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Amanpour

FBI Searches Home and Office of John Bolton; Interview with The New York Times Columnist M. Gessen; Interview with Historian and Author Peter Frankopan Interview with Musician Jon Batiste; Trump Calls John Bolton a "Sleaze Bag". Aired 1-2p ET

Aired August 22, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. I'm Zain Asher in New York. An update on the breaking news we are following. The FBI is investigating

allegations that President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, mishandled classified information. FBI agents conducted

searches at both Bolton's home and his office today. The investigation is centered on a book Bolton wrote in 2020 that was highly critical of Trump.

Sources tell CNN investigators want to know if Bolton revealed classified information in that book and if he also leaked information to members of

the media or his clients. Earlier, President Trump said he didn't have any information on the search, but he did take the opportunity to criticize his

former national security adviser.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: He's not a smart guy, but he could be a very unpatriotic. I mean, we're going to find out. I know nothing about it. I

just saw it this morning. They did a raid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: We will continue to follow this breaking news throughout the day. For now, my colleague Bianna Golodryga is hosting "Amanpour" next.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome "Amanpour." Here's what's coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

M. GESSEN, COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK TIMES: This is Putin's negotiating position, it's basically blackmail and extortion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: A diplomatic flurry to end the war in Ukraine. But are we any closer to the peace President Trump promised? I asked New York Times

columnist, Masha Gessen and historian Peter Frankopan what's next for Ukraine.

Then --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON BATISTE, MUSICIAN: It's the sound of the people today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: -- Grammy Award-winning artist Jon Batiste tells me about his genre defying new album, "Big Money," and how he's reclaiming American

music.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody should be killed or like massacre for getting electricity or build a home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: -- as Israel approves plans to effectively split the West Bank into two, Christiane's conversation with the filmmakers behind award-

winning documentary, "No Other Land," which follows the long and deadly history of settler violence there.

Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York, sitting in for Christiane Amanpour.

One week, two landmark diplomatic meetings and seemingly no concrete progress made towards ending the war in Ukraine. President Trump may be

touting his peacemaking credentials, but it's Europe which is now left hashing out plans to keep Ukraine's land skies safe.

Russia meantime is playing coy about whether it will even turn up for the next round of talks, outlook to be between Zelenskyy and Putin directly. As

a diplomacy grinds on so does the fighting with soldiers on the frontline and civilians both paying the price.

So, what cards do Kyiv and its allies have left to play? And can the Kremlin's words even be trusted? Journalist Masha Gessen is a vocal critic

of both the Kremlin and Trump administration and Peter Frankopan is an Oxford University historian, specializing in Russia and the Balkans.

Welcome both of you.

So, Masha, let me start with you. This has been a quite a diplomatic frenzy of a week. We had last Friday where President Trump and President Putin met

in Alaska. President Trump literally rolling out the red carpet there. That was followed a few days later by understandably worried European allies

coming in also to back up President Zelenskyy for his meeting with President Trump. What, if any, takeaway did you have from this week? It is

fair to say that meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Trump ended up much better than it could have given what we saw last February.

M. GESSEN, COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, that's a low bar.

GOLODRYGA: Yes.

GESSEN: I mean, you know, last February, yes, Zelenskyy was basically thrown out of the White House for bringing up the issue of security

guarantees. This time under the influence, apparently, of European leaders, Trump actually used the word security guarantees as saying that they're

preconditioned for any kind of peace deal, which obviously they are, but that's the only indication we have of any kind of advance in the

conversation.

[13:05:00]

And frankly, we're still in the same place as we have been for three and a half years, which is that Russia has absolutely -- or rather, Putin has

absolutely no reason to negotiate. His -- this war -- he's now retooled his economy around this war. This war is the political center of his regime.

And he doesn't care about losing people, he doesn't care about the impact on the Russian economy that this war has had. All he cares about is the

war.

The only thing that could possibly bring him to negotiating in good faith or -- well, to negotiating in earnest, not in good faith, would be if he

faced the possibility of a military defeat. And he's actually farther from that than he has ever been.

