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One World with Zain Asher
Trump: Putin Talks "Beautifully" then will Bomb People at Night; Mark Rutte: U.S.-NATO Weapons Deal is "Really Big"; U.S. President and NATO Secretary General Meet at White House; Trump: NATO will Pay for U.S. Military Assets for Ukraine; Trump: The Autopen is a Tremendous Scandal; Trump Threatens 30 Percent Tariff on EU Imports. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired July 14, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: Hello, everyone. Live from New York. I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: I'm Zain Asher, you are watching "One World". Donald Trump is promising to make what he is calling a major
statement on Russia today. That could happen any moment now. The meeting with Mark Rutte was set to begin about an hour ago. They are running a
little bit late, but we will bring you that meeting as soon as it happens.
That's happening at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, we expect it to happen any moment now. The U.S. President is, as I mentioned, meeting NATO, Secretary
General, Mark Rutte at the White House, days after he announced a deal with the alliance to send weapons to Ukraine through NATO.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, this move comes after Trump voices new frustration with Vladimir Putin saying that he's very disappointed with the Russian Leader.
This as Moscow ramps up its bombardment of Ukraine, more than three years into the war, launching its second largest aerial assault over the weekend.
ASHER: In Washington, the U.S. Senate is working on a bipartisan bill to slap new sanctions on Russia. U.S. Senators say it could be the
sledgehammer Trump needs to end the war.
GOLODRYGA: And Kyiv, the U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, met Volodymyr Zelenskyy today. The Ukrainian President said that he discussed
air defenses, joint production of drones and other issues with Keith Kellogg.
ASHER: Kevin Liptak is at the White House for us, but let's begin with our Nick Paton Walsh live for us in London. So, we've seen this sort of
dramatic about face, Nick, just in terms of President Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin. He appears to be signaling much more support for
Ukraine.
I'm sure the Ukrainians are wondering. How long will the support actually last for? Can they guarantee this support continuing over the long term?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Clearly, no, obviously, given the vacillation we've seen over the past six months.
But still, it's important to point out that wherever Trump lands on the spectrum of support for Ukraine in the announcement we're going to see.
If he goes for the smaller options of more interceptor missiles for the patriots, or he goes all the way towards the sanctions package, or maybe
even new capabilities militarily for Ukraine. That is still a sea change from the man who, back in February, had the row in the Oval Office with his
Ukrainian counterpart, and momentarily canceled aid after that meeting to where we are now.
And I think it does mark, certainly a turning point, however constant, however sustained this may indeed be, it's different from a narrative which
was very similar to that of the Kremlin, which said that Ukraine has no cards to play, that it is essentially taking American money and wasting
even suggestions of corruption that were thrown around at once.
Now we have essentially Trump seeing that his diplomatic conversation with the Russian President Vladimir Putin have yielded nothing, if not certainly
little. And essentially, he feels tapped along by Putin and has reverted back to the Biden Administration's position, that ultimately Russia is not
to be engaged with diplomatically.
Russia still holds out that possibility, and that Ukraine must be armed to defend itself. But the options available for President Trump today, well,
there's many there. There is the possibility, as I said, of interceptors for patriot missiles. Only they can take down Russian ballistic missiles
that attack Ukraine every night, and only the United States can supply them or authorize their manufacture or supply.
Then potentially there could be the batteries that actually fire those interceptors. Well, we heard from today Ukraine's President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy. He said that Germany agreed to supply two of those and Norway one paying for them. But the manufacture issue here is quickly key.
How fast can they get them into action? Ukraine wants 10 and is certainly short of that and short of interceptors too. Then could trump potentially
supply a new military capability for Ukraine. Is he going to tap into Biden Administration funds approved by his predecessor and use them to buy more
of the same weapons Ukraine has, or maybe new capabilities Ukraine doesn't have?
And then there's the increasingly muscular option of this sanctions package that potentially could find a lot of support on the Hill. That may charge,
according to some reports, 500 percent tariffs on those who buy Russian energy products, principally that's aimed at China and India.
China is almost in a symbiotic relationship with Russian energy, desperately, needy of it to keep its economy going. So, you'll be asking
Beijing, really, to choose there between a damage that may be irreparable with its economic relationships with the United States and perhaps
switching off half of its energy supply.
[11:05:00]
And then India too, increasingly reliant on Russian energy, often purchased through shadow fleets, more opaque means. The impact on the global oil
market of disrupting that will be enormous too. So, we have a vast series of options available to Trump here, wherever he lands, though it's very far
away from where he was just a month ago.
And indeed, at the start of his presidential term, where he thought he could end this simply through talking now he seems to be realizing has to
continue arming Ukraine in a similar way to his predecessor, to put pressure on Russia to get well, we don't know really where at this point,
because diplomacy doesn't appear to be moving that fast, if at all.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, no doubt Nick, and the president's language has been very stunning to watch, change and evolve, even over the past six months now,
where he initially thought that he could talk his way out of this war with Vladimir Putin, given their past relationship, and now it's pretty clear,
given what he said publicly, that he's finally come to realize that's not in the cards going forward.
So now option B, and for that, let's go to Kevin Liptak, because as we note, a number of options laid out for the president. Kevin, on the one
hand, you have bipartisan support for those heavy sanctions package, the secondary sanctions on Russia's oil sector and those that buy oil from
Russia.
But also, the fact that the president now is inching closer, if not already, green lighting more weapons to Ukraine, defensive weapons, most
much needed patriot defense systems, but also perhaps even offensive weapons. Just walk us through what we can expect to hear from the president
as he's meeting with the NATO Secretary General.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And the centerpiece of this meeting will be an announcement on this sort of novel plan for
European countries to buy these weapons from the United States and then transfer them to Ukraine. The president signing off on this plan at the
NATO summit that occurred in the Netherlands last month.
