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Inside Politics

Trump Meets With Netanyahu As Once Tight Relationship Grows Strained; World Leaders, Members Of Congress Remember Lindsey Graham; Trump Pressures GOP Leaders Over SAVE Act. Aired 12-12.30p ET

Aired July 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]

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MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: A funeral and a foreign policy test as allies and world leaders gather to honor the late Senator Lindsey Graham. I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash, who is at the National Cathedral. Let's go behind the headlines and inside politics.

President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now meeting behind closed doors. It's the first time the two leaders have come face to face since the start of the war in Iran, as real tension points in their once ironclad relationship are on full display.

This morning, the president made clear he and the Israeli Prime Minister are not on the same page.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: There are reports now that Netanyahu is going to talk to you about ongoing excavation at Pickaxe Mountain. Construction vehicles entering and exiting tunnels, paving new access roads. Satellite imagery and intel indicates that Iran is actively constructing and fortifying Pickaxe Mountain. How will we respond?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, I don't need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved. We know exactly what's going on. But no, I heard Bibi announce that. I said, "Why don't you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world? I know exactly what's going on at Pickaxe. It's not a big problem.

We took out their nuclear sites, and we'll have to take out Pickaxe if we don't make a deal. We don't make a deal, we'll take it out very easily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who Trump met with earlier this morning, are all about to be together at Senator Lindsey Graham's memorial. Dana Bash is at the National Cathedral, where Senator Graham's Memorial Service will shortly get underway. So, Dana, this will be quite the scene of heavy hitters and power players from Washington and around the world at the cathedral. What kind of dynamics are you expecting to see?

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Manu, look, just the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, are here in town and use the opportunities that they had to be here in Washington to meet with the president is somehow, I believe, this kind of trying to get them together till the very end, mentality that Lindsey Graham had.

As you know, the defense of and the promotion of democracies around the world, in particular lately because of the wars, Ukraine and Israel, have been paramount for Senator Graham, and the fact that they're not only at the White House, but they will be here at the Cathedral, really does speak to and it epitomizes what Senator Lindsey Graham was trying to do day in and day out with his platform in the United States Senate.

I would even say more so than any other senator, and the kind of colleague he was, the kind of politician he was, was on display earlier in the Capitol. I know you were there, Manu, when we heard from both Vice President J.D. Vance, who had been his Senate colleague briefly before becoming Vice President, and also his long-time friend and colleague, the Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I choose to remember Lindsey Graham as a man who could disagree with you without being disagreeable. I choose to remember Lindsey Graham as a person who could fight with you on one issue, but fight for you on another issue. I remember Lindsey Graham as a man who loved people, and because he loved people, he was willing to reason with them, to respect them, and ultimately to persuade them.

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Let me just say that there was no one, no one who took his job more seriously than Lindsey Graham. But also, no one was more capable of cracking up a room. To Lindsey, rest in peace, my friend. I look forward to the days when you make us all laugh again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And Manu, just seeing and hearing John Thune get so emotional at that moment, it reminds us of the kind of relationship not just the two men had on a personal level, but the kind of role that you see day in and day out when you walk the halls of Capitol Hill, that Senator Graham played as a liaison between John Thune and the rest of the Republican Conference, and Donald Trump, who he spent, Graham spent so long trying to become close with and to have an impact on -- on foreign policy, especially, but as much policy as he possibly could, Manu.

[12:05:00]

RAJU: And to that point, Dana, you and I both really got a unique window into the way Lindsey Graham operated behind the scenes, really, like few others before him. He was so strategic with President Trump, in particular. BASH: Absolutely. I mean, we remember the way their relationship

started. It was terrible, and that was a nice way to put it, because one of the reasons why I remember Senator Graham said he wanted to run for president, which he did briefly in the 2016 time, was because he wanted to find a way to stop Donald Trump and his kind of Republicanism, particularly on foreign policy.

He was not successful in doing that at all. He said some pretty nasty things about Donald Trump, but then slowly but surely, even and especially with a lot of criticism from many of Lindsey Graham's friends, ingratiated himself with President Trump, and I talked to him so many times about why he was doing this, and it was very, very clear.

