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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Trump Sends Mixed Messages On Help For Paralyzed Strait Of Hormuz; Allies Rebuff Trump's Call To Help Secure Strait Of Hormuz; Now: Trump, Vance Address War In Iran. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired March 16, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:03]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Still, this band of severe storms that has left a lot of snow in the Midwest but has now moved east, with some tornado threats in much of that area across the East Coast. We'll keep our eye on it.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: Yeah, more -- much to keep an eye on.
"THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT" starts right now
(MUSIC)
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's great to have you with us on this Monday.
As we come on the air, the crisis in the strait of Hormuz is escalating as President Donald Trump waffles sometimes by the minute on whether the U.S. expects or needs or even wants help in securing the critical waterway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we ever needed help, they won't be there for us. I've just known that for a long period of time.
We have some that are really enthusiastic they're coming already.
This is a need -- need would be one of the big boys. If we need their mine boats or if we need anything -- any piece of apparatus that they may have because of a situation that they have, they should be jumping to help us.
We want them to come and help us with the straight.
My attitude is we don't need anybody. We're the strongest nation in the world. We have the strongest military by far in the world. We don't need them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Did you follow that? We had a hard time following that. Let's underscore. We're now more than two weeks into this war. Oil and gas prices only climbing. The national average now $3.70 a gallon for gas. That is more than $0.75 higher than it was just a month ago. That has the administration looking for any way to get more oil flowing as soon as possible.
Sources tell CNN that U.S. officials are looking to rally support for an international coalition to secure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. And this morning, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the U.S. military is allowing Iranian oil tankers to use the strait even as Iran vows to keep it closed to American and Israeli ships.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: We are seeing more and more the fuel ships start to go through. The Iranian ships have been getting out already, and we've let that happen to supply the rest of the world. We think that there will be a natural opening that the Iranians are letting out. And for now, we're fine with that. We want the world to be well supplied.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Let's get off the sidelines, head into THE ARENA. My panel is here.
We're also joined by CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene.
So, Alayna, setting aside or maybe not setting aside, but having listened to the president of the United States earlier talk about whether or not he needs help from other countries to get the oil through the strait, where is the White House on whether they want additional countries to join this coalition to help us do that? I mean, do they or don't they?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They do. And from my conversations, Kasie, with White House officials, Trump administration officials, they seem relatively confident that they will be able to get an international coalition together on this at some point soon. Of course, the open questions are who will that actually consist of and what exactly are they going to be committing to? Those are still unanswered.
But what has been so interesting to me is you've heard an extreme amount of caution thus far from a lot of U.S. allies who have been asked to heed the presidents calls here and help reopen the strait. You've heard from Germany, who essentially said that he does not see NATO assuming accountability for this or responsibility for the Strait of Hormuz.
You heard from the U.K., Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He was saying that the U.K. will not get drawn into a war with Iran. And then you also heard, even outside of NATO from the Japanese. The Japanese prime minister, I should note, is actually going to be here at the White House meeting with the president later this week. Them also saying that they are very cautious to be involved in this. And so, it is a huge question of whether or not this is actually going to be a successful effort.
But the argument that has been made to me, Kasie, and you've heard this a bit from the president as well as they argue that the United States is not as dependent on oil from the Strait of Hormuz, from that key waterway in the Persian Gulf as other allies are and so really should be in some ways up to them to help police it.
But I think to a greater extent as well, this is a this is an extraordinary amount of pressure that the president is putting on these allies. And he's also, I think, as someone who has in the past mused with this idea of withdrawing U.S. support for NATO. I mean, this is a very ominous and serious warning from the president here.
But all to be said, what I can also say is there is also a lot of concern within that, within those walls, in that building behind me from top administration officials about what this means. If the Strait of Hormuz continues to remain closed as it is now and there is, of course, a huge amount of risk that is kind of accompanies what the president as asking for -- this idea of naval ships, of other countries' warships trying to escort these tankers through the strait, particularly while Iran is continuing to launch projectiles at them. And so, this is something that is going to continue to be messy for some time.
HUNT: Messy, indeed.
All right. Alayna Treene for us at the White House -- Alayna, thanks very much for that.
My panel is here in THE ARENA. CNN political director, Washington bureau chief, David Chalian, CNN political commentator, former DNC senior advisor and communications director, Xochitl Hinojosa, the former Republican governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker.
And we're also joined by David Sanger. He is CNN political and national security analyst. And of course, top national security writer at "The New York Times".
And David, I want to start with you, because of course, you have this piece. It's headlined, "Entering wars third week, Trump faces stark choices", and you essentially say that he can fight on or he can try to declare victory while actually stepping back. There are incredible challenges to each path.
And then, of course, you heard what he had to say. Today was a little bit all over the place in terms of what kind of help he's looking for from the rest of the world, and what kind of punishments he may want to mete out to allies that don't do what he wants.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, that's right, Kasie, and you know, the choice that he faces is that if he leaves now and he didn't sound today like he's preparing to do that, then he's left with an Iran that is still run by a clerical government, the son of the supreme leader. We believe that he is really truly in charge. We think he's injured.
He's left with an Iran that is angry, still run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, still has its nuclear fuel around. And finally, still clearly has access to some weapons because they were being shot at U.S. allies today, they may not have anywhere near as many as they did.
