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Netanyahu Arrives for Meeting With Trump in Florida; Trump Says He Expects Gaza Reconstruction to Begin Soon; Trump Says Wouldn't Be Good if Ukraine Attacked Putin Residence; Blizzards, Storms, Tornadoes Slam Parts of the U.S.; Trump Says U.S. Struck a Dock Area in Venezuela. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 29, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- but a lot still people. And it's a lot of people. But 26,000 soldiers were killed last month. Yes, please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump, are you going to allow Turkish forces or do you expect Turkish forces to be stationed in Gaza?

TRUMP: So, I have a great relationship with President Erdogan, and we'll be talking about it. And if it's good, I think that's good. And a lot will be having to do with Bibi, we're going to be talking about that. But Turkey's been great. And he's been, you know, excellent as far as I'm concerned, I don't know about you.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: To me, he's been very good.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu and how important it is for you to see him be pardoned by the Israeli president?

TRUMP: Look, he's a wartime prime minister. He's done a phenomenal job. He's taken Israel through a very dangerous period of trauma. Israel with other people might not exist right now, if you want to know the truth. That's a pretty big statement, but it's true. I feel that. You had the wrong prime minister, Israel right now, would not exist because they were -- they were met with a force, the likes of which very few countries could have handled.

And we worked together and we were extremely victorious to put it mildly. Now, I hear that Iran is trying to build up again. And if they are, we're going to have to knock them down. We'll knock them down. We'll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully, that's not happening. I heard Iran wants to make a deal. If they want to make a deal, that's much smarter. You know, they could have made a deal the last time before we went through, you know, a big attack on them.

And they decided not to make the deal. They wish they made that deal. So I think, again, they should make a deal. They want to make a deal. But sometimes that doesn't happen.

Yeah, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) Would you support the overthrow of the Iranian regime?

TRUMP: Of who?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Iranian regime.

TRUMP: I'm not going to talk about overthrow of a regime. It's -- they've got a lot of problems in Iran. They have tremendous inflation. Their economy is busted. Economy is no good. And I know that people aren't so happy, but don't forget, every time they have a riot or somebody forms a group, little or big, they start shooting people. You know, they kill people. And the people tend to -- I've watched this for years.

There's tremendous discontent. They form 100,000 -- 200,000 people. All of a sudden, people start getting shot, and that group disbanded pretty quickly. So I've watched it for years. They're vicious, vicious people. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, will you support an attack, Israeli attack on Iran if Iran did not have a deal? If Iran will continue with their ballistic missiles and also nuclear weapons?

TRUMP: If they will continue with --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TRUMP: -- the missiles, yes. The nuclear? Fast. OK. One will be yes, absolutely. The other was, we'll do it immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) Mr. President, what are your plans regarding Gaza for the next few weeks?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to be dealing on Gaza. That's why this very great prime minister is here right now. We're talking about Gaza. We're talking about a lot of things. We have about five major subjects that we're discussing and Gaza will be one of those subjects.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can you guarantee that the last hostages on field will be released before we'll continue to the second phase of the Gaza play?

TRUMP: Well, let's put it this way. Every hostage just about that's been released was released because of me, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, my whole team, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, they were all released because of us. None were released in the Biden administration, none.

They were all released because of us. Then we had a lack of releases with respect to the dead. And all of a sudden, they started coming back because I said, nope, you said you're going to -- We have one wonderful young man whose parents are right now inside. And he's -- what -- beautiful parents, a beautiful brother, sister, and like a beautiful family. And they're waiting for their son. It's the only one left. And we're doing everything we can to get his body back. And the parents just said, hopefully, he's alive. And I said, I'd love you to think that way. OK? We are doing everything we can.

Out of all of these people, and I'm not just talking about the final 20. Look at all of the people, what do you think the total number is?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: 255.

TRUMP: 255.

NETANYAHU: 254 came out, one more.

TRUMP: Think of that. And we got them all.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump, does the reconstruction of Gaza will begin even before Hamas is disarmed?

[13:35:00]

TRUMP: I think it's going to begin pretty soon. Yeah. He's looking forward to it. So am I. What a mess. What a mess it is. And it's been a mess for centuries. It's been a mess for a long time. It's seems to be born for that. But we're going to we're going to straighten it out.

