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Trump at G-7 as Iran to Dominate Discussions. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 16, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: And if I didn't do that -- Howard knows better than anybody -- if I didn't terminate that deal, I believe that they would have -- Israel wouldn't be here right now.

[06:00:10]

And the second one was what we did with respect to the nuclear dust, as I call it. Right? We blew it up. The mountain collapsed on top. It was -- you can't get to it. And they were two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon.

And if they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it on Israel. And I hate to say it, and probably the rest of the Middle East, because they had all those missiles aimed at the emir, at Saudi Arabia, at UAE, at Kuwait, at Bahrain.

I mean, the biggest surprise in this whole thing -- I didn't think you guys would. I thought he would aim at Israel, but he didn't aim at Israel, much less. He aimed at your countries. And actually, that was a mistake for them, because it brought us these countries, in particular, the five countries -- it brought us.

I mean, he even hit Turkey once. I never understood it. Nobody's going to understand it.

That's the problem. They're totally irrational people. And those people are now gone. And I think Iran has rational leadership now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is Netanyahu --

TRUMP: But you wouldn't have -- if it weren't for the United States of America -- with me, because Obama was the opposite -- Israel would not exist right now. Israel would have been blown off the face of the Earth, 100 percent. And every smart person in Israel knows that.

OK. Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Thank you, you guys.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: We're just hearing President Trump. He's at that G-7 summit in France. He was sitting across from an emir from the regional countries. And they were talking, taking questions about Iran, even taking questions about Ukraine and Russia. But he spent the bulk of his time talking about Israel, reacting to

Bibi Netanyahu and his approach to the region, especially with his handling of the war in -- in Southern Lebanon.

So, I'm going to bring in the group chat this morning. Welcome to the show. We've got Sabrina Rodriguez, politics reporter at "The Wall Street Journal." We've got Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state. He's also the author of "The Briefing Book" on Substack. And then Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns. And Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America.

We were going to start the show with all the reaction to everything we heard yesterday. And now, just moments ago, we heard the president speak about this proposed memorandum of agreement with Iran.

There was a moment where he spoke quite a bit about Iran itself, talking about how the first tier of leadership was gone after strikes, and then the second tier of leadership was gone after U.S. strikes. And then he started talking about who he's dealing with now in a positive way.

JOEL RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes, Audie. Look, the president is still haunted by the shadow of Barack Obama's nuclear deal. Clearly, he spent most of the time obsessing over how he did a better deal than Obama, when we don't even have a deal right now on the nuclear program.

So, with whom he's speaking, I don't know exactly. He says that the supreme leader and those around him -- we're going to see the foreign minister, potentially, on Friday, signing the agreement with the vice president.

And, of course, the IRGC, the -- the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. They're the ones really controlling Iran right now.

It's basically the same people. And I think that's the key thing to understand, is that where President Trump is thinking things are is not actually where they are when it comes to the Iranian leadership. And he needs to be a little more clear-eyed and a little more patient.

And his rhetoric right now is getting so far ahead of where the paper is that he runs the risk of not just humiliating the United States but also undermining our relationships across the region.

We may very well find ourselves with no new agreement. But the president saying he has an agreement, and then the region, of course, ends up in this sort of uncertainty. And that's why you see the Israelis reacting so cautiously, as they are.

CORNISH: Yes, we're going to talk about that more in the program. But I want to come to your point of the language that he's using.

One of the things we heard him say today and has said in the past is that what he is producing is going to be a wall preventing a nuclear weapon versus what he calls a road to a nuclear weapon, which is how he characterizes the Obama administration agreements.

It's interesting to see the term "wall" come back here, which was helpful to him in an immigration context. But how does that fall on your ear in this context?

[06:05:02]

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: He's desperate to get this thing over, because the American people are anxious about this war. No American wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon, but they also don't want $4 a gallon of gas.

So, I think that's the pressure he's under.

