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Trump Renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America Effective Immediately; Trump Says Putin Will Not Be Attacking a NATO Territory; Officials Say USS Theodore Roosevelt to Be Deployed to Middle East; Trial Date for Alleged 9/11 Mastermind Set for June 2028; Two Airport Workers in Germany Die After Contracting Malaria; NFL Ends the Pro Bowl Game, Players Will Still Be Honored. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 27, 2026 - 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: -- the lake change, Lake of America was something I've been thinking about for a long time, actually. As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico, we changed it, and now it is very routinely the Gulf of America. So

So if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake, now all we need is an ocean. So maybe we'll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific, maybe we'll change them both.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you so fixed (ph) on doing things like this towards America's allies instead of doing things (inaudible)?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, they haven't treated us well. The Canadian officials have treated us very badly. They're nasty people. They charge our farmers 400 percent tariffs. They've been doing it for a long time. And I had them figured out in my first term. And I did some pretty strong things and had it getting pretty good. And then the election was rigged. And now, I'm coming back and doing it the way it -- and finishing the job.

But they treat us very badly. Canada treats us very badly. I would say that of all countries, as you know, we have President Xi coming in a couple of weeks. We have a lot of -- we deal with a lot of people and people oftentimes they'll ask me, who's the worst to deal with on trade? And I say, that's easy, Canada. They are the worst to trade, and they feel entitled. And just, we can't have that.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ted Cruz keeps teasing a 2028 presidential run. You've run against him for president. Do you think he could be president? What's your reaction to this?

TRUMP: You say he's going to run or? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's teasing it. He's talking about it.

TRUMP: You don't mean 2020. But you mean --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 2028.

TRUMP: Yeah, I would say that he's very talented. He's a very good friend of mine. I think he might do that. Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: He's a very talented -- he's a talented guy.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What would you say to those who are concerned a trade dispute with Canada could affect American affordability (inaudible) midterms?

TRUMP: Well, ultimately, it's going to be very good for us because we're losing. When you talk about affordability, we're losing $62 billion a year on average with Canada. And if you really look at it, we're losing more than that. It's too much. It's too much. We can't lose that. We don't want to lose that. We don't want to lose it anymore.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, did Vladimir Putin agree or committed to not attacking a NATO territory?

TRUMP: I've had good talk with (ph) him. He's not going to be attacking a NATO territory.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, earlier this week, ruled not mail-in ballots and there are states like North Carolina that have ballots that go out next week. How are states supposed to implement this?

TRUMP: (Inaudible) North Carolina is great. It's a great place I went to golf three times and they do mail-in ballots. But basically, they ruled on the legitimacy and the way we want to make them legitimate. And it was a great ruling for the Republicans.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO territory during his (inaudible)?

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to comment on that but they are not going to attack.

(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your reaction to the Americans missing in Nepal?

TRUMP: It's terrible. No, we've called Nepal and we've offered any help that they need. We don't have a very good relationship with Nepal. That was a brutal -- that wasn't just water, that was mud and water as a mixture. Nobody has ever seen anything quite like that where very powerful, strong, well-built buildings were wiped out like they were toothpick. That's a terrible think. We are sending aid and we've spoken to the leadership and we let them know anything they want will -- and there 50, maybe 60 Americans over there. We haven't gotten the full list yet, but

hopefully they are OK. But that looked pretty -- that looked like something that people will not be -- somebody will be lost unfortunately.

(CROSSTALK)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There is reports that Vladimir Putin is meeting with the president of Iran to talk about a nuclear agreement next week. Is there concern in the administration and the White House --

TRUMP: No.

HOLMES: -- that these countries aren't taking Economic D-Day seriously? That they are going to continue doing business --

TRUMP: Well, they are doing business. Yeah.

HOLMES: -- with Iran despite the warnings?

TRUMP: Iran is -- right now, they are paying their troops. They are in deep trouble. They have very little capacity. Last night, we took 24 boats through the Strait. We're taking them through all the time. I say it very opening. It doesn't mean we are finished with the military but we are -- the Strait is open as you know, the Strait of Hormuz is open. We have control and we have the blockade.

Iran is not getting anything, nothing is going through, not one ship has gotten through.

HOLMES: Will you punish Putin or Russia if they continue to do business with Iran?

