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Trump Takes Questions at White House; Trump: GOP Should End Filibuster; Trump: Iran is Dying to Make a Deal; Trump: The Gas Will Go Down the Minute the War is Over. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 30, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

SEAN BERGER, YAHOO FINANCE: This is Sean Berger with Yahoo Finance. Question on clarification of the Trump IRAs versus a regular IRA.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right.

BERGER: Does it come down to the difference of a federal match? Who would qualify for that? And secondly, do you have any reaction to the reserve chair Jay Powell staying on the Board of Governors? Were you prepared to take any action on that?

TRUMP: No, I don't care. If he stays on, he stays on, that doesn't -- I just want to make sure that Kevin became the head. It's very unusual that they stay on. You know, I predicted he would, because, you know, who's going to hire him, frankly?

So I predicted he would stay on. But, you know, he's a negative. I think he's a negative force. The thing that angered me about him more than interest rates was the fact that he could allow a building to cost billions of dollars more than it was. I could have built that building -- I could have renovated and fixed that building, which is what I do. I always did well with it for $25 million. They're going to spend maybe $4 billion. It's not even close to being opened.

You know, Kevin, who's going to be fantastic. I don't know if he's going to have an office. I'm going to have to put him right here. I'm going to get that. We'll cut the oval in half. I'll give him half of the oval.

No, it's I think I'm very happy about Kevin. I think Kevin -- he's a star. And the other Kevin, we're going to talk to you. Could you answer her question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a great question. And the match is a super important part of it. And it's one reason why we're calling on our friends here to potentially expand it.

So right now, the match is capped at $35,000. But there's a whole academic literature that this match has a big effect on people's willingness to save and their long run welfare. And so the differences really are the match.

We're creating the trumpira.gov website, so it'll be really, really easy for people to have access to private companies that have to follow the TSP rules that are really low cost and so on so that they'll get the best possible investment. And finally, you've noticed that Michael Dell has given money -- promised money for the Trump accounts. We've also made it clear that the Trump IRA charities can contribute to other people's accounts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I imagine this will boost the stock market and economy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.

TRUMP: Do you want to mention phase two, phase one today, because I can do that without Congress. But phase two is going to be something that would be unbelievable. Do you want to just give it a little summation?

We'll be going back to Congress as to this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the basic headline is that if you look at the huge success of Australia in their retirement savings accounts, that we're working with the Treasury Secretary, he and I and Jason Smith and other members of Congress to come up with something that's pretty close or in the direction of the Australian system.

TRUMP: Or better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Or better.

TRUMP: There are a couple of little glitches that we'll get rid of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But there's absolutely no contemplation of harming Social Security in any way. This is meant to be an add on to that.

TRUMP: It'll be very exciting. It's going to be great. We'll be pretty quick. Pretty fast. We're going to move pretty fast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. There's all these missing scientists who had access to classified material. A bunch of them have turned up either -- they're either missing or they have turned up dead. Have you been briefed yet about whether or not these cases are connected?

TRUMP: Yes, I am.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And can you tell us if they are connected?

TRUMP: Well, so far, I mean, they're individual. We have a lot of scientists. So when you see, you know, you put together 10, it's a lot, but it's a very small number compared to what -- we have a lot of scientists.

I was asking that question thousands, hundreds of thousands of scientists. So now some of them that we looked at are very sad cases in some cases, some were sick, some left this earth self-inflicted, some had other things. So, so far, it's, there's not a major -- you know, there's sometimes there's a little bit of a connection anyway, and you say, oh, this is, this is a terrible thing.

But so far, we're finding that there's not much of a connection. We'll let you know. We're going to be doing a full report. It was very serious.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And just to follow up on my question earlier, have you been informed if the Secret Service agent who was shot on Saturday, if that was from friendly fire or if it was from suspect?

TRUMP: Well, they say it was not friendly fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you're hearing that it's friendly?

TRUMP: Well, that's what I heard. I mean, I heard that they said it wasn't friendly fire. It was actually reported.

Do you read the reports? Because it was actually reported.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir. I read through the DOJ manual.

TRUMP: Well, then why do you ask me the question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't believe it said that the agent was struck by.

TRUMP: I'm just saying they said it wasn't friendly fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he hasn't been charged yet.

TRUMP: It wasn't us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. And he hasn't been charged yet with that. Of course, that could come. I want to follow up on the security changes. Is there talks about you potentially wearing a bulletproof vest moving forward, given you have now been shot at?

