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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump Announces U.S. Deals With Japan and Philippines; Epstein Fallout On Capitol Hill; Trump Accuses Obama Of Treason; Kremlin "Hopes" To Hold Talks With Ukraine This Week. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 23, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:27]

MIN JUNG LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers, joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm MJ Lee. Rahel Solomon is off.

It's Wednesday, July 23rd, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington, D.C.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I don't think this issue is going away over August.

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R-NC): This transcends politics. This is about 13, 14, 15-year-old girls getting abused. No. This is above politics. This is beyond politics.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The leader of the gang was President Obama. Obama and a group of thugs cheated on the elections. It's there. He's guilty. This was treason.

OZZY OSBOURNE, ROCK STAR: Believe me, if I hadn't known it was a real bat, I would never have bitten into it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was just a great guy. What you saw is what you got with that guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

LEE: Donald Trump is touting two new U.S. trade agreements just days before steep tariffs are set to take effect.

The U.S. president called the deal with Japan massive and says there will be a reciprocal tariff of 15 percent on Japanese imports to the U.S. He claims Japan will also invest $550 billion into the U.S., creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs, but didn't specify how those investments would work. The official terms of the deal have not been released yet. Japan's prime minister welcomed the new agreement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIGERU ISHIBA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We were able to keep Japan's tariff rate to 15 percent when it was intended to be raised to 25 percent. That is the lowest figure to date for a country that has a trade surplus with the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Meanwhile, under a new deal with the Philippines, its exports to the U.S. will now face a 19 percent tariff. The announcement came after President Trump met with the president of the Philippines on Tuesday, and this marks the fifth trade agreement announced over the past three months as the Trump administration moves ahead with its global trade war.

At the White House, the president of the Philippines emphasized his country's close ties with the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FERDINAND MARCOS JR., PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES: Our strongest, closest and most reliable ally has always been the United States, and that is something that we value, that we are grateful for, and that we will continue to foster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And let's see how global markets are reacting to the new trade agreements in the Asia pacific. Japan's Nikkei gained about 3.5 percent on the news. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is up 1-1/2 percent. The Shanghai composite is flat and Seoul's Kospi rose just shy of half a percent.

And here's where the U.S. futures stand ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street. Dow futures are up slightly, and the S&P 500 futures are also up, and the Nasdaq futures are in the green as well. 0.24 percent at the moment.

And now to a CNN exclusive. Recently rediscovered photos of Jeffrey Epstein that are shedding new light on his relationship with Donald Trump. The U.S. president has tried very hard to distance himself from Epstein, but one photo confirms Epstein actually attended Trump's wedding to Marla Maples. This is the photographic proof Epstein at Trump's wedding at the Plaza Hotel in New York in December 1993. In this photo, you can see him entering the hotel.

And here you see Donald Trump with two of his children talking to Epstein at the opening of the Harley Davidson cafe in New York in October 1993. You can see Ivanka there. She would have been a preteen at the time.

And all of this comes as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson apparently changed his mind on the Epstein files just last week. Johnson said he wanted to see more details about the Justice Department investigation. But on Tuesday, he shut down the chamber to avoid a vote on releasing more Epstein files. Sherrell Hubbard has details on this controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERRELL HUBBARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In an era when bipartisan support is hard to come by, some House Republicans and Democrats are teaming up on a measure related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. They're demanding the Justice Department release all documents related to Epstein.

Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would send lawmakers home a day early for August recess, effectively blocking a push to force a vote.

[05:05:07]

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): This is a cover up of epic proportions where you've got the majority party literally having us leave Congress early and not having the rules committee meet because they don't want to deal with releasing Epstein files.

HUBBARD: Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna are leading the charge in the house.

MASSIE: Just vote this out, give it to the Senate and let them do their thing.

HUBBARD: But the speaker says he doesn't think that's necessary and called for patience.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The president has said clearly, and he has now ordered his DOJ to do what it is we've all needed DOJ to do for years now, and that is to get everything released. So, they're in the process of that.

HUBBARD: Meantime, the Department of Justice says it plans to speak with Epstein's convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Reporters asked President Trump about the plan in the Oval Office Tuesday.

