Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

President Trump Hosts Norway's Prime Minister at White House; Trump Says Getting Crimea Back From Russia is Going to Be a Very Difficult Thing to Do. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 24, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: $350 on this, and it is a shame. And that's what got me involved. And then I looked at and I see the results. It's horrible. It's a killing field, 5,000 soldiers a week on average. And we want to stop that, we both want to stop that for a lot of reasons, but I would say that is my number one reason.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think Russia -- that we will get Russia to accept the deal, that also Ukraine and Europe is (inaudible)?

TRUMP: I think so. Yeah. I do. I believe they will accept. And I think we're going to get this over with, I hope so, soon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you continue to lack support from NATO allies in your goal of obtaining Greenland. How will you proceed if you don't get that support?

TRUMP: Well, Greenland is going to be interesting, but that's for another day. I think we need that for international peace.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you expecting when your allies --

TRUMP: And if you don't have that, I think it's a big threat to our world. So I think Greenland is very important for international peace. Yeah. Please go ahead.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Mr. President this morning, in a Truth Social post, you used the words, "Vladimir, stop." That seemed like a slightly different message, a personal message. What is your level of frustration with President Putin?

TRUMP: I didn't like last night, I wasn't happy with it. And we're in the midst of talking peace and missiles were fired. And I was not happy with it. That's what I meant. And that's, you know, what I said. I assume that's what you meant.

ZELENY: Right. If the bombs keep falling, will you consider additional sanctions toward Russia? Or what will you do if President Putin (inaudible)?

TRUMP: I'd rather answer that question in a week. I want to see if we can have a deal. No reason to answer it now, but I won't be happy. Let me put it that way. Things will happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, why are they not putting more pressure on Russia? I know a lot of Europeans --

TRUMP: Putting a lot of pressure. You don't know what pressure I'm putting on Russia. They're dealing. You have no idea what pressure I'm putting on Russia. We're putting a lot of pressure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you maybe tell us then what kind of pressure you are putting on Russia?

TRUMP: We're putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that. And some people that are close to it know, or he wouldn't be talking right now. The prime minister understands that better than anybody. He wouldn't be talking right now. He's talking and we're putting a lot of pressure. I think he wants to make a deal. We're going to find out very soon. But it takes two to tango and you have to have Ukraine want to make a deal too. And they're being hit very hard. And I do believe they want to make a deal.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you said that it's -- that the Ukraine have to give some territory to win peace, among them Crimea. Do you stand by that? And I know that the NATO, former NATO General Secretary today has told you that he does not agree and he believes in the territorial integrity of the Ukraine. How do you deal with that, with your allies, and do you that stand by that Ukraine have to give (inaudible)?

TRUMP: Former Secretary General happens to be right here, you know, so they can't put words in his mouth. He's been a great general, frankly, because that's what you are. Really you're a general, but he's been a great Secretary General. We had a tremendous relationship, very successful. And I think he could speak for himself. He's right here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But do you still agree that Ukraine have to give some territory away to win peace?

TRUMP: Well, it depends what territory. They've been fighting. They've lost a lot of territory. And we'll get -- we'll do the best we can, working with Ukraine. We'll do the best we can, but they lost a lot of territory. When you say Crimea, that was handed over during a president named Barack Hussein Obama. That was -- had nothing to do with me, Crimea. That was 11 years ago with Obama. And they made a decision.

There wasn't a bullet fire, there was no fighting, there was no anything. They just handed it over. Now they say, well, can you get it back? I think that's going to be a very difficult thing to do. That was given by Barack Obama when he was president, not by Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you had a peace proposal that you put on the table. It's a 30-day ceasefire proposal, the National Security Team presented it to both Ukraine and Russia. Two months ago, Ukraine agreed to that ceasefire proposal immediately. Russia has not. And my question is, is Russia the obstacle to peace based upon that, just getting to that 30-day ceasefire?

TRUMP: I don't think so. I think that they both want peace right now. They're ready to do something. We'll see what happens, complicated, very complicated. But I think they are both very much looking to make a deal. Marco, what would you say?

