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Inside Politics

Tomorrow: Trump and Zelenskyy To Meet At White House; Tomorrow: California Democrats Start Mad Dash To Redraw Maps. Former Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown to Run Again in 2026; Can Trump Make Crime a Midterm Issue As He Declares "Emergency"; Alaska Summit Becomes Latest Chapter for the Last Frontier. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired August 17, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

[08:00:34]

JEFF ZELENY, CNN HOST (voice-over): Russian reversal.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: Next time in Moscow.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Oh, that's an interesting one.

ZELENY: President Trump bows to Vladimir Putin and raises the stakes for tomorrow's meeting.

TRUMP: It's really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done.

ZELENY: Will he turn on Zelenskyy again?

TRUMP: You're gambling with World War III.

ZELENY: Plus, go time.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: We have got to meet fire with fire.

ZELENY: A pivotal week as Democrats look to redraw their maps and beat Republicans at their own game. But who's fighting back?

And takeover, as red states send troops to D.C., Trump looks to grab more power.

TRUMP: It's going to also serve as an example of what can be done.

ZELENY: Could your city be next?

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ZELENY (on camera): Good morning and welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Jeff Zeleny in today for Manu Raju.

Tomorrow marks another crucial moment in the push to end the war in Ukraine. President Trump will host his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and now a contingent of European leaders at the White House.

Just days after rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin and getting no deal in return, Trump dropping his call for a ceasefire and telling allies that Putin is demanding Ukraine give up its entire eastern Donbas region. This as Russia continued to pound Ukraine this weekend.

So, as the world tries to figure out what Trump will do next, lets bring in our reporters in Ukraine and Russia. Fred Pleitgen is standing by in Moscow. But let's begin with Ben Wedeman in Ukraine.

Ben, what are the stakes for President Zelenskyy and the growing set of European leaders as they head to the White House tomorrow?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jeff, to put it simply, really, the stakes are more war or peace. We're actually in Kyiv's Maidan Square, where there's a monument to those who many of these men died defending the parts of Ukraine that it is feared that basically, President Putin wants Ukraine to surrender. And there is real resistance among people, particularly those relatives of the dead, who come here to pay their respects. Theres resistance to giving up land.

Now, in. Just shortly, there will be a press conference with European commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And this is all part of this preparation for the meeting tomorrow.

Also, we know there's going to be a video call involving most European leaders as well as the head of NATO and Ursula von der Leyen to discuss their position going forward. And it's significant that so many European leaders are going to be in this Oval Office meeting tomorrow with President Trump, really, to show that they support Ukraine in its position, its position of not giving up a lot of land to the Russians, that there need to be security guarantees in any possible peace agreement. They want to avoid a repeat of that very ugly scene, the ugly scenes we saw back in February in the Oval Office. And I think the presence of all those European leaders is probably going to prevent that.

The question is, where do they go after that trilateral meeting? Perhaps by Friday between Putin, Zelenskyy and Trump? Hard to say at this point, but definitely they want to line up behind Ukraine before this critical meeting tomorrow.

ZELENY: Ben Wedeman in Kyiv, thank you very much.

Now, Fred Pleitgen joins us from Moscow. Fred, President Trump is pushing for a trilateral summit. Is the

kremlin open to that? And any response to the fact that so many European leaders are also now coming to the White House?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Jeff, Vladimir Putin has said that in general, he'd be willing to have a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and therefore also, of course, a trilateral meeting as well. However, Putin said last week that the conditions for that would need to be right and that things are still pretty far away from those conditions.

It was quite interesting because also after the summit in Alaska, a senior Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov, who is extremely close to Putin and who was actually in that three-on-three meeting between the U.S. and Russia with President Trump and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

[08:05:12]

He said that that possibility wasn't even raised in that meeting. So, right now, it's unclear whether or not the Russians are preparing for something like that, or would be willing to be part of something like that. However, of course, for them, large parts of the equation appear to have changed after the Alaska summit, namely that President Trump now seems to be in line with the thinking of Vladimir Putin.