What I think we learned from the president today were a few things. First, he recognizes this is going to be a long haul and that's why he needs allies. Second this is not a president who has exactly nurtured allies along the way and didn't consult them on the way in. So, it's no big surprise that they're saying they don't want to get drawn in now. I thought it was interesting that the German chancellor said that NATO was a defensive organization and this was not a defensive war, as if NATO had been attacked.
And then I think the third thing we learned is that in this test that he is setting up, he may be on the way to a confrontation, both with the Japanese prime minister, who as you heard, Alayna said, is going to be at the White House in just 72 hours. And with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who hasn't really responded. And the White House is already saying that he's likely to delay the big trip to China, which was only about two weeks away.
And so, I think we're all putting away our visas for a little while.
HUNT: Yeah, it's a good way to put it. I mean, David, the German chancellor is, is really an interesting figure in all this. I mean, when you and I were both in Munich, it was clear that the Germans were trying to understand and kind of work in within the Trump power structure by, in some ways taking themselves out of it, by making Europe stronger.
Do you see what they're doing as part of that?
SANGER: Well, it may be, but I think he's serious about not wanting to be drawn into a bigger confrontation because as I note at the end of that very lengthy piece that you kindly mentioned before, there are two big decisions ahead for Israel in the United States one is whether to take Kharg Island which is the production sort of loading center for all of the oil that Iran has going out. And that would be a big decision. It would mean the U.S. would be seizing the oil, something that's got an appeal to the president, but could also lead to a really long confrontation.
And the second is whether to go in after the nuclear fuel that's deep in a mountain in Isfahan and perhaps tucked away in some other places. And that would be an enormously risky commando operation because getting in there would be really hard and getting out would be even harder. So I think the Germans, the Japanese, other Europeans fear that they're then allied with the U.S. while it's busy doing potential ground action in the future in Iran.
HUNT: Really remarkable state of affairs.
I mean, David Chalian, from a political perspective, I mean, President Trump putting ground troops in Iran is in so many ways the opposite of what he campaigned, saying he was going to do and there's real political risk for him.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: There is political risk. I mean, we would have to see, as you know President Trump has reserved that option, not taking it off the table as a no commander in chief would sort of take that entirely off the table. But what that would look like and how large a force and how specific a mission will all factor into the how the politics play out.
But to hear Alayna say that President Trump and his team are applying a huge amount of pressure on these allies to get on board here, I think reflects the huge amount of pressure Donald Trump is under right now as it relates to the overall mission here. You know, economic pressure, political pressure, and all of his own choosing to go forward with this action and join with Israel on this.
And so, I think one side of the equation reflects what's happening on the other side of this.
HUNT: Governor Walker, what is your sense of -- I mean, the Republican Party has been with Donald Trump to the hilt, right? I mean, some of the early polling shows, many of them still are supporting him. But there are fractures certainly in MAGA world. Is it continuing to fracture as we see this go on day by day? How do you sense where things are standing?
SCOTT WALKER (R), FORMER WISCONSIN GOVERNOR: I don't think it's the timing as much as the next step. We talked on this show months ago when the bunker buster budget -- the bunker busters, so that quickly, five times, were going in. And I said at the time there was a poll I thought he was consistent with the polls showing that most Americans did not want a long -- long intense battle. At the same time, they didn't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I think that is just as consistent polling, just as accurate.
Now amongst Republicans or Make America Great Again, folks. I think with Americans in general, they don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. They were concerned about that, but they don't want this long never ending war. And so, his key to sustain that within the party, but within the country, to not see a big drop off is not to have ground troops, not to have this go on forever. That's harder. That's much harder to do than to say.
And if preventing them from retaining nuclear material means sending Americans in, do you think he ultimately has support for that from Republicans?
WALKER: I think it becomes much tougher. I think we saw the bunker buster go in. People like that it was in and out I think the initial reaction, most people were pretty favorable about if this is troops going on the ground there, I think that's where it starts to fly with the things he said.
People said, nah, he's going against his perspective. He didn't say he would never take action. He talked about endless wars. And if this starts going on for months and months and months, it starts falling in that category.
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. And I think also, this is why you heard from the White House. Oh, this could last for weeks, six weeks, et cetera. And they continue to say that they're pushing the timeline a little bit more.
But if this is not, and I think this is why the Republican Party is willing to stick with him for a little bit, because he is saying this is about four weeks.
What I find interesting are the political pressures that you were just referring to is he is facing pressure, and that is why he's going to our allies. The problem with that is that over the last year and Trump's I think overall view on the presidency has been this whole like I alone can fix it. He did this in his 2016 speech at the convention, whenever he accepted the nomination.
But that's how Trump has gone about his presidency, whether it be the last one or this one. And that's how he's gone about our relationship with NATO allies. And so now what's happening, whether it be Greenland, whether it be tariffs, whether it be going on true social and bashing our allies, now he is finding he is in a situation where he needs to ask them for help.
You saw -- you played the video there a little while ago where it's unclear. He's nervous about asking them for help and he certainly doesn't like it. It's not something he's used to doing.
HUNT: He doesn't seem to want to be in a position where he's looking like he needs help, right?