No, we're already starting certain things. We're doing things for sanitary conditions and others. But Gaza is a tough place. You know the expression, it's a tough neighborhood. That's truly a tough -- that's truly a tough neighborhood. Yeah. You have a question in the back. Go ahead. Yeah, please. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll ask about the relationship between you and prime minister.

TRUMP: What about it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) good relationship between you and him.

TRUMP: I don't think it can be better. We just won a big war together. You know, if we didn't beat Iran, you wouldn't have had peace in the Middle East because nobody would have been able. The Arab countries who have been fantastic would not have been able to make a deal if we didn't wipe out their nuclear. We wiped it out. If we didn't wipe out with our beautiful B-2 bombers, if we didn't -- and we sent a lot of Tomahawks in there also, by the way, from a submarine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what about the pardon that (inaudible) prime minister?

TRUMP: A pardon? I think you will. How do you not? He's a wartime prime minister who's a hero. How do you not give a pardon? You know, I think it's a very hard thing not to do it. I spoke to the president and I -- it's on. I mean, he tells me it's on its way. You can't do better than that, right? Please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) Venezuela, was the facility taken out by the U.S. military or was it another entity like the CIA?

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don't want to say who it was. But, you know, it was along the shore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, have you or anyone in your (inaudible) talked to Maduro in recent days?

TRUMP: Well, I spoke to him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Recently?

TRUMP: Pretty recently, reasonably, but nothing much comes of it. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can you explain the importance of --

TRUMP: You have to understand what he's done. They've sent billions of dollars of drugs in, but maybe just as bad, they've sent hundreds of thousands of people in from jails, from prisons, from mental institutions and insane asylums, the drug lords and drug dealers were all sent into our country. But think of it, what he's done. Tren de Aragua, probably the worst gang. They cut off people's fingers.

One man made a phone call to complain about them, they cut off their hand. They cut off his hand. Don't ever make a phone call again. We'll cut off your hand (ph), and after that we'll kill you they said. They said that was in Colorado. I know they sent in all of the bad ones. They sent in some bad people.

And that, to me, was just terrible. And they send in drugs. Now, I will say this. 97 percent of the drugs coming in by sea stopped. We're trying to figure out who the other three percent are. They have a hard time getting people to pilot those boats.

But 97 percent of the drugs coming in by the ocean, by the sea, by water are gone. Every boat that we take out, we save 25,000 lives of Americans. Thank you very much, everybody. We'll see you. We're going to have a big meeting. And we'll see you in a couple of hours if you'd like.

And if you'd like, you can come up and have lunch like you did yesterday. Would you like that or not? Do you want that?

CROWD: Yes.

TRUMP: Because some of them think it's terrible. It's a bribe. But, you know, a bribe for $25. I don't know. If you'd like, you can go. And if you don't, you can stand in a driveway and melt. All right. But if you want -- will you work on that, Margo? Is Margo doing a good job? She's a star. She's too nice. Her only problem, she's too nice to you. And you're not nice to us, but that's OK. Margo, take them up and have a beautiful lunch. And we'll see you later.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) the strike, the alleged strike on Putin's residence could start on the peace business?

TRUMP: Yeah, I don't -- I don't like it. It's not good. I heard about it this morning. You know, who told me about it? President Putin told me about it. Early in the morning, he said he was attacked. That's no good. It's no good. Don't forget, you know, the Tomahawks. I stopped the Tomahawks. I didn't want that because we're talking about -- you know, it's a delicate period of time. This is not the right time. It's one thing to be offensive because they're offensive. It's another thing to attack his house. It's not the right time to do any of that and can't do it. And I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible)?

TRUMP: What?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't you have U.S. intelligence service (inaudible)? Is there any evidence (inaudible)?

TRUMP: Well, it came out. It came out. Well, we'll find out. I mean, you're saying maybe the attack didn't take place. It's possible too, I guess. But President Putin told me this morning it did.

[13:40:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One question Mr. President, can you expand on the importance of strong relations with the state of Israel? And Mr. Prime Minister, you've called President Trump your strongest friend for the state of Israel. You've worked with numerous administrations, numerous presidents, can you expand on that? What makes President Trump such a strong friend for the state of Israel?

