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Trump Takes Reporter Questions in Oval Office; President Trump Defends the Spending Bill After Elon's Criticism; Trump Says I Warned Netanyahu Not to Interfere in Iran Talks. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 25, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:58]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': Right now, the president is taking questions in the Oval Office. He was just asked about Elon Musk's criticism of the bill that passed the House.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- taxes and lots of other problems, big problems, almost bigger than that. But we'll have a 65 percent increase as opposed to the largest tax cut in the history of our country. We will be negotiating that bill and I'm not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects of it. That's the way they go. It's very big. It's the Big Beautiful Bill.

But the beautiful is because of all of the things we have, the biggest thing being, I would say, the level of tax cutting that we're going to be doing. We're going to make people really be able to -- we'll have one of the -- we'll have the lowest tax rate we've ever had in the history of our country, and tremendous amounts of benefit are going to the middle income people of our country, low and middle income people of our country.

So, we're going to see what happens because the Senate, as you know, is negotiating with us and they have to then go back to the House and it's got a way to go. But, I have to say, Speaker Johnson and Thune has done an incredible job. John Thune has done a fantastic -- leader Thune, a fantastic job. And they're working together with me and others, and I think we have an amazing, if we pull this off, remember, we have zero Democrat votes because they're bad people. There's something wrong with them.

You know, they'll let people pour into our country. Single biggest problem is we had 21 million people pour into our country, probably higher than that. And the people that weren't supposed to be here, and many of those people are bad, murderers, drug dealers, the mentally insane, they were closing mental institutions all over the world, not South America, all over the world. They're coming into our country and we're getting them out and we're having a hard time because some judges aren't making it very easy for us. And it's tough enough.

They approved that; they allowed that to happen to our country. We don't have one Democrat vote. And if I were a Democrat, I'd be voting for this bill and I'd get elected to any position I want as a Democrat. They're crazy. They're voting for a 65 percent tax increase and they're only doing it for hatred. They're not doing it for any reason. They know it's terrible, terrible politics in my opinion. But, so we have no Democrat votes. That means we have to get almost all Republican votes. And I think we're very close to doing that. I think it'll be very successful. Yeah. Please?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the 'TACO Trade.' They're saying Trump Always Chickens Out on your tariff threats, and that's why markets are higher this week. What's your response to that?

TRUMP: I kick out?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chicken out.

TRUMP: Oh, isn't that a chicken out? I've never heard that. You mean, because I reduced China from 145 percent that I set down to 100 and then down to another number. And I said, you have to open up your whole country. And because, I gave the European Union a 50 percent tax tariff. And they called up and they said, please let's meet right now, please let's meet right now. And I said, OK, I'll give you till June 9. I actually asked them, I said, what's the date? Because they weren't willing to meet.

And after I did what I did, they said, we'll, meet anytime you want. And we have an end date of July 9th. You call that chickening out? Because we have $14 trillion now invested, committed to investing. When Biden didn't have practically anything. Biden, this country was dying. You know we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. I went to Saudi Arabia, the king told me, he said, you got the hottest -- we have the hottest country in the world right now.

Six months ago, this country was stone cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country people didn't think it was going to survive. And you ask a nasty question like that. It's called negotiation. You set a number and if you go down, if I set a number at a ridiculous high number and I go down a little bit, you know a little bit, they want me to hold that number, 145 percent tariff, even I said, man, that really got up.

[12:35:00]

You know how it got? Because of fentanyl and many other things, and you added it up. I said, where are we now? We're at 145 percent. I said, whoa, that's high. That's high. They were doing no business whatsoever and they were having a lot of problems. We were very nice to China. I don't know if they're going to be nice to us, but we were very nice to China and in many ways, I think we really helped China tremendously because they were having great difficulty because we were basically going cold Turkey with China. We were doing no business because of the tariff, because it was so high.

But I knew that. But don't ever say what you said. That's a nasty question. Go ahead.

(CROSSTALK) TRUMP: To me, that's the nastiest question.

(CROSSTALK)

CROWD: Mr. President.

TRUMP: Wait, go ahead please. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Zelenskyy says he's ready to sit down with you and Vladimir Putin in Geneva. And it sounds like General Kellogg is working on preparations for that. Are you planning to sit down with the two of them?