HINOJOSA: He needs help. Exactly. That is not what Trump does and so now were finding that he does need that will our allies come through? They need him for certain things. Who knows?
But maybe he should have thought about embracing our allies over the last year instead of alienating them.
CHALIAN: He also repeated the claim today that he doesn't think they'll ever be there for the United States at the end of the day which, of course, that the only time that Article Five was invoked was in the aftermath of 9/11, when those allies were indeed there for the United States.
WALKER: That's where I think the balance is. He's right when he says we don't need him. On one hand, it just makes it a lot harder on the other hand, he's also right in that other instance where he said, we'd like to have them. So, the reality is it'd be easier if they were there. United States could probably do it without the allies.
But in the end, to keep this from going on forever, you probably do need the allies in this case.
HUNT: Yeah. David, the behind the scenes with Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance is one of the more interesting elements of this. And I just want to touch on it briefly. We're going to hear from J.D. Vance shortly but Rubio seems to be someone who really is kind of on the ascent behind the scenes.
CHALIAN: I mean, not even behind the scenes, like out in front. Donald Trump is talking about that quite publicly, how reliant upon Marco Rubio he's been throughout the Venezuela situation, and now in Iran and what have you.
And we know J.D. Vance's politics talking about sort of the resistance inside -- I mean, J.D. Vance's politics is to not be aligned with this kind of action necessarily. And so, he also now is sort of cozying up to the president and showing that he's fully aligned here publicly with the president.
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Obviously, he doesn't want to talk about what their conversations were in private, which is a totally appropriate thing to say.
But Rubio has been the guy that Trump has been sort of identifying as the front man, and he's been impressed with how Rubio has been behaving.
HUNT: Yeah. And of course, he was the one that was at the Munich conference this year on behalf of the administration, most probably.
David Sanger, thank you sir, very much for being here. No one I'd rather talk to on a day like this, really appreciate it.
SANGER: Great to see you.
HUNT: All right. The rest of our panel is going to stand by.
Coming up next here in THE ARENA, a longtime member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Chris Coons will be here with us live as the administration ramps up pressure on allies for help in the war with Iran.
Plus, who the president and the House speaker, Mike Johnson, are talking about that prompted them to say this today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: What was the diagnosis?
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: It was -- I mean, I think it was a terminal diagnosis.
TRUMP: He would be dead by June.
JOHNSON: Okay, that wasn't public, but yeah, okay. That's -- it was -- it was grim.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:20:20] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINSITER: We have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure stability in the market that is not a simple task. So we're working with all of our allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was the prime minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, confirming today. Downing street is in fact talking with other countries about potential plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after President Trump demanded that allies do more to secure the crucial shipping route. Starmer, though, clarifying that his country, quote, "will not be drawn into the wider war".
President Trump, who spoke with Starmer last night, earlier today expressed his displeasure with the U.K. for their lack of assistance in the war thus far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I was very surprised with the United Kingdom because the United Kingdom two weeks ago I said, why don't you send some ships over? And he really didn't want to do it. I don't need them. After the war has ended and won, I need it before the war.
So, I was very upset with -- not upset. I was -- I was not happy with the U.K. I think they'll be involved. Yeah maybe, but they should be involved enthusiastically. Weve been protecting these countries for years with NATO.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Joining me now, Democratic senator from Delaware, Chris Coons. He sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator Coons, very grateful to have you here today. And, you know when you listen to Keir Starmer there at the top, you could hear him sort of punch the word European pretty hard, right? Underscoring that what he was talking about was working with the Europeans. He was not talking about working with the Americans there.
I mean, what did you hear in how he framed that?
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Well, President Trump got one thing right, which is the time to engage with your allies is before the war not when its underway and going badly. Had President Trump done the work to build a coalition of the willing to consult and engage our NATO allies and vital partners before launching this war of choice, then they might feel more invested in ensuring that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened.
It was entirely predictable, Kasie, that Iran, if threatened with regime change, would pull out all the stops and use all the tools they have to close the Strait of Hormuz. And so, when Keir Starmer says he's principally working with our European allies and avoid saying at the request, indeed the bullying of President Trump, it tells you something.
I'll remind you that it was at Davos and at the Munich security conference that President Trump and Secretary Rubio said things that really set our European allies on their heels. Trump threatening to take Greenland away from Denmark and then saying, we never asked NATO for anything, and they never did anything for us -- directly insulting our Danish allies, who lost 52 soldiers fighting alongside ours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and directly disrespecting the very hard work that our core NATO allies have done to step up and spend tens of billions more for their own defense.
His comments there reflect a president --
HUNT: Senator --
COONS: -- who doesn't understand what a deep alliance should mean.
HUNT: I hate to interrupt you, Senator. I'm so sorry, but the vice president is talking about Iran.
Let's listen in, and we'll talk about it.
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What do you mean there's no hesitation with my past statements?
REPORTER: Given your skepticism of foreign adventurism, you were a critic of the global war on terror previously.
VANCE: Well, I think one big difference is that we have a smart president, whereas in the past, we've had dumb presidents. And I trust President Trump to get the job done, to do a good job for the American people and to make sure that the mistakes of the past aren't repeated. Absolutely.
REPORTER: Thanks.
