Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Trump Meet With U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer In Scotland; Trump: "Disappointed" With Putin, Sets 10-12 Day Deadline For Truce; Trump: There's "Real Starvation" In Gaza, Contradicting Netanyahu; MTG Calls Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza "Horrific"; Jeffrey Epstein Drama Shadows Trump's Scotland Trip; Trump: "Nobody's Approached Me" About Pardoning Maxwell; Trump: "Never Had The Privilege" Of Going To Epstein's Island. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 28, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Insight Politics, commanding the global spotlight, from Russia's war in Ukraine to the dire situation in Gaza. President Trump is taking a strong stance on two major global conflicts, but will it actually lead to peace? CNN is live on the ground with all the developments.

Plus, revealing new details. Even abroad, the president can't dodge the Epstein scandal that's been engulfing his administration. His top GOP allies expressed concern about extending any mercy to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. And rivals in waiting. J.D. Vance hits the road to sell the president's agenda, while Marco Rubio makes his 2028 predictions. Whose leading candidate to succeed Trump?

I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start in Scotland, where President Trump is making a lot of news on multiple fronts, during a very busy visit with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The two met on Trump's turf at his Turnberry golf club, and here's just some of what the president said about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza during an hour of questions from reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Those children look very hungry, but we're giving a lot of money and a lot of food, and other nations are now stepping up.

I'm speaking to Bibi Netanyahu, and we are coming up with various plans. We're going to say it's a very difficult situation. Stop six wars in the last. I'm averaging about a war a month, but the last three were very close.

I was very tough on Putin in one way, but we got along very well. And I never, you know, I never really thought this would happen. I thought we'd be able to negotiate something, and maybe that will still happen, but it's very laid down the process, so I'm disappointed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: CNN's chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny is in Scotland for us. So, Jeff, what are you hearing from president's team? And what's the sense on the ground in the aftermath of all those remarks?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, the president's frustration and disappointment was very clear, really, throughout the course of about 75 minutes in a Q&A session with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. And it was quite the scene when you think of an American president traveling abroad. Usually, they are the visitors, but here is an American president effectively hosting the British prime minister on the soil of the United Kingdom, here in Scotland.

But clearly the British prime minister wanted to join President Trump, particularly around Gaza. He was eager to have the president's voice here, particularly speaking out against Benjamin Netanyahu on those images of starvation that the world has seen from Gaza. Of course, Netanyahu has denied claims of starvation. Well, President Trump laid bare the fact that he said we need to feed the children. You can't fake these images. So that was striking.

Where it goes from here is very much an open question. If the Trump administration is going to intensify its pressure on Netanyahu to urge a broader ceasefire, we shall see. But the president's frustration was clear on that, but even more so on Russia. Of course, President Trump was elected on the promise of these relationships around the world being able to end wars.

And he quite succinctly said, look, there's been about a war a month, but the frustration with Vladimir Putin was very notable. He said that Putin now will have 10 or 12 days to show he's serious about peace to end the war, or severe sanctions will be implemented. These threats of sanctions have clearly not worked with Vladimir Putin for several months now, but you got the sense that that Trump's frustration is boiling more than I have heard it over Putin, and this really begins potentially a new chapter in their relationship.

Manu, I am struck by -- it was about this time back in 2018 when President Trump visited Scotland the first time, then went to Helsinki the next day to stand side by side with Vladimir Putin, to disagree with the U.S. intelligence agencies. So clearly a friend with Putin, full circle now, said he believes that Putin has not been honest about wanting to end the war quite clearly.

[12:05:00]

So, now there's a timeframe of 10 to 12 days here, so certainly an extraordinary meeting. The president has one more day here in Scotland. He'll be traveling with the prime minister any moment now, up to Aberdeen, and of course, another real purpose for the trip, opening another Trump golf course here in Scotland tomorrow. Manu? RAJU: Yeah. A change in rhetoric will be a change in policy, we shall see in the weeks ahead. Jeff Zeleny, for us from Scotland. Thank you so much. I'm joined here in the room by a terrific group of reporters, Jackie Kucinich of The Boston Globe, Tia Mitchell, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and POLITICO's Eli Stokols. Nice to see you all.

You know, you cover foreign policy. You cover the White House. What do we make of the president's rhetoric, first against Netanyahu in Israel and Gaza? Is this a change in policy? It's just a change in rhetoric, or is it -- or is this a real break from the Netanyahu government?

ELI STOKOLS, WHITE HOUSE & FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Well, we haven't seen a change in policy yet, but I think it's interesting that those comments came after meeting with Starmer, with von der Leyen over the weekend, with European allies, who see the Gaza conflict a little differently, obviously, than Bibi Netanyahu, but have maybe had the ability to sway the president to emphasize, you know, what they see happening in Gaza as a real problem.

