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Trump: Israel And Iran "Don't Know What The F**k They're Doing"; President Trump Heads To NATO Summit As Iran-Israel Conflict Overshadows Agenda; A Dangerous Heat Wave Is Underway For Parts Of The U.S. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 24, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And again, the president has been talking extensively about the damage to Fordow here. You can see the nuclear facility here. This is before it was struck by the B2 bombers; this is after. You can see the crater holes here and here.

The president continues to say that Iran's nuclear capabilities have been obliterated.

MAJ. MIKE LYONS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Right.

BERMAN: Your view on that?

LYONS: Yeah, not the right choice of words. It's been degraded and set back, but obliterated means completely gone and that's just not the case.

You know, what this thing shows me, for example, there's no cratering that came down. When you put that much firepower inside of the Earth like that you would have thought that would have -- it would have cratered from the top down. It didn't, so it shows you how reinforced that site was.

So again, until somebody actually goes there and puts their eyes on these targets and goes into those holes and sees what's going on, I think that's the third level of intelligence that will determine the battle damage assessment. Right now, satellites show one thing, communications do another, but people have got to go on the ground and see that.

BERMAN: And again, we can see here what Iran is capable of hitting in Israel. They continued to fire the missiles last night. They haven't in the last hour or so here.

After the Iranian attack on the U.S. base in Qatar, which is right here, do you expect that U.S. personnel, U.S. interests are at any risk in the region?

LYONS: Probably not. The United States likely saw those missiles on the pad before they even launched and came at them. We understand that they gave us a heads up that they were coming. I mean, it's kind of -- you know, missile theater, kabuki theater and it's crazy.

I'm not of the mindset that we should be accepting missile attacks from any country regardless, so I think there's money unintended consequences that can happen. But we let it happen. It's the Middle East. It's how it goes. But from this point going forward I'm not so sure that Iran will target U.S. forces again.

BERMAN: And again, this is -- this is where -- this is some footage right now --

LYONS: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- from inside Israel of what's been hit in Israel. This is in the southern part of the country where there were casualties and people killed there.

What are you looking for in the next few hours here?

LYONS: So again, Israel has been going after regime centers of gravity. They've been going after police forces and Republican Guard units. Why? Because they know if there is regime change those are the units that will control the crowds.

So Israel is not looking to stop. They, I think, want regime change. And so from their perspective if they go after those targets like they've been going after them before that's what they want to do.

BERMAN: Well, we're going to wait and see over the next few minutes if Israel heeds the warning from President Trump and does not strike in the next few minutes.

Major Mike Lyons, great to see you. Thank you very much.

As we said, President Trump is headed to the NATO summit after, you know, using -- dropping that f-bomb blasting both Israel and Iran for violating the ceasefire agreement.

(COMMERCIAL)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: At this moment President Trump is headed to the NATO summit at The Hague after leaving -- as he was leaving the White House though blasting both Israel and Iran for, as he put it, violating the ceasefire agreement that he'd announced just hours before.

I want to play for you what he told reporters right before leaving -- and yes, including his profanity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know what? We have -- we basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing. Do you understand that?

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: Let's get over to CNN's Kevin Liptak. He's standing by in the Netherlands where the NATO summit is about to take place. Kevin, the president very clearly angry and frustrated at both sides, but it seems a very strong message to Israel this morning. What are you hearing?

[07:35:05]

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and you can get a sense of his mindset as he heads here to the Netherlands based on what he was saying out on the South Lawn.

But I do want to point out something that he has just posted on Truth Social. He's on Air Force One so he posted this from the plane. And he wrote, "Israel is not going to attack Iran. The planes will around and head home while doing a friendly plane wave to Iran. Nobody will be hurt. The ceasefire is in effect." And he ends it with his customary "Thank you for attention to this matter."

So the president seems to be saying there that he may have gotten a message somehow to Israel not to retaliate and not to break this ceasefire that he is so eager to tout while he's here at NATO. While he's here in the Netherlands.

In a lot of ways I think the president had hoped that this truce that he was able to broker would act as vindication not only for the airstrikes that he ordered over the weekend but that -- for his broader sort of approach to global conflicts that have their skeptics -- certainly here at NATO among European leaders who wonder exactly where the president is heading with all of this. And so this, I think, gives you an indication of how he plans to approach it.

You know, this NATO summit was really designed with President Trump in mind. They had kind of tailored it down. It will only last about one day. Ukraine no longer is on the front burner and has sort of been relegated to the background of the summit. Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be here, and he might meet with President Trump tomorrow.

But really, the focus is on getting NATO member states to increase their defense spending. They're going to boost defense spending as part of their final communique. But it is the situation in the Middle East that I think is overshadowing that in a lot of ways.

And, you know, I was talking to some European officials over the weekend, and they were worried that the president was going to skip this summit altogether. Remember, he left the G7 early last week to return to Washington to consult on this very situation.