As far as the way forward in Ukraine is concerned, of course, before President Trump was moving towards an immediate ceasefire, demanding an immediate cease fire in Ukraine. Now he's moved away from that and is calling for a fairly fast but still a peace process, at the end of which there would be a ceasefire.

That is exactly what the Kremlin has been calling for. And as you can imagine, after this Alaska summit, the Russians are pretty happy with the way that it went. The former president of this country, Dmitry Medvedev, he came out and said, first of all, for the Russians, a good thing is that those severe sanctions that President Trump has been threatening, that those are now, at least in the near term, not going to be happening.

At the same time, he also showcased the fact that the Russians can now continue what they call their special military operation. Of course, their efforts in Ukraine, while not having to fear that there's going to be any sanctions. And while they're not being an immediate cease fire either, Jeff.

ZELENY: Fred Pleitgen in Moscow, thank you very much.

Now, let's break all of this down with our panel this morning.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of "The New York Times", "The Puck's" Julia Ioffe, and David Sanger, also with "The New York Times", fresh back from Alaska.

So, David, you were in Alaska for this summit? Obviously. Let's begin, though, talking about this meeting tomorrow. Can you ever recall as many European leaders at one moment attending an Oval Office meeting like this?

And what do you think the stakes are going into this. And Trump's mindset now that hell be represented? So many leaders will be in front of him.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's really interesting because not only will the leaders be in front of him, but they will be leaders who are all convinced that they just went in with an agreement with President Trump last week about how to approach Vladimir Putin. And the first thing he did was walk away from it. When they met on Friday, and that was sort of the remarkable part.

They all met by video conference on Wednesday and agreed that there would be no peace negotiations without there being a ceasefire first. And of course, the first thing the president did was hear Putin on why there would be no cease fire. And as from reading the social media, everybody discovers that he switched positions here.

So why is that important? It's important because if you do get a negotiation going on now about a peace agreement, its going to be while the Russians are taking land, while they are killing civilians, while the war is going on. It adds to the pressure on Zelenskyy and on Ukraine, because they're losing territory every day.

ZELENY: And President Trump said some pretty sharp words about Zelenskyy in his interview with the Fox afterward. Let's listen quickly to what he said after the meeting about how the burden is now on Zelenskyy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERVIEWER: Based on today, when you talk to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, what's your advice to --

TRUMP: Make a deal. Russia's a very big power and they're not. Now it's really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So up to Zelenskyy to get it done. But, Julia, as you look to this meeting tomorrow, obviously, the specter of that February meeting hangs over this. Is that your hunch of why Zelenskyy won't be attending this meeting alone? He'll have some backup.

JULIA IOFFE, THE PUCK: I think that's probably why. I think what's also interesting is that Putin has set up a trap for Zelenskyy and the Europeans.

In Moscow, you hear people close to the Kremlin or in the Kremlin talking about how the Europeans are really the spoilers here. The Europeans just want the war to go on forever. That doesn't really make sense. I don't think they do. But you even heard Putin talking about it at the press conference with Trump.

He said, we basically -- we came to a kind of understanding and now let's just hope that the Europeans don't play their -- the spoilers, with their intrigues. And he said that the Ukrainians could also play spoilers with their intrigues, right? And now you have -- what this sets up is that you have the Europeans and the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office with Trump. And anything they ask for that isn't exactly what Putin demanded in Hel -- excuse me, not in Helsinki, in Anchorage, Freudian slip.

ZELENY: That's still hanging over all of this.

IOFFE: Of course. That -- that would be them playing the spoilers. And I think if you pull back a little bit, the other way that this summit was a win for Putin wasn't just that he got Trump to immediately back off the ceasefire. It wasn't just that he got Trump to forget about imposing sanctions.