When the president is at ease with allies, he will be open to hearing their points of view. And I think, you know, we heard it himself when he said on television, it sure looks like they're very hungry. He himself has seen the same images that everyone else has seen. This is, you know, the audience of one president, right? It's always about television. The former reality TV star.

The president sees those images himself. He's reacting to them. That seemed like a reaction in real time, when he said, well actually, based on the images I've seen it, you know, it sure does seem like those children are hungry.

So that's a change in policy. The change in sort of tightening the timeline with Vladimir Putin another change in policy, moving him a little closer to the European position, and he's been hearing for a long time from NATO allies and from Republicans in Washington about the need to get a little bit tougher with Russia.

The president wants to handle that himself. May not be interested in the Graham sanctions bill, but he deep down. A European ally told me today that they think that ultimately, this isn't about pressure. This is just the president realizing that he feels like he's getting played by Vladimir Putin and is tired of it, and Donald Trump not a famously patient person. So, it's understandable why he might shrink that timeline.

RAJU: And just on the Gaza of situation, which obviously has been increasingly dire, and the crisis over there, you know, I was talking about all the images that people are seeing clearly that has been resonating. Trump is seeing that, reacting to that this morning, but the break between him and Netanyahu over this is notable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINSTER: There is no salvation in Gaza. We enable humanitarian throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza, otherwise, there would be no Gazans. TRUMP: We can save a lot of people. I mean, some of those kids are -- that's real starvation stuff. I see it, and you can't fake that. So, we're going to be even more involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I mean, there's no starvation, Netanyahu says. Trump says, real starvation stuff, you can't fake that.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Yeah. I mean, I think one of the things is Netanyahu is losing allies, even within his own nation. When you have Israeli agencies who are saying, yeah, there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. There is starvation. I think President Trump, quite frankly, has been patient with the prime minister of Israel.

RAJU: His critics would say, way too patient.

MITCHELL: Very patient. I mean, especially, because he said on day one, he was going to help in this war. And then he kept giving Netanyahu time, kept, I would say, getting sweet talk by Netanyahu and believing what he was saying about how things are unfolding in the Israeli perspective. But I think now the images are becoming too powerful to, you know, have a blind eye to, and I think it's not just President Trump who's gotten there. He might be one of the last people to have gotten there, but I think he's here now, and now he's losing that patience.

RAJU: And it's the American public, too. The viewpoint of the American public is just the CNN poll just out recently about this, asking how people view the Israeli military response to the Hamas attack.

Back in October 2023, of course, in the wake of that horrific attack, 50 percent view the mayor Israeli military response is fully justified. That is down 27 points to today, when just 23 percent of the federal American public sees is fully justified. 22 percent say -- now say, not at all justified, which is an uptick of 14 points since then, a big shift among the American public.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE & CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And you're seeing it among Trump allies as well. And, but I think Eli is absolutely right. I think the pictures really have been made a huge difference with the president. I mean, look at his comments, even from the last maybe weeks or couple days, initially, he was saying, you know, that Israel is going to take care of that. This is Israel's problem.

[12:10:00]

And then all the way to now, where he's saying, I told Bibi Netanyahu that he's going to have to find another way to get hostages returned, so whether that progresses even more, we'll see. But he did promise to be sending more aid, more food, and that's something I know all of us will be watching to see how that's done.

RAJU: In the political response, you're mentioning about the Republicans and others. The person you cover very closely, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is someone, you know, you look at someone to get their sense on how -- maybe that wing of the party is viewing, responding to something that's happening here. This is what she said about that.

She said, I can unequivocally say what happened to the innocent people in Israel on October 7 was horrific. I can equally say -- just as unequivocally say that what has been happening to innocent people and children in Gaza is horrific. So, you're even seeing this change in viewpoint, perhaps among some of the president's most loyal allies in the MAGA base.

MITCHELL: Yeah. And, I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene has always been pretty skeptical of the Israeli leadership, and of course, she's pretty isolationist as well. So, she's always landed on the side of, you know, the U.S. needs to stop, quite frankly, enabling Israel when it comes to the conflict with Hamas.

But I think now the images, and quite frankly, she's part of that wing who, above all, says we have to protect children from many different things, but on this -- this issue, let's protect children from starvation. And once the images are of children, then that is something that triggers the core of Marjorie Taylor Greene's politics in ways that get really complicated when we talk about other things.

But I think this one is much less complicated and puts her on the side of politics where I think a lot of Americans agree with her. Again, Donald Trump, we know the imagery is going to have an impact on him. And the imagery right now is of not just starving children, but quite frankly, dying or dead children.

