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Trump Outlines Foreign Policy Doctrine; Concern in Mexico over Trump Policies; Trump Foreign Policy Advisor Jeff Sessions Talks Trump Speech; Trump: U.S. Allies Not Paying Fair Share, NATO Obsolete; Trump: Obama Has Weakened Military by Weakening Economy; Trump Speech on China, North Korea. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 27, 2016 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I want to go to CNN's senior Latin American affairs editor, Rafael Romo.

Rafael, very interesting. He spoke about strengthening the borders. He spoke about immigration. He spoke about making America secure, and all of that. Did you hear anything specific about the wall and that Mexico would pay for it?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: That's the thing, Wolf. For the last few months, we've heard Donald Trump talk about building a wall with Mexico, making Mexico pay for the wall, blocking money transfers to Mexico, deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. And this time around, when he had the ears of the world expecting him to detail his plan, he chose to say very, very little about it. He only made a passing reference to immigrants, but in terms of terrorism, and he didn't seem to talk specifically about immigrants from Mexico or Latin America.

As you can imagine, Wolf, there's great concern in Mexico as to what a Trump presidency would look like, especially because Mexico is the U.S.'s third-largest trade partner. There's a trade between these two countries over $500 billion every year. There are 34 million people of Mexican origin living in the United States and one million Americans living in Mexico. There are 20 million American tourists who visit Mexico every year. And when Trump was talking about Mexico today, there was absolutely nothing as to how he would handle this relationship.

Wolf, about the only thing that some Mexicans may have in common with Trump is the fact that he has denounced what he calls lousy trade agreements with other countries. A lot of Mexicans feel very uneasy about what NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, meant for Mexico Mexican companies to compete against larger, better-funded American companies that cost not only the United States but Mexico a lot of jobs. But I was expecting to hear probably a little bit more about the wall and how he would finance it. I didn't hear anything like that today -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Very interesting. What was said was critically important in outlining his strategy, and what also was not said may be significant as well.

Rafael, stand by.

Everyone stand by.

The former NATO supreme ally commander, retired U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, will be joining us. He has some strong views on what we just heard from the Republican presidential front runner.

Let's take a quick break. Much more of our special coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:26] BLITZER: Just heard a nearly 40-minute speech by the Republican presidential front runner, Donald Trump, outlining his vision for a foreign policy and national security policy if he were elected president of the United States.

We have some of the highlights. Let's listen to this.

Actually, we don't have those highlights but we're going to get those highlights for you momentarily.

Our Jim Acosta is at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where we just heard from Donald Trump, with a special guest.

Jim, what has the reaction been over there?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. I'm joined by Senator Jeff Sessions, from Alabama. He's the head of Donald Trump's foreign policy national security advisory team.

I guess, Senator Sessions, what was your take on this? A lot of this, what we heard in the speech of Donald Trump, is what we heard on the campaign trail before. Why did we hear it once again today?

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: Some people hear bits and pieces of the speech and that speech. He laid out a vision and, in many ways, was electrifying. He's saying, we'll put the interest of the United States first and we're going to be a good player in the world. We're going to be a leader in the world and we'll do these kinds of things but our allies have to step up and be more of a contributor, that we're going to use realism. We're not going to try to overreach and do more than we can accomplish. We're going to use good advisors and good judgment to achieve that. We're going to use America -- if it's not strong economically, can't be strong militarily and politically. And I thought it was consistent with what he's been saying, his voice, and fundamentally right. I think the American people will appreciate him.

ACOSTA: And if I could just follow up quickly with one quick question. He talked about immigration being key to the foreign policy. You heard Donald Trump say time and time again he's going to build a wall on the U.S. Mexico border. Do you think that's realistic to build a wall on the U.S./Mexican border?

SESSIONS: Absolutely. We can build a wall on the border. It's an incidence of sovereignty. If you don't control your border and people can enter with impunity, you diminish the sovereignty of the nation. And one of the things he talked about a lot was his skepticism about big international agreements, that we should be sure that when we enter into an agreement, the United States can control an agreement, or if it's not happy, walk away from it. But when you get into the big groups, you get trapped. And a great nation like the United States becomes diminished in its ability to maneuver and take action, and may be necessary for the whole world and our interests gets constricted. So I like that, too. I believe he focused on being a defender of the American national interest first.

ACOSTA: Senator Jeff Sessions, thank you very much. I understand you'll be on with Wolf Blitzer later on "The Situation Room." I'm sure he'll have more questions about the Donald Trump foreign policy speech.

But thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Senator Sessions.

SESSIONS: Good to be with you.

ACOSTA: Wolf, back to you. There you have it, from one of Donald Trump's top surrogates. If you listen to Donald Trump out on the campaign trail, the endorsement that he appreciates almost the most, when you listen to Donald Trump, he talks time and again about the support he has from Senator Sessions.

BLITZER: He certainly does. I look forward to continuing the conversation with Senator Sessions later in "The Situation Room."