And we all know Donald Trump. And I even give Donald Trump some credit on his politics, like he was to come out and say, I got this done, I fixed it. Gas is coming down, midterms are coming, and I've got a wall against this thing. And y'all know I'm the wall guy.

That's the reason this is happening.

CORNISH: Yes. It's hard to have a wall in the Strait of Hormuz, which is one of the problems.

ROCHA: Which is true.

CORNISH: I don't mean that in a joking way.

RUBIN: The wall is controlled by the Iranians.

CORNISH: The Iranians are pushing back.

ROCHA: No, no, no. But his people know that language.

CORNISH: The Iranians are specific. Trump is saying there will not be a toll on the Strait of Hormuz. Iranians are saying there may be some fees.

I want to play for the audience some of what we just heard out of France at this summit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We appreciate the relationship we've had over this short period of time with Iran. And the primary thing is, you know, we can talk about the Iran deal all day long, and we're not investing any money. We've got the right to if we want, but we're not investing any money.

We didn't pay for it like Obama did. He paid billions of dollars. He paid 1.7 billion from an airplane, all green cash. It was crazy. I watched that; I couldn't believe it.

But the one thing that's happening that's of note, frankly, the only thing that really matters in it, is Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I want to talk about this, because it gets at goals and sort of goals from what he first announced, versus where he is now. Penny, what did you hear in how we talked about this?

PENNY NANCE, CEO, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: Well, you know, the American people are terrified of the idea of a -- of Iran having a nuke. And Chris Wright told us that they were about eight weeks away from actually having that.

We hate war. But you know what we hate worse, is not having a decisive victory.

And so, I think the president, what he's saying now goes exactly to what the American people want to hear. We want to know that we are actually standing in the gap and making sure that we are not going to be -- be abused and traumatized by the Iranian patriarchy.

CORNISH: Yes.

NANCE: That it takes women, holds them captive, does -- does marriages as a 9-year-old. I mean, it is a traumatic, abusive regime.

CORNISH: But can I underline the word you just said, "decisive"?

NANCE: Yes.

CORNISH: I think that's really important, especially when you hear the Republican voices that are speaking out.

Senator James Lankford: "We're all going to have questions. No one's even seen it." This is a thing we're talking about. People want to see specifics. We haven't seen the details.

Lindsey Graham, who, you know, was very much a cheerleader in this process for the reasons you talked about --

NANCE: Yes. Yes, he is.

CORNISH: -- now saying, "The way Iran describes it is awful. The way we describe it makes sense to me. Let's look at it and see what it is."

And then finally, a person who was doing sort of X-slash-Twitter combat for him, Mark Levin, was saying, "I have asked for days. Why can't we, the people, see the MOU? Not through an anonymous person. I've never seen anything like this. If it is a great outcome for peace, then release it."

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, POLITICS REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": I mean, I'm looking at the cover of "The New York Post," and it's "Trump Mystery Deal."

CORNISH: "Mystery Deal." Yes.

RUBIN: That's right. RODRIGUEZ: I think there's so many questions about this going into this. I mean, we're only on Tuesday.

CORNISH: Yes.

RODRIGUEZ: We're talking about we might not get details until Friday. I mean, there's not --

CORNISH: But are there also questions, because people are not having -- people are losing faith?

RODRIGUEZ: Yes. I think there's skepticism. I mean, we have from the start of this war, the president saying it will get done in a couple of weeks. It will get done in a couple of weeks. Oh, we have a victory.

I mean, we've been, by the president's standard, by what's coming out of the White House --we've been very close for a very long time since day one of this.

So, I think there is an open question of, really, how close are we? And when we're talking about this memorandum, you know, when we're talking about a framework here, there's still so much to be ironed out, so many of the technical details.

So, I think it is an open question for many people. Like, nobody wants to get overexcited about something that doesn't ever happen.

CORNISH: We're not at overexcited. Erick Erickson tweeting, "Trump has surrendered to Iran. Those who kill Americans love this deal." I just want to read --

NANCE: Now one's read it yet, by the way.