He is on his way here now and certainly it will be something that he'll want to talk about with European leaders, with potentially the leader of Canada. So this is all I think leading up to quite a consequential summit here in the Netherlands that are due to get underway very shortly.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Kevin, thank you so much.

President Trump on his way headed to the Netherlands right now. Let's -- and much more to come, clearly, from there and while the president is even in the air.

Joining us right now for some more perspective on all of this is former U.S. ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker. Ambassador, it's good to see you.

I hope you didn't blink this morning because things have continued to change and there continue to be more developments focusing on what we heard from the president this morning, very angry and frustrated about what he is seeing play out since that ceasefire had gone into place just hours ago between Israel and Iran.

What do you see in that message we heard from the president when he was leaving the White House this morning?

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR UKRAINE NEGOTIATIONS, DISTINGUISHED FELLOW, CENTER FOR EUROPEAN ANALYSIS: Yeah. Well, as you said, he was clearly very frustrated. He doesn't -- he doesn't accept the rationale that people have for continuing any fighting. He thinks people should be rational and just stop, and he's tried to broker that ceasefire.

But Iran has wanted to eliminate Israel for as long as the Iranian regime has been in place, and Israel has decided that it's not going to put up with that anymore and wants to weaken Iran as much as possible, even to the point of hoping that the people of Iran might affect a regime change.

So they have a strong interest in fighting here and that's what he's frustrated about. He doesn't care about either side of that; he just wants them to stop altogether.

Now, I think that he's going to NATO now, as you -- as you indicated. He also wants to get the credit for this. He wants to be seen as successful -- as the guy who ended this fighting in the Middle East. And it's a bit embarrassing to announce a ceasefire and then not have it hold. So he is very determined to get this back in place.

BOLDUAN: What you might be heading on is the source of the frustration, right? That he would like -- that part of this could be -- you want to be able to go over to this NATO summit with maybe -- a victory lap might be too strong of wording but saying look what we've done and been able to accomplish since just this weekend.

What do you expect, or would you anticipate the conversation then is among European allies with President Trump on, well, the operation that he conducted, the Iranian then-strike on the U.S. base in Qatar, then this uncertainty around this ceasefire?

[07:40:00]

VOLKER: Yeah. Well I think that the Europeans are going to be largely supportive of President Trump. They -- nobody wanted Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and nobody really wanted Israel to launch this war, but they did. And so taking advantage of that, getting rid of Iran's nuclear capability and ending it is where I think European leaders now want things to be, and that's exactly what President Trump is doing.

They also want this to be a positive experience for President Trump. A lot of the European countries remember the 2018 NATO summit where President Trump came in and blew the whole thing up, angry over low levels of defense spending by European nations.

And so they want this to be a good experience for President Trump. A warm pat on the back for the way he's handled Israel and Iran. And a commitment to increase in defense spending to five percent of GDP, which he should be taking credit for. So they're hoping that this, by being short, sweet, and positive, President Trump comes away with a more positive view of NATO.

BOLDUAN: And there was some really interesting reporting leading up to this summit about how exactly what you -- as you described it -- like keeping it short and snappy and to the point in what has been kind of meticulously choreographed and ordered to make this be a positive experience that they would hope with President Trump.

On this agreement to boost defense spending, agreement is one thing and a big thing --

VOLKER: Um-hum.

BOLDUAN: -- but there's also the follow-through which seems that it --

VOLKER: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- could be something very different.

I mean, do you think they will, or how important or not is this new commitment?

VOLKER: Right. Well, if you look back at this over time the U.S. has been urging NATO allies to spend more on defense for my entire life. It has never been enough.

In 2014, they made a formal commitment to two percent of GDP at this NATO summit in Wales. And by the time President Trump took office in 2017, only three countries were doing it out of 28 at the time. So it has always been a problem.

Now we have most countries hitting two percent and exceeding it and committing to five.

What I think will happen is the Nordics, the Baltics, Germany, and a few others -- they will really get to about 3 1/2 percent or more of solid defense spending, and an additional 1.5 percent of supportive spending, like infrastructure, like cyber defense, and so forth. I think that part is going to go well.

Other countries in Europe are going to struggle with implementation. They're not going to be able or they're not going to feel that they can given their domestic politics, at least, to put quite so much into defense. But they're going to commit to it. They're going to try to make plans to do so. And this will take some time to get as many allies as possible as high as we can get them.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. It's going to be -- it was already going to be a very interesting NATO summit. It's now going to be extra interesting as the president is headed over there right now.

VOLKER: It is.

BOLDUAN: Ambassador, it's always good to see you. I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

Coming up still for us, crude oil prices sliding on the news of this ceasefire whiplash is the only best and honest way we can describe it in this moment.

