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Trump Vows "Many More" Deals Like U.S. Getting 10 Percent Stake In Intel; California GOP Asks State Supreme Court To Block New Map; Indiana Republicans To Talk Redistricting At WH Meeting Today; Ruff Rankings: America's Favorite Dogs. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 26, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:32:01]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump is promising many more deals like the one he struck with struggling CHIP maker Intel. And today, Treasury Secretary -- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had a forecast of where they could start.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a lot of businesses that do business with the U.S. government that benefit by doing business with the U.S. government. Where, again, I guess the question is, where's the line?

HOWARD LUTNICK, TREASURY SECRETARY Oh, there's a monstrous discussion about defense. I mean, Lockheed Martin makes 97 percent of their revenue from the U.S. government. They are basically an arm of the U.S. government.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: Now, the move has struck an existential question of sorts on how the GOP sees the government's role in the private sector. Axios cast Trump as, quote, "chairman of Corporate America." While the Atlantic and Bloomberg ask, are looking at new red wave of socialism?

Our smart reporters are back at the table. So, Chairman Trump, I remember this is the kind of stuff that you were accusing Mamdani of in New York, communism and government takeovers. I remember when they were opposed to all that not so long ago.

RACHAEL BADE, CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF AND SENIOR WASHINGTON COLUMNIST, POLITICO: Yes. I'm sure Republican lawmakers are just thinking they're lucky stars right now that they're not in town because my goodness.

RAJU: Having to defend it.

BADE: I mean, it goes completely against free markets. I mean, this is exactly what Republicans have been against, you know, in our entire lifetime before that. I mean, so he's sounding more like Bernie Sanders. But the thing is, you know, there's a wing of the party and there's a lot of Republicans who, you know, are going to give him space on this just because they think his gut political instincts are right.

If he's saying he's going to try to, you know, help industries that are vulnerable to foreign influence of some sort or, you know, weigh in here to try to make money for the U.S. government, they're going to give him space. So, I mean, we're going to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BADE: -- see squawking about this on Capitol Hill next week. But, I mean, come on, they're not going to do much.

JOSH DAWSEY, POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Can we talk about the Intel episode for a second, though?

RAJU: Yes.

DAWSEY: It starts with Trump saying this guy should be fired as CEO for his ties to China. He's conflicted after watching a TV report. Then he says, OK, I'll meet with this guy.

Guy comes in and says, I'm actually not a Chinese trader. I'm not a spy. My company's going to do better, blah, blah, blah, blah. Trump says, great, we want part of it.

Then the next week, the Trump has staked out a 10 percent position in Intel. So in a period of about 10 days, he goes from saying that the company should be taken over by a totally different guy because this guy has massive conflicts and should be out.

The company then gets a meeting with Trump, comes in, and somehow in the course of the meeting, Trump decides, actually, we want part of your company. And the company goes along with it. And the CEO goes along with it, right? Because they need a deal.

I mean, one of the things we've seen repeatedly in this presidency is just a corporate obsequiousness towards the president, how much they suck up to him, how much these leaders need him. They understand how much Washington matters to their bottom line, how many problems he can cause them. And there is sort of a fealty there. We have not seen in the past.

[12:35:04]

So Trump says, this guy's got to go. The guy says, OK, I need a meeting with the president. Comes in. And by the end of the next week, 10 percent of the company is now with the United States government.

RAJU: That's a government (ph).

DAWSEY: I mean, it's sort of a remarkable thing if you think about it.

RAJU: Yes, I mean, look, and to that point, I mean, Republicans have long been against picking winners and losers, letting the government pick winners and losers. Let the government -- let corporations and companies fail, they say, because if they fail, that's the way the free market is supposed to work. They railed against the auto bailout, against TARP. Remember Solyndra back in 2012?, that was -- sorry, the first Obama term when Obama and the Department of Energy gave the solar company a $535 million federal loan guarantee funded by the 2009 stimulus, that later declared bankruptcy.

That company did it afterwards. Republicans railed on it, including Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R), WISCONSIN: It's the free enterprise system. It's the private sector, the productive sector, not the government sector, that creates long-term self-sustaining jobs. And let's face it, the lesson of the Soviet Union and other socialist nations is that governments are very poor allocators of capital. It's an economic model that doesn't work.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: It's an economic model that doesn't work.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Intellectual consistency has been in short supply, we'll just say, these days. And you can hear the turnaround, because we've heard it in other instances, where they say, OK, well, that was someone else controlling the government.