TRUMP: So, J.D. has been great, but here's the simple thing. And I have, you know some people, I don't want wars. I want wars less than almost anybody -- peace through strength.
But you know what? I've watched Iran for a long time. I've called them out 20 years ago when I was a civilian that liked watching the world, and they're violent, vicious people, the leadership, violent, vicious people. They kill 32,000 protesters over the last three weeks.
They put out a memo two days ago saying, if you protest, we will shoot you and kill you in the streets and somebody said, oh, there's not that many protests. Well, first of all, there are bombs going off all over the place.
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But even if there weren't, who's going to do that? You know who's going to do it? They don't have any guns, and the other ones have latest in line machine gun, right, and every form of gun you can have, they shoot them right through the middle of the head, they're violent people. If they had a nuclear weapon, they would use it. And sometimes they'll have some of the people that, you know, feel very strongly like I do about wars.
And I say, do you think Iran is violent? And do you think their people are violent? Yes, leadership. Do you think they should have a nuclear weapon, which is massive power. I don't even want to discuss how powerful because it's depressing. And they said, no, they shouldn't have. Definitely, they shouldn't have.
I said, and you don't want to fight war. No, no, we don't want to fight war. So these are naive people that frankly, are stupid. If you believe that Iran should have a nuclear weapon, there's something wrong with you because they would use it within. The only question is within one hour if they get it or one day.
They will use it and they will blow up the entire Middle East, not just Israel. They'll start with Israel, but they will blow up. And you got to see that when they unexpectedly started sending missiles to every country within a thousand miles of them, I mean, they're blowing up countries that were neighbors, not necessarily -- some friends. They actually are blowing up some friends they were blowing up the people that handle their accounts.
They're sending thousands of missiles into countries that didn't expect to be in the war because they wanted to take over the Middle East.
And if I didn't terminate Barack Hussein Obama's horrible. Iran nuclear deal, which I did in my first term, one of the dumbest deals, perhaps the dumbest deals, because the danger involved, you would have had them have a nuclear weapon three years ago, maybe four years ago, they would have used it blown up the Middle East, and they would have then come after us.
And if these gorgeous B-2 bombers -- give me that bomber, Andrew, let me just hug that little sucker. Give me that bomber over there. Thank you. Knew immediately which one?
This looks small but in person, it's very big because it's the only plane capable of carrying a 200,000-pound bomb. So I don't know how they do it because it's very sleek and nice, but it carries a lot of weapons and there's a lot of bombs.
But had I not sent this incredible machine times, numerous others to hit Iran at midnight with no moon dead, dark every single bomb was dropped right down the chute that it was supposed to hit. How they do it, who knows? Nobody else can figure. No other country can do it. No other country has our military or even close. And I think we probably proven that with Venezuela and now with because we have done a number on Iran, but have I -- if I didn't do that, if I didn't decimate, I call it their nuclear dust they would have had a nuclear weapon within one month after that bombing took place. And they would have used it on first Israel and then the Middle East. And you know that because all of those missiles that were launched
against their neighbors were set long ago, long before they knew they would be using them this quickly. Had we not done this, you would have had a nuclear war that would have evolved into World War Three. And more important, this is a war that -- there would have been nothing left.
So, we've done a great thing. The people that say it's okay for a very sick ideology, a very sick country in terms of its leadership, very good people, great people. But the people that say that, I think they're actually -- they're either evil or they're stupid.
So if you believe that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, they should not have it, then you have to absolutely love what I've done because in two weeks we have decimated them. They have no navy. They have no air force. They have no anti-aircraft weapons.
They have no leadership. The leadership is gone. But then they set up a new leadership to go and name a new leader and that leadership is gone and now they think maybe the son is gone. They're all gone.
My biggest problem is I have no idea who were talking to because nobody ever heard of any of these people. They're all dead. But we did a job for the world not a job for us, for the whole world. We took the worst country in 50 years and maybe longer from the ideological standpoint, a country that wanted to blow up the world, a country that is sick, sick, and it had a religious fervor.
[16:30:05]
And when you add religion, you know, people don't realize more people died in religious wars than every other war put together. And that's what you would have had here, and it was a terrible thing. I'm very proud of what we did, and I think J.D. understands better than most. If you give Iran a nuclear weapon, at least a very substantial part of the world would be blown up, and it will be used almost immediately.
Yes.
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President.
TRUMP: You don't mind if I keep this here, do you? Isn't that a beautiful thing? You know, I used to look at it and I said, it's a piece of art, but how can it be effective? It's so stealth.
Think of it, Peter. One in the morning it flies in and they say, sir, they're in Iranian airspace. And I say, oh, and I'm watching it from the Situation Room with a couple of other very smart people, including some good generals, real generals, not television generals.
And all of a sudden you see that dive, they start diving, sir. And you see them, 30,000, 20,000. Well, I said that was a lot. They went down fast to aim it.
And they know they're coming and they're smart and they never saw them. And they're firing a little bit but they don't know what they're firing at because they can't see a thing. And then you hear the biggest explosions that anybody's ever heard. Those are the biggest bombs, outside of nuclear those are the biggest bombs. And you say what technology we have. What a great country.
