othing did? Am I right? It just went from everything affects nothing to everything affects it. There's something going on that doesn't look completely organic to me. I don't know what it is. Could be that we're in the simulation and we're testing supply chains. It could be a weird coincidence, I guess.

Zelensky has picked up on my persuasion. Not specifically my persuasion, but let me explain. So Zelensky is now trying to talk directly to the Russian conscripts that are in the Russian invading army. Now I don't imagine his message can reach them too easily. Seems like they would be protected from many outside messages. But he said if you surrender to our forces — so he's actually talking about the Russian military being defeated militarily and surrendering — and what he says is if you surrender to our forces, that your people will be treated the way they're supposed to be treated, as people, decently, in a way you were not treated in your army.

Literally, Zelensky is telling the Russian army people that they would be treated better as prisoners of Ukraine than as military members of their army. And you know what? He might be right. Doesn't that ring true? Because I think the Russian conscripts are really being treated as cannon fodder. They're being treated as cannon fodder for no gain to them or their country. Really no gain. Their act — the Russian army wants to kill these guys or put them in harm's way. They'll be damaged for life even if they survive. You know, they'll have PTSD and everything else. So the Russian army is absolutely abusing their own conscripts, and I do think that the Ukrainians might treat them better as prisoners of war. That's actually literally true. That's the damnedest thing, isn't it?

Has anybody ever told an invading army, "We'll treat you better as prisoners than you're being treated by your overlords right now"? And actually, could sell that. You can sell it because it's true. I think it's actually true.

Well, here's the part I wanted to point out. We've all been impressed at how persuasive Zelensky has been, but then I look for a specific technique. If you see technique, then you say to yourself, where did he learn that? Who taught him that? And if he's just sort of randomly persuasive, then you think, oh, maybe he's just some kind of a natural or has something to do with the situation he's in. It just is automatic.

But here's the technique. This is what I've been waiting for. Have you ever heard of a thing called making you think past the sale? I talk about it all the time. It was Trump's main trick. He would make you think about how things would be after you've made the decision, as if the decision is already made. And when he talks to the Russian conscripts — to the extent that he can actually get his message to them — he talks about how they'll be treated after they surrender. Do you see it? Do you see the technique? "Here's how you'll be treated after you surrender." That's exactly the right way to say it. Rather than saying, you know, you're in trouble, your masters are treating you poorly, he talks about what will happen after they've surrendered.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a tell for professional advice. He is being advised by somebody who knows what the hell they're doing. I don't know that he knows this stuff by himself. You know, there's no information we have that he had some kind of training in persuasion or something. Maybe he did. You know, we know he's a good actor. We know that he presents well. But that's a very small part of persuasion, just presenting well and speaking well. You have to know the technique.

This latest thing he's doing, which does two things — well, actually makes you think past two separate sales. Two completely different sales. One sale is imagining that you've surrendered, and the other sale is that Zelensky is predicting victory, direct military victory over Russian troops. Not survival, not survival, not a deal. Victory. Do you think he can sell that story? Do you think there's anybody who will believe the story that Ukraine is actually winning or could win? And the answer is yes, in my opinion. Half of Putin's army might. I'll put a "might" in there because we don't know what's happening for sure.

I think half of Putin's army is trapped, and I think that between NATO communication, coordination and satellite spotting and weaponry, and even training — the Ukraine special forces are really, really trained. I'm being asked if I'm high. Amazingly, no. By the way, I won't ever lie to you about that. If I tell you I'm not high, I'm not high. I don't really have any reason to tell you I'm not. If I tell you I am, I certainly would tell you what I'm on. But I'm not, in case you wondered.

Somebody says good time for China to invade Russia. I don't think so.

Well, I'm going to say that Zelensky has got some persuasion and help, probably from somebody in the foreign intelligence agency, maybe one of ours, for example. And let me a