In the meantime, I want to bring in the former NATO supreme allied commander, retired U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, now the dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tuft University.

Admiral, thanks very much for joining us.

I want to play this little clip of what Donald Trump said about U.S. allies, the NATO alliance, and get your reaction. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:40:07] DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Our allies are not paying their fair share. And I've been talking about this recently a lot.

We have spent trillions of dollars over time on planes, missiles, ships, equipment, building up our military to provide a strong defense for Europe and Asia. The countries that we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense. And if not, the U.S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves.

A Trump administration will lead a free world that is properly armed and funded, and funded beautifully.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You heard him say in recent weeks that the NATO mission is obsolete. This time, he says it's out-dated. He used that word. You're the former NATO supreme allied commander. Your reaction?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS, DEAN, FLETCHER SCHOOL OF LAW AND DIPLOMACY, TUFT UNIVERSITY & FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: I disagree. I think that if you look at this history of NATO, it began as a Cold War entity postured against the Soviet Union. When the wall fell, it began to work in the transnational threat we faced in Afghanistan after the World Trade towers came down, in the Balkans, in Libya, in counter-piracy. We had a NATO training mission in Iraq. So NATO has been very involved in all of these missions. Now we see a resurgent Russia and we are continuing to face that. So we're kind of on NATO 3.0, Wolf. And I think NATO has adapted to the times.

I do want to make a point on spending. Mr. Trump is right about something, which is that all the NATO nations ought to hit the 2 percent spending draw, 2 percent of GDP. But it's important to note the real numbers behind that. NATO nations, other than the U.S., spend about 1.6 percent of their GDP. That's $300 billion. That's larger than Russia and China combined. So they spend a pretty fair amount. Should spend a little more, should we press them? Absolutely. This is not an obsolete alliance in any sense.

BLITZER: Even President Obama called some of these countries free- riders, that they're not willing to spend that 2 percent of their GDP. Only four of the 28 NATO allies have met that threshold and the U.K. only recently did it under David Cameron. And what Donald Trump is saying is, you know what, you want an alliance, that's fine, we'll have an alliance, but you guys, you've got to put up a fair share of it as well.

I also want to play another clip and get your reaction to what he spoke about when he discussed President Obama's foreign policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: President Obama has weakened our military by weakening our economy. He's crippled us with wasteful spending, massive debt, low growth, a huge trade deficit, and open borders. Our manufacturing trade deficit with the world is now approaching $1 trillion a year. We're rebuilding other countries while weakening our own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He also said that this administration's policy has contributed to weakness, confusion, disarray, a mess. He was very bitter in describing this administration's policy, but going back to the Bush administration, as well. Your reaction to that?

STAVRIDIS: I think we can point to any U.S. administration and find fault with it and criticism. The real question is, what is the strategic direction for the United States.Dana, before the break, was talking about getting in a time machine. Let's go back really far, a hundred years back, end of World War I. The United States follows the Trump restriction. We isolate ourselves. We come back to fortress America. We build big walls. Tariff barriers, called Smoot-Hawley, what did that give us? It gave us a great recession and a Second World War. The United States need to engage in the world, not be building walls. We should be building bridges if we want to create security.

BLITZER: I assume you like what he was saying about trying to forge a new relationship with both Russia and China. Did you like that?

STAVRIDIS: I think it's important that we keep our lines of dialogue open with both Russia and China, absolutely. The way I like to categorize it is let's cooperate where we can, let's confront where we must. When a nation like Russia invades Ukraine and annexes part of the Crimea, we have to confront that. And we can't give them a pass on that in interest of a new wonderful relationship. I don't think that is the right way to go.

BLITZER: What do you think of his assertion that the Obama administration has been nice to Iran, not so nice to close allies, let's say, like Israel or the Saudis, the Emirates, some of the other countries who don't like this Iran nuclear deal?

STAVRIDIS: I'm skeptical of the Iran nuclear deal myself. I think it's going to require, Wolf, an awful lot of monitoring, a lot of use of cyber, a lot of use of all the aspects of our intelligence to make sure they live up to it. I'm also concerned that they've now come out of sanctions and have almost unlimited resources compared to where they were to create mischief in the region. And it is true that this has unsettled the Saudis and the Israelis. What we need to do about it is go back and reassure the Saudis and Israelis, work with them to try and diminish the challenges that Iran is going to face. And I think Iran will be a significant force for difficulty in the Middle East.

[13:45:34] BLITZER: Yeah, he says Iran is the big winner of the U.S. failures in both Iraq and Syria. Iran has been able to expand its influence throughout that region.

Admiral, stand by.

We have more to discuss, including China, a key part of the strategy laid out by Donald Trump.

We'll take another quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:50:28] BLITZER: A very detailed foreign policy, national security speech of Donald Trump. He also had plenty to say about China's trade with the United States, China's role with North Korea.

I want to quickly go to Hong Kong right now. CNN's Andrew Stevens is on the scene for us. Also, in Seoul, South Korea, Paul Hancocks is there for us.