What -- I built it -- largely, I built it during my first term, I built it. I didn't know I'd have to use it this much in my second term. But we had an incompetent president. We had an incompetent administration. And if that group of people in any form, whether it's Kamala, him, it doesn't matter, would have had another four years. We would have had no country left.
Yeah, please?
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. You say you're doing a job for the rest of the world and your conversations with your counterparts, are they thanking you? What are their conversations like when you talk about this military conflict that's taking place in Iran?
TRUMP: Well, they should be thanking me because many of them get 90 percent. China, as an example, should be thanking us. But I don't expect a thank you. But they should be thanking us.
Japan gets 95 percent, China, 91 percent, many of the countries -- South Korea gets a tremendous percentage of their oil. And their -- therefore, their energy from the straits and or as they call it, the strait, and they should be not only thanking us, they should be helping us.
What does surprise me is that they're not eager to help. There are a couple. We'll be announcing some names. There are some that really were right up front. I would announce their name now, other than, you know, maybe they'd prefer it not being announced for whatever reason.
I will say this, it's a lot easier to get people today than it was two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, before we destroyed their -- before we obliterated the country, before we took out, because they're down to about 8 percent of their missiles. They're down to a small portion of their drones. And we've demolished many of their factories where they make the missiles and the drones and the rest are all following.
Our military has been amazing. We hit Kharg Island, took out every single thing in Kharg Island except one thing. We left the pipes because if we take out the pipes, takes a long time to build them.
And at some point, something is going to happen that's positive with respect to those pipes. But there are some countries that greatly disappointed me and, you know, I'm the one that got them to pay from two percent to five percent of GDP, NATO, and I get along great with those countries and NATO. But I always said, you know, the problem with NATO is we'll always be there for them, but they'll never be there for us.
And when I hear the U.K., which was sort of considered the Rolls Royce of allies, right? When you say they were the oldest and they were going to be there, and I say it would be really helpful if you'd send over a couple of ships. And if you have some minesweepers, which they do, be very helpful.
And the prime minister is a nice man. I think he's a very nice guy. He says -- well, I'd like to ask my team. I said you don't have to worry about a team. You don't have a team. You're the prime minister. You can make a decision.
Well, I have to speak to my people. I said, you have to speak to anybody. So, it was very disappointing. And then after we obliterated them and destroyed their military, the whole thing, it became a much safer zone. He said, we're going to send over two aircraft carriers.
I said, I don't want them anymore.
[16:35:00]
I don't want them after we win, I want them before we start. I don't need your aircraft carriers after we've already won. So, you know, those things are very disappointing.
You have to remember, we have 45,000 troops in Japan. We have 45,000 troops in South Korea. We have 45,000, 50,000 troops in Germany. We defend all these countries and then, do you have any minesweepers? And they say, well, would it be possible for us not to get involved?
I've been saying it for a long time. This is the greatest thing to come out of this. We spend trillions and trillions of dollars on NATO to defend other countries. And I always said, but if it ever comes time to defend us, they're not going to be there.
Many of them would not be there. And we're going to have to start thinking more wisely in this country. Some have been very good. One or two have been great.
I'll tell you, the great ones are at the right time, but there have been some that were right up there, Peter. They were right up there. They wanted to do it so much.
Go ahead, Peter
REPORTER: Thank you. But you were talking about Iran a couple times today and what they did after Epic Fury began. You said they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, nobody expected that. We were shocked.
Are you surprised that nobody briefed you ahead of time that that might be their retaliation?
TRUMP: Nobody. Nobody. No, no, no, no. The greatest experts -- nobody thought they were going to hit -- they were I wouldn't say friendly countries. They were like neutral. They were they lived with them for years.
Peter, they were going to take over the Middle East. They were going to knock out Israel with their nuclear weapon. But after we knocked out their nuclear potential, their nuclear potential weapon, they started building missiles, thousands and thousands of missiles, and they were going to do it with missiles while they developed.
These are sick people. While they developed nuclear, somehow they were going to start at a different site because that site was you saw the site, the mountain, they were going to go into a certain area, which we know exactly where it is, and they were going to do that and it's incredible what we've done. I tell you, the job we've done.
Do you know if I didn't terminate Barack Hussein Obama's Iran nuclear deal, you would right now -- well, Israel would be gone. It would be incinerated. And probably the Middle East likewise.
And remember, they have all of those missiles, and I heard they were sending missiles to UAE. I said, that's strange. You know, UAE is like the banker for Iran. They -- they're like the banker. Qatar, their neighbors, they got along okay. Saudi Arabia.
All of a sudden, Kuwait -- Kuwait is getting hit. Bahrain is getting -- all these countries are getting hit. There was no expert that would say that was going to happen. It's not a question of like, gee, should you have known? And if we did no big deal. I mean, we have to do what we have to do.
But we hit them so hard like nobody's ever been hit. We hit them very hard and we've extinguished most of their missiles. We've extinguished most of their drones. We've extinguished most of the places where the missiles and the drones are built. We've fully extinguished two layers of leadership and probably a third if you believe some story.
So, we only have one thing to have a little choke point. And they've used it very well for years, but it doesn't work. But I think this, if some of these countries that we've been good to for years and maybe more important than that, some of these countries that get 90 percent and 95 percent of their energy from Hormuz, the Strait, Hormuz, famous, wonderful, beautiful place. But you wouldn't want to be necessarily sailing about there right now.