GOLODRYGA: Right. Peter, that has actually led some to point out that his demands right now, in addition to Ukraine never joining NATO, was also

asking for -- and demanding all of the Donbas. And this was territory that in his previous meeting with Steve Witkoff, he wasn't asking for. We have

seen inroads made even at a very high price on the battlefield for Russia right now. So, what leverage, if any, does President Zelenskyy and I would

say European allies have in bringing President Putin to the negotiating table in earnest as Masha noted.

PETER FRANKOPAN, HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR: Well, as Masha said, not very much. You know, Zelenskyy and Ukraine have done the best they can to hold back

one of the biggest armies in the world and have done so heroically for the best part of three and a half years. So, there is a way in which high

levels of weapons supply through to Ukraine could have changed the balance sooner. It's not impossible, but that might happen in the future, but

nothing is going to happen for the next few weeks or months even if Trump decides to supply and Europeans agreed to pay.

So, I think there's no sense at all of an imminent breakthrough through pressure. It doesn't look like Trump is going to apply any military means.

So, the persuasive powers that he claims to have. And in fact, that's one of the reasons why Putin has, in fact, escalated his demands of what he

wants, which is essentially to create at least a Ukrainian puppet state or to take the country over altogether and dismantle it, not just through

denial of NATO membership, probably E.U. as well, but the stationing of Western troops in Ukraine too.

So, I think, in Europe, our challenge is to work out how do we pay for it? Are we willing to kind -- to supply the kind of military force and insist

that it gets Putin there to prevent Russia re-arming again? But as Masha said, the economics in Russia are catastrophic at the moment. I mean, just

to give some sense of scale, Russia is currently spending on its defense forces and its domestic security around six times what it's spending on

education and health combined.

So, the kitchen sink has been thrown into the subjugation of Ukraine. And although there are lots of things that are looking bad, terrible oil --

record high oil prices in Russia at the moment after installations have been bombed by Ukrainians, terrible harvest because of odd climate

conditions. We've seen that lots of parts of the world. Steel industries, property businesses, airports in Moscow are going bust or have gone bust.

So, all those metrics would say that Putin's mind should be quite focused.

So, he's got to do a balancing act of trying to make these demands and hope that the west folds, probably, if we can hold our position and the west can

dig in and put its money where its mouth is and drag this out, that pain in Russia could get worse, but it's going to take a long time. And that's

going to keep on going for a while.

GESSEN: I actually am not convinced that it's accurate that Putin escalated his demands. Putin has consistently asked for more land, or has,

I should say, demanded more land than Russia has been able to occupy militarily. And he has consistently said that the -- what he calls the

Zelenskyy regime, but we actually should call the democratically elected government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be deposed because he doesn't

recognize its legitimacy, which also throws into doubt any possibility that Putin would ever negotiate with Zelenskyy directly.

I also think that when we talk about the Russian economy, we tend to think that a worse economy is worse for Putin and worse for the war. But

historically, that hasn't been true. Historically, totalitarian regimes, in general, and the Soviet and Russian regimes in particular have thrived on

hardship and have thrived on war.

In general, economic misery is good for autocratic rule. It -- people focus on survival. They're terrified of changing anything. Sort of in the western

imagination, if the economy gets worse, then people are out in the street, banging their empty pots and the dictator is toppled. That's not usually

what happens.

[13:10:00]

GOLODRYGA: Right. Instead, you note, Masha, that in that scenario you have a public that rallies around the regime and expresses its anger and ire

towards those who are imposing the economic costs and the sanctions. So, if sanctions aren't something that you think, at this point, will rattle

Vladimir Putin, Masha, you along with others, don't think that he is anywhere near wanting to see this war come to an end.

So, aside from military might, and that may include U.S. support, I'm not sure what the president means when he says that he's going to offer

security guarantees, but we know that boots on the ground are not an option for President Trump and we know that he is very hesitant about continuing

to supply Ukraine with aid. Yes, he may sell aid to the western allies than to give to Ukraine, but in terms of another bill that the U.S. taxpayers

will be funding for more aids in a supplemental, that's not down the pike either. So, what are the options here for Ukraine?

GESSEN: There really aren't any options here for Ukraine. Ukraine has these allies. The -- all of NATO, supposedly the United States, and it

terrified Europe because European countries know that they're next the next targets of Putin's aggression.