RAJU: And the question is, of course, whether that's going to lead to any sort of real shift in American policy, American support for Israel, or what else the president will have to do to help with aid into Gaza. But then you had mentioned about Putin, and about how he's handling of Vladimir Putin, and the president gave him 50 days initially, to change how they're handling Ukraine, otherwise could face significant sanctions.

Now he says that is a 10 to 12-day deadline. And this is what he said about his relationship with the Russian president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversations. And then people die the following night in a -- with a missile going into a town and hitting, I mean, recently, I guess, the nursing home, but they hit other things. Whatever they hit, people die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I mean, the president would be criticized by a lot of folks of waiting too long. A lot of people wanted to move much quicker on sanctions to Russia. That support had been building on Capitol Hill for months and months and months. 80 plus members in both parties support significant secondary sanctions and they wanted this months ago. Now, the president saying 10 to 12 days, and he seems somewhat surprised that Putin hasn't changed his behavior.

STOKOLS: Right. I mean, he should not be surprised at this point, and maybe he should have known this coming in and not said he could end the war right away. He's frustrated. It's taken this long. It's -- you're smart to point out that, you know, we're down from 50 days, but we're still basically at the two weeks. I'll tell you, in two weeks, everything's two weeks.

So, we're right back there. He's still not doing it yet, and just a week or so ago, he told Senate Majority Leader John Thune, let's put the grand bill aside. I'll do it myself. He's told people in private meetings, tariffs, sanctions. There's not really much different. He wants total control. He wants to be able to impose tariffs, counter tariffs, potential secondary tariffs on Russia's trading partners, which would impact China and India, primarily, which is complicated because you're trying to do deals with China and India.

So, where this goes is really hard to see, but if you step back from it, you listen to the president's words repeatedly, you know that he's really frustrated with Putin. He's figuring out what he can do about it, or what he wants to do about it, but he is increasingly frustrated and more and more in line with the European position on Ukraine, after the short pause on aid, agreeing to allow more aid to go to Ukraine, as long as the Europeans are reimbursing us for it.

So, more and more he is taking steps to help Ukraine, and whether he goes, you know, and punishes Putin with more sanctions. We will see, but he has moved a little bit. It's not as much as a dramatic --

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: Because there is a talk about 500 percent tariffs sanctions, Trump assists 100 percent either way, could hurt countries that are buying oil from Russia, China and India, and that could affect the global economy as well.

All right, coming up. They say politics stops at the water's edge. Well, the Epstein scandal. Just hours ago, the president revealed new details about his relationship with a disgraced financier. We'll discuss, next.

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: President Trump is abroad in the U.K., but he can't quite shake the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that continues to loom over his White House. Just this morning in Scotland, he was asked again about his name being in the Epstein files, which his administration has so far declined to release, despite past promises to do so, and he gave a slightly different answer.

[12:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Well, I haven't been overly interested in it. You know, it's something -- it's a hoax that's been built up way beyond proportion. I was running against somebody that ran the files. If they had something, they would have released. Now, they can easily put something in the files that's a phony. They can put things in the file that are fake, but those files were run by bad, sick people. If they had anything, why didn't they use it when I was killing Joe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: He was also asked about Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in prison, serving a 20-year sentence. Now, Maxwell's lawyer suggested on Friday that she would not mind getting a presidential pardon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody's approached me with it. Nobody's asked me about it. It's in the news about that, that aspect of it, but right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right, my excellent panel is back. So, just on the files' situation. Of course, he promised they would get rid of -- they would release them. His administration promised it initially. He reportedly was briefed in May that his name was in the files, and now he says his name is not in the files. It's a hoax that Joe Biden, if they had some his name in the files, they would have released the files.

But his name -- if his name's not in the files, why not just release it and clear the air and show the American public, your name's under the files, and maybe if your name is in the files, it's not even that big of a deal because we all know he had a past relationship. No one's accusing him of any wrongdoing.

KUCINICH: It's an excellent question and I think --

RAJU: It's hard to keep the story straight.

KUCINICH: It's hard to keep the story straight, you're right. And I think that's why some of Trump's most loyal lieutenants and followers are having trouble answering the exact question that you just asked, which is why you see efforts in Congress. This is why you see some of them kind of hemming and hawing and not really sure how to answer it, because they don't want to get sideways with Trump.

But they also -- they've got a lot of constituents saying, why can't these things be released? It might be -- and there is a promise that seems like this is going to continue into September when Congress comes back because you have that discharge petition, and you also have potentially some congressional testimony from Maxwell, and you know others.