TRUMP: Why don't you (inaudible)?

NETANYAHU: I'll say it again and again and again. We've never had a friend like President Trump in the White House. It's not even close. And I think you can judge that by the -- not merely by the frequency of our meetings, but by the content and the intensity. I think Israel is very blessed to have President Trump leading the United States and I'll say, leading the free world at this time. I think it's not merely Israel's great fortune. I think it's the world's great fortune.

TRUMP: Well, I just want to say that it's very important who the Prime Minister and President of Israel is. We have a great relationship. It was an honor to speak before your leaders. That was a great honor for me. I think it has not happened before or something they told me.

But the relationship's been extraordinary. And Bibi is a strong man. He can be very difficult on occasion, but you need a strong man. If you had a weak man, you wouldn't have Israel right now. Israel would have been, you know, Israel with most other leaders would not exist today. They would not exist. And now, they're stronger than ever. Yeah, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to ask Netanyahu (inaudible) Syria?

TRUMP: Well, I hope he's going to get along with Syria because the new president of Syria is working very hard to do a good job. He really is. I know he's a tough cookie and he's, you know, you're not going to get a choir boy to lead Syria. That's the one thing I would say.

So I hope they're going to get along because, you know, I dropped the sanctions on Syria because otherwise, they wouldn't have had a chance. We want to see Syria survive. So we're going to be talking about Syria too.

OK. Thank you very much, everybody. Have a good time. Go have a good lunch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prime Minister Netanyahu, there is a texts regarding --

NETANYAHU: After I hear these things, I think better to quit now.

(LAUGH)

NETANYAHU: Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We've been listening to President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanging plaudits and giving each other praise, even though President Trump there with a bit of criticism toward Netanyahu saying that he can be very difficult on occasion.

This comes as CNN correspondents are reporting that there's been some, let's say, apprehension on the U.S. side about how Netanyahu has handled the second phase of the ceasefire plan in Gaza, not moving fast enough. Notably, President Trump there saying that he wants to move through the second phase as quickly as we can. There has to be disarmament with Hamas, he says.

Just a few hours ago, Hamas' military wing came out and said it would not be giving up weapons. So clearly, some sticking points there now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": That's right. And it's notable that Netanyahu has come to America on this visit with the parents of the last remaining hostage, whose remains are still in Gaza, Ron Gvili. His parents, Itzhak and Talik, are with Netanyahu on this visit. They've visited with top U.S. officials, trying to make a point that he doesn't want to move forward with the second phase until that final hostage is released.

We do need to make an important fact check here, which is that Netanyahu, or pardon me, Trump insisting that no hostages came out during the Biden administration. That is just very easily, verifiably false. There were more than 100 that came out during that 2023 agreement that was brokered to release hostages.

So just very important to note, this is not a Ronald Reagan, kind of Jimmy Carter situation that Trump is trying to paint here. Let's bring in CNN National Security Analyst Beth Sanner and CNN Military Analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton. There's a lot to break down.

We have to talk about the Russia piece of things here in a moment, the Russia-Ukraine piece. But let's talk about what is going on with this ceasefire. How stalled is it, Beth?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think that it now continues to be stalled because what Netanyahu just got from the president, I think he got -- as he said at the end, I think we should stop here because this was actually a good set of statements.

The first one was that they need to disarm before we move to Phase Two. That's the Netanyahu position. OK? The United States has wanted to maybe do this in a phased way because they know that Hamas, as you just pointed out, Boris, has said repeatedly that they are not going to disarm.

So that is a good thing. And then the president supported him on the idea that, well, if Iran continues to rebuild, we'll strike if we have to.

[13:45:00]

But it's honestly not an emergency from my perspective, and it sounds like from the president's perspective too.

But I think so far on Gaza, this means that more pressure will come on Hamas. But it's honestly not an emergency from my perspective, and it sounds like from the president's perspective too. But I think so far on Gaza, this means that more pressure will come on Hamas and potentially more military action is down the line for Israel.