But that allyship has not translated into sufficient military help to not just hold the frontline, which Ukrainians have, as Peter said, been doing

heroically, but to actually threaten Russia with military defeat. NATO has that capability. The western powers have that capability. The United States

alone has that capability. They have chosen not to use it. They have basically taken the position that as long as it's just Ukrainians dying in

a battlefield, and as long as Putin doesn't advance too close to Western Europe they're going to be satisfied or reasonably satisfied with the

status quo.

Putin knows this, Zelenskyy knows this. I don't know if Trump knows this, but he's acting in accordance with this position.

GOLODRYGA: Peter, what do you make of that? Because in terms of additional western support and defense provided for Ukraine, if there is indeed a

ceasefire and a pause in the fighting, there had been some worrying headlines from the Pentagon that those guarantees that the U.S. said that

they would provide are minimal at best, and the reliance would be heavily focused on what the Europeans and the so-called coalition of the willing

would be willing to put up. How are you viewing how Europe is responding and do you agree with Masha that they could be doing more on their own?

FRANKOPAN: Well, we certainly talk a lot and promise to do things, but we don't deliver. I mean, we could have escalated this in 2014, or in fact, we

should have seen the writing on the wall with 2008 invasion of Georgia. But we are where we are.

I mean, just to put some -- again, to put some context, since Zelenskyy met Trump in the White House on Monday, there'd been a thousand missile drone

launches at Ukraine by Russia, more than 600 in the last 24 hours alone.

GOLODRYGA: The largest. The largest, we should note. And I'm sorry to interrupt. This is the largest attack in recent weeks that we've seen from

Russia, some 40 crews and ballistic missiles, 574 drones this week alone.

FRANKOPAN: What I'd also say is that in the context of all of what's going on, this is also -- there's a 3D (INAUDIBLE) chess match going on. So, this

morning, at a meeting in Moscow, and we've had the Indian foreign minister saying next five years is going to be a time where India trade with Russia

is going to go up by 50 percent in the next five years. So, we've seen also the role that China plays, North Korea, other countries and the rest of the

world that some have taken very ambiguous views on supporting Ukraine, including many supporting what Russia's been doing.

So, Putin's position is one that he knows that he has a strong hand to play and is going to take advantage of doing that while we sit and have cups of

coffee deciding what we might do next and whether we've even got the political bravery to do so or the economic resources to pay for it.

GESSEN: I would add that this headline, the largest barrage of the largest -- the highest number of missiles and drones fired at Ukraine, this has

been a constant for the last several months. On many nights, fire -- on may nights Russia fires more missiles, more drones at Ukraine than it ever has

before. So, it's demonstrating that it has vast supplies thanks to its allies who helping it manufacture drones and that it's ready to just keep

pounding Ukraine. This is Putin's negotiating position. It's basically blackmail and extortion.

[13:15:00]

And I agree with Peter that it's really important to think about the -- Russia's other -- Russia's allies and imagine what the world looks like to

Vladimir. From the western point of view, it looks like Putin is alone fighting against all of the west. From Russia, it looks like the west is a

small part of the world that is objecting to this righteous war that Putin is fighting with the support of India, with the support of China -- or with

the consent of China, with the support of the Global South and of much of Latin America. He's waging a righteous, anti-imperialist, anti-American

war.

So, not only does he feel not threatened on the battlefield, he feels right. He feels like he's representing this what he thinks of as the as the

traditional values civilization. And he has the courage of his convictions to fight this war and to fight it for as long as it takes.

GOLODRYGA: And the goal to continue to focus on and try to convince President Trump of his own insecurities when it comes to domestic politics

here in the United States as well, I do want to ask you your thoughts coming out of that summit on Friday in Alaska, when all of a sudden,

President Trump came out and said that he wanted to see a ban on mail-in ballots and mail-in voting, because as he said, it came up in the

conversation with President Putin, where Putin essentially said one of the reasons you lost the 2020 election unfairly was because of mail-in ballots.

Let's play sound from President Trump here on that point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said, you can't have an honest election with mail-in voting. And he said, there's not a

country in the world that uses it now.