It's also that this whole time, going back even to the Biden presidency, when Biden kept talking about nothing about Ukraine -- nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. This is everything about Ukraine, without Ukraine. He has always wanted to sit down with the American president, the big boys, and carve up the world and carve up Ukraine. He has never thought that Ukraine should have a say in this. And now Trump seemingly agrees.

He's -- sure he's going to go to Zelenskyy and ask him to formally buy into this deal, but he says, just agree to this, right? Just we agreed. So you agree, right? We figure this out without you just -- just sign on.

ZELENY: For sure. And even though February has been so long ago, that extraordinary moment in the Oval Office, is hanging over this meeting as well. We all remember it well, being at the White House that day.

But let's remind our viewers what the tension was between President Trump and Zelenskyy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You don't have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I'm not playing cards.

TRUMP: Right now, you don't -- you're playing cards. You're playing cards. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, obviously, that's where the conversation Monday basically picks off. They've talked before or since then, obviously, but not face to face in the oval.

But, Zolan, it's so striking how when the president flew to Alaska, he said there would be severe consequences if no immediate ceasefire happened, coming out. He said quite the opposite.

What do you make of what the White House hopes to achieve from the meeting tomorrow as you talk to your sources?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you're right. I mean, in the weeks, it was -- it wasn't too long ago that we heard President Trump say that he was infuriated with Putin and say that he was going to set a deadline and be close to imposing economic consequences here. He's backed off that.

At this point, you see the president trying to assert himself, President Trump trying to assert himself on the global stage as a sort of peacemaker, to try and make progress on achieving some sort of deal here. This next meeting, the White House will likely point to that as making progress. But at this point, they have not revealed any details from this meeting in Anchorage that actually show that they're making meaningful progress to any kind of establishing peace in Ukraine.

SANGER: You know, to this point, the president's been all over the map here at the beginning of his presidency. He was beginning to sound a lot like Putin. He was saying, well, the Ukrainians are partly responsible for the invasion. He picked up a lot of his lines. Then he went through this period of anger at him.

Now he seems back closer to where he was at the beginning of the term. It's only been 200 days.

KANNO-YOUNGS: And don't forget, by the way, he did also promise during the campaign to end this war in 24 hours. We are not there.

IOFFE: Here's the other thing, right? Everybody has always said about Trump. It's always the last person who talks to him.

ZELENY: Right.

IOFFE: That's who influences his thinking. And you have Putin and Zelenskyy who have very early on learned this. And it is true it's whoever happens to talk to him. And now, Zelenskyy and Putin for the last 200 days have been playing this game.

The game has been how do you get Donald Trump to think the other guy is the problem, right? How do you get to say, how do you say yes? Just enough for Donald Trump to think that you want peace more than the other guy. And by peace we mean a deal for Donald Trump so he can get his Nobel Peace Prize, which he is so singularly obsessed with.

This is not about civilians in Ukraine. This is not about ending a bloody war. This is about his prize, him getting points on the board.

ZELENY: Great.

So much to watch Monday in that meeting. It will be extraordinary.

But moving on. Coming up, "I'll be back". The fight against redistricting just gained a Terminator. We'll explain coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:25] ZELENY: Starting tomorrow, California Democrats have just five days to get their new congressional maps on the ballot in November.

This map, which is based on one analysis of the proposal shared with lawmakers and obtained by CNN, would target five Republican districts. It's just the latest move in an escalating showdown between California and Texas, where lawmakers under pressure from President Trump are set to renew their mid-decade redistricting push tomorrow.

My panel is back, joined now by "Politico's" Dasha Burns and David Weigel of "Semafor".

Good morning, guys.

So, Dave, five Republicans in California now, are facing a very uncertain future. If we look at this map, walking through here, some are very common household names as far as Congress goes -- Darrell Issa, Kevin Kiley, Ken Calvert, David Valadao. As you look at this map, what are Democrats trying to do here in California?