He was totally focused on trying to find a way to have an impact on President Trump, and he knew that he wouldn't have an impact if he wasn't in the room with him, on the golf course with him, which he did as many times as he could. I mean, there were many weekends where I was trying to get him on our Sunday show, and he would say, "No, I can. I've got a tee time on Sunday morning with President Trump."

He knew how to talk to him. He wasn't always successful, but he felt like if he was even a little bit successful, that was a win, and in a way that he wouldn't have been able to accomplish anything had they stayed as acrimonious as they were when their relationship started.

RAJU: Yeah, very, very strategic, very transactional as well. And his sense of humor, Dana, was something that, of course, people have been talking about all morning, I remember, you remember. Very quickly, anything in particular stand out to you?

BASH: Well, first of all, you heard the Vice President this morning talking about having a campaign stop with Lindsey Graham when he was running for Senate in Ohio, and his abdomens hurt -- his abdomen hurt so much because he was laughing. Senator Graham's aide sent me a photo from that -- from that campaign trip, and it you know kind of shows that moment that they were having.

Most of the humor that I heard from Senator Graham, Manu is probably not repeatable here because he liked his comedy very blue, as you know, but one quick story is, remember back in the 2016 campaign when Donald Trump was in South Carolina and he decided to share Senator Graham's cell phone number publicly as kind of a prank, and Senator Graham could have very easily been very angry.

I believe I was, if not the first, but one of the first people to call that number because I knew it was his to tell him what had happened, and he thought it was hilarious. He had to change his number, but he thought it was absolutely hilarious, and that is maybe one clean example of the way I can describe his sense of humor, Manu.

RAJU: Yes, an infamous moment that was. All right, Dana Bash, we're going to check back in with you later this hour. Thank you for that. And here in the room, I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters. And let's turn to what's happening right now in the White House. This meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump at this really difficult time between Trump and Netanyahu.

They had -- these two really had such a tight ironclad relationship. This was that Axios reported last month about this private phone call that Trump had with Netanyahu. We said, "You're effing crazy." Trump fuming at Netanyahu in a call on Lebanon. Summarizing Trump's remarks to Netanyahu, the U.S. official told them, "You're effing crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this."

What do you think is happening right now behind the scenes? And do you think it's getting this contentious?

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG: Well, I don't -- I mean, I don't think it's just calm, and I think the president foreshadowed that not only in the quotes that you just read, Manu, but also in that clip from Fox and Friends this morning, pretty dismissive of what he expected to come from Netanyahu in terms of talking about Israeli intelligence or intelligence about Iran's nuclear program.

I don't need that, he said. I think that sort of tells us all that we need to know about where his head is with regard to Netanyahu. That said, he's -- he is accepting him into the meeting, and the White House will say over and over again that their relationship is strong, but it's certainly shaky and shakier than it was before this war.

[12:10:00]

RAJU: And it's interesting they're not opening this up to press. Typically, when he's meeting world leaders, he takes questions for sometimes could go on for more than an hour. This time, at the moment, it's a closed press event.

TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT; THE NEW YORK TIMES: And same with Zelenskyy and one of the dynamics that I think is particularly interesting right now is that you have the Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy, the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and both of them are asking the U.S. president to continue to help them with their own independent military campaigns.

Ukraine wants more U.S. support for its war with Russia, and Israel wants the U.S. to continue to help defend it against Iran and really continue to attack Iran in a more offensive capacity. So, and this is also coming, as my colleagues have reported, that there are concerns about munition supplies within the U.S. armed forces.

So, just the dynamics at play right now, where you have two world leaders both pressing the U.S. president to do more to support them militarily at a time when one of their biggest champions, Lindsey Graham, is no longer here and they're going to remember him. So just the atmospherics in Washington right now are fascinating.

