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Trump: More U.S.-Iran Talks Expected this Week; Overseas Travel to U.S. Down This Year Despite World Cup; Trump Takes Questions During Oval Office Event. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 28, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: ... literally because, you know, a year ago I think other things were on the table and other things were discussed. I think what the president was trying to stress is that he feels that he has the upper hand in those negotiations, especially that, you know, the Iranians are coming and asking to get things from the U.S. in return for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, when in reality the Iranians don't really control the Strait anymore and the U.S. manages to get out of the Strait under U.S. military guidance, more than 15 million barrels of oil every day. Last Friday it was 22 million barrels of oil. So the problem is that what the Iranians are asking, they're asking to get things in return for things that they don't really own anymore. And therefore, I think that's what the president means when he says that this is a deal I would have taken a year ago.

Right now, I think the talks are still going on. There was a meeting today in New York between the Iranian foreign minister and the Qatari mediators. The Qatari mediators will be in Washington later today and tomorrow for talks with White House officials.

And I think the effort is to really try and get some sort of a document that both sides can sign on in order to revive those nuclear talks. But at the moment, I have to be honest, the gaps are really, really big. And I think it will really take a miracle for the mediators to be able to reach some sort of a breakthrough.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Well, one key question would be, how would any document be different from the memorandum of understanding that fell apart earlier this summer? Have you gotten any indication that these new talks discuss substantive change to the approach of the MOU?

RAVID: So I think what the U.S. wants to achieve, if I have to, again, I don't know this for a fact, but that's my assessment, is that if the Iranians want to go back to the MOU, then the U.S. also wants to go back to the last commitment the Iranian gave in the negotiations after the MOU was signed. And this commitment had to do with an informal invitation to the IAEA inspectors to come back to Iran to inspect the nuclear facilities. This is something Iran committed to.

It agreed to do it. And then it said, we will do it after the Supreme Leader's funeral. And then it never did it. Instead, it started attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz again. And I think that this is what the U.S. would like to see, would like to see if the Iranians are ready to issue this invitation to the IAEA. That would be a signal that I think will allow the U.S. to go, you know, a bit forward towards what the Iranians want to get, which is sanctions relief and release of frozen funds.

SANCHEZ: I'm also curious about the China angle of this because you reported that during their meeting last week, Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to stop helping Iran. The U.S. ambassador to China, David Perdue, says that Xi assured Trump that changes have been made. What are you hearing about that?

RAVID: I think that if the Chinese are willing to take any steps, I think it's more about their support for the Iranian war effort. At the moment, at least, I don't have any indication that China is ready to take steps regarding what the U.S. calls Operation Economic Outcast, which is the maximum pressure campaign that has been resumed several weeks ago. I don't think China is about to stop flights from Iran to China.

I don't think China is going to stop trade with Iran. And at least at the moment, there's no indication that China is going to join this maximum pressure campaign.

SANCHEZ: Barak Ravid, appreciate you joining us with that report.

RAVID: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, despite the World Cup, overseas travel to the U.S. fell this summer, costing the country visitors and their dollars. So what is keeping people from coming to America? We'll ask an industry expert.

[08:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: New numbers suggest that for U.S. tourism, this summer was a bummer. Axios reports that despite hosting the World Cup, overseas travel to the U.S. was actually down.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: U.S. Travel Association President Geoff Freeman told Axios the country is on pace to welcome two million fewer overseas visitors than last year. He says that's a 20 percent drop below the peak that we saw in 2019. And Jeff is with us now to talk a little bit more about that.

I mean, two million less. The U.S. is special, unfortunately, in this, right? We're not seeing this in other big countries.

GEOFF FREEMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, U.S. TRAVEL ASSOCIATION: We're not. It's hard to believe. We were down 2 percent in June, 7 percent in July, 11 percent in August.

The trend continues. Travel around the world is growing at a 5 to 10 percent clip, and it's dropping to the U.S. in the same numbers.

[08:40:00]

SANCHEZ: How bad would it have been if the U.S. hadn't hosted the World Cup and gotten so many people from around the world to visit?

FREEMAN: Yes, the summer was actually quite special, right? We all got to experience this. We saw foreign travelers seeing what this country is all about.

Americans got to enjoy hosting the world and realize, heck, we like this, too. Obviously, the numbers would have been worse had it not been for the World Cup. This is a trend.