You'll never have an honest election if you have mail-in, and it's time that the Republicans get tough and stop it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: OK. Well, let's just wrong. A number of countries use it, including U.S. as close as allies from Canada to Great Britain, but that's

beside the point. Masha, quickly, you and Peter weighing in on your thoughts on that.

GESSEN: OK. So, two things. One is that not only do a lot of countries in the world use mail-in ballots, Russia has recently introduced widespread

mail-in ballots. So, Putin is playing Trump, and he's having a good time doing it.

I want to point out another thing that happened when Trump was talking to Zelenskyy, actually when they were talking to the press before their

meeting, Zelenskyy said, we can't have elections during the war. Trump suddenly said, wait a second. Did you say we can't have elections during

the war?

GOLODRYGA: Yes, I noticed that.

GESSEN: So, like in three and a half years, if this country has a war, we don't have elections. Trump is getting a lot of ideas about how to secure

his own autocratic rule from these negotiations, which is horrifying to watch, but it also tells us what his real priorities are.

FRANKOPAN: Vladimir Putin was an intelligent operative before he rose the -- climb the greasy poll of politics. So, he knows exactly how to play

people's buttons. And so, all he needs to do every time he sees Trump is talk about the election 2020, to mention Hunter Biden's name, and to talk

about the ways in which Obama got the whole crisis wrong in 2014. And those are the talking points Trump keeps coming back to because if you understand

what makes people tick, then you prod them where it hurts. And Putin's been very effective doing that to Trump.

GOLODRYGA: And to give him a counterfactual win by saying, yes, I probably wouldn't have invaded this war, wouldn't have started if you had been

president, because that is also music to President Trump's ears.

All right. Masha Gessen, Peter Frankopan, thank you so much. Really appreciate this conversation.

GESSEN: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And coming up for us, the Grammy Award-winning musician, Jon Batiste, is back with his new album, "Big Money." I sit down with him to

discuss reclaiming black music and identity and the sound of new Americana. That's after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:00]

GOLODRYGA: His work defies genres, and now he's taking on a new one with what he calls new Americana music. Grammy Award-winning artist Jon Batiste

wrote his latest album, "Big Money," in just a few weeks while touring with his band. It's an effort to repatriate the work of black musicians,

something that's evident in the title track.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: We sat down to talk about the new album, and he delighted us right from the start.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GOLODRYGA: I just want to listen to you sing. I don't even want to do an interview.

JON BATISTE, MUSICIAN: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Amazing that you're coming with this energy early in the morning.

BATISTE: You got to have it.

GOLODRYGA: Jon Batiste, good to see you.

BATISTE: It's great to see.

GOLODRYGA: Welcome to the program. Thanks for being here.

BATISTE: I'm glad to be here with you.

GOLODRYGA: "Big Money."

BATISTE: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Let's talk about "Big Money." You describe "Big Money" as an Americana blue statement and coined the term new Americana.

BATISTE: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: What does that mean? What is new Americana music?

BATISTE: It's the sound of the people today. Our history evolves and changes as we change and evolve, and we understand history in different

ways and the perspective of the past then changes by the way that we shape our lives today. A lot of terms in music have been there, and I think they

need redefinition or refinement.

And I think about Americana and what does that mean and what is the identity of the music of our people today, of America and also of the

world, not just America. When we think about music, it's universal. It's the universal language. So, how do you speak to people in this time? You

know, there's persecution at its highest degree, and we are in a moment where the golden rule still applies.

Persecution has no gender. It has no age. It has no race. No one is exempt. No one is exempt of it. So, it could be you next time. So, while it's not

you, it's your duty to love on those who are going through it and to be there and to kind of -- it's one of the first song on the album, it's

called "Lean On My Love." You know, and you've been taking the high road solo for way too long, Sunday to Sunday, come back to where you belong.

This is how I know it's time to let it go. You can lean on my love.

These are the kind of very authentic messages and authentic topics, and the approach to the standard way of recording. When recording first began, and

RCA Victor came up with this technological advancement that was able to record a moment and capture lightning in a bottle. We did the record in the

same way of the early American pioneers where, you know, it's me in the room with the band, singing these songs that we recorded in less -- you

know, about two weeks.

GOLODRYGA: Two weeks. That's insane. Two weeks. You can't do anything in two weeks and you recorded an album.