MARCO RUBIO, (R) UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, first of all, the -- what was put before our partners was options to discuss about things that it would take to end a war. This war is endable, both sides just have to agree to it. We've shown them a pathway forward. We've discussed those ideas. It was a good meeting yesterday. There'll be good meetings over the weekend.

We've shown them the finish line. We need both of them to say yes. But what happened last night with those missile strikes should remind everybody of why this war needs to end. It's horrible those missiles landed.

[14:05:00]

What's even worse is there are today people that were alive yesterday that are not alive today because this war continues, and the president wants to stop it. And everyone should be thanking the president for being a peacemaker and trying to save lives. That's what we're trying to do here. It's not our war. We didn't start it, as you know, it's -- but we're trying to end the dying. We're trying to end the destruction and we've shown the path forward. We can see the finish line, but both of them have to get there. We're going to do everything we can to help them get there, but they have to ultimately say yes, both of them.

TRUMP: And we are using a lot of pressure on both, you know, if you think we're just in there because we're nice people and we are nice people, but we're using a lot of pressure on both.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What concessions, Mr. President and to your National Security Team, what concessions has Russia offered up thus far to get to the point where you're closer to peace?

TRUMP: Stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country, pretty big concession.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, if you are going to take down the tariffs, what do you want Norway to buy more from the U.S.?

TRUMP: To buy more?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. TRUMP: Well, you don't need to snow. You don't need skis. You don't need ski champions either, right? You have a lot of them. We just want to keep the relationship the way it is. We have -- we've had a great relationship, I think now, maybe closer than ever, but we've had a great relationship with Norway. I think just keep it the way it is. You can't do better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really? Not even buy, say (inaudible).

TRUMP: Well, if they want to give us some additional concessions, that's OK. You can't do much better. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you've had a long meeting with Norway today. You said that Norway is doing a lot of things right. But on the Ukraine, if I can ask both you and the prime minister, did you find common ground today on Ukraine and the peace plan?

TRUMP: Totally. It's totally common ground. The prime minister can speak about it, but I can just say, he wants to see people stop dying more than anything else, and he'd like to see it end. He's going to help us end it.

JONAS GAHR STORE, NORWEGIAN PRIME MINISTER: Can I say that to move towards an end of this war, U.S. engagement is critical and President Trump made that possible. That is clear, that is obvious. It's really happening. Now, the important thing is that both parties have to know that they have to deliver and they have to feel the pressure to deliver. Ukraine is under attack. They are defending themselves. Lives are being lost. And we believe very firmly that there needs to be a ceasefire, the initiative taken by the U.S. some time ago. It needs to be respected.

And then to move on to something which both parties can own, that is the complicated part in such a dramatic war. And here I believe, Europeans and Americans working together as we do much closer now. And I salute the team of President Trump of being, you know, open in that process. We had a good discussion on this today. And then, we have to move on and we cannot lose time because this is too much drama happening.

One thing is people losing their lives, but it is a bad thing for Europe and it's a bad thing for the world to having such a broad conflict going on. It can have ramifications far beyond Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, if -- I forgot my question, I wanted to ask about --

TRUMP: It's all right. It happens sometimes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happens sometimes. Yeah. Mr. President, I wanted to ask about the -- well, actually, Zelenskyy has said that he wants more Patriot missiles. So far, there has been no response from the United States. If you, as the United States, decides to pull out of negotiating for peace, trying to broker peace, does that also mean a no in Patriot missiles, a no in sharing intelligence with Ukraine? TRUMP: Let's see what happens. I think we're going to make a deal, and if we make a deal, that'll be wonderful. We won't have to worry about your question. You can ask that question in two weeks and we'll see. But, I think we're getting very close. The prime minister feels the same way and we'll hopefully not have to answer that question.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, Norway is the third country to be officially invited to the White House after Liberation Day. Why did you invite Norway so soon to the White House?

TRUMP: Because I like them and I like your prime minister, and I like the way your government runs, and I respect the king. He's highly respected in Norway. It's a great thing, not an easy thing to do. He's done a great job. Yeah?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you like an invitation to visit the king?

