13And for the United States, if we persist in trying to confront Russia over this, we're going to put our own existence and continued existence into question.
27:26Thank you, Larry.
27:27Very articulate.
27:29Frightening, but articulate.
27:31Thank you so much.
27:32Thanks for your time.
27:33Thanks for accommodating my schedule.
27:35Look forward to seeing you with the youngster McGovern on Friday.
27:38I'll be there.
27:40All the best.
27:40Great conversation.
27:43I truly appreciate the depth and breadth of Larry's knowledge and his personal courage.
27:50Coming up at 1.30 this afternoon, more knowledge and personal courage.
27:55Scott Ritter, Josh Napolitano for Judging Freedom.
28:10During this time, I am an install dispos Touch and lei.
28:23And I willhouse and ask you to support the risks of the survival of output.
28:25And when you quero to surrender theəs.
28:26Bye now.
28:27Bye now.
28:28I love you.
28:29Bye now.
28:30Bye now.
28:30Bye now.
28:30space and rise.
28:31Bye now.
28:31Bye now.
28:32Bye now.
28:33Bye now.
28:34Bye now.
28:34Bye now.
28:34Bye now.
28:35Bye now.
28:37Bye now.
28:38Bye now.
28:38Bye now.
28:39Bye now.
28:40Bye now.