TRUMP: I don't know if I can handle looking 20 pounds heavier. These guys, they look so good.

[15:35:00]

Some of these guys, some of these guys are physical specimens. Some of these guys should drop a weight. I don't want to be near him.

Now, if you want to gain 20 to 25 pounds, get a vest. And frankly, the vest did an amazing job because it took a bullet close up and he didn't even want to go to the hospital.

I mean, we sent him to the hospital just in case, but he didn't want, you know, still a hit, but he didn't want to go to the hospital. The vest totally protected him. Still a lot of power behind that shot, though.

That's like getting, getting hit by Mike Tyson. But it's amazing. I've been asked about that and I guess it's something you consider.

In one way, you don't like to do it because you're giving into a bad element and so I don't know, but I have been asked about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How nervous are you about it happening again? Another assassination attempt?

TRUMP: I don't think about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't think about it at all?

TRUMP: If I did, I wouldn't be doing a very good job here. I'd be thinking about nothing but that. I don't think about it. I really don't.

I don't think about it. If I did, I wouldn't be effective. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you pushed on True Social, calling on Senate Republicans to blow up the filibuster. It is a big issue with MAGA. MAGA wants you to get rid of it.

TRUMP: They should do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don't they do it?

TRUMP: Why don't they do it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.

TRUMP: I have no idea. You know why? I guess because you have three or four that are like hard line, the same, same ones, same ones that are hard line, no to everything. And if you don't have all of them, you know, we have a very small majority.

John Thune's a good man. I said to him, John, just go take the vote. Let's expose who the people are.

But you know, we got rid of the filibuster. We could vote on the Save America Act, Voter ID. You know, you act so good.

I love this guy. He's a great guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you too.

TRUMP: Even though I don't love his girlfriend too much, I won't tell you who the girlfriend is. But I like him and I've always liked him. It's great that he hasn't changed. But Brian, I think here's the problem.

It's not even imaginable to me why. And people are angry about it. People are.

I'm talking about Republicans are angry about it. The filibuster should be terminated. If the Democrats ever get a shot, which probably based on history, sometime they will.

They will use it the first minute of the first hour and they will execute all of the bad things. Twenty one justices. You know, they really like 21. I heard 13, but they really want 21 Supreme Court justices. And they really want to have D.C. and Puerto Rico become states that would mean automatic for senators going to the Democrat. And there's not even a chance that they don't do it and do it immediately.

Now, with that knowledge -- because you could argue whether it's good or bad, but I don't think it's that much of an argument, frankly, but you could argue with that knowledge that they're going to do it immediately. Why wouldn't you do it as a Republican? Unless you have bad motives, almost.

But if we did it, we could pass one bill after the other. We could pass laws and acts and things that we never even dreamt of passing. And you know what else?

We wouldn't lose for 50 years. You know, if we passed, if we terminated the filibuster, we would have a 50 year run. You'd stop cheating.

I mean, look, they're professional cheats and they're great at it. That's what they're best at because you can't get elected with their policy. You can't get elected with men and women's sports, with transgender mutilization of our children, with open borders for jails to be dropped into our country and mental institutions and drug dealers and murderers.

Think of it, 11,888 murders come into our country. Nobody even talks to them about it. We got a lot of them out because of, you know what, because of ICE, which they don't want to do -- they don't want to fund. They're defunding our police. When they defund ICE and with Border Patrol and Secret Service, they're defunding our police.

The same thing as they're doing with an officer on the street corner. So why the Republicans Senate doesn't just sit in there and just do it and take a negative vote and do it again and again like the Democrats do. They go again and again, the war power.

I'm negotiating a deal with Iran and every week, every three days, they put in a thing that the war should stop. And people ask me, how the hell do you negotiate like that? You're destroying them.

Every day I read, think of it, we militarily decapitated the country.

[15:40:00]

And every day I read about how well they're doing militarily. They got nothing left. They've done. And yet I read in the New York Times, I see in a stupid CNN, which I only watch because you have to watch a little bit of the enemy. So I watch it for a very short period, but you have to, you know, you have to be smart.

And if you see CNN, you think you're winning the war. If you read the New York Times, it's actually seditious, in my opinion. You read the New York Times, you actually think they're winning the war.