RAJU: It really -- the dynamics quite odd. As well as how does the American public view Netanyahu at this moment. This is a poll that came out from AP just last month. All adults' unfavorable opinion, 38 percent. That's unfavorable opinion. More among Democrats, you're seeing there 54 percent than say independents and GOP-leaners. But when you break it down among the Republicans, MAGA Republicans

versus non-MAGA Republicans. This is about whether who has a favorable opinion of Israel at large. All voters, 44 percent. That's favorable view. MAGA-GOP, much more, 65 percent to non-MAGA GOP, 49 percent. So, you're seeing a little bit of a slippage among the GOP.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Right, and I think that's kind of what was in the quote you read about Trump speaking to Netanyahu behind closed doors. He knows that the relationship with Israel and the perception that we attacked Iran because we were, you know, as part of that relationship with Israel.

That is growingly unpopular among American voters, so it's becoming a political liability for the White House and for Republicans in Congress. And so, on one hand, yes, this is a strong ally, this is a strong partnership, and I think President Trump would like to keep it strong and preserve it. But he knows that the political pressures are coming from the other side. So where is the sweet spot? And I think that's what he's probably expressing to Netanyahu as they meet behind closed doors.

RAJU: And so, the Zelenskyy meeting happened earlier today. We have not heard a readout from the President yet. This is what Zelenskyy himself put on X. He said a good meeting with President Trump at the Oval Office. Thank you for everything we do together to protect the lives of Ukrainians. He said they discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production, several other ideas. They talked about diplomacy and saying the diplomatic process be reinvigorated.

And this is what Trump said last night on Air Force One about Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have a lot of ammunition, different types. You know, Biden gave a lot to Ukraine, and so we're building that up. But we have a lot. We have a lot of the mid-level stuff too. I mean, more than we could ever use, no matter what. But we have a lot. I'd like to have more, to be honest. But so much was given to Ukraine by Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But look, there's also they've gotten so much criticism because there's tens of millions of dollars that have been approved by Congress, signed into law that have not been spent to give to Ukraine by this administration.

MASON: Also, interesting that he says I'd like to have more. That's -- that's Donald Trump's way of saying I don't want to -- I don't want to confirm the reporting in the New York Times or elsewhere, but yeah, we could use a few more.

RAJU: Yeah.

MASON: So, I thought that was interesting. RAJU: And with Lindsey Graham gone, is there someone who can draw

Trump towards the Ukrainian line? You know, because Trump, of course, has been waffling on this issue for quite some time.

PAGER: One of the interesting developments over the last few weeks, and you're talking about polling that shows the divide among MAGA and -- and non-MAGA GOP, though I think that line is blurring a little bit, is there are voices in the MAGA -- most prominent MAGA voices like Laura Loomer who are increasingly becoming more pro-Ukrainian than they were earlier.

We saw Laura Loomer travel to Kyiv and interview and meet with -- with Zelenskyy, so it's unclear exactly who's going to fill that void. If there's anyone that has the sort of stature in the Senate and the relationship with Trump to be the sort of effective advocate for these foreign policy issues that Lindsey Graham was, but it is interesting to see how the coalition is changing in recent weeks as it relates to -- to the war in Ukraine.

[12:15:00]

RAJU: Yeah, so interesting the shift among the GOP, the MAGA GOP. Ukraine up, Israel down. We'll see if that balance shifts at all. All right, next President Trump's new demand to the Senate GOP, no summer recess without the SAVE America Act. Wait till you hear how Republicans are responding. Plus, we have the highlights from the final debate between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's high-stakes Senate primary.

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RAJU: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is at a loss in dealing with President Trump, who's making one demand after another to pass a bill that simply does not have the votes. That's his SAVE America Act to impose new voting restrictions across the country. Now, President Trump is telling Thune to cancel the Senate's upcoming August recess, which is a critical time in the campaign season until that bill passes. Now, last night, Thune went on Sean Hannity's show and tried to send a message to President Trump.

[12:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I don't think we probably have the votes in the Senate among Republicans even to get on a talking filibuster, but I do think we have a possibility through budget reconciliation to get some of these done. We have voted on Photo ID, we have voted on photo ID and citizenship to register.

We voted on the entire SAVE Act five -- or two different times, and we've also voted on no boys in girls' sports. So, we've had five votes, portions of or all of the SAVE America Act. The problem we have is we have no Democrats.