Andrew Stevens, first of all, how likely is this to play over there in your part of the world?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: Well, the whole Donald Trump issue in China is a double-edged sword. They have real concerns, obviously, about his trade policy and what he's threatening to do to China for the unfair deals in the Yuan currency manipulation. But on the other side of it, editorials are saying this happens in a democratic world. You get people like Donald Trump, who could possibly be the next president of the U.S., and they openly called him a racist. So there is a double-edged sword, sort of syndrome, if you like, with why China.

If you look at what Donald Trump was saying today about China, there was nothing new, Wolf. In fact, I was quite surprised by how few references there were on the trade issues. And he really, I guess, in broad strokes, reiterated what he's been saying on the stump about tackling China on its trade policies, et cetera, et cetera, and making America strong again in a position of strength to renegotiate the deals it does with China. He says that they have to fix the relationship with China.

But one quote that stuck out for me is that, "Financial relations and sanctions can be very persuasive. Our power will be used if others do not play by the rules," Wolf. Now the rules, an interesting use of the term there because he's talking about a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods. That goes against the World Trade Organization rules. So we are still waiting for the details, but no one more so than Beijing.

BLITZER: I want to go quickly to Paula.

Very quickly, he mentioned the threat from North Korea. How is it likely to play where you are in South Korea?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Once again, China says they will deal with North Korea. We've heard this before. He's certainly not the first person to feel frustration with China, feeling they haven't done enough to try to calm them down. But the fact is North Korea does not listen to China at this point. Their relationship has never been this bad. Kim Jong-Un is not heeding what Beijing is saying. So, of course, it oversimplifies things to say China can sort this out. China is supporting stronger sanctions against North Korea. And, quite frankly, China doesn't want a weak North Korea that could potentially collapse and have 25 million refugees on their border.

And quickly, on South Korea, he mentioned once again those countries we're defending would have to pay for themselves and pay for their defense. We've heard from the U.S. military here that it is cheaper to have the 28,500 soldiers here in South Korea than back in the U.S., and South Korea is paying 50 percent of all personnel costs. So certainly that particular part is not correct.

Interesting, though, he didn't mention the nuclear weapons again. Remember in the past, he mentioned South Korea and Japan could potentially have nuclear weapons if the U.S. troops are pulled out. There was shock and disbelief in this part of the world when he mentioned that. He didn't mention that again tonight -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Fareed, it he was introduced to a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Afghanistan and the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, a man you and I know well. It gave it a sense of gravitas.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA, GPS: It did give it a sense of gravitas. But you also watch the exquisite balance the Republican establishment has to play in recognizing that Trump is now the front runner and being -- frankly, having mixed feelings about what he says. Khalilzad is himself the highest-serving Muslim- American in American history. He was ambassador to the United Nations with cabinet rank, which is a higher post than any Muslim-American has ever held.

And obviously, I had him on the show recently, and he was deeply uncomfortable with Trump's rhetoric about Muslims, the temporary ban, all that kind of thing. He's also very strongly an advocate of engagement and diplomacy. He wrote a piece which told about how the United States needs to negotiate more with Iran to try to get to some kind of agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and that that's one of the ways you're going to stabilize the Middle East, which is one of Trump's goals.

So it's -- it's a much more complicated world that the Republican establishment types have faced. They have been trying to do some of this. Remember, the Bush administration came in with a lot of tough rhetoric. We're just going to be strong, we're just going to do what we can, and the war turned out to be a somewhat unyielding place.

One final thought, Wolf. It's striking to me that Trump talks about America First all the time and uses that slogan. America First was, of course, the slogan of the brutal people who wanted to keep America out of World War II, the American isolationists of the '30s and '40s. That was their slogan, America First. And of course, what turned out to be case was putting America First meant America got dragged into a war at a time when it was unprepared and not in a situation to its advantage.

[13:55:50] BLITZER: Good point.

Admiral Stavridis, you are a retired NATO supreme allied commander, and you watched and listened closely. How are his words likely to be played, if you will, the reaction in the U.S. military?

STAVRIDIS: I think the U.S. military will like the part about let's increase our military strength, let's have more ships in the Navy. And truth be told, the U.S. military has been in decline overall. We're still highly capable. But I think that will play extremely well.

On the other hand, increasingly, I would say, in the military, we have felt that we're not going to kill our way to success. We're not going to be able to simply bomb our way to a solution. We've got to use hard power, absolutely, against these psychopathic thugs like the Islamic State. But the long game, Wolf, is that mix of hard power and soft power that some call smart power. I think that was missing from this message. And I think the U.S. military, as a body, as a fairly sophisticated group that knows we're not going to solve problems easily. H.L. Mencken said, "To every problem, there's a solution, easy, quick, simple and wrong." And simply bombing our way to victory is not going to work. Neither are building walls. We've got to engage globally if we're going to create real security, as Fareed just said.

BLITZER: Admiral, thank you very much.

Thanks to, everyone, for our special coverage.

I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

The news continues right after a quick break.

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