TRUMP: Well, I will if it's necessary. It takes, we have to -- I think I'm -- at this point, I wish it would've been that way a couple of months ago, but at this point, we're working on President Putin and we'll see where we are. I think we're doing fine, but we'll see. I don't like what's happening. That's one thing I'll say, I don't like. When I see rockets being shot into cities, that's no good. We're not going to allow it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've always said that the war never would've started if you were president.

TRUMP: Would've never happened and it didn't happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he doesn't seem willing to do anything that you want him to do. Do you still believe that, that he wouldn't have launched the war?

TRUMP: No. No. We would've never had a war. We would've never had a war if I were president. If the election weren't rigged, you wouldn't have had the war. You wouldn't have had the war. You wouldn't have had inflation. You wouldn't have had October 7th. That would've never happened because Iran was stone cold broke. They didn't have any money to give to Hamas or Hezbollah. You wouldn't have had that Afghanistan, most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. You wouldn't have had any of it.

You wouldn't have had inflation because energy costs, look what happened. I brought inflation down to practically zero and all of the groceries and all of the eggs and all of the things that you've been hearing about, they're back down. They're way down from where they were. I did something in four months that nobody's seen and I have to say in four months, and I said it before and everyone's talking about it all over the world, we've got the hottest country anywhere in the world right now. We're the only country anybody's even talking about.

All right, please go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What stopped you from imposing new sanctions on Russia?

TRUMP: Only the fact that if I think I'm close to getting a deal, I don't want to screw it up by doing that. Let me tell you, I'm a lot tougher than the people you're talking about. But, you have to know when to use that. If I think it's going to hurt a deal, this isn't my war. This is Biden's war. Zelenskyy's war and Putin's war. This isn't Trump's war. I'm only here for one thing, to see if I can end it, to save 5,000 lives a week and a lot of money. The money being much less important, because I made that money.

I went to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE and we brought back $5.1 trillion. So, I made that money in about two hours, the money that we're talking about. But it's still three, think of it, $300 billion we've spent with no checks, no balances. They just send cash. You can imagine what's happened to that money. I never saw anything like it in my life, but I'm more interested because I picked up $5.1 trillion and by the way, got a beautiful, big, magnificent free airplane for the United States Air Force. OK? Very proud of that too.

They tried to say, oh, it's Trump's airplane. Oh yeah, sure. It's too big. It's -- frankly, it's too big. Much too big.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When can we expect that to be the Air Force One?

TRUMP: Well, it's here already.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

TRUMP: It's in the country. It's being refitted for military standard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How much will it cost to refit it?

TRUMP: Oh, I don't know. Whatever it is, a lot -- a hell of a lot less than building a new one. We're waiting too long from Boeing. Boeing has got to get its act together. Yeah?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, on Nippon Steel, this arrangement that was just announced --

TRUMP: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- with golden share, is that an arrangement you would consider for TikTok as well?

TRUMP: Nothing to do with TikTok, totally different kind of a deal. We'll have to get -- to do it properly, we'll probably have to get China's approval. China's never easy. China's never easy. But I think, yeah, I think we'll be able to save TikTok. I'd like to save TikTok. I mean, TikTok was very good to me. I won the young people by 37 percent. No Republicans ever won and I won by 37 percent. And Charlie Kirk will tell you TikTok helped, but Charlie Kirk helped also.

(LAUGH)

TRUMP: Oh, he just happens to be here. Look at it. He loves that we mentioned that name, right, Charlie? He's done great and I appreciate all the help. But with young people, we won by 37 percent, Charlie, and you helped. But TikTok was amazing and he was the first one who said get on TikTok. So, I have a little bit of a warm spot.

[12:40:00]

I know I shouldn't, they'll say quid pro quo, put him in jail for the rest of his life, quid pro quo. No, TikTok was very good to me. I won young people. I don't know if it was because of TikTok, but it was -- something happened. No Republican has ever won the -- they call them young people. Young people, you can define it a lot of different ways, but I won every age group in young people, and it never happened, and won by 37 percent. That's a lot. Yeah?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, back on Iran, did you warn Prime Minister Netanyahu against taking some sort of actions that could disrupt the talks there, in a phone call last week?

TRUMP: Well, I'd like to be honest. Yes, I did. Next question, please.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) sanctions?