TRUMP: Absolutely. You get me that invitation.

STORE: I just told the president he's welcome to visit Norway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump, you said before that you like the Norwegian Petroleum Fund, and I'm wondering if that has been up for discussion today. The way that we have structured our (inaudible)?

[14:10:00]

TRUMP: Please.

STORE: Well, this fund was created in the late 1990s to save for future generations the income from oil and gas. Norwegians should continue to work as hard, dedicated, innovate, and move forward despite having these incomes, which we happen to be in the period or history where we can harvest. And we have transferred that into investments, half of them, by the way, here in the United States.

So I think this is a model which we have been able to explore. If we can share experiences and we do with our colleagues in the U.S., you never copy this one-to-one, but there can be techniques and way of working that we have used in our organizing our fund. Jens Stoltenberg was the finance minister when the first dollar entered that Fund. So he's a safe hand to have as a finance minister today. What are you saying?

JENS STOLTENBERG, MINISTER OF FINANCE OF NORWAY: No, and as you said, Mr. Prime Minister, we are ready to sit down with the U.S. to also work with them on -- if they want to establish a sovereign wealth fund because we have a good experience with our fund. And I think that one example of how we work together with United States is that half of the fund, close to $1 trillion are invested in the United States, mainly in equity, but also some in fixed income including government bonds. So, this is an expression trust in the United States expressed by the strong investment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund. Then just briefly on Ukraine, since it was mentioned, we had a very good and extensive discussion about Ukraine, the path forward to peace. And as the prime minister said, we commend the U.S. for pushing forward to try to find a negotiated solution. At the same time, we need to continue to support Ukraine and therefore, I'm proud that Norway has actually tripled their military support to Ukraine. And this year, we will allocate close to $8 billion to Ukraine. That will strengthen them and also hand on the negotiating table.

STORE: I may add to that, you know, if there's a peace and there will be a peace, we have the common responsibility in securing democratic Ukraine for the future, and the best security guaranty they can have is the ability to defend themselves. And we are investing in that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As it relates to tariffs, Mr. President, when you unveiled your reciprocal tariffs on April 2, the tariff rate for Norway was 15 percent. Based upon your conversations that you've had today with the prime minister, do you see that tariff rate coming down from what you proposed just a few weeks ago?

TRUMP: Well, they have a great fund of $2 trillion. It's a big fund, and they don't have any debt. So, I think they'd probably be willing to pay us more than that, I hope.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, 2018, your former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was all for an end to Russian occupation of Crimea. Why does this administration -- why has this administration changed its stance on territorial concessions for Crimea?

TRUMP: Well, the war started, it would've never started if I were president. This is a war that is horrible, horrible, that all wars are horrible. This one is in particular bad. And I don't know that you can ever say there's going to be a winner to this because so many lives have been lost, not only soldiers, I mean, a lot of lives have been lost. I think that we want to do one very simple thing. It would've never happened if I were president, zero chance it was going to -- and it didn't.

You know, people say, how do you know that? Number one, it didn't happen. We never even discussed it. I would talk to Putin about it. It was the apple of his eye, you know, Ukraine was the apple of Putin's eye, but we never -- there was never even a thought that he'd go in. And I think he understood that I would not be happy if he did. And it was only when I got out, and, you know, when you mentioned what happened to Ukraine years ago under President Obama and a vice president that was also president later, unfortunately for this country, what happened is large chunks of land were given up and it was called Crimea. And that was a big -- that was a big thing.

That was a big moment. But, this isn't my war. This is Biden's war. This is a war that -- Biden was president when this war happened. But I'm trying to put out the fire and I think we'll be successful, and if we do, we're going to save a lot of lives. Otherwise, and the prime minister had a statement. He said this is just a point in time, we're very lucky because this is a point, and if this doesn't happen, this could go on for a long time. [14:15:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do you have meetings with other world leaders when you're Rome, sir?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) future Democrat president?