CORNISH: Yes, exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

NANCE: No one's read it.

CORNISH: Yes. But then why aren't I reading those responses from Democrats?

NANCE: Well, I --

RUBIN: There's a reason why this matters. Because if -- under law, if the president gets a nuclear deal, he must submit it to Congress.

CORNISH: We're going to show that on the screen while you're talking.

RUBIN: And so, Congress says, We have a role in this, and you've got to be transparent. Why are you hiding it?

RODRIGUEZ: That was Lindsey Graham's point, is that --

CORNISH: RODRIGUEZ: -- Congress didn't take a look at it.

RUBIN: And there's no deal being provided to Congress.

RODRIGUEZ: Well --

CORNISH: Just giving people an update. We have to hear about this deal beyond this memorandum, right? We actually have to see a draft of this thing.

In 2015, there is a law passed specifically on Iran's nuclear stockpile, not on other random stockpiles on Iran's. And it says that you've got to send it to Congress within five days. Congress gets 60 days to review. Not coincidentally, the 60-day amount of time that this deal could or could not go through.

[06:10:01]

And you can't lift or waive sanctions while this review is happening.

I notice they call it a memorandum, because if you do, it doesn't trigger the law.

RUBIN: Well, you know, Audie, I had the pleasure of working on this when I was deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs to the House of Representatives during the -- the INARED (ph) debates in the Iran nuclear deal.

And I'll tell you, I remember many a day when Republicans in Congress would be screaming about the Obama administration hiding the deal. Side deals. What is it that they're going to do? Pallets of cash, all these sort of falsehoods.

And then the big one: getting legislation passed to require severe oversight.

So now, like in the law of unintended consequences, now the Republicans have to eat their own and, frankly, respond in the exact same way they demanded of President Obama. And they better hold President Trump to the same level of accountability that they expected.

CORNISH: Well, there's certainly a wing that is. I'm reading a lot of tweets that I have to double check the partisan affiliation, because I'm surprised at how vicious they are.

But we're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to bring you up to speed on what the president has been saying at that G- 7 summit about this potential agreement with Iran. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:17]

CORNISH: So, we're going to continue to follow breaking news out of France, where President Trump is at the G-7 summit. He is touting the proposed agreement with Iran.

The next phase is the 60 days of nuclear talks. We're going to take a listen to the president, who spoke just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It goes to a second stage, which I think will be actually easier. I didn't want to attack them last week, but we had no choice; and we did it twice, actually. We were doing it a third time, and we were able to not have to do that.

But we have a deal that's a fair deal. It's a good deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back. Let's talk about what we know. Just now, the president was saying, I think it goes to a second stage. We should be clear. We're not -- we don't know what it looks like. So, we're not at the first stage.

But once we do, he's saying that he feels like he's going to be able to move forward with this.

Some of the sticking points I have heard about: financial relief for Iran. Trump and his allies say there's not going to be money going to Iran.

RUBIN: Well, that's incredibly unclear right now. There's also a discussion about $300 billion of investment coming from the region to Iran. Now there are --

CORNISH: And that would be a reconstruction fund.

RUBIN: Reconstruction fund.

CORNISH: They claim that would be funded by Gulf nations.

RUBIN: Right. So, Gulf nations are going to fund the reconstruction of a country that just bombed them. I think you're going to see a lot of hesitance.

There's a lot of commitments historically in the Middle East towards reconstruction that never realized.

CORNISH: Yes. And we should say he was sitting next to the emir of Qatar when he was saying this at the G-7. Does -- do you think, for Republicans, that is better than the pallets of cash they say?

NANCE: Way better.

CORNISH: But why, if it's money to the regime?

NANCE: Well, in -- well, let me just say. Well, listen, I -- I have met with several members of the GCC. I've talked specifically from the ambassador of Saudi Arabia. They believe that Iran is the biggest bully in the region. They have

no love lost. And so, it gives me confidence, if they are going to be investing, it's only going to be because Iran has come to heel and is actually being a good neighbor in the region.