TRUMP: I did. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the Senate Republicans (inaudible)?

TRUMP: It's not a warning. I said, I don't think it's appropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What exactly did you tell him? Did you call him (ph)?

TRUMP: I said, I don't think it's appropriate. We talked -- we're having very good discussions with them. And I said, I don't think it's appropriate right now, because if we can settle it with a very strong document, very strong, with inspections and no trust, I don't trust anybody. I don't trust anybody. So no trust. I want it very strong where we can go in with inspectors, we can take whatever we want. We can blow up whatever we want, but nobody getting killed.

We can blow up a lab, but nobody's going to be in the lab as opposed to everybody being in the lab and blowing it up. Right? Two ways of doing it. Yeah, I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we're very close to a solution. Now, that could change at any moment, it could change with a phone call. But right now, I think they want to make a deal and if we can make a deal, save a lot of lives.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When do you think a deal could happen on Iran? When do you think --

TRUMP: On which?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A deal with Iran could happen, when do you think?

TRUMP: Oh, I don't know. I think over the next couple of weeks if it happens. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And on the -- when could the administration resume the interviews for foreign students visa? When do you think your administration could resume these interviews for --

TRUMP: On what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the foreign students' visa? Yesterday, there was --

TRUMP: For the French visas?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the foreign -- all the foreign students.

TRUMP: Oh, for the foreign visas? What are you referring foreign visas for what? Are you talking about for colleges?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: College students.

TRUMP: OK, so you're off of Israel, now you're talking about colleges, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: OK. Well, we're going to see. Look, Harvard has been a disaster. They've taken five plus, by the way, $5 billion plus, $5 billion. Nobody knew that they were making this country -- if we didn't do this, nobody would've -- we would've never found this out, Pam. They're taking $5 billion and I'd rather see that money go to trade schools. And by the way, they're totally anti-Semitic at Harvard, as you know, and some other colleges too, in all fairness to them. And it's been exposed, very exposed, and I think they're dealing very badly. Every time they fight, they lose another $250 million. Yesterday, we found another $100 million, and they have -- they have a fund, $52 billion in endowment, $52 billion. All right? They get a lot of that from the United States --

BASH: OK. We've been listening to President Trump take questions from reporters on a series of topics in the Oval Office. We're going to continue to monitor that. But while we do, let's talk about some of the news that we just heard. Let's start with the most recent comment that we heard from him, which is President Trump saying that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, basically, to back off when it comes to the U.S. negotiations currently happening with Iran on a potential nuclear deal.

Let's start there. John, you were talking about the fact that the president was kind of letting Bibi Netanyahu do what he wants to do. On this, maybe not so much.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a couple things that are -- you can either argue are connected or not connected. Steve Witkoff, the president's Special Envoy also said there'd be a new term sheet going out for what he hopes will be another ceasefire in Gaza. He said that would go out today. And he said that he believes they would get a -- he said they had a very good feeling they would get a temporary ceasefire and then start working toward a long-term resolution. OK, let's see what happens. Again, I hope that happens. I'm not trying to rain on the parade, but we've heard this before.

So then, you come to the Iran negotiations. We know Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed, no matter who the American president is, a nuclear deal with Iran because he thinks Iran cannot be trusted. We also know the Netanyahu was angry when Trump went to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and that's all he talked about, trying to have a realignment in which you brought people together, including getting Iran to the table.

So for all of the things that Trump has done to help Netanyahu, to green light some of the things he's done in the West Bank and in Gaza, this is a giant sour spot between the American president and the Israeli prime minister. And if they are making this actual progress, again, we're on day 128 of the Trump presidency, and we've heard a lot where deals coming, deals coming, deals coming and two weeks is back today when it comes to Vladimir Putin, we'll know in two weeks.

[12:45:00]

However, if that is happening, it's a galactically giant global development that is a source of tension between Trump and Netanyahu.

BASH: Yeah. Well, the tension has been brewing for some time. We're also on day 600 of the war in Gaza started, of course, by Hamas in the attack on Israel on October 7th, the deadliest day on Jews -- for Jews since the Holocaust, largely funded by Iran.

KING: Right.

BASH: So, it's understandable why there is a lot of skepticism about what Iran says and does with regard to any conversation that Iran is having with the U.S. or anybody else.