DAVID WEIGEL, SEMAFOR NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: They're trying to push them out of office, and they need to make this two-step argument. You were setting up that voters need to put a hold on the commission. Don't worry. The commission will be back in 2030. In order to fight Republicans in Texas and elsewhere.

And this is what Gavin Newsom did in his own recall in 2021. It was about other issues, about COVID largely about -- about some of California's costs and problems. He turned it into a partisan race. So, he is explicitly asking voters, not that these maps are going to improve your lives, that they are going to stop Republicans from making it impossible for Democrats to win an election.

[08:20:01]

You're Californians. You're Democrats. Vote for this. Wipe these guys out of their offices.

ZELENY: I mean, as we look at this campaign, that really is an unexpected campaign for the fall between now and November. Dasha, as you look at it in your home state of California, what is the risk here for Governor Newsom as he tries to effectively argue this is an emergency measure? You know, we still like our good government commission and districts, but we need this because of Texas. Is it an uphill challenge for him?

DASHA BURNS, POLITICO WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF: I think it is. And it's going to be revealing in a number of ways.

I mean, number one, can Gavin Newsom galvanize Democrats to have this fight? He's going to put a lot of his political capital at stake here. And the other revealing piece of this will be, are Democrats willing to fight fire with fire? Has the party shifted from the Michelle Obama when they go low, we go high? And are they willing to sort of use the same tools as Republicans are using in order to win? ZELENY: And we're already starting to see some of the messaging

coming out from the Governor Newsom's side. We saw it on Friday. He's clearly making the argument here that they didn't start it, but California will finish it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: It is a five-alarm fire for democracy in the United States of America. Donald Trump, who's trying to light a torch on democracy to continue to try to rig the election. His agenda is failing. His presidency is failing. He knows the headwinds in a midterm. Now he's dialing up for seats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So the governor clearly trying to use the fight for democracy as a five alarm fire.

David, we've covered a lot of elections together. How potent has that been as an argument that democracy is on the ballot? And could it be different here?

SANGER: You know, it hasn't been all that potent before. I mean, if you think about this most recent presidential election, it came up many times, and yet people voted on questions of the economy, on inflation and so forth.

Californians are different. Dr. Will tell us, right? And, you know, this may well motivate them because of the oddity of Texas doing this between census periods. It's not even clear that the Constitution actually allows Texas to do this at this -- this period of time. And I'm sure it'll be -- it will be challenged.

But what you've got now is essentially an arms race in which everybody's going to pour in as this happens. It's not just going to be limited to Texas and to California. And when you just do the numbers, the Republicans probably come out ahead in that arms race.

BURNS: Well, and the problem is that this is an off year election. How much will people actually be engaged? I mean, they're obviously going to pour a ton of money to try to motivate voters. But also, California -- yes, it's blue, but there are parts of it that have become less blue, more -- more center left Democrats and even some Republican areas.

So, you know, who's -- who's going to win the attention battle here, too.

ZELENY: And certainly, many independents and Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, the former governor, is calling out these new maps. He's no fan of Donald Trump's, necessarily. But in this new post, he said, I'm getting ready for the gerrymandering battle.

So, Zolan, as you keep an eye on this, are we having a return of Schwarzenegger and how does the White House play this? Do you think they just, like, let this happen in California and let Arnold take care of it? Or does Trump weigh in?

KANNO-YOUNGS: You know, he actually didn't -- wasn't as outspoken day to day on the Texas situation than you might have thought. I would think that -- that they continue to criticize and attack Newsom. That has proven to be a good political foe. I don't know how in the details of the actual process they'll get here.

Maybe as we get closer to the midterms. But on your point about the democracy theme as well, I think there's something else that Newsom is doing here. You know, since the 2024 presidential election, as Democrats have tried to reflect on the party, there's also been this, you know, thought of who's the fighter, who's the leader of the party here as well when it comes to competing against Republicans.

You see him trying to do that here as well with this process to try and, you know, meet fire with fire when it comes to the opposing party.