We welcomed nearly 80 million visitors in 2019. We haven't gotten back to that number any year since, while the rest of the world continues to grow. We obviously need to revisit our strategy to figure out what we're going to do to turn the tide.

KEILAR: Why are they so turned off?

FREEMAN: Yes, there's a variety of reasons they're not coming. Cost matters. It's because of the war in Ukraine.

You can't fly over Russian airspace for Asian travelers. Certainly, there are some for whom politics matters, and they're swearing off the United States. I think what's happening more often than not, though, is travelers are reading the foreign press.

They're seeing these horror stories. They're worried that if I come here, I'm going to get detained. My device is going to be searched.

They're fearful. That's a misperception of what happens. The World Cup certainly helps to reset that perception, but it doesn't help us, for example, that we have a federal entity whose job it is to promote the U.S. around the world, tell people what our policies are, and Congress gutted their budget right now. That's exactly the wrong way to welcome people to the U.S.

SANCHEZ: And that has downstream effects, I imagine. So, who is this drop in tourism impacting the most financially?

FREEMAN: Well, when you think of where those visitors are going to, obviously, the prominent places of Florida and New York, California, Texas, they certainly feel the price right now. Florida's paying a big price for the drop in Canadian visitation. But it's not just tourists, right?

It's business travelers who are also a part of this, people who would come to buy a Caterpillar tractor. They would come to go look at another American good. They're deciding to go to another country right now.

That's the loss we're feeling, not to mention the fact that these people that come here, we know when they're here, they enjoy their time. They go home and tell their friends and family about the experience they had. When they don't come, it doesn't just cost us now, it costs us down the road, because we continue to drive these travelers into the arms of other countries.

KEILAR: We don't get that word of mouth. So, which countries are picking up our tourists?

FREEMAN: Yes, unfortunately, the decline we've felt, down 25 percent from Canada, 15, 16 percent from France and Germany, respectively. Who's benefiting from that? China.

China's up nearly 20 percent. Japan is up a week. Yen is helping them.

Brazil is up. The U.K. is up. Elsewhere around the world, they understand that these travelers, these overseas travelers, just like Americans are, when we go to Europe, we stay longer, we spend more, we have a disproportionate effect on their economy.

They're putting in place strategies to attract these travelers. At the same time, we're gutting budgets. We are perhaps letting this misperception take hold.

We've done some things. We had a fast pass for visas during the World Cup. We've got other lessons that the administration put in place that we can learn from, but we just need more than we're doing right now.

SANCHEZ: So, those other countries that are sort of picking up the tourists that are not coming to the United States, does that also reflect where Americans are heading overseas?

FREEMAN: Well, there's no doubt. Americans are heading in record numbers to Europe. They're heading to Japan.

So, I think it is consistent. Those countries are making their entry procedures more streamlined. They're letting people know that they want their business.

So, they're benefiting not just by attracting Americans, but by attracting travelers from around the world. As I said, this misperception has taken hold that you're going to be detained, that your device is going to be searched. We know through Customs and Border Protection, which is doing many good things, that these things aren't true, but who's getting the word out?

Who's letting travelers know around the world, we want you to come. The World Cup was great in that sense. It was tremendous advertising.

How are we building on that? We were in with the President a few weeks ago, talking about the need to set a new goal. Let's make the United States the world's most visited destination.

Let's have a goal that we want to achieve. Otherwise, we're just falling further and further behind.

KEILAR: Receptive to that?

FREEMAN: I think there is some attraction to it. We had a very good discussion with the President, with others in the administration. I think there is this battle we've seen in the administration between strengthening the economy, welcoming visitors, and dealing with an illegal immigration issue.

And I think that teeter-totter of concern is what we've been addressing for the past two years, and we'll continue to stay focused on it.

KEILAR: All right. Jeff, thank you so much for being with us. I appreciate it.

FREEMAN: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still to come, two new visitors from China have just arrived in America, Boris. Are you so excited?

SANCHEZ: They're adorable. Look at them. An 8,000-mile journey, a massive security detail, a whole lot of bamboo.

Your first look at the panda diplomats making their U.S. debut.

KEILAR: Some tourism there.

[08:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Let's go to the White House, where President Trump is answering questions of reporters in the Oval Office.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Despite the fact that they allowed 25 million people, many of whom were criminals, into our country, we have the best murder -- it's not a nice thing to say -- but the murders are lower than at any time since 1900. So we have the best crime numbers.

