Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Trump Uses Public Remarks To Celebrate U.S.-U.K. Relationship; King Charles Visits U.S. Amid Tensions Over Iran, Tariffs; FCC Plans To Challenge ABC Station Licenses Amid Kimmel Controversy; Republicans Accuse Dems Of "Inciting Violence" Against Trump; Average Gas Prices Hit $4.18/Gallon, Highest In Nearly 4 Years. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 28, 2026 - 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)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Pomp, circumstance and high stakes diplomacy. Can King Charles mend a fraying special relationship?

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

You are looking at live pictures of the White House, where President Trump and King Charles are now behind closed doors meeting. We saw them just a few moments ago, walking into the Oval Office. You can see it right there. Their private meeting comes as there's pretty significant tension between the U.S. and U.K., seems to be intensifying by the day at this point, especially over the war in Iran.

But publicly, it was all cordial, even warm. This morning, the president and the first lady rolled out the red carpet literally, maybe, I don't think they literally did, but other people did for the king and the queen. There was also military parades, pageantry to mark the king's first formal state visit as the British monarch. And President Trump notably stuck to his script, focusing his remarks on the historic reliance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Think of that very, very long ago, difficult war, and yet those wounds did indeed heal into the most cherished of friendships, most cherished. The soldiers who once called each other, Redcoats and Yankees became the Tommies and the GIs, who together saved the free world as brothers in arms and brothers in eternity, and nobody fought better together than us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: This afternoon, King Charles will deliver the first royal address to Congress in 35 years. We're going to start things off with CNN's Max foster who's over at the White House. Max, the meeting with the president and the king still under way right now. This is all not playing out on camera, which is a rarity for the president when he meets with world leaders. What does the king hope to accomplish today in this conversation?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, first of all, if we listen to what the president said there, it would have been music to the British government's and the king's ears. Because I think a lot of what the king, president said there will be reflected in what the king will say to Congress later on, speaking about that historic relationship and how it's deep. And this is the strongest alliance between America and the U.K.

And despite all the current problems between the two governments, this is above that. It operates above that. So, I think that's significant in itself, I think it is interesting that for the first time ever, as far as we can understand, a head of state is visiting the White House, and you're not getting sound or video or reporters in the room. And I think the president is helping protect the king there. If he's caught getting involved in daily politics, it undermines his constitutional position.

I think what we have right now is the biggest test, probably, of King Charles of his reign, because of the most important relationship, bilateral relationship. It's a critical point, and he's been sent in there effectively by the government to help repair that relationship. And he's a master of this, actually. And I think he probably -- my understanding is he probably will be frank -- quite frank about those problems in the relationship, but in private, man to man, away from the cameras.

So, if he can fix that, then that is the king effectively doing his job as head of state and representing the British government broadly, but also the British people, and making sure he holds that long-term relationship together when it's so broken, effectively publicly right now between the governments.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. It certainly you couldn't ask for a better start. I think if you're the king, based on what we saw from the president's remarks, another person on state visit. Max Foster from the North Lawn of the White House. Thank you, my friend. Appreciate you.

I'm joined now by a terrific group of reporters, and I want to get to kind of the backdrop of all this in a minute. And there's new developments just this morning, which have been pretty remarkable for the special relationship. But Seung Min, I want to start with what we saw from the president, because warm is not necessarily how you usually describe. He is a talented speaker and someone who can draw, and I think gen-up (Ph) a crowd like nobody I've ever seen. Warmth is usually not the vibe. That was warm.

[12:05:00]

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, AP & CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It was incredibly warm. But you also have to look in the context of the president and the royals. He loves the royals. This is something that dates back to mother's love for the royal family. We've talked about this a lot, particularly when he visited the U.K., starting in his first term. He mentioned his mother during his opening remarks this morning about how he had a crush on the younger Charles when he was the -- when he was the prince.

And he even made a -- he made a funny reference to a tabloid article this morning when he -- on social media that found that he and King Charles may be 15th --

MATTINGLY: No, we actually haven't heard that, you know, pull it up. Yeah.