Although European officials had been kind of devising it behind the scenes ever since President Trump won the election last November, with the
understanding that things were about to dramatically change. When it came to American support for Ukraine, they wanted to come up with sort of a
scheme that would allow these weapons to continue flowing to Kyiv while still sort of acknowledging the president's promises on the campaign trail
to pull back in American support.
And what this plan does is essentially insulate the president from potential political criticism that he's going back on this plan. He says
that this will provide a financial windfall for the United States. You know, each of these patriot battery systems cost about $1 billion and he
says that that will all come into the U.S. coffers as the European countries buy these systems and then transfer them onward to Ukraine.
But I still think we are seeing a major shift from the president. You know, he acknowledged just yesterday that Ukraine very much needs these systems
to defend itself, and that he continues this disappointment, this disenfranchisement, almost with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Listen to a little bit of what the president said on that front.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I am very disappointed with President Putin, and I thought he was somebody that meant
what he said. And he will talk so beautifully, and then they'll bomb people at night. We don't like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: So essentially, that's a less profane version of what the president said last week when he accused Putin of peddling BS. He used the actual
word of peddling BS, saying one thing on the telephone and then turning around and doing another thing, namely firing these missiles and drones
into Ukraine.
And you do see sort of this very rapid progression in the president's view towards Moscow, essentially now coming to the view that Putin is not
serious about reaching a ceasefire, that he is nowhere closer to the negotiating table than he was when President Trump came into office, which
I think to European leaders, would not be a surprising realization.
They have been warning President Trump about this for quite some time, but the fact that it does seem to be now sinking in with the president, I
think, very notable.
ASHER: Right, Nick Paton Walsh, Kevin Liptak, thank you both so much.
GOLODRYGA: All right, CNN's Senior Military Analyst, Admiral James Stavridis joins us now to talk about these developments. He is a Former
Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and a Partner of the Carlyle Group, an international investment firm.
Admiral, always good to see you. So, talk about these signals that a stepped-up U.S. transfer of weapons, defensive and perhaps even offensive
now will send to Moscow, especially given how the president has long hesitated to do such a thing.
ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: Well, let's hope it's a wakeup call for Vladimir Putin. I'm not sure it will be, at
least initially, and I think that a package of weapons is going to be necessary, but it's not going to be sufficient, ultimately, to get Putin to
the table.
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But let's start with the idea of defensive weapons excellent. You're showing the patriot highly capable. The more of those we can get to defend
the Ukrainians, the better. What I think needs to happen is step two would be start flowing offensive weapons. And these could include everything from
more F-16 fighters.
These are superb offensive systems, harpoon cruise missiles. Go after the Black Sea Fleet. You could send more of the Army High Mars. These are 200-
mile surface to surface missiles, you could provide more offensive cyber capability, for example. So, step one, defensive weapons, I'm pretty sure
we'll hear that momentarily.
Step two, let's get some offensive weapons flowing in the game. And by the way, the idea of having the United States defense industrial base become
the producers of these weapons under a paid to them pass through NATO is a pretty good idea. And gets NATO into the game, and it helps the U.S.
industrial base.
It helps President Trump with his base in arguing for further aid for Ukraine. So bottom line, step one, defensive weapons. I'm really going to
listen hard at this press conference and hope for step two, which would be additional offensive weapons that's going to be necessary.
ASHER: So defensive weapons, offensive weapons, you mentioned, also offensive cyber capabilities as well against Russia. That's step one and
step two, and then step three, which is this sort of sanctions bill that's, you know, being looked at by both sides of the aisle in terms of Congress,
this idea of slapping 500 percent tariffs on countries that purchase Russian oil and gas.
I mean the combination of those three things. Admiral, I'm sorry, I have to cut you off because President Trump is speaking now with the NATO Secretary
General. Let's listen in.
TRUMP: The head of NATO, Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO, highly respected by everybody that knows him, but in particular the European
countries have great reliance and he's done a fantastic job, and we had a tremendous meeting. I guess it's about a month now, a month ago, and I
think, Mark will tell you that it was really perhaps more important the date of November 5th.
That was the election day. Maybe that was the most important, because we've made tremendous progress together. And one of the reasons that you're here
today is to hear that we are very unhappy I am with Russia, but we'll discuss that maybe a different day.
But we're very, very unhappy with them, and we're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days tariffs at about 100
percent, you'd call them secondary tariffs. You know what that means. But today we're going to talk about something else. And as you know, we've
spent $350 billion approximately, on this war with Russia and Ukraine, and would like to see it end.
It wasn't my war. It was Biden's war. It's not my war. I'm trying to get you out of it, and we want to see it end. And I'm disappointed in President
Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn't seem to get there. So based on that, we're going to be doing
secondary tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days.
It's very simple. And they'll be at 100 percent and that's the way it is. That can be simpler. It's just the way it is. I hope we don't have to do
it. But regardless, we are going to be -- we make the greatest military equipment in the world, whether it's missiles. You saw that recently in
Iran, the way those planes flew in.
They had every single 14 bombs at every target, then you had the helicopter shoot a total of 30 bombs, 30 missiles, and they hit every single -- is
that right, every single -- every single Target. And it was, I guess on a scale of 0 to 10, they say it was about a 15. That's how successful it was.
That's how lethal it was, a word they like to use nowadays, but it was an amazing, well-organized attack that people in this country want to do for
24 years. You know, when we had the pilots in last week, they were saying, sir, we've been practicing this for 24 years, meaning people, not them, but
other people.