TRUMP: Well, it depends. It depends. So far, I think Russia has behaved quite well having to do with the Strait of Hormuz. And you have to understand, for everything they do, we do also, you know? Somebody was saying about China, what about China? We hear they are spying.

We spy on them too, two way it goes.

[13:35:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not sanction Chinese banks, though, who are doing business with Iran?

TRUMP: Well, who said I'm not? You said, why not? I mean, who said I'm not?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It hasn't been announced.

TRUMP: You don't know if I'm doing it. Well, I don't have to announce everything, do I?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, (inaudible) about what other leaders have you spoken to about this pressure campaign to get them to cut off ties with Iran?

TRUMP: About Iran? There's not a lot to speak to. We don't want to speak to them. We're not looking to meet or anything. The Strait is open. We're taking a lot of boats. Millions and millions of barrels of oil are coming out of the Strait every day. Other countries recognize that.

Every once in a while, they shoot some, you know, they put some shots out. You know, we totally cleared the Strait of -- we have the best minesweepers in the world, the underwater minesweepers. And we've totally cleared the Strait of mines.

And we're watching very closely through a space force (ph), which is one of my things, one of my many things. But we're watching. We see every inch of the Strait. And any boat goes in with a mine, we see it. And we take it out. We've taken out two of them.

(CROSSTALK)

Thank you. So I'll be going to Texas, and we're working very hard. We want to win that race. He's running against a man who should not -- never be. We have a very good candidate, Ken Paxton. And he's running against Talafreako, they call him, because he is a little freaky. And that's not a man that represents the value of Texas.

So I'm going to help Ken Paxton, and I'm going to spend a lot of time in Texas. I have the all-time highest vote in the history of Texas also. And I'm going to spend some time there. We're going tonight. Some of you are going with me. Thank you very much, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Thank you, guys.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": All right. An announcement there from President Trump that he is renaming Lake Ontario to be 'Lake America' which is something that he has been threatening for days here amid this trade war with Canada that has become escalated, that has become entrenched and appears to be taking a really hold for the long haul.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah. The president there is saying that this isn't a message to Canada despite his frequent attacks on the Canadian leadership, the two nations engaged in this tit-for-tat over the weekend after trade talks fell apart the U.S. announcing some 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods and then Canada responding in kind with up to 50 percent tariffs on a range of U.S. products, aluminum, fish, et cetera -- 700 U.S. products.

Apparently he believes that this does send a message to Canada, otherwise why do it even as he is denying it. We have Adam Cancryn here who's been following these developments closely.

Adam, stepping back, does Ottawa see this as punishment? How are -- how are the Canadians interpreting this act by the president?

ADAM CANCRYN, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I mean I think overall, they're going to be a little bit mystified. I mean this doesn't have any actual real effect on the issues at play here, which is trade, which is tariffs, trying to hammer out this deal between two, you know, very close allies historically.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

CANCRYN: What I think it does signal is that, you know, we are coming up on the September 8th deadline for Canada to decide whether they're going to impose retaliatory tariffs on a pretty broad range of goods. And what this signals is that we're no closer or not even begun starting renegotiations to try to get to a resolution that would avert that. So every day in which, you know, we're talking about Lake Ontario or Lake America and these kinds of things is a day that there are not talks happening to try to get to a resolution that avoids, you know, prices going up on both sides of the border.

KEILAR: Yeah. I mean we have to look, Adam, at the products that we're talking about these tariffs impacting. Let's say for American consumers, how are Americans going to feel this? It becomes because of these tariffs more expensive to blow your nose --

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

KEILAR: -- because of paper products and the raw materials that America relies on just in time for ragweed, which you know I talk about all the time.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: But we hear it and people, that's happening right now. If you like to have a drink, it costs more. If you like a Canadian whiskey, you like your Canadian club, that's going up. You're looking for a winter coat for your kid, everyone is right now, it's time, right? You got to get ready for that, a coat with down in it, that is going up. You need a new hockey stick for hockey season for your kid or maybe you, that's going up.

I mean, so Americans are feeling that. They're going to be feeling this. So what does it say about, I guess, whether the president is coming from a position of strength or not when what this is essentially is flipping the bird to Canada with a renaming of this lake. CANCRYN: Yeah. I mean what Trump and what White House officials have told us is that, you know, there's a power imbalance here, right? The United States is much more powerful and imposing than Canada and there's this feeling that we have leverage over them. They need us more than, you know, we need them.