ZELENY: In such a big week for redistricting, it's hard to imagine there's been one, certainly not at the middle of a decade. But in Texas specifically, Dave, the Democrats are now coming back. It looks like this is almost a fait accompli for Republicans.

Have Texas Democrats accomplished anything in their -- these last two weeks?

WEIGEL: They've done this before. This is the first time they've gotten fire -- shooting from their own -- from their own flank towards Republicans in California. They -- that is the win they've pocketed from this, as they've got a Democratic state saying, we're going to try to draw districts to make up for what you're about to lose. That is the one thing they've gained from it. But the attention that they wanted, they got it.

Beto O'Rourke is being sued in multiple levels by Ken Paxton somebody who has been running around the country holding town halls. It wasn't clear why he's doing it. Now, he has this message for doing it.

[08:25:06]

And to what Zolan was saying, there's now a diminution of the good government voices in the Democratic Party, the ones saying we are the play by the rules party, we're the independent commissions party.

We don't want to rig our maps. Obviously, Newsom is framing it as I'm doing the opposite. But the League of Women Voters in California doesn't support what they're doing. Some Democratic groups who for decades have supported independent redistricting are saying we need to fight fire with fire.

And that's Texas Democrats, I think, infuse them with that spirit. You can't -- you can't compromise. You need to fight.

ZELENY: I mean, it's an unbelievable arms race, as you said, David. And it's, you know, just beginning. Ohio is also going to weigh in and Indiana, perhaps Florida and others. So certainly something to keep an eye on.

Coming up next, why a former senator could play a key role in the Democrats' quest to take back the Senate. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:31]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERROD BROWN (D-OH), FORMER SENATOR: This is my last speech on the Senate floor, but it's not, I promise you, the last time you'll hear from me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN HOST: That was Sherrod Brown in his farewell speech to the Senate just last year. Now, news this week that Brown is looking to win his seat back in Ohio, telling Democratic allies that he intends to run for Senate again next year, according to two people familiar with his plans.

His decision is giving Democrats a glimmer of hope as they face a challenging Senate map for 2026.

So, Dave, for all the talk in the Democratic Party about, you know, the need for some new faces, obviously some perils of some old faces in previous elections, Senator Schumer is counting on going back to the well for some of those familiar faces if he has any shot of taking back the Senate.

DAVID WEIGEL, SEMAFOR NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Yes. And it's a well that doesn't always give you what you want. The party has not always had -- Roy Cooper is his own category in North Carolina, but a lot of older candidates who have lost in the past have not been able to put their old coalition back together.

Sherrod Brown in Ohio did better than any other Democrat in 2024. But if you look at Mahoning County and Youngstown, he got fewer votes in 2024 than he did in the last midterm, because no Democrat has been able to keep those Democrats literally alive. In some cases, you've got New Deal Democrats dying off, and they've not found a new coalition.

So it is a holding pattern strategy. And they have been changing the demographics of their Senate map through retirements. But you're right.

I mean, Jeanne Shaheen is retiring in New Hampshire. It's going to make that delegation younger. Janet Mills in Maine, who they're trying to recruit in Maine, is about her age, and they're asking her to do at least one term with the pitch that you need to go there and save democracy and stop Trump.

ZELENY: Well, that is interesting in terms of the recruiting strategy because Schumer was able to convince a Roy Cooper in North Carolina to come in. I'm told that helped Sherrod Brown decide to say yes.

In Maine, Janet Mills, a very popular governor, is she going to challenge Susan Collins? We'll see.

Another long shot in Alaska. Senator Schumer, were told, is trying to convince a former congresswoman, Mary Peltola, to run against Dan Sullivan. A lot of ifs in there.

But, Dasha, when you look at this Senate race, how is the White House looking at just the contest for the Senate? So much focus on the House and redistricting but is the Senate on their radar?