KIM: Yeah. So, he seemed very -- I mean, 15th cousin, I mean, we're all probably 15 --

(CROSSTALK)

KIM: But he seemed kind of delighted by it. So yes, he is -- he does have a persona, an aggressive persona that he puts on, certainly when world leaders are here. But for the king, it's different. He loves the royals.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. It is just undeniably the case. And Ayesha, you were -- we were talking before that, in the first term, you were with the president when he visited Queen Elizabeth, which you could tell in that moment was something that he was like bucket list.

AYESHA RASCOE, NPR HOST, "WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY" AND "UP FIRST": Yes, yes.

MATTINGLY: -- some of it, which I understand. I think everybody could probably share that. But I think what's fascinating about this moment and the respect that he's showing is that the fracture in the special relationship that we've seen play out in large part because of the president's frustration, anger, rage on some level with the U.K. prime minister has been palpable over the course of the last couple days, and it's not just one sided. Listen to the prime minister just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I will never let this country be dragged into a war that is not in our interests, never.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: We see Keir Starmer yesterday, this is back and forth about the U.K.'s decision not to participate in the Iran attacks initially, which U.K. officials said they found to be illegal. That also comes as the Financial Times broke a story today of the current British ambassador to the U.S. where he said this. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIAN TURNER, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES (voiceover): Special relationship is a phrase I try not to utter because it's quite nostalgic, it's quite backwards looking, and it has a lot of -- sort of baggage about it. I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States, and that is probably Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, for context here, those comments were from February. The Financial Times got a copy of the recording today. And the U.K. spokesperson to the Financial Times said a foreign commonwealth and development office spokesperson, these were private and formal comments made to a group of U.K. sixth-form students visiting the U.S. in early February. There's certainly not any reflection of the U.K. government's position. Still, there's just a lot of moving parts right now.

RASCOE: It's a lot of moving parts, and I actually think those are probably the most important. I mean, you know, and yes, the king is here, and that is a big deal. And he will certainly be trying to make sure that the relationship is on the best foot that it can be. But I don't know any foreign relationship with the president that has really remained on a good -- on a good footing, like, especially with Europe.

Like they, you know, they have tried to figure out how to work with Trump, but it always comes back to if things do not go exactly the way he wants, he will turn on you in a second. And like -- and I think that ultimately, the issues with Iran, they're not going to go away. But Trump loves pageantry. He loves the royals. So, this will be a nice dinner. It will be a nice day, but what the long-term consequences of this visit will be, I'm not sure it will have much of an impact.

MATTINGLY: Elex, I think that was one of the questions I was trying to figure out. I understand the kind of heat and light on this moment, and I understand the appreciation for the pageantry, and the history and our independence. But the impact tangibly to Ayesha's point over time. Will there be one?

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR, " THE STORY IS WITH ELEX MICHAELSON": Probably not, but at this moment, when we see so much division, it's interesting to see at least Congress coming together. And it's crazy that our country was founded as a way to fight back against the king, and the one person bringing us together is the king, which is an interesting moment that we see right now, because, of course, in the United States, we have a head of state and head of government who is the same person, the president. In the United Kingdom, the head of state is the king. The head of government is the prime minister.

And so, the king only has to do all the pageantry and fun stuff. I wonder if, in some ways, President Trump wishes he could be that. He loves doing all that kind of stuff. He doesn't have to say anything controversial ever, literally his job is to not say anything controversial. So, because of that role, he's able to be a lot of things to a lot of people without having to step into something like the Iran war. And I think President Trump appreciates that.