SANCHEZ: I noticed, Colonel Leighton, that during that remark about Iran, that caught your attention. The president there saying that he would immediately support an Israeli attack on Iran if Iran were found to be rebuilding its nuclear program.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Right, exactly, Boris. And one of the things that's interesting about this is, in some ways, that's a green light for Netanyahu to find information that indicates that Iran is actually rebuilding its nuclear program. It's pretty clear when President Trump talked about obliterating all those targets, those nuclear targets in Iran, that might have been overstating exactly what was accomplished.

Yes, the targets were struck. They were struck very precisely, relatively effectively. But that doesn't mean that the program has disappeared from the face of the earth. It's probably buried deeply under the face of the earth, actually. And so that's -- that becomes a very difficult thing for us to assess from an intelligence standpoint. And that is going to be something that they're going to have to really figure out if we're going to re-strike targets like that, that could really exacerbate tensions throughout the Middle East.

KEILAR: Is Trump willing to put a hold on all of this as there is one final hostage? And let's be clear, that is a very important life. And we all remember what happened on October 7th. Is Trump willing though, to put things on hold for that, even with Netanyahu's making this point, bringing parents from Israel?

SANNER: Yeah. So the reason that the parents came and, you know, Netanyahu has had very little interaction with the parents. President Trump has had many, many more interactions with hostage families than Prime Minister Netanyahu has. So the reason that Netanyahu brought the family was to make the point you can't have disarmament, you can't have the second phase until you get all the hostages back.

This is the deceased person. I was kind of surprised that President Trump made a remark indicating perhaps that the hostage might still be alive. I mean, this was a person who was a police officer who was actually killed on October 7th and his body was taken over into Gaza.

I mean, just grisly, you know, horrible hostage taking of remains. This is very important in the Jewish faith. But I don't think necessarily that a lot of people who aren't deeply religious can understand the importance of having the remains.

And so, I don't think that would stand in the way. But you know what I think will? The problem is with disarmament, which countries are going to sign up for the International Stabilization Force that will be tasked with physically and forcibly disarming Hamas if they do not disarm first. And that's something that they're not talking about, but is actually a huge barrier.

SANCHEZ: According to President Trump, there are countries lining up to participate. We'll see if that bears fruit. Colonel, I do want to ask you about something else that President Trump brought up. I find this really fascinating.

The president over the weekend made this remark that the U.S. had struck a facility tied to Venezuelan drug trafficking. He didn't specify where it was, aside from saying that it was somewhere along a waterfront. He got a bit more specific here, saying there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats, the implementation area, he called it. Officials across the administration have been reluctant to give any details about what that means. Trump there refusing to elaborate further.

But this would mean that the United States potentially has struck within Venezuelan soil without the approval of Congress.

LEIGHTON: That is correct. And so, this is one of the things that's really important about this, Boris. First of all, we don't know exactly what happened. But the minute that you strike targets on the soil of a country, that is an act of war. And you have to be very careful how you do it. Now, there are provisions, you know, counterterrorism provisions that could be invoked. You have the ability sometimes to go in if there is an imminent danger. But we don't know that any of that has actually -- was actually the case in this situation.

So if they struck a dock facility, you know, which is a possibility, then it could have impacted not just drug trafficking, but also fishing. And you know, sometimes these are dual or multiple use facilities. And if they are that, then you're impacting the economic life, not just of people who are engaged in narco trafficking allegedly, but also people who are engaged in pursuits like fishing.

And that is a significant thing to do. And it's a significant escalation, if it's true.

SANNER: Can I just jump in here, Cedric, because --

KEILAR: We get (ph) one question on Ukraine and Russia, although I would love to hear what you have about Venezuela but I think we really need to address this because the President said that he'd learned from Putin that one of his residences was struck.

SANNER: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: Yeah.

[13:50:00]

KEILAR: We just have to be clear that Ukraine's president has said unequivocally, this did not -- Ukraine did not do this. And so it's just interesting, again, the president's willingness to just take the word of Vladimir Putin, someone who has lied time and again, not planning to invade Ukraine. Russia is not targeting civilians. There was no Russian involvement in the downing of MH-17. Those are just the big lies.

SANNER: Yeah.

KEILAR: Right?

SANNER: Yeah.

KEILAR: I mean, what do you think of that moment?

