Trump’s Weaponization of Space & the War in Ukraine – Wilkerson & Jay Pt. 2/2

In part 2 of Paul Jay’s discussion with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, they examine Trump’s push for a new missile defense system—a step toward the weaponization of space that heightens the risk of nuclear war. They also analyze the roots of the war in Ukraine, the failure of U.S. foreign policy, and what’s needed now to prevent further escalation. TranscriptListenDonateSubscribeGuestMusic Paul JayHi, I'm Paul Jay. Welcome to theAnalysis.news. This is part two of my interview with Larry Wilkerson about whether Trump is building, should I say, is the American political-economic system giving birth to a new made-in-America Mussolini-styled state. We're going to talk in this episode more about Trump's Iron Dome, nuclear weapons, and foreign policy, particularly Ukraine. Please join us.All right, let's focus on some of the foreign policy and military stuff because they're connected, obviously. I just want to start a little bit on the supposed cuts to the Pentagon. I think they're being very smart about various things, one of which they're talking about how Musk is going to go in and cut the Pentagon budget. I think it's pretty clear, and there's been even some straightforward admissions by some of the officials, that this isn't really about cuts. It's about moving the money around. It looks like there's a conflict developing between the old legacy's Lockheed and Northrop Grumman's, and the new Silicon Valley, SpaceX and Musk, Palantir of Peter Thiel, although they both invest in each other's stuff and which all want this new high tech AI weaponry. This weaponization of space. And they want to take money away from the old guys and give it to the new guys. Now, there is an easy answer if you're Trump. Give money to both.Col Lawrence WilkersonYeah.Paul JayMaybe that will be his answer because they don't really give a damn about the deficit anyway. I don't know. What's your thinking?Col Lawrence WilkersonThat's true. Well, I've seen the lines, and there's been much controversy over the lines amongst people like the Pentagon Budget Campaign, POGO, and others. There was euphoria in the beginning because it was just announced as cuts, but then very quickly, when the budgeteers got into it from all these groups, they saw, no, they're not cuts. It's just transferring money. It's going from this account to that account. This account over here is high-tech, and Elon Musk or somebody like that has a lot of stake in it. This account over here is old, and that's what he's doing. No cuts at all. There are zero cuts so far in terms of the top line. In fact, there's going to be a $100 billion-plus increase in the top line forced by Wicker and others in Congress.So we're going to be close to a trillion dollars. It's going to be clear it's over $900 billion, but it's going to be close to a trillion. And you're right. What you might call the vested contractors do not like the fact that, in many cases, the money is going away from accounts over which they have the profit-making capacity to accounts where other Silicon Valley, smaller startups, or whatever have the capacity because Hegseth thinks, and he may be right in this, these people are agile. They move fast, they move quickly, and if they make a mistake, they fix it. They don't charge you necessarily for fixing it, which has become a practice of the big guys. He's got some people in the Pentagon who are not necessarily displeased with this shifting of funds, but it's clear, and people need to understand this: there's no cutting going on. In fact, as I said, with Congress beefing it up by 100 plus, it's going to be an even bigger top line than last year.Paul JayOkay, so what do you say to people, whether they're Trump supporters or not? Because I think a lot of people don't understand the issue. Okay, you're going to weaponize space, but what you're really doing, according to President Trump, is creating, finally, after so many failures, an effective anti-ballistic missile system.