DASHA BURNS, POLITICO WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF: They're very confident about the Senate at this point. And they're seeing these moves by Democrats to bring back some of those old familiar names as a sign that that they don't have a good strategy together.

I mean, just from my own experience, two things that I heard on the campaign trail as I was talking to voters in 2024, Democratic voters, they wanted new blood and younger faces, and they felt like the Democratic Party was not listening.

This story seems to outline those two points are still the case for a lot of voters. They're not going for new folks and they're not hearing voters out that they want some change and turnover within this party.

I still think, though, at the end of the day, it's going to be a messaging battle on Trump's agenda. Who's going to be able to win out before the effects start to really, really take hold here? Who is going to be able to convince people whether this big, beautiful bill is the big ugly bill, or it is indeed a good thing for the working class?

ZELENY: I mean, it's been striking how little talk there has been from the White House about that bill in the month of August. That was supposed to be the time to sell that.

But staying on the Senate for one second, the Democratic hopes are also built around GOP primaries and a mess happening in Texas, for example, where John Cornyn obviously is challenging Ken Paxton -- Ken Paxton, I should say, is challenging John Cornyn. And in Georgia, a potentially messy primary there as well.

Zolan, do you wonder if this is a different moment for these unruly Republican primaries in this age of Trump, is the White House keeping its thumb more on primaries to avoid, potentially nominating a weak candidate?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, "NEW YORK TIMES": Well, I definitely don't want a weak candidate. You're right. And I think the White House is looking at that. And for Democrats as well, to your point, they're hoping that they can make this a referendum on Republicans and Trumpism and the one big, beautiful bill, as much as they possibly can.

I think your point, though, about voters throughout the last campaign would always say, we want to change from the status quo. [08:34:51]

KANNO-YOUNGS: And will a message over attacking Trump for cutting, making cuts to the social safety net --

BURNS: And the same people making -- giving those messages too.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes, yes, yes. Will that be more powerful than when you look and you see exactly the same people that have represented this party for a long time now.

Democrats are hoping, to your point, that they can point to some of these primaries and moments that can come out of them to home in and project that to voters as emblematic of the opposition at this point.

ZELENY: Because we are on "INSIDE

POLITICS", we cannot look at the Senate map often enough between now and November. So let's take a look at the Senate map here, the races to watch.

Dave, as you look at this map here, tell me what you're watching for in Michigan and why could that be a potential insurance policy for Republicans, depending on how the primary goes.

WEIGEL: In so many ways, I was there most recently a week ago with the Democrats running in that seat. The Senate Democrats have made it clear they like Haley Stevens, the Congresswoman from Oakland County, to run statewide.

She has progressive -- one more progressive challenger, Abdullah al Saeed (ph), who has been very clear that he sees what Israel is doing in Gaza as a genocide. And Mallory McMorrow is state senator who has a different appeal, kind of all around the same age. It's not a generational thing.

Republicans have figured things out. They got Trump to endorse Mike Rogers, who almost won in 2024. So there is no ideological fight, nothing happening, just raising money on the Republican side.

The Democratic side, some very fundamental fights about what the party stands for. One thing, Abdullah al Saeed says is there are people who say, I can't win. I think the fact that I'm named Abdullah is going to help in Michigan because look at all the voters we lost over Gaza in the last election, and Democrats don't want any day they spent about Gaza. They're worried about division.

ZELENY: Certainly in a primary. You mentioned Mike Rogers kind of coming full circle here with our conversation.

He's a familiar name, narrowly lost last time. Could he be the sort of the hope for Republicans here if Democrats happen to win Ohio, say, like, is, is Michigan key?

BURNS: Yes, I think Michigan is key. I also think to your point earlier about Trump putting his thumb on the scale, I mean when we broke the story about North Carolina and Mike Whatley running there, that was a deliberate decision by the White House to make sure that there wasn't a messy primary in North Carolina.

That was a conversation that happened behind closed doors. The president said, Michael Whatley, you are the guy. Let's go do this.