Again, President Trump says he does not know -- indicating very clearly, he doesn't know if the ceasefire is still intact. We're standing by for updates possibly from Air Force One in the air.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:47:55]

BOLDUAN: This morning investors clearly among those keeping a close watch on the conflict overseas. The world waiting at this moment to see if the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran is actually holding even though it's only been in place for mere hours.

Oil prices are falling, we should say, at the moment.

CNN's Matt Egan has much more on this aspect for us. Matt, what are you -- what are you seeing right now?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well Kate, we're seeing some cautious optimism from investors. They're hoping that the worst of this crisis is behind us. A lot of the fears that had rocked financial markets last week and over the weekend have faded, even though it does appear that this truce is very fragile.

Now that chart shows you where oil prices have been since May, and you can see they really did shoot up in June as Israel struck Iran and then the U.S. attacked Iran as well. But look at that really dramatic decline in the past 24 hours or so.

And that really started yesterday afternoon as Iran lobbed those missiles towards U.S. bases. But investors were relieved, right? They were relieved that there were no injuries or deaths. That this did appear to be well-telegraphed and largely a symbolic response from Iran. And also relieved that none of the energy infrastructure in the region had been attacked.

And so I think the hope among investors is that the flow of oil out of the Middle East will continue. And look, gasoline prices have stabilized. Yes, they're up from a week

ago but they're flattening out here around $3.22 a gallon and they're still cheaper than they were at this point last year.

And this is also lifting the spirits of the stock market. Look at U.S. stock futures moving solidly higher. You see the S&P 500 futures up almost one percent. Dow futures nearly 300 points.

[07:50:00]

So again, a lot of those concerns about sort of a worst case scenario in the Middle East have faded. But Kate, we do know from just the developments in the last few hours that this is very much a fragile ceasefire.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, it is. And things can -- as they're changing overseas from minute-to-minute, things that were looking here on the futures and with oil prices could be changing minute-to-minute as well.

Matt, thank you very much. We're going to stick close to you this morning -- John.

BERMAN: All right. You heard just a short time ago the president lashed out at Iran and Israel -- really, especially Israel -- accusing both sides of threatening the ceasefire that he helped to broker just hours after it went into effect.

He's on his way right now to a NATO summit in the Netherlands.

Joining us now is Congressman Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania and a member of the Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees. Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.

The president expressed his frustration with both Iran and Israel. He was more livid with Israel than I have heard him before.

What is your view of the Israeli strikes --

REP. SCOTT PERRY (R-PA): Well --

BERMAN: Hang on, hang on. What is your view of the actions that Israel took after the ceasefire was announced and then heading into the morning?

PERRY: I think unfortunately it was probably to be expected. They knew when the moment of the ceasefire, at least as negotiated, would commence. But they also wanted to make sure that they maximized the amount of time that they had to ensure that the nuclear capabilities, the warfighting, and the terrorist activities of Iran were minimized, and they -- and they took that opportunity.

And unfortunately, like I said, I think that was likely to be expected. We've seen that in other ceasefire situations.

And let's face it, while the deal was brokered, the ceasefire is generally more advantageous to Iran than it is to Israel. And it's always the one that is -- that is losing the fight that requests a ceasefire, not the one that is winning the fight. So it is an unfortunate kind of turn of events, but it should not be unexpected.

BERMAN: The ceasefire is more advantageous to Iran, you say.

You're on the Intel Committee so you see a lot of things that we don't. But over the last 12 days what was accomplished in terms of trying to degrade Iran and their nuclear capabilities?

PERRY: Well, that is the point of this whole thing that the -- that America, in particular, does not have an argument with the people of Iran. We wish and we hope that they can realize their freedom and we stand in solidarity with them in that.

But we do have -- we do take issue with the world's greatest terrorist state having that nuclear capability and being able to deliver that anywhere on the globe, particularly to Israel and the United States of America, or interests abroad.

And what America had carried out ensured that capability no longer exists in any time where there would be a crisis of time. In other words, where you would have to make a decision under duress because they were able to do it without notice. That capability no longer exists.

BERMAN: Let me ask two follow-ups on that.

What's the status of the enriched uranium inside Iran right now?

PERRY: Well, I think that's a moving target. Obviously, Iran, like North Korea, is one of the most restrictive countries on the planet for any kind of eyes on from outside of Iran. So that's -- that -- you know, I doubt that there is as much -- Israeli intelligence is very productive. They have eyes on in Fordow itself so it's very difficult to completely assess what the -- what the status of that is. I think we're going to learn that over the next weeks and months.

But I think the point is their capability has been significantly degraded. However, there is still a marginal threat because the real thing is that Iran cannot have a nuclear capability at all. They simply -- they're a terrorist nation and they can't have that capability. So how far do you let them get? And I would suggest that they can have no -- they can have no nuclear capability that's not for civilian purposes, and none of this has ever been for civilian purpose.