TRUMP: I don't think he will. I think he wants to make peace. I think he wants to end it, and I feel pretty confident of that. But we're going to -- we're going to know pretty soon.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do you have meetings with other world leaders when you're Rome, sir?

TRUMP: Yes, I will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which leaders do you want to meet, sir?

TRUMP: Well, I'd like to meet them all. That would be nice. I'd like to take care of all of them, but we have many of them there and they all want to meet. They want to meet about trade and we are making some great inroads and great deals. You might want to speak about that, Mr. Secretary.

SCOTT BESSENT, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: We had a very successful bilateral meeting with the Republic of South Korea today. We may be moving faster than I thought, and we will be talking technical terms as early as next week, as we reach an agreement on understanding as soon as next week. So South Koreans came early. They came with their A game, and we will see if they follow through on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think you deserve the Nobel Peace Prize if you manage to create peace --

TRUMP: Do I deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you can manage and create peace (inaudible).

TRUMP: Well, maybe for the Abraham Accords. I don't want to get ahead of myself on this one, but they say for the Abraham Accords, and by the way, speaking of that, we're going to be filling it up. A lot of countries want to come into the Abraham Accords. You know, we have four, and Biden did nothing on that one too. It's the same four, but they're great countries and they were brave doing it, and it has worked out very well. And we're going to be filling up the Abraham Accords. We're going to be I think filling it up (inaudible) very rapidly.

Marco, could you say something about that?

RUBIO: There's great, enormous opportunity to grow the Abraham Accords, but I would just point to one thing, of all the leaders in the world today, no leader is working harder to prevent wars or end them than President Trump is right now. We're trying -- that's why we're talking to Iran. That's why we're engaged with Ukraine and Russia. It's the desire to prevent these wars from breaking out and to end the ones that exist already. And again, I just think it's tremendous for our country to be led by a president who desires to bring peace and establish peace and protect peace. So, it's hard work.

TRUMP: You know, Marco just mentioned something that maybe we should talk about for just a second if we could, Mr. Prime Minister, and you're involved in it too, because you've been involved in the world and peace, but I think we're doing very well with respect to Iran and we're having very serious meetings and there are only two options. And the one option is not a good option. It's not a good option at all.

And I think we're doing very well on an agreement with Iran. But that one, we're doing a lot of things, I will say. But that one is well in its way. We could have a very, very good decision and a lot of lives will be saved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, on the economy, there was a slowdown as it relates to home sales in the month of March, the slowest pace since 2009. Is that an economic indicator, and perhaps the treasury secretary can weigh in on this as well. Is that an economic indicator that concerns you about the broader U.S. economy?

TRUMP: No, we have very good numbers on housing today, extremely good numbers. And that's despite interest rates because, you know, if you look at what happened, everyone said, oh, I said I was going to get prices down. I did, energy just hit $1.98 in a couple of states. It's way down, energy is down and we're about $64 a barrel when I came in and we were looking at $89, $90, $95. And by the way, that helps us solve the war too. Having those energy prices is a big -- a big incentive for Russia to also agree with solving the war problem.

Groceries are down. When I was with you two months ago, you were complaining about eggs. I said I just got here. I've been here for -- I was here for about a week when the press started saying about eggs have gone through the roof. I said, I just got here. Tell me about eggs, and they happened. They were -- they went through the roof and you couldn't get them. So we just had a big Easter Egg Hunt at the White House, thousands and thousands of eggs and the price was down 87 percent. So we did a great job.

Housing is doing very well. We should lower interest rates. That's the Fed, I hope they lower interest rates. That's a smart thing to do. Be ahead a little bit, although already it's a little bit late. But, in the end, we just have a great country. We a very strong country and we have every other country, I can't think of one country that doesn't want to negotiate a deal and they either negotiate a deal or we set a deal that we think is fair because we don't have to go through all of these. It would be physically impossible. You know, you have so many people that really understand it, which is a very small group of people here.

And we are going to at some point, just set prices for deals. Some will be tariffed.