BATISTE: The history -- Americana as we know it, and music of America, music of the world, the cultures of the world and all the music that are

foundational were captured by farmers and sharecroppers and everyday people in the community, and they didn't know at the time that they were making

the blueprint. So, I thought about it more like that.

GOLODRYGA: Is there a lot of pressure in the industry for finding the next big thing as opposed to doing what you're doing right now and talking about

going back and really listening and really focusing on all of the different levels and elements of music and genres of music that got us to this point

today?

[13:25:00]

BATISTE: Well, there's always something about music that when you really tap into it purely. And everybody's in the same room, breathing the same

air, playing around a couple microphones and capturing the energy of collective expression, of communities being together, when you have that

opportunity to really share that it doesn't matter what's hip or what is the moment, it is deeper than that.

So, I love when I make music like this. Sometimes we'll make something that we're trying to kind of push things forward and make it, this is pushing

things forward from a different perspective, from going back to basics. We got to go back to go forward. We got to recalibrate to really know what the

next phase of things is. So, that's what I wanted to do with this project in particular.

GOLODRYGA: Well, every song on this album, I mean, you got jazz, blues, gospel, reggae, you've got it all here. And I was struck by a quote that

you gave to Rolling Stone, where you talk about how you came to this album. And while you appreciate other contributions around the world. The

contributions that Americans have made to our music is really notable. And you say, I love the Beatles, but how did this thing called rock and roll

that was invented by a bunch of black sharecroppers and farmers in the South and then spearheaded by Little Richard and Fats Domino and Chuck

Berry in depth being seen as the result of the British invasion?

BATISTE: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Talk more about that and the sort of unsung heroes and voices that brought American music where it is in this world.

BATISTE: There's a beautiful thing that happens when people don't know that they're being watched and they're not trying to be famous. We are in

this time where creatives and artists really have to be very careful not to let their light be dimmed or to be discouraged by the way that -- you know,

at one point it was primarily about greatness. And then fame replaced greatness. And now, attention has replaced fame.

So, the things that connect, the things that just grab your -- even if it's outlandish, even if it's a spectacle, even if it's something that has no

skill required, those things, whether it is in the creative arts, whether it's in many different mediums, that's the time we're in right now.

And when you go back to see what actually led to the foundations of great art and great music, it was people expressing themselves authentically and

truly from a very pure place without motive of what can sell or what can become a movement or what can catch on. So, that's what I mean. The music

is never just one band or one person or one -- this is a collective continuum of human expression.

GOLODRYGA: You've talked about this album in particular, "Big Money," as part of a repatriation process.

BATISTE: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Explain more about what that means.

BATISTE: It's been happening. It's very interesting to see the process of how it's been happening just with colleagues of mine and the idea of what

it means to make music and what we are striving for is shifting for those who -- in the music industry that still care about making music, which is a

minority, but to make music, to really be a musician.

GOLODRYGA: That's a real statement.

BATISTE: To be an artist. And to not just play with music or to even degrade music for the sake of the attention economy. You know, it can be a

real drag if you actually believing in the music, but those who are in it and love it and want to, you know, it's power and know it can connect to

folks. We're seeing this repatriation of sounds and rhythms and these things that were of the past and relics of a time that maybe was

misunderstood or we thought there was one face to it or one sound.

And actually, there's this whole lineage that people are delving into and being really musically archeological and anthropological, and that's what

I've always enjoyed, my process, what I call social music and my expression of music has always been how do we take these aspects of who we are

collectively throughout time, these older sounds and dig as deep as we can into those and recontextualize them and connect the dots between them in

the modern age, that's what I really loved about, you know, working with Beyonce on "Cowboy Carter."

[13:30:00]

And when we composed "American Requiem" and put that together as just the - - all the people who were involved in that, in the way that the album comes together, that's a form of repatriation. The way she's kind of thought

about the narrative and the tour and brought up Linda Martell and all those -- you know, in the same way on this album, I have a song about Ray Charles

and "Lonely Avenue" is something that we recorded with --

GOLODRYGA: With Randy Newman.