You know why? Not because of them. Because of us because we've taken out their entire navy. We've taken out every one of their drones. They call it a drone layer, a mine layer.
Their specific boats that are meant to put mines on. How would you like to have a nation that has 22 boats where their sole function they're very different looking boats. You wouldn't want one for your family. They're not pretty.
Their sole function is to lift a mine into the water and drop it. A certain number of feet down, but they had 22 of them. We've taken out all of them, but you can probably you can probably drop them off on the boats. So, we don't even know.
By the way, we don't know that any mines have even been dropped. But the thought that they would scares people that have billion dollar ships.
Yeah, please. REPORTER: Thank you, President Trump. I'd like to ask the vice
president about his plans to go after possible fraud in California and New York. You know, of course, about Minnesota.
[16:40:00]
And President Trump, first, could I ask you, you said earlier today that the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, you don't know if he's dead or alive. There are a couple interesting reports about him today there's one report that he just narrowly escaped death in the first airstrikes by stepping out into his garden. There was another report that he may actually be gay, despite leading the theocracy that hangs gay people.
How do you determine what's true? And do you have an assessment of those?
TRUMP: Well, so far nobody knows. If you look at his father, he used to give talks a lot, you know, talking about death to America. Hed say death to America all the time.
When they say death to America, you should believe them, because that's what they would do. If they had a nuclear weapon they would have used it. But they never had the chance. I never gave them the chance to use it. And other presidents should have done.
I spoke to one of the former presidents who I actually like, actually speak to some. I do like some people, be shocking. And he said, I wish I did what you did, could have done it. Other presidents, somebody should have done it, for 47 years this went on. They call Iran the bully of the Middle East.
And you could have never had the Abraham Accords. You could never have had peace in the Middle East. Now you're going to have peace. You could never do it with the dark cloud of a nuclear Iran.
But Iran is a shell of itself. It's no longer a bully. It's the one that gets bullied. It's a bully that got beat up. We beat the crap out of them and they deserve that.
You know, when you see a soldier walking down the street without his arms or being helped down the street because he's got no legs or his face is blown to smithereens with no legs and no arms. Those two, no legs, no arms and a face, they got racked.
That was done by roadside bombs. That's the favorite weapon of Soleimani, who I killed in my first administration, General Soleimani. Had I not killed him, that was the beginning of their downfall, because had he not gone, it's possible that we would not be this far advanced in destroying Iran because he was a really good general. He was a vicious, horrible man, but he was a brilliant general and he was looking to knock out five of our military bases at one time.
And the man that killed died with him was the same. His counterpart in Iraq. And they were working together and they got hit real hard. And if that didn't happen, we would have had a problem. But maybe more importantly than that, they were -- he was really the mastermind behind it and they never found somebody to replace him, in terms of the genius. I knocked him out and that was a big step, knocking him out.
But if we didn't get rid of the Obama deal, I terminated it against the wishes of my then secretary of state. He was no Marco, against the wishes of a lot of people at the time. You remember that, Peter? A lot of people.
Had I not terminated.-- remember that, Steven, you remember they were all. This is not. That deal was a disaster.
That was a road to a nuclear weapon. They would have had it three years ago, and it would have been -- it would have been used, I would say, two to three years ago. And it would have been used in the Middle East.
And by the way, after they were finished, that they were coming over here, they never got a chance to do it.
REPORTER: I just want to ask you about something very interesting that you said twice today, that you talked to another former president about the Iran strikes.
TRUMP: I did.
REPORTER: Was it George W. Bush?
TRUMP: No.
REPORTER: Was it Bill Clinton?
TRUMP: I don't want to say. I don't want to say because --
REPORTER: Barack Obama?
TRUMP: A member of a party, a member of a party, they have Trump derangement syndrome. Oh, but it's somebody that happens to like me. And I like that person who's a smart person, but that person said, I wish I did it, okay? But I don't want to get into who.
REPORTER: OK.
TRUMP: I don't want to get him into trouble. Maybe. Hey, you know what? I think you probably know. You know, it's interesting and maybe he'd be proud.
I could even ask him that. Would you like me to reveal your name to Peter at Fox? High - well, at least you have high ratings. Your ratings are through the roof, Peter.
REPORTER: Thank you for noticing.
TRUMP: Congratulations
REPORTER: Can I ask you another question? If Iran, as you say totally obliterated, got the missiles, got the first two rounds of leadership air force gone, navy gone. Can we wrap this war up this week?
TRUMP: Yeah, sure.
REPORTER: Will we?
TRUPMP: I don't think so. But it'll be soon. Won't be long and we're going to have a much safer world when it's wrapped up.
It'll be wrapped up soon. We're going to have a much safer world. I had an obligation to do this. I didn't want to -- I called it an excursion.
[16:45:02]
I didn't want to make this journey. We had the highest stock market in history. We had low gas prices. Everything was good and I know exactly -- I know what -- you know. You're going to do it, and people are going to raise the price of oil. That's good. But I know that.
But that's a very small thing compared to allowing them to have -- you want to see a stock market go down? Start letting them hit you with nukes. Okay? I think -- I said it this morning. I think it's a very small price to pay.