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Got a little older now, but they too, and you were the one that let us do it, but we've been practicing it three to four times a year for 22, 24
years, because they always knew they had it stopped Iran from doing what they were doing, which is trying to come up with a nuclear weapon, a
nuclear weapon, a nuclear bomb.
And we did it very successfully. And we make the best equipment, the best missiles, the best of everything. The European nations know that, and we've
made a deal today, and I'm going to have Mark speak about it, but we've made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons and they're
going to be paying for them.
We, the United States will not be having any payment made. We're not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they're going to be paying for it. Our
last meeting of a month ago was very successful in that they agreed to 5 percent which is more than a trillion dollars a year.
So, they have a lot of money, and they -- these are wealthy nations, they have a lot of money, and they want to do it. They feel very strongly about
it. And we feel strongly about it too. We're in for a lot of money. And we just we don't want to do any more, and we can't, but we make the best, and
we're going to be sending the best to NATO.
And in some cases, to maybe at Mark's suggestion, if we go to Germany, where they're going to send early on missiles, and they'll be replaced, and
NATO is going to take care of it. It's going to be coordinated by NATO, and they're going to work very much with Matt Whitaker, who's right here, is a
great ambassador, and Matt's going to be coordinate. You better do a good job, Matt.
MATT WHITAKER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: I will.
TRUMP: But Matt's going to coordinate. He's a very talented guy. He's going to coordinate everything. So, in a nutshell, we're going to make top of the
line weapons, and they'll be sent to NATO. NATO may choose to have certain of them sent to other countries, where we can get a little additional
speed, where the country will release something, and it'll be mostly in the form of a replacement.
And I'd like to have Mark, and again, just a highly respected, pretty young guy, pretty young guy for having had the career that he's had because he
had an amazing career before going to NATO, so we spent a lot of time together over the last couple of months. And if you could say a few words -
-
MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Absolutely -- Mr. President, Dear Donald, this is really big. This is really big. You called me on Thursday
that you have taken a decision, and a decision is, that you want Ukraine what it needs to have to maintain to be able to defend itself against
Russia, but you want Europeans to pay for it, which is totally logical.
And this is building on the tremendous success of the NATO summit, the 5 percent but also the decision to keep Ukraine strong and the decision to
increase our defense industrial production. So based on that, this is -- that was Europe stepping up. This is again, Europeans stepping up.
So, I've been in contact with many countries, I can tell you, at this moment, Germany massively, but also Finland and Denmark and Sweden and
Norway, we have kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada. They all want to be part of this. And this is only the first wave. There will be more.
So, what we will do is work through the NATO systems to make sure that we know what Ukrainians need. So, if you can make packages, of course, in a
way, we discussed it this morning with Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon, in a way that, of course, the U.S. will on its stockpiles necessary to defend
this country, that's absolutely clear.
But it will mean that Ukraine can get his hands on really massive numbers of military equipment, both for air defense, but also missiles, ammunition,
et cetera, et cetera. So, if I was Vladimir Putin today, and here you're speaking about what you are planning to do in 50 days.
And this announcement, I would reconsider whether I should not take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously than I was doing at the moment,
if I was Vladimir Putin, but when I'm Ukraine, I think this is really great news for that. So, I really want to thank you for that.
So that means Europeans paying for it. And again, I mentioned all these countries, we will deal with that. And exactly as you said, it might also
mean that countries will move equipment fast into Ukraine and then the U.S. later back setting it, because speed is of the essence here. So really,
thank you --
TRUMP: You did a great job. That's a really great job. We've been very successful in settling wars. You have India, Pakistan, you have Rwanda and
the Congo that was going on for 30 years. India, by the way, Pakistan would have been a nuclear war within another week.
The way that was going. That was going very badly. We did that through trade. I said, we're not going to talk to you about trade unless you get
this thing settled. And they did, and they were both great, great leaders, and they were great, but Rwanda and the Congo that was going on for 30
years and at least 7 million people killed and killed with a lot of pretty rough weapons, like machetes, heads chopped off.
[11:20:00]
Going on for many years. You couldn't even get near the countries, nobody wanted to get nearby. So frightening. And we got that one. So, Serbia,
Kosovo got that -- That was going to be one that was going to happen. And again, that was something I used. I used straight for a lot of things, but
it's great for settling wars, and that was really very important.
We're working, Marco is working very hard with everybody here on the strip, the Gaza strip. I call it the Gaza strip, one of the worst real estate
deals ever made. They gave up the oceanfront property, one of the worst deals ever made. But it was supposed to bring peace, and it didn't bring
peace.
It brought the opposite. But we're doing pretty well on Gaza. Steve Witkoff is here, and I think we could have something fairly soon to talk about. And
we solved another one, one that we just seemed to have, Armenia and Azerbaijan. It looks like that's going to come to a conclusion, successful
conclusion.
We worked on Egypt with our next-door neighbor, who -- it's a good neighbor. They're friends of mine, but they happened to build a dam which
closed up water going into a thing called the Nile. I think if I'm Egypt, I want to have water in the Nile. And we're working on that one problem, but
it's going to get solved.
They built one of the biggest dams in the world, a little bit outside of Egypt. You know about that?
RUTTE: Yeah.
TRUMP: You've been hearing about that one, and that turned out to be a big problem. I don't know. I think the United States funded the dam. I don't
know why they didn't solve the problem before they built the dam, but it's nice when the Nile River has water. It's a very important source of income
in life.