I read some of these columnists, but it's all sorts from the top. It's a terrible thing. So we're negotiating with them and they read how well they're doing and they're sitting in a cave and all their leaders are dead, everyone's dead around them.

Missiles are all over the place. They have no Navy. They have no Air Force. They have no nothing. We can fly right over the middle of Tehran without being shot at because they have no anti-aircraft. They have nothing.

And they're reading that they're winning the war. They're trying to figure it out. They get the New York Times, I guess, in some form.

And they think we're crazy. But, you know, I'm supposed to be negotiating. And they make you negotiate from weakness, not strength.

But the difference is, I don't care. And everybody knows the facts. We are decimating that country.

I got a call today from another country that's more on our side than their Middle Eastern country saying, sir, please don't hit them anymore. They're decimated. Please.

He's actually helping them. He's actually saying, please. And yet the New York Times will tell you that they're winning the war.

It's so sad. I hate to even say that, because when I say that, people out watching, they'll say, oh, maybe they are winning the war, just by the fact that I'm saying it. And it's so ridiculous.

They're being decimated. We have the greatest military in the world. And one thing that's come out of this and Venezuela, some of the things that have happened, I rebuilt the military in my first term and did a good job.

And also the first year of this term. We have the greatest military in the world. When I spoke with President Xi, when I spoke with President Putin, they have great respect for what I've done and what our military does.

We have a military like no other. You know when we attacked Venezuela, their equipment, none of it worked. It was all good equipment, but it was discombobulated.

You know what that means? They press the buttons and nothing happened. They said, what the hell's going on?

They heard that weird buzzing sound from way up high. It's amazing how great our military is. And for us to read -- it's like the B-2 bombers right there, late at night, eight months ago, they went into Iranian territory and Iran was waiting for them.

And they were firing at the wrong targets. They were firing at their planes, but they didn't see them. And with no moon, dark at night, they dropped each plane in two bombs, 14 bombs.

Every one of those 14 bombs went right down an air chute. Think of it. They followed the beam right into the chute.

And every single one of those bombs, very powerful, 200,000-pound bombs, every one of those bombs went right down an air chute. Late at night, think of it, late at night with no moon, you couldn't see a thing. They put those -- and they went into territory, all of a sudden, I was watching, they got faster, then they go like that because the bombs go faster when they head down.

I wouldn't want to head down, I'd head up, I'd want to get the hell out of there. And they let the bombs go. And then the first one that let them go was a perfect hit.

He said, skedaddle, and that plane turned over in its eyes, and it went back to a place called Missouri. If you don't know, that's Jason's God and country. It went back, it wanted to say hello to a very powerful congressman, by the way, from Missouri, Jason.

So every one of those bombs, and yet, before they landed, CNN came out with a report that maybe the damage wasn't that great. The damage was far greater than we said. It was obliteration.

And when the Atomic Energy Commission went there one week later, they say Trump was right. It was obliteration. And they still haven't been -- they've had possession of the site. They haven't been able to do anything with it. It's, that stuff is buried.

And the reason I took such -- I was angry about it, was because it's disrespectful to those pilots and those incredible people, including the people that maintain the planes. Those planes had to fly for 37 hours without stopping. They got the tankers, they had three tanker lifts, meaning they had to get refuel up in here.

[15:45:00]

They never landed. They went all the way from Missouri to here, and then back. Some went to Guam, which there are those that say that was a way of camouflaging the whole thing, because they followed the ones from, they thought the ones from Guam were not coming. They were going to take it easy at Guam.

That didn't work out too well. But that was amazing. And the New York Times and CNN, they said, well, maybe the B-2 attack wasn't so good.

Even to this day, I hear, because we want to get the nuclear dust. It's way down there. You need excavators and everything to get it.

But we want to get it. We'll take it. One way or the other, we'll get it. We'll either get it or we'll take it. They'll either give it to us or we'll take it.

But I think it's very disrespectful to our incredible military when they say maybe they missed the target. Every single bomb hit the target. Then on top of that, we shot from submarines 30 unbelievable missiles that also hit the target on top of that. It was complete obliteration.

And it was confirmed by Atomic Energy. But even the other day, I saw on CNN, well, I don't know. They want the stuff. So therefore, the bombs didn't hit. Yes, we want the stuff. It's way buried. But we want to get it. We

will get it.

It won't even be hard. But they have to respect our military. They have to.