BATISTE: -- Randy Newman. And there's a sense of these songs and these sounds and these traditions, these rituals, and how do we bring them to

bear today, because they still have great meaning and great power.

So, you know, I've been on that train for many years and I'm glad to see it is something that exists in the work of many in this time that is very

exciting to see where it will go and how it will influence the next generation what they create and what they think is possible, what's popular

culture, what's the -- what is the aim of making an album?

GOLODRYGA: You've also said that "Big Money," in your view, contributed to Stephen Colbert and his show being taken off the air. You worked with him

for many years, up until, I believe, 2022.

BATISTE: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Why do you think that is? How has "Big Money," in your view, impacted the cancellation of your show?

BATISTE: Well, I think that there's so much that I can say about my time on the show. Seven years. I'm starting on the show in my 20s. I'm coming

out of college maybe three years before the show. It's kind of my post-grad school degree in all things television.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Typical first job out of school. Yes. Late night band leader.

BATISTE: I mean -- it was --

GOLODRYGA: Number one show, but go ahead. Yes. Continue the modesty.

BATISTE: High octane.

GOLODRYGA: Yes.

BATISTE: It is very much a formative time for me. So, I just have a great deal of respect for him and what he does and who he is off camera as a

person. He's got the right values and just to see the show go off the air and to really know what it means to people who, you know, over seven years

of being on the show, going around, folk coming up to you and expressing what his voice and what your music and my voice at the time on the show.

GOLODRYGA: You've been hearing that?

BATISTE: I'd been hearing for many years while I was on the show and after I left. So, I just know how much it means to the community out there as

well. It's just tough to see that happen to your friend, you know?

GOLODRYGA: Yes. He's got a future ahead of him. I'm not too worried about what happens to him.

BATISTE: We're not worried about him. He's -- he'll do just fine.

GOLODRYGA: And what about --

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Paula Newton in New York. Right now, U.S. President Donald Trump is in the Oval Office. He has taken questions

from reporters. Let's listen.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: -- get involved in it. I'm not a fan of John Bolton. I thought it was a sleazebag actually. And he suffers major Trump

derangement syndrome, but so do a lot of people and they're not being affected by anything we do. I don't know anything about it. I saw -- just

saw that. I'll find out about it. But if you believe the news, which I do, I guess his house was raided today.

But my house was raided also, called Mar-a-Lago. They went through everything they could, including my young son's room and my wife's area.

They went through her drawers, as the expression goes. They went through everything you can imagine. And when she came back, she looked, she said --

she's very neat, you know, she's meticulous. And she looked and she said, whoa, this wasn't the way that she had it. So, you know -- so, I know the

feeling. It's not a good feeling. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, on Ukraine, how long will you give Putin --

TRUMP: A couple of weeks. We're going to figure it out. We'll find it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think you'll have to intervene at some point?

TRUMP: Look, it takes two to tango. You understand that? I wanted to have a meeting with those two. I could have been at the meeting, but -- and a

lot of people think that nothing's going to come out of that meeting. You have to be there. Maybe that's true, maybe it's not. But we're going to

see.

In the meantime, people continue to die. But I solved seven of them where they were in wars for 31, 35 and 37 years. We had three of them that were

for more than 30 years, Johnny, and I got them solved. And we solved one that could have been a nuclear war with India and Pakistan. That was

getting ready to be a nuclear war. I solved them all.

And this one, I thought we would've had it done by now, but it's a -- it's more different. There's a lot of anger, a lot of hatred. There's a

tremendous amount of hatred there. So -- but we'll see what happens. I think in two weeks we'll know which way I'm going. Because I'm going to go

one way or the other, and they'll learn which way I'm going.

[13:35:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, I've got two questions for you, one on FIFA, the other one on D.C. Let's talk -- can you talk about the economic

impact that FIFA will have in these cities and what's your message to the mayors to get their cities prepared? Not only the beautification process,

but also the safety aspect?

TRUMP: Well, Los Angeles is an example. You know, it's poorly run. We have a mayor there that can't even get permits to the people that lost their

houses. Lee Zeldin got every permit. The hardest permit is the federal permit. Within 20 days, every single permit was there for the people to

build their houses. But people are writing us and they're saying they won't give us -- the mayor is incompetent. The governor's incompetent.