We have the best economic numbers. We have Iran who will never have a nuclear weapon.

We're going to win that war very soon. That'll be over. And the gas prices will come tumbling down.

So nobody else could have done that. Nobody else. If the Democrats took in, the border will be opened immediately.

And you have millions of people pouring through, just like it was before. That's the most horrible thing I've ever seen. Yes, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, two questions on the steel, if that's OK.

[08:50:00]

Why was it so important for you to establish a fully integrated American supply chain with the raw materials, exterior steel and iron, specifically from a national security perspective? Why was it so important for you to do that?

TRUMP: Well, because we have a military that's very powerful. And there are certain products you have to make. Steel is one of them.

You need it for your planes, your army tanks. You need it -- you know, we have a lot of problems. We have a lot of things we don't have to make ourselves.

But when it comes to national security, I would say steel is number one on your list. Steel, aluminum, big aluminum plant coming, I told you.

Big one, beautiful. Great people also. But if we don't make it ourselves, we don't really -- we can't defend ourselves. We can't call up another nation and say we want to build 2,000 army tanks and we have no steel. Can we get some?

We'll call China. Do you mind giving us some steel to build army tanks? I don't think it doesn't work. By the way, we had a great meeting with President Xi.

I would say I would rate it as a, on the scale of zero to 10, I would rate it at 12. Very respectful, very good, great meeting. So, you know, steel in particular, but other things too.

We want to make them medicine coming back. They're all coming back. Hundreds of billions of dollars of plants are being built.

Eli Lilly is spending billions, Merck, Pfizer. They're all coming back and we learned that during COVID. We didn't make anything.

Now we're making it all. They're all coming back at record numbers. So thank you for the question, Daniel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, two questions on the steel project. Is there any federal money going to it? And is it a done deal or is it contingent on certain tax breaks within Iowa?

TRUMP: Yes, it's a deal where we're doing very little. We're just, it's a great site. It's very important.

It's a phenomenal site and it's phenomenal people they're going to have. And that's the biggest thing. Howard, do you want to answer that question?

Sure.

HOWARD LUTNICK, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: So my partner, the chairman of Exim Bank, they helped finance the mine, right, to produce that. But then these gentlemen from SR, they are going to build the plant. So it's private money is going to build the steel plant.

But Exim Bank drove and assisted in the mine portion of it but helped launch that project.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it contingent on tax breaks within Iowa? LUTNICK: No, I think this deal is done. This deal is done. They've already worked it out.

That's why we're all together with the president. The president doesn't bring people together unless it's a done deal. You guys know that already.

TRUMP: They've already started building. And you're talking about a tremendous, you know, think of it. If you build a $10 million building, it's big. $50 million is quite big.

$500 million is really big. $18 billion they're spending from outside money and all from the highest sources, most respected people anywhere in the world. It's pretty amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, two questions. One on Iran and then one on Iowa. I'll start with Iowa, though.

Sir, you've won Iowa by 13 points. Some of the polling, though, for some of the races right now in the Senate and also some of the House races, a little closer, much closer, in fact. Why do Republicans, do you think, have the will so hard to hold onto these seats?

TRUMP: I don't know. I love Iowa. I've always been very strong with Iowa.

There's been some things that the Democrats have done that are very bad for our country. You know, they had high prices. I've reduced the prices, but they like to say affordability.

But they're the ones that caused the affordability problem. They're the ones that caused all of these problems. And they were unwilling to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

They said, let somebody else. Of course, I could say that about many people. We have stopped them from having it.

They'll never have a nuclear weapon. And they understand that. And they're willing to say that.

But I'm surprised. First of all, the polls are fake. But when you see somebody like Ashley, one of the greatest politicians, you'll see it.

She'll be one of the greatest politicians in America. Going to be highly respected. And she is highly respected.

She's going to be representing Iowa in the Senate. She's going to bring back a lot of money for Iowa. You know, Iowa is a state that likes money coming back into it.

If you put these people in there, you're not going to bring back any money. These people, every one of them, they bring a lot of money back to Iowa that helps with ethanol and other things, many other things. And I know Ashley well. And she will be a tremendous success as a senator. She's going to bring a lot of goodies back to Iowa, which Iowa needs. I think the polls aren't accurate because I won it by so much.

And it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't be right up there with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And really quickly, sir, on the arrests in the UK, it was five suspects that were arrested. And was just released on bail. What's your reaction to that?