SANNER: I mean, the fact that he came out and just -- and just said at the end that he learned it and that he doesn't think that that's an issue. I think that the fact that your only piece of information on this comes from the president who absolutely has shown in deeds rather than words exactly where he is on this, which is continuing escalation and aggression and no signs that he wants to end this war.

LEIGHTON: And you know, that's one of the key elements here, because it kind of strikes credulity at this particular point when you just really look at one side of the story with Zelenskyy vehemently denying this. I have to wonder if it's false flag operation. And that's something we have to look at. SANCHEZ: And we're looking at live images right now of President Trump sitting across from Prime Minister Netanyahu inside Mar-a-Lago, the table is set for lunch. President Trump flanked by his defense secretary, Secretary of State Stephen Miller, I believe, is also there, as well as Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have been instrumental in this process of negotiating peace deals not only in Gaza, but also in Ukraine.

Colonel, we were speaking a moment ago about the remaining sticking points in regards to peace in Eastern Europe. I wonder what you make of the approach of Witkoff and Kushner sort of not copying and pasting, but emulating the 20-plus point peace plan in Gaza and trying to -- let's actually listen to the president right now.

TRUMP: You're going to all be outside, the beautiful sun. Good. Enjoy your lunch. It's a very good group. We made a lot of progress already. We had about a five-minute meeting and we've already settled about three of the difficulties. So thank you very much for being here. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, press. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you very much everyone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, press.

SANCHEZ: Some apparent progress made there, President Trump saying that within five minutes, they resolved three issues at hand.

But to get back to the question, Colonel, what you make of folks that don't really have a formal background in foreign policymaking, and Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner playing such a role?

LEIGHTON: Well, you know, it's something that's, I think, really important for these people to really understand the history of what they're dealing with here, because one of the things that's really important about the way Russia approaches these kinds of things is they will use historical incidents, historical narratives to really solidify their particular position.

Now, the problem with those narratives is that they are often false and that becomes, you know, a critical component where you need to be able, as a negotiator, to discern fact from fiction and you need to be able to come in and say, this is not correct. You did not do X, Y, and Z back in whatever century Putin's talking about.

But what you need to be able to do is you need to point out what the real facts are. And if you have truth on your side, you're a much more effective negotiator, especially with negotiators like the Russians.

SANCHEZ: Last word, Beth?

(LAUGH)

SANNER: Well, I mean, look at the consequential things we have going on here in this ballroom, in this conference room, in Mar-a-Lago. And this is exactly where President Trump wants to be. He wants to be at the center of everything and moving things forward in all these fronts.

But there are limits to diplomacy that is only conducted at the highest level when the devil is always in the details.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely. Yeah.

KEILAR: Colonel, Beth, thank you so much to both of you. Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:58:26]

KEILAR: A brutal and rapidly intensifying winter storm is unleashing tornadoes and blizzards from the Midwest to the Northeast. In fact, right now, more than 20 million people across several states are under winter weather alerts.

SANCHEZ: Further south, parts of Illinois are cleaning up after tornadoes ripped the roofs off of homes there. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking all this for us.

Derek, so many areas were hit overnight. What is behind these storms?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Boris, Brianna. So this unfolded yesterday on the highways of Iowa and now we're getting word that there was a multi-car, multi-vehicle crash or a pile-up that occurred during a snow squall that moved through the greater Detroit region earlier this afternoon.

It was a warned snow squall. It reduced visibility. So this storm is potent. There's a lot of wind energy associated with it and it's got a marked temperature difference on -- behind the cold front. And I want to show you this because what's been unfolding over the past 24 hours is not only whiteout conditions, highway closures, power outages, but this marked drop in our temperatures. In fact, it is 52 degrees colder in St. Louis right now compared to 24 hours ago.

That's really saying something. It's a powerful storm system, right? So here's the radar. Let's focus in on the northeast. We have millions of Americans still under some sort of winter weather alerts even though the blizzard warnings have just been released from the upper peninsula of Michigan. But look at the reduced visibilities. These were down to a quarter mile in some locations earlier with one- to two-inch snowfall rates per hour.

Now, as that cold arctic air spills over Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, you better believe that some of these lake enhanced, these snow bands that will form here, the favored areas will see several inches, if not feet, of snow going forward through --