[13:40:00]

But that doesn't kind of get at the political aspects that you're alluding to here. The fact that we have an affordability crisis that is kind of the main thing people are focused on heading into the midterms. And that's an issue that the U.S. has and that the president has and not Canada. There are also the repercussions more broadly to think about, which is that all of those things getting more expensive, there are companies behind them and there are employees behind them.

And so now, you're talking about as these effects take hold, are there issues in terms of employment, companies having to lay off employees. How does that now kind of have an effect or not on the U.S. economy long-term?

SANCHEZ: Let's actually go to Kristen Holmes who's live for us at the White House and she was in the Oval Office. You asked the president, Kristen, about the meeting between the CIA Director, John Ratcliffe and Kremlin officials this week. Ratcliffe apparently delivering a message to Vladimir Putin that Russia should not attack NATO allies.

When the president was asked about that, I think his response was notable.

HOLMES: It was notable because it's a definitive no. Let me just take this out of my ear really fast because I'm hearing myself. This is going to be something that if Putin does decide to attack a NATO territory, you're going to go back and look at this clip where he said Putin will not be attacking a NATO territory.

Now, he wouldn't get into the meeting itself, what was talked about, but as we've reported earlier this morning, one of the things that Ratcliffe was there to do was to issue that warning and that comes after European and U.S. intelligence showed that Putin could be planning a minor incursion into a NATO territory really just to test the alliance and likely a lot of that test is because of what President Trump has said about that alliance.

The other question I asked regarding Russia and this one, it's more about Iran, it was about these sanctions. It was about Economic D-Day. We have seen reporting that the Iranian president is sitting down with Vladimir Putin. Keep in mind, this is after Ratcliffe went and part of that -- part of his message there too was to stop doing business with Iran.

They're still going to have that meeting we're told or at least we've heard through reports, and is there some concern here that no one's really listening to what this Economic D-Day is supposed to do, that these countries are supposed to be punished or sanctioned by America if they do business with Iran and yet they're still sitting down with them.

He kind of brushed off the question saying that, you know, Russia is behaving, that he is not concerned, that they helped with the Strait of Hormuz. This is very different than what we heard Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, saying in his announcement which was, again, any business that is done with Iran will be viewed as something that now is a sanctionable offense by the United States. He didn't seem to be heading down that path.

And the other part of the sanctions question was, he was asked specifically why he's not sanctioning Chinese banks. That's been a big question. It was not part of the announcement that Bessent made, who do business with Iran. And he said who said I'm not sanctioning those banks. He said that he doesn't have to announce every move he makes. So of course, that's going to be something that we follow up on as well.

SANCHEZ: Notable as the president was saying that Russia has behaved quite well, Kristen, with the Strait of Hormuz that CNN has done reporting, others have done reporting, that show that Russia has actually been providing intelligence to Tehran about U.S. bases in the region, bases that Tehran has targeted with attacks.

KEILAR: Yeah, it's a very important --

HOLMES: It is not just U.S. intelligence. I do want to quickly note, I mean, we saw the actual testimony, sworn testimony of General Caine and Pete Hegseth when they were asked about this, so it's not just reports on intel, specifically, if Russia and China were working with Iran, and they did not deny that. They actually affirmed it by walking kind of around it, but saying that adversaries were working together. It's something President Trump hasn't admitted but his own top generals have.

KEILAR: All right. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much, live for us at the White House and for asking that important question of the president.

SANCHEZ: Up next, a group that helps service members apply as conscientious objectors says the number of troops seeking their help has skyrocketed since the Iran War began. That story coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:48:27]

KEILAR: New signs the Iran War is not ending anytime soon. Today, White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt confirming there are no talks underway between the U.S. and Iran. She says all options are on the table, but the option of pressuring Tehran with sanctions appears to be the choice at the moment.

At the same time, the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its company of 5,000 sailors are preparing to set sail for the Middle East, a deployment expected to last at least seven months. We're joined now by retired U.S. Army Major General James "Spider" Marks. General, as you look at this deployment of the Roosevelt, first of all, what does that tell you about U.S. planning for the trajectory of this war?

MAJ. GEN. MAJOR GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Brianna, mostly what this means is it provides the commander, the Central Command commander options. Look, he's got the George Washington on station, that carrier strike group with its incredible capabilities, who just did a change out with the Lincoln, which is now after its incredible deployment, groundbreaking deployment, is on its way back home.