And frankly, I thought it was going to go down much more, if you want to know the truth. I assumed that it was going to go down much more only because people don't understand to a large, it's a great -- it's a big chess game at a very high level. It's a very high level chess, the highest. And I'm dealing with very smart players.
These are smart people. They don't get there. You know, when you deal with some of these people, you're dealing with high level intellect, high, very high IQ people.
These are not Jasmine Crockett and her group. These are smart people. These are really smart people and violent people and vicious people and some very nice people. And some are very nice, but violent. They turn violent.
But you know what? If I didn't do -- if I didn't do what I did, we would have been hit number one. Very important was the termination of Obama's horrible deal and number two, this beautiful plane hitting them eight months ago, whatever it was and taking out their nuclear capacity. That totally threw them for a loop.
If they had that bomb at either time five years ago or seven months ago, if they had that bomb, that bomb would have been used almost immediately.
REPORTER: Mr. President two questions on domestic policy, bringing it close to home. First of all, the Save America Act, what are you expecting this week when this vote takes place in the U.S. Senate? Will the vice president's vote --
TRUMP: I think it's imperative that it gets done. I'm not sure it is. You know, the Democrats have horrible policy. It's just incredible. But they stick together. It's the one thing they do. Their Supreme Court members stick together. Those appointed by a Democrat stick together.
If Barack Hussein Obama appoints a member of the Supreme Court, that member never goes against him, and they're proud about it. They say, I don't give a damn if it's good or bad. That man appointed me and I'm never going to let him down. I don't say that's right or wrong. I just say they stick together.
Republicans go the opposite way. If Donald Trump appointed me, I'm going to show the world that I can be totally just and I can be independent of Donald Trump. He's not controlling me.
And I don't want to control them. I just want to have smart decisions. They gave us a decision on tariffs the other day. That won't change tariffs. I can do it a different way. I always knew I could do it a different way. This was a little quicker, a little easier, a little better but they gave it a decision that could cost this country $500 billion to pay people back, because now I have to start the tariffs all over again. Very simple and what happens with the money I've already collected?
Why didn't they say, starting from now, go the other way? $500 billion perhaps. It's so sad. But one thing about the Democrats, they stick together like glue. They impeached me twice for absolutely no reason. Unanimously.
Fortunately, the Republicans stuck together and it was something. It was pretty wild. But the Democrats have horrible policy transgender for everybody, open borders. Men playing in women's sports. But the one thing they do have is they stick together. No matter how bad the policy, it's embarrassing to watch them try to defend it.
And in a way, I say as a Republican, I would in a way, I say, thank goodness they have bad policy because you'd never beat them. We have something in there now, the Save America Act, voter ID with picture, right? That's a 99 percent issue.
Even among Democrats. You know, Democrats poll at 89 percent on that and then they have proof of citizenship, and then they have no mail in ballots, no mail in ballots.
We have no mail in. You go to California, they send out like 38 million ballots. Some Democrats got seven, eight ballots. Republicans are a lot of times calling in, where's my ballot?
[16:50:01]
Where's my ballot? They're lucky to get one.
Jimmy Carter, probably the greatest thing he ever did. I thought it was a nice man. Not a great president, to put it mildly.
How did his attack work out in Iran? Not too good. I think ours is slightly better, wouldn't you say? But Jimmy Carter, the one thing he did after he left with Scoop Jackson and some others, they formed a very elite council, a committee that came out and said very strongly, no mail in ballots. Because if you have -- we're the only country in the world that has mail in ballots like we do. The only country in the whole world.
People have tried it. France tried it and they went away. They're now doing paper ballots, watermarked paper which very hard to cheat. So, when you look at what happens with this country, we really have to fix it. That will be very popular.
The other thing we put in there just as best of, I call it, the best of Trump, we have the three things I just said, right? But then I added on no men playing in women's sports and I added a no transgender surgery, the mutilation of our children. We have no mutilation of our children, no transgender.
I think there -- they say that's an 80 percent issue. I think they're 99 percent issues. But whether they're 80 percent or 99, the problem is we have a couple of Republicans. They shouldn't be allowed. It's horrible people, and they're willing to vote against anything.
And we have all the Democrats will vote against it. So, I think it hurts the Democrats to vote against it, because I'm going to instruct all the Republicans to say that, so and so that they're running against voted against the saving of our children from transgender mutilation, right? That's pretty unpopular. They want men and women's sports, that's pretty unpopular.
They want voter ID, but the Democrats don't. Everybody wants voter ID, everybody wants proof of citizenship, and most people don't want mail in voting because they know it's a fraud. Touches too many hands.
I mean, the postman gets it. This one gets it. That one.
So, these are all issues that are in the 90s to 100. I would say some are virtually 100 percent. And the interesting thing is they're that way not only with Republicans. I'm not talking about leadership. I'm talking about, they're that way. Also, most importantly with the people, the people of our country want voter ID. The people of our country want proof of citizenship. And that includes 88 percent, 89 percent of Democrats.
And I think the Republicans, Eric Schmitt, Rick Scott, Tim Scott, I speak to so many of them, they all want it. I hope John Thune can get it across the line. He's trying. I mean, he told me this morning I spoke to him. He's trying.
I think it'll be a very, very bad thing for our country if they don't. We're just asking for basic things. Think of it -- you can't have voter ID.