[14:20:00]

Some treated us very unfairly, they'll be tariffed higher than others. But we've been ripped off for many, many years. The United States has been ripped off like no country probably in the history of the world has been ripped off, for 45, 50 years. And countries have gone rich by doing that with the United States. We've taken care of their militaries and military is another subject we talk about. We're not going to make that subject to any of the deals. But you know, you know the same countries that I do where we virtually take care of their military and then don't get treated fairly on trade.

So, the people, and I don't blame those countries. I blame the people that sat at that beautiful desk right behind you because those people didn't do the job for this country. And they let us lose $4 billion a day on trade. We were losing $4 billion or $5 billion a day on trade when I got here. And now, we're going to be much better than breaking even, and we're going to be making $4 billion or $5 billion a day on trade. So, but the -- I don't blame any country, not the worst of them. And we were abused by countries.

I blame the president of the United States that happened to be sitting when these deals were made, disgraceful. When I was here, we had a great four years. We had the most successful economy in the history of our country, my first term. And we were very tough on trade. And with China, as you know, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, but nobody else ever did that. China paid not $0.10 to any other president. And they -- but not only China, virtually every country got away with murder. And we just can't let that happen.

Thank you very much everybody. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Head out, head out, please start with me. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, press.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We've been listening to President Donald Trump and the Norwegian Prime Minister live in the Oval Office, answering reporters' questions. Some really important headlines from the president there, not only on negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, but also on negotiations with Iran on trade as well, even on Greenland, his ambition to make Greenland part of the United States, specifically on negotiations with European partners in Ukraine to end the war, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

The president there saying that he was unhappy with strikes that Russia carried out overnight into Kyiv saying, "We're in the midst of talking peace, and then missiles are firing. That's why I was not happy with it." He also went on to say, as he was asked about what concessions Russia has offered in these ongoing talks, because the United States has asked Ukraine to essentially give up a lot of what it has lost as Ukraine has moved eastward, that Russia in exchange for ending the war is essentially just stopping from taking the whole country, which is quite notable there. Just a lot of major headlines. But he tried to make the argument that Crimea was lost during the Obama administration, and the United States apparently doesn't seem eager to try to help Ukraine get it back.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": He said, when he said they're not taking the whole country, we should note that Vladimir Putin tried.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

KEILAR: Certainly to take a large part of it and had to withdraw troops, not just from Kyiv, but from a number of other (inaudible) because of the resistance that Ukraine put up. Finally, just a couple economic fact-checks that -- he talked about grocery prices being down. He's done this repeatedly. That is false. Average grocery prices in March were up 0.49 percent since February, 0.49 percent, maybe you say that's not a whole lot. That's actually the biggest month-to-month jump since October of 2022.

And he also blamed presidents who were sitting when trade deals were made, which well positions him to speak to himself about the one that he negotiated, that he is taking issue with. Let's bring in former Ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor and former Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Aaron Klein to talk about this. The big headline there where he said -- what he said about Russia and its concession.

BILL TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: So, the whole business about Crimea and one of the reporters asked him about this, his administration, he's talking about previous. His administration, his first administration said, put a declaration out that the United States would never recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea. And yet that's a proposal. Now, one thing that I think is important, it's just a proposal still. It hadn't been agreed by either side. And I understand that there's still conversations, still subject to change, so that that could change.

SANCHEZ: It marks not only a change in the approach to the war in Ukraine from the United States, but also almost the acceptance that another country can take territory by force. And that's something that's been long held policy belief, at least among Western powers, for what? 70 years?

[14:25:00]

TAYLOR: 70 years, exactly right. Boris. I mean, that's the whole point of not recognizing Russian sovereignty, Russian claim to Crimea or Donbas for that matter. And there's a distinction to be made about legal claims and de facto, facts on the ground. OK, the Russians are in Crimea and the Russians do occupy Donbas. Those are facts. But we should not justify, we should not dignify. We should not recognize those facts by saying that, that's right because of exactly what you said, that justifies any nation taking land, territory, sovereignty from any other.