BERMAN: But they still do have enriched uranium, you think, that is not for civilian purposes?

PERRY: I suspect that. It's hard to say. But I wouldn't -- I will put it this way. I wouldn't be surprised if some of it still exists.

BERMAN: And they are still a terrorist regime, in your mind?

PERRY: They absolutely are. They have never changed since the day the ayatollah took over. And they threaten their neighbors not only in the region but around the world. That has been their history and that's who they are.

BERMAN: So after these 12 days there is still a terrorist regime in power within enriched uranium?

PERRY: That is absolutely true. I would -- I would -- I would -- yeah, I think that's a correct characterization.

[07:55:00]

BERMAN: Is that good?

PERRY: No -- of course, it's not good. But again, the goal for the United States of America is to make sure that they can't do anything with that enriched uranium.

And let's face it, over the past decades there have been numerous administrations and numerous countries that while understanding and recognizing the threat have not only allowed it to continue but oftentimes have profited in its continuance. So this is a problem that's been going on for a long time.

A lot of people have -- and a lot of administrations have countenance that the president took decisive action, and I applaud that decisive action, to make sure that their capability was degraded such to the point that they can't use that in a way to imperil their enemies. And that's the important part here.

We are not looking -- this is -- the decision of who leads Iran is up to the Iranian people, but it is our decision to make sure that the American people and our interests abroad are kept safe from nuclear attack at a moment's notice. And that's what has been accomplished here.

BERMAN: One of the things I've seen the president and his supporters say is this is peace through strength.

I guess one question I have to you is what would happen, do you think, if the United States showed this type of strength toward Russia and Ukraine?

PERRY: Well, I think that Russia should take heed about this president's resolve and once he makes up his mind. He gave Iran a lot of rope, as you know, coming in. This has been going on for a long time. But he gave -- he told Iran they've got to negotiate. He laid out the parameters.

But at some point, when he's at -- when he's at the end of that he makes a decision, and it was clear that Iran hadn't changed their course. They were just going to continue to play us out for time and keep developing their capabilities.

And I think that countries like Russia and, quite honestly, the Communist Party of China need to take heed. When the president -- when this president says something, he means it and he's going to back it up with action.

BERMAN: Congressman Scott Perry from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Thanks for being with us this morning. Thank you very much.

PERRY: And thank you. God bless you.

BERMAN: This morning we are tracking this dangerous heat wave sweeping across the Northeast. It's so hot. It's having serious impact already in New Jersey. At least 16 people were treated in the emergency room after they became sick during two graduation ceremonies. And in Baltimore, a stalled Amtrak train left several passengers trapped in the heat with no air conditioning for more than an hour. That sounds miserable.

Let's get to CNN's Derek Van Dam in the weather center for the latest. When is this going to stop, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, good question, John. We've got another couple of days of this extreme heat. And we've noticed, as you just said, it's not only dangerous for people's health but it's also dangerous for people here on the ground.

Look at this roadway buckling under the heat in Missouri. This is just one example of several roads slabs that shifted because of the extreme heat that we experienced yesterday.

It doesn't help that our temperatures aren't dropping below the 80- degree mark at nighttime. This is particularly dangerous for those who have no ability to cool themselves. No AC inside their home. It's already 85 and extremely balmy in New York City.

So the record high temperatures that were shattered yesterday go back over a century. Here in Central Park, we tied it at 96. Already up to 85 and we may reach that 100-degree mark in the Big Apple. This is significant because if we do that, the last time this actually happened was over a decade ago in New York City.

Similar results here for Philadelphia, Boston. It was DC just last summer where they reached 101 degrees, so that's the last time they reached above 100.

But it's really saying something. This is significant heat for this region. We're talking record highs either tied or broken going forward. One hundred fifty million Americans -- there's really no escaping this heat if you're along the Eastern Seaboard. These are extreme heat alerts that are in place for so many people.

And, of course, it's not just the temperature -- the mercury in the thermometer. It's all about the humidity. How it makes you and I feel as we step outside. And this will be well into the triple digits across the East Coast. Look at Philadelphia to our nation's capital, Boston to Providence.

This is the extreme heat map. Notice how it moves from the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic, and then we finally get the relief.

To answer your question, John, we have to wait until Thursday and Friday when we see the purples disappear from this map.

Back to you.

BERMAN: Yeah. I know how it makes me feel -- not good -- not good.

VAN DAM: Terrible, miserable.

BERMAN: The heat swamp here.

VAN DAM: Got it.

BERMAN: Derek Van Dam, thank you very much for that.

A lot of breaking news. A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BOLDUAN: They don't know what the "f" they are doing. That is the message from a furious President Trump just this morning leaving the White House, lashing out at both Israel and Iran with a ceasefire deal he just announced on very shaky ground.

This is all happening as the president is on his way right now to Europe for the NATO summit.