It's the life of Egypt. And to take that away is pretty incredible. But we think, we're going to have that solved very quickly. So, we do good. The
only one we haven't been able to get to yet is Russia. I'm not happy, and I will tell you that Ukraine wants to do something. Again, it's a war that
should have never started.
If I were president, it never would have happened. I used to speak to President Putin about it a lot. It was the apple of his eye, but once I saw
what was going on, I said, you know, they didn't have a war here. I was outside, lecture was rigged, and I was outside looking in, and I said, you
know, that thing's going to be a war.
Couldn't believe it, because what Biden said was the exact opposite of what should have been said. And it started, and it's a real mess. We're losing,
I guess they're losing 5 or 6000 people a day. It's actually now more. I used to I was saying 5000 a day. It's actually more now, mostly soldiers,
but a lot of people in cities and towns that are getting blown up to a horrible war, and it should be stopped.
And so, if it's not done, if we don't have an agreement in 50 days, that's what we're doing, secondary tariffs, and they're biting, and I hope we
don't get to the point where we do, but I've been hearing so much talk. It's all talk. It's all talk, and then missiles go into Kyiv and kill 60
people.
It's got to stop. It's got to stop. But the purpose of this is to say that there's a very big deal with man. This is billions of dollars' worth of
military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States, going to NATO, et cetera, and that's going to be quickly distributed to the
battlefield. Ukraine will take it up.
And you know, say what you want about Ukraine. When the war started, they had no chance, and they still would have had no chance if the equipment.
They had the best equipment. Because we do make the best planes and missiles, and we make the best military equipment in the world, by far.
We have new things coming out that are beyond belief, and I very excited about the golden dome. It's going to give us very strong protection. We've
already started that, but they had courage. But somebody has to use that equipment. And they fought with tremendous courage, and they continue to
fight with tremendous courage, but they don't have they're losing on equipment.
And Russia has really taken a very positive, very, very strong. I mean, what they've done the last couple of weeks.
RUTTE: Without military reasons. That's what they are doing. Several 100 drones a day, missiles, bombing cities.
TRUMP: Yeah.
RUTTE: This is not because of military goals. It is just creating panic, hitting out of their sleeps, hitting towns is really terrible, and it is
meaning a lot of people lose their lives, but also the infrastructure. Whole cities being --
TRUMP: -- wiping out, the electric it's going to take years to rebuild it. That's going to be the next problem.
RUTTE: Yeah.
TRUMP: But that's going to take a long time.
[11:25:00]
Cities, many of the cities, are knocked down to the ground. Many of the people have left, but many have stayed. I don't know they actually stay.
Most have stayed. Actually, it's incredible that they stay, and knowing that a missile could be hitting your apartment house and your apartment
house that you're sitting in could collapse on top of you.
And they do very heavy construction. They don't use rebar. They do very thick concrete construction. Is it? Those are heavy buildings, big
buildings and heavy buildings, then they collapse like they're made out of paper. It's unbelievable to see this happening with people, so many people
being killed.
So, we think we're going to make progress, and we hope we're going to make progress. In the meantime, we're going to get you good service on what you
need. And we really became friendly with NATO this last meeting. You know, we went from 2 percent to 5 percent which everyone said was not even a
possibility. They weren't paying 2 percent many of them were paying much less than 2 percent.
RUTTE: But even those since you became president, all committed to the 2 percent before the summit.
TRUMP: Right.
RUTTE: And now collectively, they committed to the 5 percent.
TRUMP: That's right, they did, and they've been very good. And I think I made a lot of friends over there. We had a couple of days of very intensive
talks. And they're great people. They're leaders of countries. Many of them great countries. Some of them smaller countries. But for the most part,
that's a very solid, strong countries and very successful.
RUTTE: Yeah.
TRUMP: Some of them are among the most successful countries in the world. So that's a story we hope that's going to have an impact on Vladimir Putin,
and we hope it's going to have an impact on Ukraine. Also, we want to make sure that Ukraine does what they have to do.
RUTTE: Yeah.
TRUMP: All of a sudden, they have they may feel emboldened, or maybe they don't want, you know, there's a very difficult situation.
RUTTE: Ukraine wants a peace deal.
TRUMP: I think so.
RUTTE: And they will stay committed to that. There's no doubt.
TRUMP: Yeah.
RUTTE: They want contributions --
TRUMP: They have to continue to want it, though --
RUTTE: I agree. Well -- we'll make sure it --
TRUMP: -- we'll make sure it. I feel confident that they will do what has to be done. Plus, we have certain parameters that both sides know, and we
already know what should be done. So, I think it's going to be very strong. We want everlasting peace. Any questions, please, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. What was the tipping point for you in making this decision? Was it a conversation with President
Putin? Was a piece of intelligence. And why are you giving 50 more days.
TRUMP: I think -- well, I think it's a very short period of time. I think, don't forget, I've just really been involved in this not very long and it
wasn't initial focus. This is, again, this is a Biden war, this is a Democrat war, not a Republican or Trump war. This is a war that would have
never happened.
It shouldn't have happened. A lot of people being killed when the final numbers come in, you're going to see a lot more people are being killed in
this war than you think, then you've been writing about, it's a very deadly war, very -- they're all bad, but this is a very deadly war, very -- the
numbers are going to be far greater when an apartment house comes down and they say two people were slightly injured, no.
RUTTE: Yeah.
TRUMP: Many people were killed, and those numbers will be at some point accurately reported so far, they're not. It's a deadly war. I think that
you're just going to see -- I think you're going to see strong movement. I hope so. I hope so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what about --
TRUMP: You know, the secondary tariffs are very, very powerful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the tariffs that the Republicans in the House and the Senate have ready?
TRUMP: Yeah --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those are 500 percent Why are you doing 100 percent?