If it were a miss, I tell you, you know, it would be fine. It would have done a lot of damage. But this was -- these bombs went down the air chutes.

They'll never build air chutes again in a mountain. You know, they built these air chutes to get a layer up there. They'll have to find a different way because it didn't work.

But our military is amazing. There's never been anything like, we have the most powerful military on earth. And it's too bad we have to use it.

But we're doing really well. So we'll see how that all works out. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right. We are listening to President Trump in the Oval Office. And just to be very clear, because that does deserve a fact check, he said CNN came out with a report saying -- let's just be clear about what the report did say. It was a report based on a report from the DIA, which is the Pentagon's intel arm. So this was a report based on a Trump administration report that said that this early assessment showed that there was not actually a destruction of nuclear sites.

That is a report based on a Trump administration report. He said there was a report that the B-2 attack wasn't good, that it missed the target. No, there wasn't, just to be clear.

And CNN is not reporting that Iran is winning this war. CNN is reporting that Trump is saying negotiations are advancing, despite the appearance publicly that there is a standstill. But what we know right now is that the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed.

We are reporting that gas is at 4.30 a gallon right now, the biggest one-day jump in six weeks. And yes, the U.S. is militarily dominant. But Tehran is defiant, and the end at this point is not imminently in sight.

But he covered so much there, the filibuster, golf, soccer, an apprentice reprise, the Iran war, yes, the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and the Fed chair outgoing.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes. And notably, to your point about the president sort of mischaracterizing the reporting, the crux of the attempt by the United States to remove Iran's nuclear capability remains buried hundreds of feet underground. And he acknowledged that Iran still possesses a large amount of highly enriched uranium.

And that is part of what the United States is trying to get. The president there vowing that one way or another, through negotiation, perhaps through force, the U.S. will obtain it. We're going to break down more of what the president said in just moments.

Stay with CNN. We'll see you on the other side after a quick break.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Breaking news to CNN. We had just been listening to President Trump answering questions in the Oval Office. Let's go now to the White House with CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes.

Kristen, what stood out to you from what President Trump said?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris and Brianna, what was most notable to me was this idea that he was asked specifically, he was growing antsy with the fact that the negotiations in Iran are not going well. And does he want to resume the ceasefire? First of all, he grew prickly at the idea that anyone knew what was going on with the conversation, saying it was only a small group of people, but never answered the question about breaking the ceasefire, which really goes to show you that he is looking for this off-ramp and trying to come up with a solution that is diplomatic.

The other part of this, this idea that he might be withdrawing troops from Italy and Spain, something he said yesterday about withdrawing troops from Germany. Obviously, this is something that these countries do not want to experience. And lastly, my takeaway is this.

I know that many people have complicated relationships with their parents, but that was a very lukewarm endorsement of his own son doing the Apprentice reboot on Amazon. I am not sure how I would take that if that was my dad saying maybe he's good at it. I'm not sure.

KEILAR: Yes. He said he has charisma.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: He did say he's charismatic. That's not nothing.

HOLMES: I think the line was, he's got a little charisma going.

KEILAR: Oh, Kristen. So true. Touche.

All right. Let's go to David Goldman, CNN Business Senior Reporter. On the issue of gas prices, and it's a big day for gas prices, $4.30 a gallon, biggest one-day jump in weeks. He said gas prices will come down immediately, you know, like once this gets resolved.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, that's not how it works.

[15:55:00]

So we know this because gas prices did start to come down when we thought we were getting out of the war. They fell about 12 cents over the course of about two weeks when oil tumbled to $80 a barrel. And in the past week alone, gas prices have gained 27 cents a gallon.

Gas prices take off like a rocket and they come down very slowly like a feather. That is not how gas prices work. They don't come down very, very quickly, unfortunately for all of us drivers.

KEILAR: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Notably, David, we heard President Trump talk about Jerome Powell there saying that he doesn't mind if he stays on the board of governors. It is sort of a historic anomaly for a former Fed chair to stay on, though.

GOLDMAN: Yes, so this hasn't happened since the Truman administration. So all of us remember Mr. Eccles, who stayed on, of course. But yes, this hasn't happened for quite some time.

The fact is, he says he's not going to let him go. That takes a big cloud off of the Fed for sure.

KEILAR: All right. David Goldman and Kristen Holmes, thank you to you both. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now, after a quick break.

Right now. Soon.

END