[08:55:00]

And is this connected to Iran?

TRUMP: Might be. But I will tell you, I would have said don't let them have bail. Cashless bail.

I wonder, is it cashless bail, I guess? That was one of the problems that we had, which started the whole mess of crime. And we're ending cashless bail.

But over there, I'm surprised that they released them. I wouldn't have done that. Look, they've been very good.

They worked with us very closely. We know everything about them. We would not have released them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you said might be. Iran might be. Can you elaborate on that?

TRUMP: Well, I don't know. I'd rather not. I mean, I know the answer. I can be very specific.

But I'd rather not say it. But I would not have released them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has your team spoken to Iran today?

TRUMP: Yes, they have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have through mediators?

TRUMP: Yes, they have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything else you can share about the movement of the Iran talks?

TRUMP: We're going to win. As far as I'm concerned, it's going to be one way or the other. It's going to go pretty quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two questions for you, Mr. President. One on this announcement and one on the state visit that you had last week. On this announcement last year, you also announced that there will be a steel plant that will be set up in southern Louisiana.

Here you have this steel plant that's being set up in Iowa. Is there any concern that these deals may go away if there's a change in the House or the Senate or a change in the President-Elect?

TRUMP: No, because we've given them documents that will, you know, really, it won't matter who's in office. You have to do that. You're putting up $18 billion, you know.

If I'm not here and somebody less friendly is going to be here, that person that's less friendly will have no choice but to allow them to build. They will, you know, they're great businessmen among the best in the world. They're not going to be putting up with that.

So they have guarantees that what they bargained for, to put up all of that money, all of that tremendous wealth, it'll be 100 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then on the state visit yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, Ambassador to China Perdue said that you suggested to President Xi that the U.S. would sell U.S. military equipment to China. Is that accurate? Did you make such a suggestion?

TRUMP: To China?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To China.

TRUMP: You mean to Taiwan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, to China. That's what he said.

TRUMP: I never heard of that one. I'm going to have to ask him. You mean we're going to sell?

No, they'd probably like to buy it because we do make better equipment than them. So maybe it's a good idea. But we didn't discuss that.

They may have been talking about Taiwan. I think he probably was talking about Taiwan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, two questions. One for the investors. I would like to know if in this project, as you know, Africa is a very rich continent that can pretty much supply things for this project.

Are you considering to import some of the materials for this project --

TRUMP: From Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- from African country, like Congo and Angola can also pretty much supply?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. Most of the critical materials that are required for this project will be sourced from America itself within the U.S. There are some materials like manganese that may need to be imported for making and refining the highest quality steel. So that is something that is not necessarily available in the U.S. So we would be looking at global sourcing for those materials until they are there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So Africa is one of them. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is absolutely possible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Mr. President, on the --

TRUMP: She loves Africa. She always asks about it. She never talks about any other place. That's the way it should be, right?

Good job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, another question on DRC, Rwanda. You, among many other administrations, so for the last four administrations, you're the only one who started doing something to end the war, 30 years war in DRC, Congo. So you did already your part.

You bring both President Kagame and President Tshisekedi to the White House. They signed the peace agreement. But Rwanda is still violating.

Are you planning to take steel exactly?

TRUMP: Yes, we're going to stop it if there is a violation. We know about it. We ended the war with Congo and Rwanda, and they both signed and they both agreed.

So, well, look, I just heard about it a little while ago. We're going to -- if there's a problem, we'll stop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I just came -- Mr. President, I just came from DRC. I was there a month ago. And I witnessed, again, Rwanda still killing a lot of Congolese, Mr. President. If you can do something --

TRUMP: And you witnessed it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, Mr. President. And I have evidence that --

TRUMP: How is Ebola? How is Ebola going?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ebola is under control. I spoke with the world -- the director of the World Health Organization, the WHO. And he says it's under control.

But still, the country needs some help to fight Ebola. But the biggest problem is the war.

TRUMP: I'll make sure it works out. That's what I do. I make sure things work out.

Good job you're doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to ask you about this project, as well as Canadian trade, if I could. On this project, the production is 2030. When could we see significant jobs with this production?

TRUMP: I think immediately, because they're going to start construction right away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 6,000 construction jobs.

TRUMP: You're going to have a lot of construction. And now 6,000. There's a massive plant and 6,000 jobs in that area.

It's a great area, by the way ...

END