RAJU: Yeah. And we'll see whatever happens with his lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal. If he gets to pose there, more information comes out, reports in the media, but also the pardon of Maxwell. You mentioned, she is after speaking with the number two at the Justice Department, a really unusual meeting that they had last week for two days.

Then there's the subpoena for her deposition in the House Oversight Committee by August 11. But why not just rule out a pardon? Because you keep the door open, it's going to continue that conversation that clearly puts a lot of Republicans in an uncomfortable position.

MITCHELL: I mean, I think he didn't rule it out because I don't think he has ruled it out. And I mean, in the grand scheme of the fact that --

RAJU: So, she committed absolutely heinous crimes, by the way.

MITCHELL: Yeah. She's accused of grooming and helping to recruit children to be sexually abused, and I think we need to be open and honest about what we're talking about. But he did not close the door. I think we talked earlier about Marjorie Taylor Greene and that that wing of the Republican Party, who, above all else, says their politics are focused on protecting children.

And so, on this topic, they say that to protect children, you need to release the files. And if there is anyone else who is proven to have done wrong, they need to join Ghislaine Maxwell in jail, not have more people released from jail. And that's where there's a big conundrum from President Trump because those folks are not folding right now.

Now, maybe will they -- but even the whole notion that this is something that Democrats have drummed up, just doesn't ring true. Because for years, this was coming from the far right, from the hard right, saying, you know, Democrats are the ones that don't want to release the files because it's Democrats who will be tarnished by what's in the files.

This is what they had been saying for years, including people who now serve in the White House under President Trump. So yes, he's trying, but not only is his message kind of wavering, but now the people trying to defend him keep having to move around a changing, changing message.

RAJU: And he was asked about his relationship with Epstein. Now, there have been a lot of things about it. We have seen those images from over the years of being in with parties with Epstein. There's the report in The Wall Street Journal about that 2003 birthday note. He wrote in, into the first 50th birthday party. Trump has denied that, of course, is suing the Wall Street Journal.

In that note, reportedly, he had really drew a painting of a naked or drew a -- little drawing of a -- of a naked woman. He's denied that as well. He mentioned that in his comments today, as well his past relationship with Epstein and the so sex trafficking that occurred at Epstein Island.

[12:25:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't do drawings. Sometimes people say, would you draw a building? And I'll draw four lines and a little roof, you know, for a charity stuff. But I'm not a drawing person. I don't do drawings of women, that I can tell you. And he stole people that worked for me.

I said, don't ever do that again. He did it again, and I threw him out of the place, persona non grata. I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn't want to go to his island.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: He didn't go to his island. He also said, that seemed to be a little bit of a different explanation about how he is falling out with Epstein over the years. He said he stole people that work for me, which there's been reports that they actually fought over real estate, which is one reason for the falling out.

STOKOLS: There's a lot of data to show that whatever Donald Trump says, a gaffe is not a gaffe when he says it, because he just -- he's always talking, and people are inured to it, and his base will forgive anything. But I think it's fair to say that when you talk for 75 minutes, you have the press in the room for that long. You're going to get a lot of these questions. You're going to be ad libbing the entire time. And you might say some things that, in this case, staff and other people advising the president might wish he hadn't said.

The two things you point out, most of all. Framing, his falling out with Epstein as something over staff and not a moral thing, or not a rejection of Epstein after he got indicted, but that Epstein was somehow threatening his business and taking staff from his properties, and that was why he kicked him out. I don't think that plays great for the president.

And, you know, also -- I mean, right, it's just -- it's that -- and what was that?

RAJU: I never had the privilege of going to the island.

STOKOLS: Yeah. I've never had the privilege, saying the privilege, right? We were talking about this --

RAJU: The poor choice of words.

STOKOLS: Not a great choice of words. So, you know, and again, this thing just continues to eat at him. My colleague Dasha Burns reported last week how privately frustrated and angry the president is that this has been dominating the news. We saw what Tulsi Gabbard did to come out with the whole Obama conspiracy to try to turn the page. The president's frustrated with Republicans and certainly also with members of his own administration.

FBI Director Dan Bongino, for one, who have been calling for this for years and having a hard time letting it go. And now, it's inconvenient and certainly not going away, and those comments certainly are not going to help the president's position.

RAJU: Which goes back to the initial issue. No one is accusing the president of doing anything wrong or being involved with Epstein in any sort of nefarious way. And people say, well, just release everything. Pull off the band aid, so everyone sees what's out there, and we could sort of move on. But the more he holds it back, the more questions emerge. Then the president says things like that that raise more questions for others as well and keeps the story alive.

All right, coming up. The biggest deal ever made. The president got the deal he wanted, but how will it affect prices here at home? Or break down as a president's self-imposed tariff deadline looms large.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:30:00]