TRUMP: Well, the Republicans are moving very strongly in the Senate, giving us total control of it. But I'm not sure we need it, but it's certainly
good that they're doing it, and Lindsey Graham is working hard, the -- John Thune all of them, they're all working hard, and they're in coordination
with Mike Johnson, Speaker in the House, and I think they are --
They've actually crafted a pretty good piece of legislation. It's probably going to pass very easily, and that includes Democrats, and there's some
little tweaks, but I don't say I don't need it, because I don't want them to waste their time. It could be very useful. We'll have to see.
But we can do secondary. We're probably talking about 100 percent or something like that. We can do secondary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- are you --
TRUMP: We can do secondary tariffs without the Senate, without the House, but what they're crafting also could be very good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, are you suggesting then that the Congress should move forward with those sanctions, the 500 percent and that your 100 would
be a separate additional package?
TRUMP: Yeah, I mean, the 500 is, you know, sort of meaningless after a while, because at a certain point it doesn't matter. It's not going to be,
you know, under 100 is going to serve the same function. But, yeah, I have it at 100 percent they may have it. I don't know what they're going to end
up with.
They may have it at 100 too. They may have it at 500 but they're doing some good work in the House, and I think in the House and the Senate. And as you
know that they're coordinated.
[11:30:00]
And they can have it done quickly. They said they'll have it as quickly as I need it, so we'll see. We're talking to him. In fact, John Thune is
coming over later on to talk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- he's going to --
TRUMP: Yeah, he's going to come over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Is it your view that Vladimir Putin mischaracterized his dedication to --
TRUMP: What?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it your view that Vladimir Putin misguided -- Did not clarify, his intention to a peace deal.
TRUMP: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what happens now in the next phase? Is there --
TRUMP: We're going to go for a period of time, maybe he'll start negotiating. I think we felt, I felt, I don't know about you, Mark, but I
felt that we had a deal about four times, and here we are still talking about --
RUTTE: -- didn't send serious people to the negotiations. So, I remember that you were able with Marco Rubio and with Steve Witkoff to get his
thoughts going in Istanbul.
TRUMP: Yeah.
RUTTE: I remember I was myself in Tokyo for NATO business in May, and we really put pressure on the Ukrainians to send a senior team into Istanbul.
And they did. But then the Russians came up with this historian explaining history of Russia since 1250.
TRUMP: We thought, and I thought we should add a deal done a long time ago, but it just keeps going on and on and on. And every night, people are
dying. A lot of people, a lot of Russian soldiers are dying, by the way, and a lot of Ukrainian soldiers too. But a lot of Russian soldiers --
RUTTE: 100,000 Russian soldiers since first of January, since January. 100,000 Russian soldiers dead since January. So, if anybody in Moscow,
listening to this, again, 100,000 dead Russians in January. This is what President Putin is doing at the moment.
TRUMP: Yeah, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will these be patriot missiles specifically, or patriot batteries that air planning? And when do you --
TRUMP: Yeah, it's everything -- when it's a full complement with the batteries.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And when you expect them to arrive in Ukraine, sir?
TRUMP: Well, we're going to have some come very soon, within days, actually, because a couple of the countries that have patriots are going to
swap over, and we'll replace the patriots with the ones they have. And Matt will coordinate with NATO. But so, it's going to be -- they're going to
start arriving --
RUTTE: And this afternoon, Boris Pistorius, the German Defense Minister, is visiting Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, and we'll discuss also, I
think this whole patriot thing. Norway is involved. So that's on the patriots. But this whole deal is also about missiles or ammunition. So,
it's a broader benefit.
TRUMP: We have one country that has 17 patriots getting ready to be shipped. They're not going to need them for them, so we're going to work a
deal where the 17 will go, or a big portion of the 17 will go to the Warsaw.
RUTTE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President --
TRUMP: -- That could be done very quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, could this transaction with NATO be viewed as a step towards achieving peace, letting Putin know that now
Zelenskyy has a little bit more powerful tools in his tool chest, and maybe that brings him to the table to achieve peace. I know that you wanted to do
that.
TRUMP: -- that's what we've been saying. I think you might have expressed it better if you want exactly -- I think he's done better than us. He's a
very good guy. I can tell you that. But no, it's well, well said, yeah, I think this is a chance of getting peace, or it's just going to be the same
thing.
I have to tell you Europe has a lot of spirit for this war. Lot of people, you know, when I first got involved, I really didn't think they did, but
they do, and I saw that a month ago. And then you were there, most of you, many of you, were there. The level of the sprit de corps spirit that they
have is amazing.
They really think it's a very, very important thing to do, or they wouldn't be doing. Look, they're agreeing to -- They're paying for everything. We're
not paying anymore. We were -- we have an ocean separating us. I said, we have a problem. We make the best stuff, but we can't keep doing this.
And Biden should have done this years ago. He should have done it from the beginning, but he didn't. He didn't know he was there. This guy -- what a
horrible job they did for this country, and I just hope, between the border and this and so many other inflations, what a horrible administration, the
worst administration in history, in my opinion, it's not my opinion, I think it's everybody's opinion.
But this is something that shouldn't have happened, and we're going to see if we can enter. I do want to make one statement again. I said it before.
This is not Trump's war. We're here to try and get it finished and settled whatever. Because nobody wins with this. This is a loser from every
standpoint --
[11:35:00]
This was Biden and this was other people and it's, very sad situation. This gentleman is doing a great job. He's going to, I think he's going to get
it, and Matt and everybody else that's working on it. I think you'll get this thing over with --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President you've praised European countries today as standing up for Ukraine, as being strong. Will you allow them to
continue to negotiate tariffs lower than 30 percent before August 1st, or is the deal set at this?