KRISTEN HOLMES, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, you heard Donald Trump there, actually, which he doesn't always do, give a caveat, which was this could change at any moment. We believe a deal is coming, but it could -- one single phone call could change everything. But I do want to go back quickly to what Steve Witkoff said, because --

BASH: Do we have that sound? If we do, we'll play it. If not, keep going.

HOLMES: What I thought was so interesting about it is that on Monday, they -- we have it.

BASH: Hold, -- hold on one second, if you don't mind. Let's play what Steve Witkoff said, and then you can talk about your reporting on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE WITKOFF, UNITED STATES SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST: I think that we are on the precipice of sending out a new term sheet, that hopefully will be delivered later on today. The president is going to review it, and I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution of that conflict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, the thing to watch now is where do they land on hostages, because that is the one thing that Steve Witkoff didn't mention. On the proposal that Steve Witkoff gave last week to Hamas that they've been sitting on, the deal was, A, Israel will agree to a temporary ceasefire and hostage deal that will see the release of half the living and half the deceased hostages that are left, and also lead to a substantive negotiation to find a path to permanent ceasefire, which Witkoff himself will preside over.

The one thing we didn't hear there is where they landed on hostages because that was what Hamas was pushing back on. So we're going to see, obviously, what this new proposal is.

BASH: Perhaps we didn't hear about it because they haven't landed on anything there.

HOLMES: Right.

BASH: -- which always tends to be one of the sticking points. I also just want to talk about another thing that you all heard live from the president. He talked about just -- this is "Inside Politics." He talked about winning young people. He was going off on a tangent about TikTok. He claimed that he won young people by 37 percent. He didn't. He had an increase in the share of young people, but he lost young people by 11 percent in his race against Kamala Harris.

DAVID WEIGEL, SENIOR REPORTER FOR POLITICS, SEMAFOR: Yes. And he was swerving to more comfortable places in a couple of those answers.

BASH: (Inaudible).

WEIGEL: (Inaudible), sorry, that's preferred term. In his discussions though, this is the -- there is consistency here. There is an America First consistency and it overlaps with some visible interests, not all of them. You have domestically, an expanded visa removal program for foreign students who are critical of the United States or Israel, the way some of it's going. You have these moves against college campuses. I'm sure those are popular with Prime Minister Netanyahu, with Defenders of Israel.

But you also have this, what is America's interest in Trump's view in what Netanyahu has always wanted, which is an -- which is a changed regime in Iran with no nuclear enrichment of its power. If -- and I've heard, not that Democrats like to praise Trump, the only optimism I've heard from Democrats talking about him recently is if he just got the Obama deal and named it the Trump deal and he angered Netanyahu, that's something he could do that we never could, and we wouldn't mind that. There against everything else happening, but if that is how Trump is viewing that situation, while domestically attacking critics of Israel the way they want, that is a good deal for everyone, but Netanyahu I think.

BASH: Yeah.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR OF "CNN THIS MORNING": It's in the world's interest for the U.S. to be involved and to try and end intractable conflicts. I think that's a role that many Americans are used to hearing about. I think with this administration, their approach of, for lack of a better term, I'll call it, transacto realism. Real estate deals alone are not going to get you there for issues that are fundamentally existential to the nations that are dealing with them. The crisis in Israel is existential to that nation when it comes to Gaza. Certainly, with Ukraine, it is existential. They're fighting for their right to exist. That's not going to be solved with mineral deals, land deals, and planes.

BASH: Transacto realism. I'm writing that down.

CORNISH: That's not going to catch on.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: No, it's totally going to catch on. I'm using that; I'm using that forever and always.

CORNISH: Yeah.

BASH: Yeah. Well, thank you all very much. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:54:13]

BASH: CNN's John King is still here at the desk with me, but he just came back from Allentown, Pennsylvania to hear how voters see things today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): Lehigh Valley is a blue collar battleground, reminders everywhere of America's manufacturing glory days, and of today's big economic challenges. Pro Dart is a small family business. Todd Harder the boss, his parents among the workers, trying to keep things going.

TODD HARDER, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: So, we're kind of slow right now. The money's tight. People are complaining that the rent is really high in a lot of places. Just the cash flow isn't there. So, a lot -- I think everybody's starting to become a little more conservative on spending right now.