And so I think you're going to see Trump play a heavy, heavy role in the midterms because he doesn't want this to be a referendum.

ZELENY: He doesn't want those moments --

BURNS: That's exactly right.

(CROSSTALKING)

ZELENY: -- that Democrats can use in the primary, right.

A much more pragmatic thinking in terms of the primary politics coming out of the White House.

BURNS: Exactly.

ZELENY: Now as Trump takes over the police in the nation's capital, we are getting new details on Red states sending National Guard troops to Washington. Is the president forcing Democrats into a midterm trap?

That's next.

[08:37:49]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Fighting crime is a good thing. We have to explain. We're going to fight crime. Instead of saying he's a dictator, they should say we're going to join him and make Washington safe.

You see a big change, and people are feeling safe already. I've had so many calls. Thank you sir. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So President Trump is making clear he is just getting started on fighting crime, an issue he's eager to put front and center ahead of next year's midterm elections.

And new overnight, Republican governors of West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio are saying that they will deploy National Guard troops to D.C. as well.

Now, as we are all watching this in real time, the creation of a narrative that America is dangerous is beginning to take hold, at least in the White House's view. It's only the latest example of Trump declaring an emergency to get what he wants. Our panel is back here.

And Julia, as you watch this, obviously this is so much more than about midterm elections and domestic politics. What does this feel like to you as you hear this and see this on the streets in D.C.?

JULIA IOFFE, PUCK FOUNDING PARTNER: I think you can guess what I'm going to say. But what this feels like is, something out of every authoritarian playbook. You know, drop your dictator's name in there, that's what this feels like.

And I think if it weren't big balls, it would have been something else. There would have been some kind of pretext that Donald Trump would have used to take over D.C., a city that has hated him from the very beginning. This is a city that has voted overwhelmingly against him, is overwhelmingly liberal. I think in 2016 it was what, 96 percent of D.C. voted against him.

And this is just a way to just show brute force. And it's a way for Republican governors and Republican politicians to serve him and to show, no, I like you more. No, I like your policies more. You know, me, me, me, me, me. I'm also in on this.

But I do think this is again, this is the creation of a police state in front of our eyes. And the creation of manufactured crises to be used as an excuse, as an excuse to seize more power, to chip away further at Democratic rules, norms before.

In Trump one, it was chipping away at democratic norms. Now its democratic laws because now Trump knows he can argue everything up to the Supreme Court. And he has a pretty good shot of a lot of the spaghetti that he's throwing at the wall, sticking.

[08:44:46]

ZELENY: Now Dasha, as you unpack some of the strategy behind this, as Julia was just talking about, you mentioned on your podcast how the law-and-order messaging is a safe space for president Trump talking about this, not necessarily talking about one of his biggest legislative achievements, the big, beautiful bill. What's behind this?

BURNS: Yes, this is -- this is comfortable footing for President Trump. And in some ways, what they're trying to do is lay a trap for Democrats. They have talked many times, whether it's about immigration or crime or some of these cultural issues, like transgender people in sports, putting Democrats on the back foot on what they see as an 80/20 issue, right.

I don't know if Democrats are necessarily falling for the trap this time. The messaging has been much more on the authoritarian front rather than trying to say there's no crime. But that is part of the strategy.

And my White House sources say that this is something that President Trump has been thinking about. D.C. has been on his mind since term one. And it's kind of in line with everything else were seeing from him in this city in particular. And I could imagine it heading to other cities as well.

You see him with the Smithsonian, with the Kennedy Center, to put his imprint on this city. This is yes, it's a law-and-order message, but it's also a way for him to really Trumpify much of the nation's capital.

ZELENY: It's also the latest emergency. I mean, you've written so much about these emergencies. There's been crime now, obviously, the economy, energy, immigration.

As you watch this, crime obviously is going down in D.C. It is still an issue. It is -- it would be incorrect to say that crime is not an issue in D.C.