TRUMP: What does that mean? You mean you're talking about the tariffs -- you're back on tariffs -- More friendly tariff, right? A little bit more
friendly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
TRUMP: No, we're going to be talking to people we have, you know, I watched the show this morning. They were talking about, well, when's he going to
make the deal? The deals are already made. The letters are the deals. The deals are made. There are no deals to make. They would like to do a
different kind of a deal.
And we're always open to talk. We are open to talk, including to Europe. In fact, they're coming over. They'd like to talk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- is there any concern about the U.S. stockpiles? There was a pause in delivery of weaponry to Ukraine in order to evaluate,
apparently, the U.S. stockpiles. What came out of that --
TRUMP: Evaluation, I mean, this was a very big what we're talking about today is a very, very big day, and what Pete was doing, and me too, I knew
what Pete was doing was evaluation, because we knew this was going to happen, and now we actually announce it.
They voted on it. It's all been done. So obviously that has a big impact on you know, when you say pause, obviously you're not going to be doing things
if you don't know what's going to happen here, but we were pretty sure this was going to happen, so we did a little bit of a pause. But this is very
big. This is a very big event today. This is something --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- escalates further. How far are you willing to go in response?
TRUMP: In what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How far are you willing to go if Putin were to escalate, send more bombs in the coming days?
TRUMP: -- asking a question like that, how far I want to get the war settled? They're not Americans that are dying in it. And, you know, I have
a problem, and JD has a problem. It's a stance that he's had for a long time. They're not Americans dying, but there are a lot of people dying and
on something that should be able to be settled.
We all agree with that. This group of people, you know, would want to defend our country, but, you know, ultimately, having a strong Europe is a
very good thing. It's a very good thing, so I'm OK with that. Yeah, please --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- on what the Europeans are willing to pay for. And it sounds like are you ruling out the U.S. paying for some from additional
weapons through drawdown authority?
RUTTE: -- because basically what the president is saying that he is winning, of course, taking consideration what the U.S. needs itself -- So,
it's not that you can have a shopping list. You can order whatever you want, because the U.S. has to make sure that the U.S. keeps its hands on
what U.S. needs also to keep the whole world safe.
Because in the end, you are the police agent of the whole world. You're the most powerful nation on Earth, most powerful military on Earth. But given
that the U.S. has decided to indeed massively supply Ukraine with what is necessary through NATO, Europeans, 100 percent paying for that.
And what we have been doing over the last couple of days is talking with countries, and I just mentioned to once we in the first wave, immediately
said, we want to chip in. And then you are talking really, talking about big numbers. Take Germany visiting today. They're really talking about big
numbers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- give us some clarity --
TRUMP: I spoke with Germany, spoke with most of the larger countries, and they are really enthusiastic about this. They want to -- and, you know,
they're willing to go very far. I will tell you, as for your question, how far would I go? They want to go very far. They don't want this to happen.
That's why, I think, from Putin's standpoint, it would really be good. He gets the country's economy is going very poorly, and he's got to get his
economy back. He's got to save his economy. He could save his country, in a sense, but the economy can destroy, it's destroyed a lot of countries over
the years.
He wants to get that economy back. And you know, he's got a great country for trading and other things, if they could use the assets instead of war.
He's got some tremendous potential. That's what I would say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did you deliver this news to Putin, sir?
TRUMP: Sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did you tell Putin this was coming?
TRUMP: I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done. And I always hang up say, well, that was a nice phone call, and that missile launched
into Kyiv or some other city, and I said, strange. And after that happens three or four times, you say, the talk doesn't mean anything.
My conversations with them are always very pleasant. They say, is that very lovely conversation? And then the missiles go off that night, I go home, I
tell the First Lady, and I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. He said, oh, really, another city was just hidden.
[11:40:00]
So, it's like, look, he's, I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy. He's been proven over the years. He's fooled a lot of people. He
fooled Bush, he fooled a lot of people. He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn't fool me. But what I do say is that at a certain point, you
know, ultimately, talk doesn't talk.
It's got to be action. It's got to be results. And I hope he does it. It's potentially such a great country to be wasting so many people on this and
the money. And look at what's happened to his economy. Look at what's happened. So --
RUTTE: And it was the threat in 50 days.
TRUMP: Yeah --
RUTTE: -- we will be hit very hard.
TRUMP: -- I mean, look, I hope he's going to do it. He knows the deal. He knows what a fair deal is. If there is such a thing as a fair deal, there
can -- there's no winners here. This is a loser. There's a loser. And I dealt with him from the beginning. It wouldn't have happened, but I will
say it was Ukraine was the apple of his eye.
We talk about it, it was the apple of his eye, but it wasn't going to happen. And he understood that it wasn't going to happen. And then I
noticed, after I was out, I noticed soldiers forming at the border.
RUTTE: Yeah.
TRUMP: And then I heard horribly stupid things being said from the other side. And I said, they're really handling it very, very wrong. It's a
shame. Yeah --
RUTTE: -- fun thing, and it is about President Trump, because you can -- who tells us that very great. Your first phone call is Putin. I think you
did exactly what I hope you would do, that is breaking the deadlock, starting the conversation. Because you have to test it. I know Putin very
well from the days when I was Prime Minister -- you have to test it.
And you did this, and you really gave him a chance to be serious, to get to the table, to start negotiations. Steve Witkoff, Marco Rubio, we all try to
help, but you've now come to a point where you say, well, hey --
TRUMP: We actually thought we had probably four times the deal. I mean, you would have called and said, this looks good.