[12:55:00]

KING (voice-over): Just a handful of employees now, 14 when business was better. Harder voted for Donald Trump. Here's him, promised tariffs will bring a new manufacturing boom, but sees the opposite so far.

HARDER: My generation right now, it's not going to impact, it's going to hurt us. But in the future, for the next generation, it might possibly help them out, but it's impacting the people that are here now today. That's my thing.

KING: In a not good way?

HARDER: In a not good way.

KING (voice-over): This is Pennsylvania's seventh congressional district, Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, more rural as you head north and west. Trump won it narrowly last year and voters like Harder also helped flipped the House seat from blue to red. But Harder isn't sure he will vote for the new Republican congressman again, not sure he will vote at all. He is 55 but had never voted until this past November.

HARDER: You have men on men kissing and everything else and all transgenders. You didn't have that before. There is a God; I'm Catholic. I was just so disgusted, just how everything is in this world. It's is going to crap.

KING: You going to stay?

HARDER: Am I going to stay in America?

KING: You going to stay as a voter?

HARDER: If I feel that things are running properly, yes. If I don't see anything changing, then it really doesn't matter what my vote is.

MICHELLE RIOS, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: I just think that I now have a way of helping.

KING (voice-over): Michelle Rios is on the other side of the MAGA culture wars. She helps run a DEI program at a local college, helps students with questions ranging from financial aid and tutoring to rumors about immigration crackdowns.

RIOS: Coming from an immigrant household, being a first gen student, being a woman of color, being Latina, I know that my purpose is to serve and so, it really is a struggle when there are things preventing that.

KING (voice-over): Rios worries about funding cuts for DEI programs and also to non-profits she works within the bustling Latino community here, like this food bank.

RIOS: Then it just instills fear and I think that's essentially what the last few months have done to people.

KING: If you had one minute with President Trump, what would you say?

RIOS: I don't think I would want a minute. And that's just being honest. There's a lot of things that come to mind, but I just don't think I would know where to start.

KING (voice-over): She was a student in Trump's first term and says she was constantly on edge. She is trying to stay more calm now, trying to better understand the big jump in Trump's Latino support here.

RIOS: It has to do a little bit with like Latino culture, sometimes we don't want to see women in a certain position or talk to someone that can help you understand information, but not leaving it up to social media because I think that's also what made a big difference.

GERARD BABB, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: Did you have gym or art?

KING (voice-over): Family time is what Gerard Babb cherishes most. Babb works here on the Mack truck assembly line. Mack is one of the area's largest employers and says as many as 350 layoffs are coming soon. Babb is fairly low on the seniority list.

BABB: I was at 171 when they first announced. Now, I'm at 218.

KING: All right, so you're trying to get to what? 350?

BABB: At least. If I can get above 350, it'd be perfect. But as long as past 250, I have a chance.

KING (voice-over): Babb doesn't regret his vote for Trump, but he thinks it could cost him his job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I only like playing.

BABB: Definitely with the tariffs, I believe they played a part. I think that, yeah, Donald Trump could have had a little bit more finesse instead of using like a blanket policy over everything.

KING: So four months in, how would you grade Trump?

BABB: I'd give Trump right now a B+. I want stuff to happen right now, but I understand that the gears of Washington move very slow.

KING (voice-over): Too soon, he says, to think about the midterms.

BABB: It's very stressful that, I'm going to have to -- I'm going to be out of work in the near future because I want to provide for the, my wife and kids.

Tired?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tired.

KING (voice-over): Much more important worries front and center.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Interesting there, Dana, to hear two Trump supporters be skeptical about his promise of a very quick manufacturing boom. So, it's worth watching as you head into the midterms. That district has all of the big questions in American politics. Will Trump keep or can Democrats make progress with those blue collar workers, the Latino vote there. Trump support went way up. Democrats have a huge problem there. It's a fantastic district. If you just want to sit in one place for the next two years and get the economy, get the demographics, it Pennsylvania seven.

BASH: Yeah. Really interesting, people that you talked to. Thanks so much for bringing that to us.

KING: Thank you.

BASH: Appreciate it. And before we go, we want our "Inside Politics" panel to answer some of your big questions. If you want to submit them, just scan the QR code and submit your questions to us. You see it there on the screen, maybe you'll see them answered here on the show very soon. You can also find the link on my social media --