You know, in California, if you ask a person to show their identification, they have the right to put you in jail. If you're an official and you say, may I please see your identification, you're subject to going to jail. That's how crazy it's gotten, with a low IQ person. You know because Gavin Newscum has admitted that he is a -- that he has learning disabilities. Honestly, I'm all for people with learning disabilities, but not for
my president. I don't want -- I think a president should not have learning disabilities, okay? And I know it's highly controversial to say such a horrible thing. The president of the United States -- Gavin Newscum, admitted that he has learning disabilities, dyslexia everything about him is dumb.
But then he looked at the audience and said, well, I'm smarter than you or something like that. That was pretty stupid. So now, on top of everything else, I call him a racist because it happened to be a black audience.
I will tell you this, I think it was the worst interview I've ever seen of any human being in my life. Okay, anybody else have any questions?
REPORTER: On Iran. Will it be necessary to use even a limited ground force to secure whatever nuclear material remains in Iran? Is part of that threat? And secondly, have you made a decision.?
TRUMP: You mean to go in and get it?
REPORTER: Yes, sir.
TRUMP: Why would I tell you a thing like that?
REPORTER: And secondly --
TRUMP: You know, I can't say to reporters, sir, will you attack Kharg Island? Will you occupy Kharg? They asked me these questions, and I don't want to be mean, but they're stupid questions.
If any, if any president answered those questions, they shouldn't be president.
REPORTER: And secondly, sir, do you still plan to travel to Beijing at the end of this?
TRUMP: I don't know. We're working on that right now. I was speaking to China. I'd love to, but because of the war, I want to be here. I have to be here. I feel.
And so, we've requested that we delay it a month or so, and I'm looking forward to being with them. We have a very good relationship, but because of the war, there's no tricks to it either.
It's just -- it's not like, oh gee, I'm waiting -- it's very simple. We got a war going on. I think it's important that I be here.
So it could be that we delay it a little bit. Not much. Peter?
REPORTER: When you say Cuba is next.
TRUMP: Cuba.
REPORTER: It's Cuba. Whatever you do with the military there, it seems like something. Will that look more like Iran or Venezuela?
TRUMP: I can't tell you that. I can tell you that they're talking to us. It's a failed nation. They have no money. They have no oil. They have no nothing.
They have nice land. They have nice landscape. You know, it's a beautiful island.
HUNT: All right. We have been listening to President Trump answering questions from reporters there in the Oval Office at some length about the war with Iran.
We want to take a minute to talk a little bit about what we have just heard. Senator Coons is still standing by with us.
Senator, it was a pretty wide-ranging news conference here. He at one point said, quote the son is gone talking presumably about Mojtaba Khamenei, who is, of course, the son of the ayatollah who was killed in that strike early on here. He then was asked again in a follow up question, if we were aware of the status of Khamenei, the son, and he said, nobody knows.
I'm wondering what your takeaway is from that. I also know you've been in some briefings with the administration. How do you understand the president's comments?
COONS: Kasie, President Trump ranged all over the place in that press briefing about the war in Iran. A number of things really jumped out at me. One was that he said repeatedly, NATO has never been there for us. In criticizing Prime Minister Starmer of the United Kingdom, President Trump also said, I asked him for help, and he offered to send two aircraft carriers. And then I said, no thanks. We don't need them anymore, but why can't they send us minesweepers?
Just two small points here. The Trump administration withdrew four American minesweepers from the Persian Gulf just weeks before this war began, and NATO joined the defense of the United States after 9/11, a third of all the military casualties in the war in Afghanistan were NATO soldiers.
He continues to offend and insult our NATO allies by suggesting they've never defended us, when in fact the only time NATO has invoked Article Five of the treaty is in our defense.
I don't have a specific classified update on the status of the new ayatollah but I will say this, Kasie, the one thing president Trump has accomplished in 17 days is to kill the ayatollah, who was the brutal dictator of Iran for more than 30 years and have him replaced with someone 30 years younger, likely angrier, and more likely to race towards a bomb if he can.
So I think it was entirely predictable that when President Trump said this was a war of regime change, that Iran would use every tool at their disposal, terrorist attacks, attacks on the Straits of Hormuz, attacks on other countries in the region. They didn't do that after last summer's Operation Midnight Hammer, after President Trump took out General Soleimani because Iran didn't perceive those as attacks designed to overthrow the regime.
President Trump and his rambling press conference today again talked about several different objectives, denying them any pathway towards nuclear enrichment, overthrowing the regime, taking out their navy, taking out ballistic missiles. I'll tell you, in the classified briefings I've attended, Kasie, it's no clearer there than it was just now in the oval office. Too many objectives, no clear outcome or timeline, and no clear answer to whether or not the president intends to introduce American ground troops for a full-scale war.
HUNT: Yeah. Look, I'm glad you raised that point. And we can actually leave our viewers. Were up against the 5:00 hour, but we have a slide that shows just the contributions that our NATO allies made in Afghanistan and Iraq. You know, there are 7,000 U.S. casualties, 600 from the United Kingdom, plus more from others.
So, now, of course, we have a report 200 Americans injured in this war. Senator Coons, thank you very much. Really appreciate your time.
Don't go anywhere. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.