RUTTE: Yeah.
TRUMP: And then the deal wouldn't happen, because bombs would be thrown out that night, and you'd say, we're not making any deals. It was like --
RUTTE: But you're making the demo was crucial, because you had to start that process. You were the only one who was able to do that.
TRUMP: I think we'll get it done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he's reasonable enough to negotiate an end to this?
TRUMP: Yeah -- is a very powerful situation. You have very wealthy countries buying the best equipment in the world. And we have the best
equipment in the world. We make equipment like no other you know, our submarines, nuclear submarines, are so powerful, their most powerful weapon
ever built.
And we have the best in the world by the 20 years behind, 25 years behind us. We have the greatest equipment anywhere in the world. I just hope we
don't have to use it. Yeah, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. On a separate topic here, President Biden, of all people, spoke to "The New York Times" over the
weekend. He did not speak to them on the record during his time in office at all, but he spoke to them recently, and he defended his use of the
autopen and said that he signed off on every decision.
But at the same time, the Times reports that he did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers
of people. What are yours? Your take on that? Any new revelations from that --
TRUMP: Well, I mean, you're talking about the autopen. Look, the autopen, I think, is maybe one of the biggest scandals that we've had in 50 to 100
years. This is a tremendous scandal. And I know the people on the other side of the -- that desk, that resolute desk, unfortunately, he used it
before me.
You know, we have our choice of seven desks. They're all beautiful, but I chose the resolute and so did he, unfortunately. But the people on the
other side of the resolute desk, I know them -- the whole group, and they're no good. They're sick people, and I guarantee you, he knew nothing
about what he was signing.
I guarantee it. So, they're going to figure it out, and we'll see what happens. But to me, the autopen, you know you elected president. You know
what the autopen is supposed to do, sign thousands of letters from young people that write, I get, we get thousands of letters a week -- thousands.
I mean, tens of thousands sometimes. I look at a room, there's a room where we have many, many people working, responding and sending letters back.
That's what an autopen's supposed to be to write to a young, seven-year-old boy that writes to the president and he wants to be president someday, and
he loves America.
That's what the autopen's supposed to be. It's not supposed to be for signing major legislation and all other things.
[11:45:00]
You know, the autopen, and I doubt he knew, I doubt they even spoke to him about it. I think they had it's called the freewheeling autopen like Biden
was never for open borders. Biden was never for transgender for everyone. So, I don't think he -- I think the radical left people that took they took
over the White House, and if I didn't win, our country was finished.
You know, when I was in and I said this a couple of times, I hope I'll bore you with it. But when I was in Saudi Arabia, I was in Qatar, I was in UAE,
and then I met with all of your leaders, including you, a great leader. He's now the leader of many countries, not just --
RUTTE: No, no --
TRUMP: But I met with a lot of leaders over the last two months in the Middle East.
RUTTE: Yeah.
TRUMP: And all the NATO -- all of the NATO countries, and I will tell you they had one common phrase, they thought America was dead one year ago, and
today they say and they all say it, and I hope you'll back me up on this, but they say, now it's the hottest country anywhere in the world.
It is. Look at our numbers. Look at the numbers we made. You see, we made 25 billion last month. We don't. We didn't make that for years. The tariffs
are kicking in. The economy is very strong, even though we have a fed person who's terrible. He doesn't know what the hell he's doing.
But that's all right, we blew through interest rates. We're doing so well. We blew through it. Be nice, because people would be able to buy housing a
lot easier. But think of it. We thought your country was dead and they were dealing with China because they really -- they were really going to China,
but not anymore.
But we thought your country was dead, and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. So, we've done a really good job, and it's an honor
to have this man. This man is a star, and he's going to be dealing with another one of my stars, Matt, and you're going to do a great job, Matt
Whitaker. OK, thank you very much, everybody -- Thank you very much.
ASHER: All right. You've just been watching a live press conference with Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, essentially
reiterating a couple of new military policies towards Ukraine, saying, and we knew this obviously going into this press conference, that Trump, the
Trump Administration, is going to be selling military aid to NATO, and NATO will be in charge of distributing that military aid to Ukraine.
Also announcing a secondary tariffs package, saying that any country who buys Russian oil and gas will be subject to a 100 percent tariff that's
very different from the 500 percent tariff package that is going through Congress right now, that has bipartisan support.
And the third thing is really just Trump reiterating how disappointed he is in Vladimir Putin, saying that, listen, Vladimir Putin talks a good game
that every time he gets on the phone with Putin, he thinks to himself, wow, that was a really nice phone call. And then he realizes that Vladimir Putin
cannot be trusted because he continues to bomb Ukraine regardless.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, sorry for stepping on your -- we had this choreographed, and I would seem ahead anyway. So yes, it was notable to hear the president
once again, expressed his frustration with Vladimir Putin and distance himself from this war, which he calls a loser overall.
And Kevin Liptak, that seems to be where the president is like which conflicts around the world he wants to own or thinks that he has an
advantage in bringing to an end and taking ownership of, that's certainly not the issue in the case here as it relates to the war in Ukraine.
Can you talk to us about not only this relationship, this very close relationship he seems to have been developing with the NATO Secretary
General, but also, in addition to the weaponry that's going to be sent, news perhaps, that these secondary sanctions could go into effect in 50
days' time, not at 500 percent as has been agreed to by Congress in a bipartisan fashion in support?
But at 100 percent which at this point the president, when asked what's the difference, said, you know, listen, at some point you have big numbers, and
they are meaningful no matter where they are.