You know Gavin -- I know Gavin very well. He's an incompetent guy with a good line of bullshit, and he doesn't get the job done. And frankly, those

people want to build their houses. It's terrible. They could have been built. Some of them could have been built already. But think of it, the

federal government that has the most complex part -- it is the most complex environmental thing to do. We got it -- everybody had it within 30 days,

and they're not even close to getting their permits. And now, they're talking about taking some of those sites and building low-income housing on

them. These are high-end neighborhoods.

And I'm all for low-income housing. I built a lot of low-income housing. I know all about 236. I know every program that there is in the government. I

used every one of them. I know more about low-income housing than probably almost anybody. And it's great. It's fine. It's wonderful. But you don't

build it in Pacific Palisades. You don't build it there and you don't build it in the other areas that burn down. So, they're talking about putting up

low-income housing.

and you talk about riots. They're going to have riots if that happens. because you're taking the people's property away. They want to build their

houses and they're unable to get permits from the mayor and from the governor, and that's a terrible thing.

But -- and let me tell you, if I didn't send in the troops in Los Angeles, Johnny wouldn't be in Los Angeles. You wouldn't be having your World Cup

there. I sent in the troops and we kept it. And even the police commissioner, the sheriff, and the police commissioner, they all said the

same thing. They said, we could have never handled what was happening. You saw that. You were there. He said we could have never handled what was

happen.

And then you hear Gavin Newsom -- after it's all quell, you know, Newsom get up and say, we could have done this by themselves. No, they couldn't

have. And if they could have, I wouldn't have taken the chance either.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. My second question is on crime prevention, would you be open to expanding the national concealed carry to apply to D.C. like

it does in other states like Texas?

TRUMP: Yes. Well, they have it in some states and they feel strongly about it. I -- you know, as you know, I'm in favor of it. People have to protect

themselves. I'm a Second Amendment person. Very simply. People have to be able to protect themselves. Especially like in Washington, you walk down

the street, a guy comes up and slugs you. He's got a pistol in his hand. You can be tough. You can be in great shape. You can be a powerful person,

or you can be a guy that weighs a hundred pounds with a gun in your hand. And I'll bet on the guy with a gun a hundred percent of the time, right?

And so, you need protection. So, I'm a Second Amendment person all the way. Yes, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump, you said this morning that you are working with Congress to get $2 billion to help clean up D.C. Have you had

any conversations with Mike Johnson and John Thune about where they're going to get that money from?

TRUMP: Which money?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said this morning that you're going to get $2 billion from Congress to help clean up D.C.

TRUMP: Yes, I've spoken to Mike Johnson. I've spoken to John Thune, the Senate, the House, and I think it's going to be very easy to get. It's

going to be not a lot of money. I wouldn't even know where to spend the number that you mentioned, but it's going to be money to beautify the city.

Yes, they're ready.

Everybody wants to save D.C. In one way it's the easiest. The violence was more than any other city in the country, actually, by far. It may have been

more than any other city in the world. If you could think. You know, we looked at some of the worst cities in the world, it was worse. And that's

why it angers me to see the mayor saying about how they have it on the slide, not on the slide. It was worse than ever.

Yes, we have no problem getting that money. That money will come out of Congress. I think it'll be even bipartisan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And is the plan to --

TRUMP: I mean, I would imagine Democrats would vote for that one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the plan to get it before the September 30 spending deadline on the Hill?

TRUMP: Well, I don't know if there is a headline -- a deadline because if I declare a national emergency, which this was, that ends the deadline. So,

I mean, I keep seeing about a 30-day deadline of which we have 22 days left or something. But if I think we're in great shape here, that's one thing.

But if I don't, I'm going to just say it's a national emergency. And if I have a national emergency, I can keep the troops there as long as I want.

If people are not going to want to have the troops in 30 days, you know, it's one thing to get them out, it's another thing to keep them out for a

long period of time. You've got to train people. You can't do this. You can't bop people over their head. And a lot of those people are in courts

right now, going to court. They're going to go to jail for a long time. So, that's going to take more than 30 days.