KEILAR: He was asked there if he could speak -- that was a great question from our Jeff Zeleny there in the Oval when he asked if he could speak to his level of frustration with Russia. He didn't like last night, he wasn't happy with it. It's tepid language, right? This is the kind -- maybe you'd say that to your spouse if they watch that episode of TV without you. Let's just be honest.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: That's sort of the thing we're talking about, but pressed on it, he went on to say, you have no idea what pressure I'm putting on Russia. Well, we don't, but we very clearly know what he's putting on Ukraine. There, Aaron, couldn't be pressure that he could put on Russia or threaten Russia when it comes to economics. Can you talk a little bit about that?

AARON KLEIN, FORMER TREASURY DEPARTMENT DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Yeah, no, look, there are many things he could do to further tighten the noose on Russia in terms of their sanctions, in terms of their use of shipping, in terms of their oils, their cargoes, their use of hydrogen. That's another fuel Russia's developed a lot of and is sending around selling to China.

Look, the United States Congress passed a simple law requiring beneficial ownership, that is disclosure of who owns what assets. We know a lot of Russians launder their money into the U.S. through shell companies, et cetera. He suspended that law, bipartisan law enforced by Congress to try and get transparency into how the money is moving out of Russia. Other countries have frozen Russia's assets like America, some of them are talking about giving that money to Ukraine.

Donald Trump has talked about opposing giving U.S. taxpayer money to fund the war in Ukraine. What about giving Russia's assets, which had been frozen in the United States to fund the war in Ukraine? There are a lot of levers he could pull on Russia that he's choosing not to, and we should be asking the question why.

SANCHEZ: He specifically said on additional sanctions that he would rather answer that question in a week. Let's see where things stand. Things will happen to Russia, he promised during a question about sanctions. Pivoting to trade, Aaron, I'm curious about what you thought of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying that things with South Korea, conversations with South Korea are moving along much faster than he expected. That the framework, or at least the beginnings of some deal could be announced next week. That would be one of the first that the United States has brokered since this 90-day pause, since these reciprocal tariffs were announced.

KLEIN: Yeah. So look, Bessent is trying to be the good guy here, right? He's trying to stop Trump from his own worst impulses about tariffs, about firing Jay Powell. Bessent is trying to talk up to the economy. All the world leaders are in Washington this week, economically, for the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, and Bessent is using that opportunity. What's happening with the economy, Trump inherited a pretty warm, almost hot economy, and his tariffs have put this thing in the freezer, right?

And under Trump's policies, if they're allowed to continue, it's going to get cold, cold, cold in the United States economy. And Bessent is trying to warm it up. He's trying to pull stuff out by trying to cut deals with as many countries as he can and talk up the market, while at the same time, convincing Trump to walk back his language on firing Jay Powell and the Fed. So there's a good cop, bad cop here thing, and I think Bessent is enjoying being the good cop.

KEILAR: He also talked about trade deals, and including one he inherited from himself. What did you think of that?

KLEIN: So, Trump has an amazing ability to deflect all blame onto whoever came before him. You saw him say that. The war wouldn't have started if I were here. He promised he was going to solve lots of problems on day one, including this war, right? We're almost at day 100 and he acknowledges things could get even worse. So the situation here is, he's blaming the prior trade deals, including his own deals, and then playing -- just not mentioning their names. So it was all other presidents, right?

He has a lot, this is his second term, right? He had four years to change anything. And what he's doing very cleverly is blaming the past because Americans want change. Americans are not happy with lots of elements of this economy, particularly the global trade framework that both parties put forward over multiple decades.

SANCHEZ: Ambassador, I'm curious to pick your brain not on Europe, but just international dialogue given the fact that Trump and his officials have maintained that conversations have been happening every day with Beijing over a trade deal. Yet, you have Chinese officials saying that that has not been the case. What do you make of that disparity?

TAYLOR: So, it does take two to have a conversation. And if one side is saying they're talking and the other side's saying not, then there's a mismatch, there's a disconnect in there. You're -- you can't be -- you're of course right, Boris.

KEILAR: Yeah. We should note, it seemed even that the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store was having a different conversation at times than President Trump when they were talking --