CORNISH: So, you think, under that circumstance, they would feel comfortable giving money to a country that bombed them?

NANCE: I think they -- I think I'd rather them have control and be able to parse out money if they behave.

Don't get me wrong, I don't trust Iran. I think they are tyrannical, and they're liars. And we all have to watch them completely. Over the next 60 days, they can easily blow up this deal if they want to do it.

CORNISH: Yes.

NANCE: And they tend to do it.

ROCHA: The question I have is for Joel.

CORNISH: Yes.

CORNISH: Is we talk about money and money getting spent, money from other nations. What about frozen assets? Is this different money?

RUBIN: Yes, Chuck. Look, I'm glad you brought that up. Their frozen assets are billions of dollars, about 12 billion in accounts in Qatar that are frozen. That is Iranian money that the Qataris held.

Why? Because of American sanctions and our request to the Qataris to not move that money.

So, this goes to a bigger question about sanctions relief. Sanctions are statutory. Congress has a role in this.

Now, if the president chooses to waive sanctions, he has to justify it. But the sanctions on Iran are integrated between nuclear, and the terrorism issue, and their ballistic missile defense.

CORNISH: So, you're saying --

RUBIN: Ballistic missiles.

CORNISH: -- this skirts that entire issue by making it a reconstruction fund.

RUBIN: Right. And so, getting rid of sanctions is incredibly complicated, technically and diplomatically, politically. So, the easiest one is to do this, to tell the Qataris, say, unfreeze those assets, let them have it, which of course would do exactly what he is criticizing President Obama --

ROCHA: That was my thing.

RUBIN: -- for having done.

NANCE: Those are two pots of money, though.

RUBIN: They are different.

NANCE: The GCC funds are -- are one pot of money. The other pot of money is stolen money from the Iranian people that has been sent over --

RUBIN: But that would go back to the IRGC.

CORNISH: But let me let Sabrina get a word in here, because I think the other thing is when we're talking about the different goals, there was also regime change.

And during this meeting, we heard the president saying, Regime change. You know, I've never really seen that work. I don't really think that's -- sort of was possible here.

And I was sort of surprised to hear him dial that back from when he first came out in that social media video, saying to the audience, Iran, people of Iran, this is your time to rise up.

RODRIGUEZ: One hundred percent. I mean, I was at the CPAC conference earlier this year, just a couple of months ago. And there was a huge outpouring. I mean, we're talking about at least a few thousand Iranian exiles who were there celebrating, chanting, you know, thanking Trump for doing this, thanking Trump for taking this action. And were really calling for him to, like, really follow through on bringing regime change.

So, I think there will be a lot of disappointed people, particularly in the Iranian diaspora, who are going to say, wait a minute.

CORNISH: Yes.

RODRIGUEZ: This was a stated goal. We don't see a change when it comes to the leadership.

And, I mean, they know the leadership of their country more than anyone.

[06:20:07]

CORNISH: Yes. And that's just the diaspora. The thing we're going to talk about next is Israel, because this is another area where the Israeli government is upset with the thought of money flowing to the regime.

So, Joel, don't worry, you're going to get to that. I could see you jumping in on that part, but we're absolutely going to take some time to talk about that.

We're talking about President Trump's recent comments just a few minutes ago at the G-7 summit in France. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: So, fighting between Hezbollah and Israel continues in Lebanon. This is despite the U.S. and Iran striking this agreement.

Now, moments ago, the president weighed in on the impact of Israel.

[06:25:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can this deal survive if Israel attacks Lebanon?

TRUMP: It can. And, you know, I consider that the minor war. Iran's a big one. But we have that a little pinprick out there that constantly rears its head. And that's Hezbollah.

I'll tell you what. Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long, and too many people are being killed. And you don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they're not all Hezbollah. That I can tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back.