But what are the president's motives here? And are any of the things that they're doing actually helping the problems that exist?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Well, I think you're right on the strategy of often President Trump does not, you know, take the sort of less sexy, less headline making steps that may go to a solution. He goes straight to code red emergency.

Border crossings, declaring an emergency, going to deploy the National Guard. I think there's a -- he thinks there's a crime problem in D.C. he's going to declare emergency here and go for a federal takedown.

And in a way, you're right. To be clear, there's no pro-crime constituency. You know, in a place like D.C. I've been talking to residents and community leaders who say, yes, we do care about crime here. Juvenile crime is an issue.

Those people have also said I also am concerned about the federal government coming in and launching a crackdown of the city. I also care about cuts to the social safety net that I think could also drive crime in the future, and I care about D.C.'s budget as well.

IOFFEE: I think this has also been -- let's just talk about the fact that we're talking about crime in D.C. Guess what? There are crime -- there's crime in West Virginia that's sending troops here. There's crime in South Carolina.

This is not a D.C. problem. This is not an L.A. problem. But what MAGA has done, what Donald Trump has done, is to pit real America, rural America, against the cities, to make people scared of the cities where black people live, where gay people live, right. These very scary constituencies.

And a lot of this, I think, is policy by or rather culture war as policy. I mean, taking -- having armed guys take down a guy on a moped on 14th and R is not fighting crime in D.C. This is about a show of force against a blue multi-colored city. And this is just red meat for his red base.

ZELENY: And Dave, your quick assessment of how Democrats watch this and react to this. WEIGEL: Well, Dasha is right. And within D.C. There are Democratic

politicians like the mayor who agree with him. Hey, please let us try more juveniles as adults. The sanctuary city policy maybe goes too far.

But what you're saying, the entire Republican Party has bought in on the idea that the cities cant govern themselves, and gerrymandering goes to this, too. Let's get rid of the Kansas City (INAUDIBLE). Let's get a Nashville seat, which already happened. Let's get rid of cities' ability to police themselves because we can do it better. Very comfortable Republican Party messaging behind that.

ZELENY: No doubt. So much more to come on this.

But this week wasn't Alaska's first time in the diplomatic spotlight. The likes of Sarah Palin and Vladimir Putin have pointed out Russia and the 49th state are closer than meets the eye.

[08:49:05]

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ZELENY: This week's Trump-Putin summit was just the latest chapter in a long history between Alaska and Russia. Alaska first became a U.S. territory in 1867, after Russia sold it for just $7.2 million, or less than 2 cents an acre.

It later became the 49th U.S. State in 1959. While it's been part of the U.S. for more than a century, a Trump gaffe leading up to the summit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm going to see Putin. I'm going to Russia on Friday.

It's going to be a big thing. We're going to Russia. It's going to be a big deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Caught the attention of Russian state media, which said Trump admitted that Alaska is ours. It's something of a diplomatic midpoint. Alaska has a long history of hosting world leaders.

In 1971, Japan's Emperor Hirohito became the first reigning monarch of Japan to visit the state when he met with President Nixon in Anchorage, then in 1984 President Reagan met with Pope John Paul II in Fairbanks, to a crowd of thousands.

[08:54:48]

ZELENY: While Putin became the first Russian leader to visit the state, its geographical proximity, less than three miles between the two nations at their closest point, was once something former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin touted when speaking to ABC News international debut in 2008. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: They're our next-door neighbors. And you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Of course, that comment became lasting fodder for Saturday Night Live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TINA FEY, COMEDIAN: I can see Russia from my house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now, Friday's summit becoming another historic moment in the last frontier. But just how historic is still unclear, as the world remains hopeful for an end to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

That's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X and Instagram @jeffzeleny and follow the show @INSIDE POLITICS.

If you ever miss an episode, you can catch up wherever you get your podcasts. Search for INSIDE POLITICS.

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Jake's guests include the U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, and former vice president Mike Pence.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.

[08:56:04]

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