TRUMP: I don't know about it, but I think it's something that would be appropriate to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: As President Trump sat next to the president of the Philippines in the Oval Office on Tuesday, he again tried to divert attention from the Epstein files, this time by accusing former President Barack Obama of treason.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She found out that Barack Hussein Obama led a group of people, and they cheated in the elections, and they cheated without question. What we found out is horrible that Obama and a group of thugs cheated on the elections. They cheated violently, viciously on the elections.

They're violent people. They're vicious, horrible. These are vicious, horrible people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: This attempt by the president to shift the focus onto yet another conspiracy theory was enough to prompt a rare public response from former President Obama, his spokesperson said, quote, out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous, and a weak attempt at distraction.

Natasha Lindstaedt is a professor of government at the university of Essex in Colchester in England.

Natasha, it's great to see you.

The president, as we just discussed, has been really doing everything he can to try to dismiss the Epstein story and to deflect. But you just heard this breaking CNN reporting overnight of new photos and video of Trump and Epstein together, though many years ago.

The issue here for Trump is not just that they once had a relationship, which is well established, but that this kind of reporting and these kinds of images will ultimately make it harder for him to shake off the Epstein scrutiny. What do you think the potential fallout could be?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Well, it's a good question. And Trump definitely seems incredibly rattled by this. And he doesn't get rattled very often. But he's doing everything he can to deflect, to disorient, to distract. And when he's cornered, he tends to get very vicious, as we've seen with some of these attacks on former President Barack Obama.

I mean, thus far, it's really hard to tell what the public fallout is because were still really in the early stages of this scandal and Trump's approval rating really hasn't moved much. I mean, in the first term, it held steady between 38 percent to some 44, 45 percent. It never really went up or down that much, with the exception of what happened on January 6th.

And we've seen in his second term, he doesn't seem to be affected by scandals very much so. The only recent polling we have is a Quinnipiac poll, which showed that while you have some 63 percent of Americans that feel that this has been completely mishandled, the whole Epstein affair has been completely mishandled. You have 40 percent of Republicans that think it's been handled well, but then you have a big chunk, of course, that either didn't answer or don't think it's been handled well.

But at the same time, that same poll shows that Republican support for Trump has held steady. It just hasn't really moved much, and they're just willing to get behind him no matter what. However, we've seen that the MAGA movement has been up in arms about this. Theres been all kinds of calls to Republican legislators to just more legislators in general, really pushing to release information on this.

And it's not something that can just go away by Trump trying to throw up anything in the air to distract the public. The public seems to be pretty much glued to this issue.

LEE: Yeah. And just to spend one extra beat on this story, I mean, what do you make of the Justice Department saying that it has reached out to Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell for a meeting?

[05:10:02]

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims. The FBI and DOJ will hear what she has to say if she has information.

This clearly appears intended to show that the DOJ is heeding those calls that you were talking about for more transparency, but will it work?

LINDSTAEDT: I mean, my first instinct when I had heard about this was that they wanted to make sure that Maxwell didn't spill information that could be incriminating towards Trump. And that they wanted to talk to her for that reason. It may be, though, another attempt to try to distract the MAGA public that is so upset about this and to try to put on appearances that they really care. They've been trying to throw out different things just to see if that's enough to satiate the MAGA movement.

But thus far nothing has really worked. Even as Trump tries to distract with talking about Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, even Rosie O'Donnell. I mean, he has been on Twitter or social media. His Truth Social, putting everything out there. And it doesn't seem to be enough.

Even as Mike Johnson decided to shutter Congress early in the hopes that they wouldn't have to vote on getting the Justice Department to release the information to make the information public. It still doesn't seem to be enough to stop the overall concerns that there's been some kind of conspiracy or cover up.

LEE: All right. Natasha Lindstaedt, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

LEE: Starvation is surging in Gaza with more than a dozen deaths in a recent 24-hour period. The U.N. and aid groups are responding to the crisis just ahead.

Plus, a summer surge of COVID-19 with the new variant now spreading across much of the U.S.

And tributes are pouring in for Ozzy Osbourne, the heavy metal singer and reality TV family. Man died just weeks after his final performance in his hometown. We'll go live to Birmingham, England, later this hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:44]

LEE: A U.S. official says special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Europe this week for conversations on a Gaza ceasefire. A separate source says that will be followed by a stop in Doha for talks with Qatari officials. The State Department spokesperson says the Trump administration has a strong hope for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow into Gaza.