So with the Roosevelt en route over the course of the next couple of weeks, it just gives that commander more options. It does not mean that the United States is ratcheting up and has a more -- that it is more likely to engage militarily. It gives that commander options.

KEILAR: The Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy said yesterday, they know they're going to be there longer than seven months and they're being given eight months to plan on.

[13:50:00]

How should the Pentagon approach preparations for this crew, given the concerns about the Lincoln's groundbreaking, as you put it, the extended deployment that they went through?

MARKS: Well, certainly lessons have been learned from the Lincoln deployment, and I absolutely am convinced the Navy is diving into the details of what those concerns and issues were. And certainly both the George Washington, which is now on station, and the Roosevelt, which is en route, will address those. And the nature of those challenges are speculative at our point.

I know the Navy is diving into that, but it really goes to leadership and those non-commissioned officers, those Chief Petty Officers who are directly engaged as a matter of routine with the sailors. They've got a sense of what is going on inside those workspaces, and then they will communicate that up to their respective bosses in their leadership chain. That is, the Navy does that well. All our services do that extremely well.

So the specifics of what happened on the Lincoln, we can speculate or we can wait for the Navy to say, look, here are the five top things. We've addressed those, and we're about the business of getting corrective action in place.

KEILAR: There's a group that helps service members who are seeking a discharge as a conscientious objector. And they're telling CNN they've seen a surge in the number of service members who are looking for help from them since the beginning of the war with Iran.

They say they usually see about 50 applications per year. They've already seen 150. We should note, service members, they can also file a discharge on these grounds without the help of an outside group. So this is just kind of part of the picture on this.

Does that increase surprise you?

MARKS: Well, it does. I would also ask the further question, which branch of the service is this unique? And I simply don't know. Is this unique to the Navy, or is the Air Force, or the Guardians in the Space Force, and the Army Marine Corps, are they in the same type of a situation right now? I simply do not know.

The conscientious objector status application is one of those administrative efforts that all service members can make a determination they want to go down that path. There's great scrutiny in terms of, are you meeting the standards of that? And I have never seen that anybody who has had a legitimate consideration for conscientious objection has been denied that as you go through the process.

In other words, it's not an open gate, you walk through it. You've got to demonstrate what are your moral, your faith-based considerations that put you into that category.

KEILAR: All right. It's something to look at as, obviously, going forward here. General Marks, great to have you. Thanks so much.

MARKS: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: Officials are urging calm after two airport workers in a malaria-free country die of the disease. We'll have that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:57:22]

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. As the nation prepares to mark 25 years since 9/11, a U.S. military judge has set a new trial date for the alleged terror mastermind. For two decades, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been locked up at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But in June of 2028, he and three alleged accomplices are scheduled to stand trial for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Last year, a plea deal that would have spared Mohammed the death penalty was thrown out.

In Germany, two airport workers have died after contracting malaria. Officials believe the life-threatening disease came into the country by a mosquito on an aircraft. And all six employees became infected and according to local reports, the four employees who survived have since fully recovered.

And the NFL is ending the Pro Bowl game, the exhibition of the league's top players has been played in some form almost every year since 1951. Players will still be honored as Pro Bowlers in Los Angeles after this season. The event has waned in popularity here in recent years. The NFL tried moving the one-time staple in Honolulu to various cities and in 2023, switched from tackle to flag football. Boris? SANCHEZ: Ever since Sean Taylor almost decapitated a punter, the Pro Bowl has not been what it used to be.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: So the 2010s produced some of the biggest sports stars and moments, including when LeBron James decided to take his talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat. Of course, social media was about to change fan engagement forever as well. Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern, you can watch the final episode of "Decades in Sports." Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Social protest was a characteristic of sports in 2010s and it was part of social media creeping into the sports world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Social media made everything that was good about sports better and everything that was bad about sports worse. For fans, they could find out so much, but it was also a megaphone for every bad fan who used social media as a way to criticize the most elite athletes for their supposed shortcomings and failings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the positive side of it is that you can feel a certain connection to the athletes through what they are putting out themselves. And when athletes and other celebrities start to utilize it, you get to see certain parts of their life that you would never get to see before it. What they like to do, who are they as people. So I can invest in them more as a fan now and it just makes you feel closer to them. You can really support them because not only do I love the way that they play the game, I think they are a cool person --