[13:40:00]

But if I have to, I'll declare a national emergency, which I don't think I'll have to do. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, can I ask question that at two weeks you'll know whether you go --

TRUMP: Yes, I think I'll know. I think I'll know the attitude of Russia and frankly of Ukraine. It takes two.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are the two ways you can go at the end of two weeks then?

TRUMP: Well, then I'm going to make a decision as to what we do. And it's going to be a very important decision. And that's whether or not it's

massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both or do we do nothing and say, it's your fight.

Look, I would've never been in this war if I were president. You wouldn't have had this war. It was never going to happen. This was caused by stupid

people that fought. And you know, people say, well, how do we know? Because for four years it was never even a subject. And Vladimir knew, and you see

his picture right here was nice that he sent, but Vladimir knew very strongly he -- we wouldn't have stood for it. It wouldn't have happened. A

hundred percent wouldn't have happened, but it did happen.

And now, they're losing from five to seven young kids. Think of it, your parent and your son is leaving. He's Russian or he is Ukrainian and he's

leaving and they're waving it goodbye nice, beautiful kid, nice crewcut, all said he wants to be a soldier. And he goes there his first week, he has

his head blown off and he's no different than you people, me. And it doesn't matter where.

I mean, I solved a problem in the Congo that was vicious, Rwanda and the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, and they were fighting for 31 years and

it was machetes. People were getting their heads chopped off. That was going over 31 years. I got it off. You saw it. They came to the White House

that we signed an agreement. It was amazing. People can't believe we got it done.

I love to stop killing. I really do. People thought it would be just the opposite. Hillary Clinton said, oh, he'll get us into a war. No, I'm

getting everybody else out of war.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you saying there's a real possibility then that you do nothing if Putin doesn't come to the table for ceasefire --

TRUMP: I'll see whose fault it is. If there are reasons why, I'll understand that. I know exactly what I'm doing. We're going to see whether

or not they have a meeting. That'll be interesting to see. And if they don't, why didn't they have a meeting? because I told them to have a

meeting. But I'll know in two weeks what I'm going to do. Yes. Pretty good idea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your Justice Department is also sending some of the Epstein files over to the House Oversight Committee today. Are you --

TRUMP: That's OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you in support of them releasing all of them?

TRUMP: It's important to keeping it open.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they wanted to release --

TRUMP: Innocent people shouldn't be hurt. But I'm in support of keeping it totally open. I couldn't care less. You got a lot of people that it could

be mentioned in those files that don't deserve to be, you know, people. Because he knew everybody in Palm Beach. I don't know anything about that,

but I have said to Pam and everybody else, give them everything you can give him.

Because it's a Democrat hoax. That's just a hoax. The whole Epstein thing is a Democrat hoax. So, we had the greatest six months, seven months in the

history of the presidency, and the Democrats don't know what to do, so they keep bringing up that stuff, but it affected them.

The -- Bill Clinton was on his plane and went to the island supposedly 28 times. I don't want to bring that up, frankly. You have Larry, whatever his

name is, Summers the head of Harvard, who was Jeffrey Epstein's best friend. Nobody ever talks about that. I mean, I -- but I don't want to hurt

Larry Summers. But he was best friends with Jeffrey Epstein.

No, this is a Democratic hoax to try and get. The significance of what we've done over the past seven months, nobody's ever seen anything like it.

They say it's number one in history, what we've done, including stopping seven wars. I mean, just include that. And now, you look at the stock

market today, it's way up to start off with from where I took it. And this market was going to crash.

If Joe Biden or Kamala were president, this market would've -- we would've had a crash like in 1929. You're not going to have that. It's only a

question of how high is it going to go. You know, I had the strongest economy in the history of our country. And despite COVID, we had the

strongest economy in the history of our country, and we're going to blow it away this time. I was always good at making a lot of money, and whether it

was for myself or whether it was -- I liked doing it this way better.

I mean, I like making it for the country. Our country's been ripped off by friend and foe, nations all over the world ripped off, and the friends have

been much worse than the foes for the most part. And they're not ripping us off. We just signed a deal with the European Union. They're paying us

essentially $950 billion, like a signing fee. They're going to buy $750 billion worth of energy. They weren't buying much of our energy there. And

--

[13:45:00]

(CNN NEWS CENTRAL SIMULCAST)

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