That was someone else who was in charge. We didn't trust them. We trust him. And I think that, if I had to guess, I think that's what we'll hear in part from Republicans on the Hill, who not only do they think that, perhaps some of them do, but they also don't want to get crosswise with Trump, because they've seen what's happened, if that happens.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: There's also going to be some policy challenges with this approach by the Trump administration. This money originally was going to go to Intel through the CHIPS Act, but the Biden administration set up milestones that the company had to hit to ensure that they invested in domestic manufacturing in the U.S. in exchange for taxpayer cash, right?

These -- you're basically unloading this cash to the company fully in exchange for equity in the company, right? And Intel has had some technology challenges --

KUCINICH: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- but now they get all the money right up front, right? So there's going to be challenges here moving forward. But as you said, this is part of a pattern. Think also U.S. Steel with the golden share agreement as well, with Nippon. So --

BADE: And the military being --

KANNO-YOUNGS: And the military.

BADE: -- the biggest investor in rural earth materials now, right?

RAJU: Yes, right. And as Rachael, you said, Bernie Sanders had a statement about this on Friday, praising Trump on this issue of Intel taxpayers. He said, "Should not be providing billions of dollars in corporate welfare to large, profitable corporations like Intel without getting anything in return." Trump and Bernie Sanders on the same page on economic policy.

(CROSSTALK)

DAWSEY: Yes. But, I mean, if you look at how Trump has changed the orthodoxy of the Republican Party on economic policy, I mean, the -- in 2024, the official position of the Republican Party was that the party supports tariffs, right? And the delegates from across the country, all were told to vote for it, and they voted for it.

Can you imagine 10 years ago in the Republican Party, if you would have said, what do we think about the official party position of the Republican Party is tariffs? I mean, what Trump says --

RAJU: Yes.

DAWSEY: -- on the economy is, trust me, basically --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

DAWSEY: -- I'm going to do it my way. I'm a dealmaker. At the end of the day, I'll figure it out for you. And you have to go along with it. And --

RAJU: And they --

DAWSEY: And so far, to a large degree, most people seem --

RAJU: Yes.

DAWSEY: -- on the GOP side willing to do it.

RAJU: And there has been very -- here's been silence so far from the GOP over this issue. Rachael's right, they're probably happy they're not in Washington at this moment.

All right, we're keeping an eye on the Trump Cabinet meeting. We'll bring you any updates. But first, will the courts block Governor Gavin Newsom's plan to redraw California's congressional map? Well, one of the state's top Republican leaders will be here next.

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[12:43:36]

RAJU: California Republican lawmakers are again asking the state Supreme Court to block the new congressional map approved by the Democratic-controlled state legislature. The state GOP is trying to stop a November referendum that would give voters the change to approve the Democratic-friendly map. Joining me now to talk more about this effort is James Gallagher, who's the Republican leader of the California State Assembly. Assemblyman, thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. Appreciate your time.

JAMES GALLAGHER, CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY REPUBLICAN LEADER: Yes, good to be with you, Manu.

RAJU: Absolutely. So this is a state, as you know, that President Trump lost by 20 points in 2024. And given the Democratic tilt of California, would you concede you have slim odds of blocking this plan to add five Democratic House seats if this does indeed go to California voters in November and the courts do not side with you?

GALLAGHER: Well, no, because California and the voters decided that we should have nonpartisan redistricting, and they've done that twice on the ballot. So we think they will do it a third time. But let's also say at the outset that actually Democrats have been better at gerrymandering than Republicans.

And I'll use California as an example, also Connecticut and Massachusetts, blue states where Republicans get about 40 percent of the vote. Yet in Connecticut and Massachusetts, we have zero congressional representation. California, we have 17 percent currently. But with this partisan map that Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are pushing, we'd go down to 7 percent.

[12:45:03]

And a lot's been said about Texas, but even if Texas is successful in what they're doing, they would actually be better in terms of representation of Democrats than Republicans are represented in California's other blue states.

RAJU: Assemblyman, I mean, this effort to try to stop this ballot referendum in your state is going to take a lot of money, probably millions of dollars, a lot of effort on the GOP side. What about President Trump? Do you want him in your state to campaign to try to stop this plan?

GALLAGHER: Well, look, President Trump actually did very well in California. We saw many counties turn red, including Imperial County. It went 20 points for Biden in 2020. Donald Trump won that county in 2024. So we've actually seen, you know, in inland parts of California, Latino parts of California, where the Latino population has a heavy demographic.

The president's done really well. But as you know, we have a lot of people that -- and this campaign is going to be focused on good government. That you're gerrymandering --

RAJU: So just to be clear, you want President Trump to come campaign in California to stop this referendum?

GALLAGHER: I'm saying that the president has influence in these areas and actually did pretty well in parts of California. And again, this campaign is going to be about good government, about -- redistricting should be nonpartisan. It shouldn't be gamed the way that people are doing this throughout the country.