[12:10:00]

MATTINGLY: Yeah. I suspect he wouldn't be able to exist not saying controversial things, but I guess --

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: I do want to -- we got to go to break, but I want to show a video of Queen Elizabeth, speaking to Congress, which King Charles is going to do in just a couple of hours. Watch?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEEN ELIZABETH II, UNITED KINGDOM: Both our countries saw the invasion of Kuwait in just the same terms, an outrage to be reversed, both for the people of Kuwait and for the sake of the principle that naked aggression should not prevail. Our views were identical, and so were our responses. That response was not without risk, but we have both learned from history that we must not allow aggression to succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: This time around, different views, different responses when it comes to a conflict in the Middle East. We'll see what King Charles says in just a couple of hours on Capitol Hill. Coming up. The FCC may be about to go after ABC TV stations, the same network that is, of course, home to Jimmy Kimmel, is the timing coincidence. Plus, Republican Congressman Jim Jordan will be sitting right next to me too. Ohio guys, we'll talk about the funding of the Secret Service, the war in Iran, and weather Speaker Mike Johnson is still in control of his conference. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: We've got some breaking news on the fight between the Trump administration and Jimmy Kimmel. The FCC is preparing to challenge the licenses of ABC affiliate stations. And a source tells CNN the process will begin as early as this afternoon. The licenses in question are not up for renewal for years, but the FCC can -- says it can review them earlier. So far, ABC has stuck by Jimmy Kimmel after President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump demanded he be fired over a joke he told last week about Melania having, quote, a glow like an expectant widow. Here's how Kimmel defended himself last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE: Obviously, it was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they're together. It was a very light rose joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination and they know that. I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Elex, the FCC making threats or talking about doing the kind, mostly trying to jawbone changes on some level, not through a policy mechanism is not a new development with the current chair. What do you make of what this may mean?

MICHAELSON: Well, it's unlikely that that's will actually work, but a lot of times it's the threat of it that is an issue, and it may cause Disney and ABC to have to spend money and time defending themselves. What we don't see this time around, as compared to the last time there was problems with Kimmel. We do not see the station groups calling for Kimmel to be out, and that's a key thing.

So, there is not sort of the business pressure on Disney and ABC that we saw the last time around, but it does come at a perilous time for late night TV. We know that Stephen Colbert is about to be taken off the air. That was not his choice on CBS. And we know that Kimmel himself may not be around that much longer. He only signed a one-year deal. He was talking before all this stuff started about the possibility of retiring. He has this great deal now where he gets to take, like, a month off in August.

(CROSSTALK)

MICHAELSON: So, he's already kind of moving towards that. And there's real questions about whether late night itself will survive because on CBS right now, when Colbert leaves, Byron Allen is getting the time slot. He's paying for the time slot to put in his own show there. So, the whole dynamics of late night are very, very different moving forward.

MATTINGLY: You know, Ayesha to the final point that was made by Kimmel, which was essentially like, talk to your husband. The back and forth we've seen in the wake of what, I think, in the moment and in the president's remarks afterwards, which were extremely gracious and, I think, kind to our colleagues who were involved in the dinner, and also seemed to have like a revelation about watching reporters do work that I think was kind of interesting to see in real time.

There's a lot of finger pointing right now, and we saw some back and forth yesterday from the White House podium, but also from Capitol Hill. Listen?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party and even some in the media.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES, (D-NY): And this so-called White House press secretary wants to lecture America and lecture us about civility. Get lost. Clean up your own house before you have anything to say to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RASCOE: Look, I mean, I think that, you know, every person is responsible for their own rhetoric, and I certainly am not in support of any violent rhetoric. I do think, though, that it's going to be very difficult to have this conversation if President Trump is unwilling to change his behavior, right?

[12:20:00]

Like we, I mean, you have to say like President Trump has changed the political environment. The things that people say. They're cursing, they're doing this and that. And Trump has led the way on that and that's just a fact. And I think it's going to be very difficult to tamp down the rhetoric on both sides.

