Skip to content

Transcript of John Mearsheimer Interview: Is Putin’s Patience Paying Off?

Read the full transcript of Professor John Mearsheimer’s interview on Judging Freedom Podcast, August 18, 2026.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In this insightful interview on Judging Freedom, Judge Andrew Napolitano speaks with renowned political scientist Professor John Mearsheimer about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin’s patient strategy in Ukraine is yielding results. Mearsheimer analyzes Russia’s territorial advances, economic pressures on Ukraine, and the contrasting Western and Russian interpretations of the conflict—particularly NATO expansion as an existential threat—while also touching on broader U.S. foreign policy challenges. The discussion offers a realist perspective on the shifting geopolitical landscape and the long-term implications for all parties involved.

Introduction

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, August 18th, 2026. Professor John Mearsheimer will be with us in just a moment. Is President Putin’s patience paying off?

Professor Mearsheimer, good day to you, my friend. Thank you, of course, for being here and giving us all of your time.

Before we get to President Putin’s strategy and how things are going in the special military operation, a couple of other questions, if I may, on recent events. Over the weekend and again as recently as last night, President Trump threatened to bomb the you-know-what out of Oman. A country historically allied with the United States and one that is actually serving from time to time as a mediator between Iran and the United States. What do you make of this?

Trump, Oman, and North Korea

JOHN MEARSHEIMER: It’s hard to make sense of it, to argue that there’s some coherent strategy behind what he’s doing. What’s going on here is that Trump is in a disastrous situation. He’s gotten himself into a war that he cannot win in any meaningful way. He can’t find an off-ramp where he can say that we have been even semi-successful. We’re going to suffer a significant, if not catastrophic, defeat in Iran. It’s quite clear that the Iranians are in the driver’s seat.

All of this is to say that he made a huge blunder entering into this war, and as a result, he’s flailing around. He’s blaming other people. He’s lashing out at other countries. He’s making policy statements, for example, with regard to North Korea, that make no sense at all. So President Trump is in deep trouble, and this is just a manifestation of that.

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: What did he say about North Korea?

JOHN MEARSHEIMER: He’s trying to kiss up to North Korea now.

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: North Korea, not South Korea. North Korea.

JOHN MEARSHEIMER: He’s actually kicking the South Koreans, our allies, in the shins, and at the same time, playing up to the North Koreans. You remember he tried to have good relations with Kim Jong-un and the North Koreans in his first administration, and he was bent on denuclearizing North Korea. The chances of that happening are zero, but anyway, it didn’t happen in his first term, and now he’s angry at the South Koreans.

One of the reasons, by the way, is that he asked the South Koreans for help in the Gulf in the war against Iran, and the South Koreans wisely said they wanted no part of this escapade. That angered him, and to get back at the South Koreans, he’s done two things. One, he’s playing nice again with the North Koreans, and secondly, we have a major joint operation that is now taking place with the South Koreans, and he has significantly reduced the scope of that joint operation with South Korea because he does not want to offend or scare the North Koreans. This is just not the way you treat allies.

And by the way, if you put this into a broader context, the United States is deeply interested in containing China, and to do that, we need all the help we can get from the South Koreans, especially since we are pivoting away from East Asia to the Persian Gulf.

You know, this whole disaster with the USS Abraham Lincoln that has led us to pull the Lincoln out of the Gulf means we have to replace it with a new aircraft carrier. And the new aircraft carrier that they’re going to replace the Lincoln with is the USS George Washington. Where is that coming from? It’s coming from Japan. Its home port is Japan.

We have a situation now where we have no carriers in East Asia. And you want to understand that East Asia is a theater that depends heavily on air power and naval power. We’ve already pulled all sorts of THAADs and Patriots out of East Asia, and here we are now pulling the only carrier we have out there out of East Asia. And at the same time, President Trump is kicking the South Koreans in the shins. The South Koreans, by the way, are among our most loyal allies. So this makes no sense at all, just like it makes no sense to be threatening to attack Oman.

The USS Abraham Lincoln Controversy

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Oh, but Professor Mearsheimer, the reports of problems on the USS Abraham Lincoln — that’s all fake news according to the president. We’ll play his clip in a minute, but before the Abraham Lincoln departs wherever it is, lacking in deodorant and toothpaste and food, it managed to give everybody on board a scoop of ice cream, as if there were puppy dogs that were misbehaving. So you’re going to give them ice cream — that’s the way Hegseth treats his troops. Here’s President Trump on this yesterday. Chris, cut number 10.

VIDEO CLIP BEGINS:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That was a CNN fake report. The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time, a good period of time. But over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer. I was at a group meeting and an admiral came up to see me over the weekend, and it was at a big group, and he happened to be an admiral, retired.