Israel, meanwhile, is ramping up its offensive in Gaza as the enclave faces a growing hunger crisis. Health officials in Gaza city report at least ten people have been killed in the latest Israeli airstrike. And a warning some viewers may find the video disturbing. The Al-Shifa Hospital director says three children, two, six and ten years old, are among the victims. Israel says it hit an Islamic jihad militant and the incident is under review.

Meanwhile, the U.N. reports more than 1,000 people trying to get food aid in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli military since late May. Israel admits firing warning shots toward crowds in some cases, but denies responsibility for other incidents. Doctors report at least 15 people died of starvation in a recent 24-hour period, the U.N. Secretary General calls the situation a horror show, with starvation knocking on every door in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: We need look no further than the horror show in Gaza with the level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times. Malnourishment is soaring. Starvation is knocking on every door. And now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles. This system is being denied the conditions to function, denied the space to deliver, denied the safety to save lives.

GHADA AL-FAYOUMI, PALESTINIAN MOTHER OF SEVEN (through translator): Any morsel of food, it is non-existent here. From the morning, they keep drinking water. We spend our days, our time just drinking water.

YASSER SAADA, PALESTINIAN (through translator): I started losing the ability to walk. Losing the ability to move.

IBRAHIM AL-NAJJAR, DISPLACED PALESTINIAN FROM JABALYA (through translator): That's right, it has been four days since I have eaten and I can't stand. Look at my hands shaking. We can't stand it. My son is crying telling me, I want to eat, dad, I want to eat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: There are some uncertainty surrounding a third round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said those talks would take place in Turkey sometime today. But according to Russian state news, the meeting is set for Thursday and the Kremlin has been vague, only saying they hope for more negotiations sometime this week, adding that the conflict is so complex no one should expect any miraculous breakthroughs.

Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy is facing pushback at home after signing a bill reducing the autonomy of two Ukrainian anti-corruption bureaus by placing them under the authority of a prosecutor he appoints. Protesters denounced the new law outside the presidential office in Kyiv. European lawmakers are criticizing it as well.

The move comes after Ukrainian authorities raided one of those bureaus, accusing two of its employees of working for Russia. President Zelenskyy, who campaigned as an anti-corruption candidate, says the two agencies will continue their work but without Russian influences.

[05:20:11]

Still ahead, the candy conundrum that might leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Why Hershey says it has to raise its chocolate prices.

And she made plenty of history during a glittering tennis career. We'll tell you about the latest milestone for Venus Williams.

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LEE: A summer surge of coronavirus infections appears to be underway in parts of the U.S.

[05:25:01]

According to the CDC, 27 of 50 states are reporting an increase or likely increase in the number of cases. Experts say a lack of data has made it difficult to track the virus in real time.

But from the data the CDC does have, there are clear signs of increased transmission, especially of a new variant under monitoring known as nimbus.

The Trump administration appears to be backing off the idea of firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The embattled head of the U.S. Central Bank got something of an unexpected endorsement on Tuesday from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: I know Chair Powell. There's nothing that tells me that he should step down right now. He's been a good public servant. His term ends in May. If he wants to see that through, I think he should. If he wants to leave early, I think he should.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: President Trump says Powell's term expires soon enough. Next may, to be exact. He then went on to criticize Powell's leadership at the Central Bank.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I call him "too late". He's too late all the time. He should have lowered interest rates many times. This guy is a numskull. He keeps the rates too high and probably doing it for political reasons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Some visitors looking to travel to the U.S. will soon have to pay a fee. A provision of Trump's so-called Big, Beautiful Bill imposes a $250 visa integrity fee for all visitors who need a nonimmigrant visa. The U.S. issued more than 11 million visas last year. Travelers who comply with their visa conditions can have their fees reimbursed after the trip.

And it's a tough time to be a chocolate lover. Kit Kat bars and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are officially getting more expensive. Hershey's says it has told its retail partners that it's raising prices by a percentage in the lower double-digit range. The company cites what it calls the unprecedented cost of cocoa. Data by the FactSet shows cocoa futures rose by 178 percent last year due to poor harvest in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

The Trump administration says no one has died due to aid cuts, so CNN went to Taliban, ruled Afghanistan to investigate that claim. That story is just ahead.

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