It's one thing for the White House to sort of, you know, talk about how Trump is talking to Netanyahu and say, Oh, it's a sibling thing.

It's another thing for him to get up on the world stage and say, this attack was bad. This was too much. What do you think it says about where Trump is now, that he'd be speaking like this?

RODRIGUEZ: I mean, it shows the tenuous nature of the relationship at the moment, too, because we are seeing on the other side of it, Netanyahu come out and say, I don't think this is a good deal. I don't -- you know, we're going to do what we have to do to protect ourselves.

And it's sort of, again, showing this -- again, we don't know what's in the deal at the end of the day. But we're showing -- and Joel was saying it before, you know -- what he is saying versus what will ultimately be in a deal are two different things. And whether there will be a deal are two different things.

But clearly, Netanyahu is in a position of having a lot of skepticism around what they have agreed to and is very openly talking about it.

CORNISH: Yes, just the context for this. Israel wants the conversation to be not just about Iran's nukes, which they want eradicated. They also don't want Iran to have the ability to fund proxy figures in the region like Hezbollah.

But you have the president not exactly backing them up here in criticizing how they've been conducting this operation and then saying, look, this throws a negative light on the big deal. He called it.

RUBIN: Yes. Look, well, the president has it backwards on what's happening in Lebanon. And he's really throwing our ally out to drift alone and sticking the knife in Netanyahu.

I can't say it enough. What he is doing now is crushing Netanyahu politically inside of Israel. But across the board, Israelis are very concerned.

And Hezbollah is not a private concern of the Israelis, either. We, the United States, for decades have designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Remember the Marine barracks bombing --

CORNISH: Yes.

RUBIN: -- in Beirut in 1983?

CORNISH: Let me follow up on that.

RUBIN: This is not a sideshow.

CORNISH: Here's what -- here's what I want you guys all to hear, because he's not just talking about Israel and Iran. Now he's drawing in another actor entirely. This was said just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I was very responsible for Syria. And the man that's running Syria now is a person that I put there, along with President Erdogan and some others. He's done an amazing job of pulling it together. He's not a Boy Scout, but he's done an amazing job of pulling it together.

And he is very good with Hezbollah; does not like them.

And I'll tell you what: Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long, and too many people are being killed. And you don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they're not all Hezbollah. That I can tell you.

And I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah, because to be honest with you, I think they'll do a better job of doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIN: OK. First of all, al-Sharaa of Syria took power during President Biden's term. So, let's just make that clear.

CORNISH: And after a lengthy civil war. Yes.

RUBIN: A civil war where Hezbollah fought against al-Sharaa's forces inside of Syria when Hezbollah was backed by Iran and Russia.

So, the president's logic on this issue is very concerning. It's very circuitous. It is not accurate. And if he's calling for Syria to somehow now invade Lebanon to defeat

Hezbollah, he's only calling for further regional war and escalation, not de-escalation. But it makes no sense. And so, I really think he needs to stop talking about this fast.

CORNISH: Well, it's not that -- he's -- like I said, he's introducing new ideas into this.

What did you guys -- I'm just getting reactions to this right now. I don't know,, Sabrina, if you've covered it, as well. Obviously, Trump does have a good relationship with the new leader of Syria. I didn't know it was this good. Drag you into war good.

RODRIGUEZ: I mean, it is unusual to hear what is coming out of the president's mouth. Granted, we know he speaks extremely off-the-cuff, and the way he'll speak about world leaders today could be different from how he speaks about them a week from today.

But again, I think when we're talking about something as serious as a war, when we're talking as serious of what's going on in the Middle East right now, of course, you want to see the president moderate what he says and be measured in what he says. And this certainly raises concerns and questions about where we're at.

ROCHA: For the first time in a long time, probably in my 35 years of running political campaigns, most folks, most voters -- and I know we'll talk about independents later -- is they don't know or understand all the things that are coming out of this, or understand wars.

They understand large things. They understand nuclear bombs, bad. They understand genocide. They understand those things.

[06:30:00]