RAJU: Will you ask the president to come to those areas in campaign? Will you ask the president to come to those areas in campaign?

GALLAGHER: We're going to be campaigning hard throughout the state. We're going to be talking to Democrats, Independents, and Republicans and talking about how we should stick to independent, fair elections in California, which we've already chosen twice on the ballot. And we have a lot of people out there talking about it.

As you had mentioned, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is out there, you know, lambasting Gavin Newsom for what he's trying to do. And there's a very big independent streak in California that does not like what they are doing.

RAJU: Can I ask you, you said you mentioned Texas and you're obviously concerned about what California Democrats are doing, but, you know, they are doing this, they say, in response to what is happening in Texas. You had said that our most fundamental American principle is representation. That was your comment yourself.

But given that --

GALLAGHER: Right.

RAJU: -- and you look at what happened in Texas, was it wrong for Texas Republicans to try to gerrymander the districts themselves?

GALLAGHER: Yes, I think partisan gerrymandering is wrong no matter where it's done. But as I pointed out, you know, Texas is not the first to do that. Look at Connecticut, look at Massachusetts, that's not gerrymandering. When 40 percent of the Republicans, you know, get the vote there, but zero of their congressional members are Republican, this has been going on too far.

And what my admonishment to my colleagues was that day, was at the end of this is we zero out representation. Places don't get represented when you do it based on partisan politics alone. And that is a threat. You know, that is a very real threat to our democracy. And we should be calling for it to end everywhere.

RAJU: Yes. And Assemblyman, Trump is also meeting with Indiana Republicans at the White House today to try to essentially strong arm those state legislators and potentially add two GOP seats, potentially eliminate the two Democratic seats in Indiana. Are you OK with that?

GALLAGHER: I don't know. Are you OK with Connecticut and Massachusetts who did the exact same thing?

RAJU: I'm asking you. I mean, I don't have an opinion. I don't have an opinion. I'm asking you. Are you OK with what Trump is doing in Indiana? That's all.

GALLAGHER: I think partisan redistricting is wrong everywhere it's done. But if you're going to just talk about Republican states and not mention the Democratic states, Hawaii, zero Republican representatives, right? All these different states where they've zeroed out the ability to elect a Republican at all. I think that's wrong no matter where you do it.

And, you know, here in California, over 15 years ago, we made the decision to stop doing that. But Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are saying, hey, let's throw it all out the door. Let's fight fire with fire. And at the end of that path is a lot of people not getting representation that they deserve. We should stop that.

And all of us could come together, Republican, Democrat, Independent, and say no more of this stuff. We should have independent redistricting in every state.

RAJU: All right. James Gallagher, the California Republican Assembly leader, thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. Really appreciate your time.

GALLAGHER: Yes, thank you.

RAJU: Absolutely.

Coming up, they say if you want a friend in Washington, D.C., get a dog. Why that famous line resonates well beyond the nation's capital.

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[12:54:00]

RAJU: Topping our political radar, an important meeting about the 2026 midterms. Today at the White House complex, redistricting is on the agenda for a group of Indiana Republicans slated to huddle with Trump administration aides. Now the GOP already holds seven of nine seats.

And a senior administration source tells CNN that while the meeting isn't on his schedule, they expect the president to drop by and say hello.

Some Senate race smack talk. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is running for Senator John Cornyn's job. At his day job, Paxton is ordering all classrooms in Texas to display the Ten Commandments, claiming the social media post, quote, "I will not back down from defending the virtues and values that built this country."

Now, Cornyn found that rich. Posting response, quote, "Might want to brush up on the Ten Commandments, Ken." Paxton's wife had filed for divorce on biblical grounds, alleging her soon-to-be ex-husband carried out an affair during their marriage.

And are you watching this at home on the couch with Fido curled up right next to you? Well, give him belly rubs right now. It's actually National Dog Day.

[12:55:07] We here at Inside Politics have thought about making this political. The show is called Inside Politics after all, and there is a dog lover's caucus. But there are some famous pooches on the hill, like Elizabeth Warren's Bailey.

Dogs are, though, one of the few things that actually transcend politics. And it probably should stay that way. Americans are obsessed with their dogs. And who among our audience hasn't spent more on dog clothes than their own wardrobe? I actually have not, but maybe others of you have.

But now we have a new gauge of which dogs we think are the bestest boys and girls. Let's call them rough rankings. America's top dog are Labradors. That's a takeaway from a U.S. News and World Report analysis based on pet insurance data. Chihuahuas are two, Golden Retrievers are three, and Dachshunds are 10.

Thanks for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a very quick break.

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