If you do not have -- if you don't have those same rules applying to Trump, you can't just say, oh, Trump is just tweeting some stuff. Oh, he just, yeah, he said that. Oh, he was glad. Mueller was dead and all that. But it's fine. So, you can't do that, and then ask everybody else to also hold the rules, right? Like, you have to hold the rules. Or everybody, like, if Trump is not, like, going to go by the rules, and nobody else is going to go by the rules.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. To the point, I mean, you can just pick up kind of the theme of seditious, treasonous conspiracy that we've seen as a through line from the president attacking Democrats over the course. He's not calling for violence necessarily, although there is one moment last year, yeah, last November, we said seditious behavior punishable by death like. This is the thing I think someone that I get stuck on, of like, none of you should be telling anybody to just, all shut up.

RASCOE: Everyone should be responsible for themselves, right? But at the end of the day, if Trump is going to be allowed to say whatever about anybody, then people get upset, right?

KIM: Right, because that has changed completely the environment of political communication, to call it -- to call it that. So certainly, that's -- the rules do have to apply to everyone, and that's why you saw Hakeem Jeffries more or less not kind of backing down and asking the white or telling the White House that they need to examine their own behavior.

MICHAELSON: But the point is also, the FCC, you know, looks over broadcast TV, but the real way that so many people are getting their information is on their phones, where there's no regulation, and all the posts that Trump put out there, and everybody else puts out all this misinformation, there's no accountability. And by the way, the incentive structure on here is to post the most sort of crazy, loud, you know, content that causes anger. And so, if we're going to talk about this, we need to have a conversation about what's happening when it comes to social media as well.

MATTINGLY: On a related note, you should watch Elex's vertical video that he did last night. It's very clear --

(CROSSTALK)

MICHAELSON: Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, yes, get it on the phone.

MATTINGLY: All right. Coming up. Gas prices surge to a nearly four- year high, with the Strait of Hormuz still closed. This could actually just be the beginning. And as we go to break, a live look at the first lady and the queen at the White House tennis pavilion, talking to students about how they're using innovation to explore the U.S. and U.K.'s history. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Gas prices are surging to the highest level in nearly four years because, of course, of deadlocked Iran war and the talks that just aren't going anywhere and are rattling the global economy. Now, the national average is now $4.18 a gallon. That's up nearly seven cents from just yesterday, and the highest price since the war began. And just to get kind of a better sense or window into what we're watching right now, it's important to look back over time.

I'm going to draw a little bit on the Magic Wall and try not to make a fool of myself, as Richard is watching me. We said 4.18 is where the things stand today. And I think when you look at the run up, just since the start of the war. What's so notable is the speed and scale of the surge of the prices, but also that prices were below $3 a gallon right before this was all happening. At the end of last year, the start of January, everything the Trump administration wanted on this front, Richard, it was happening.

If you look back over to the Ukraine conflict and kind of the aftermath of that in the near term, and you saw gas prices topping $5, came back down pretty significantly (Ph). So, Richard, we haven't hit the $5 mark yet. This seems dramatically worse from a global market perspective, in terms of the disruption we're living through. Where do you see this going?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE & ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: All right. So, look, I wish I'd known you had your toys out, because I've got one that I could have used. Instead, I'm just going to go the old-fashioned way. You can't really see this very clearly. But essentially, essentially, the oil price has risen quite sharply, right? So, we have a very sharp rise in the oil price, as you can see.

Now, the important point to realize is this bit. Once the oil price got up there, over $100 a barrel, it's going to shade it in. So, you can see. It doesn't matter how long it continues, this bit is baking in slow growth, slowing economy, higher inflation. And as this continues on and on and on, you know, the president can say this will be over in a few weeks. Anybody can say they'll be talks in Islamabad. But as long as this big watch continues forward, that's the bit that's doing the damage, anything over, up towards $100 a barrel. So, you ask how long this goes on? It goes on until there's a reason for the price to come down. And during the markets, does it once or twice, but longer-term, Phil, it's not going to do it. And that's why you're seeing what you're seeing on yours.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. And it seems like markets we've talked about this before. Finally, looking around saying, oh, wait, there's no like near-term solution here, anywhere at all. And the longer this goes on --

QUEST: But the cake is baking all along. That's the crucial part about it. Every moment that oil is at these elevated levels, the economies are slowing. Inflation is getting worse

[12:30:00]