LIPTAK: Yeah, he essentially said there were diminishing returns as that number got higher and higher. The president saying that those secondary
tariffs would go into effect if in 50 days, there isn't a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. And we heard from a White House official, just
because the president was a little vague in his wording there.
What he meant was 100 percent tariff on Russia, which I don't think is going to mean a great deal. There is not a lot of trade between the U.S.
and Russia at the moment. But also, these secondary sanctions on countries that import Russian oil, which would include China, which would include
India, some import and trading partners of the United States and so an important distinction there.
[11:50:00]
I also think that 50-day period that the president put into place may not be bad news necessarily for Moscow as they have increased their Russia and
drone attacks on Ukraine, but also as they're massing an enormous number of troops in the north of that country that could still allow time for a
summer offensive to take place before the president applies this new punishment.
But the president making this out to be a tough new stance on Russia as he works to bring this war to an end, and he said in that press conference
that he had thought previously at least three or four times that he was close to an agreement with Russia to bring the conflict to an end, only to
be stymied by President Putin.
And you do hear his frustration continuing to come through about the Russian President. Clearly, this relationship deteriorating. The president
very disenfranchised with his counterpart in Moscow. Now the president saying that he's planning to do something about it.
ASHER: All right. Kevin, standby. Admiral, let me bring you in, because one of the questions that a reporter asked that I thought was quite interesting
is when a reporter posed the question to Donald Trump, listen, if Vladimir Putin sends more bombs to Ukraine within this 50-day window, what is going
to be your response to that?
How are you going to escalate? And the president essentially said, don't ask me a question like that. Don't ask me a question like that. I mean, do
you think he should have had, or there should be some kind of plan for that eventuality? Because based on what we've seen so far, that is likely to
happen.
STAVRIDIS: Yeah, I think there probably is a plan. I certainly hope so. Before the press conference, you and I were talking about step one,
defensive weapons, step two, offensive weapons, I didn't hear that clearly articulated, although it was certainly implied. I think the question you
just asked is incredibly germane, which is, OK, what's step three and what's step four?
I think step three is you go ahead and slam in the sanctions that you were just talking about with our reporter. And whether that's 100 percent or 500
percent or it's at some point in 30 days or 50 days, doesn't really matter. It's the intent of secondary sanctions. That's what's really important
here.
And then I think step four is you take the $300 billion in Russian assets that are parked in western banks, mostly in Brussels, and you distribute
that to the Ukrainians. And here's step five. And this is controversial, but you go ahead and start putting western boots on the ground in Ukraine
as trainers, training missions get them into or close to the combat zone.
I hope we don't get there, but I think you start with defensive weapons, then offensive weapons, then sanctions, and then you move to 300 billion
distribution and you hit the Sunday punch, if you have to which is bringing NATO boots on the ground. God help us if we get there. But that's the
logical flow of reaction.
ASHER: All right. Kevin Liptak and Admiral James Stavridis, live for us there. Thank you both so much. President Trump also addressed the tariffs
with the European Union. He said he's open to trade talks, but European leaders are expressing frustration at Trump's latest tariff threat.
However, they also say they want to reach a deal with the U.S. too.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah. Trump sent a letter to European officials over the weekend in which he said a 30 percent tariff will be slapped on all EU goods
starting August 1.
ASHER: And we're joined live now by "Financial Times" Columnist Gillian Tett, who is also a provost at King's College Cambridge. So, it does appear
to be the sort of back-and-forth Groundhog Day type situation between the EU and the U.S. as it pertains to tariffs. I mean, this latest 30 percent
threat also warning, you know, the EU and Mexico not to retaliate.
I mean, what do you make of it? The Europeans are drafting up some kind of a retaliation. Mean, how do they handle this latest threat, Gillian?
GILLIAN TETT, COLUMNIST FOR "THE FINANCIAL TIMES": Well, that's a very good analogy, the Groundhog Day analogy, because it really sums up the way that
the markets and many other governments are reacting to this now, which is that, to put it bluntly, the tariff threat has lost a lot of its shock
value.
And so, what's happened in Europe is essentially, many European leaders are responding with a so-called TACO response, i.e. Trump always chickens out
response, and assuming that Trump doesn't really mean what he says, that there will be negotiations to remove the worst of these threats.
And so, as a result, they've been very clear that they don't want to retaliate before August the first. They do want to keep talking at all
costs and try and cut some kind of deal.
[11:55:00]
And the very fact that President Trump has come out in support of Ukraine the last 24 hours in a way that many European leaders will like will
actually reinforce that approach. However, this raises big questions like, are we now too complacent about the so-called TACO effect, the idea that
Trump always backs down?
What will this mean in terms of European leaders being unified or not, because we are seeing cracks in the European Union in the way they want to
respond to this? And could this actually be Europe's version of a Sputnik moment that forces Europe to finally get its act together and get serious
about trying to unleash growth and becoming more self-sufficient in an economic sense?
GOLODRYGA: Right. And you talk about this growing split within the EU as to how to respond to this, you have the Foreign Minister of Denmark saying
that the EU should consider using its more powerful tool, and that is the anti-coercion instrument, which they call the big bazooka, that would level
sanctions in goods and services as well.
So that is something that I don't think quite yet the majority of countries are on board with, but Gillian, as we are looking at this unity now between
NATO and the United States over support for Ukraine, it really does put the EU and the United States also strained and really not benefiting either
party if they move forward with these tariffs.
The president said today that the letters are the deal, essentially, but we will see whether it's TACO or whether things move full steam ahead.
Gillian, we unfortunately will have to leave things there, as this press conference has eaten --
ASHER: We literally had too much time,
GOLODRYGA: -- as a matter of me wrapping up everything that we've heard from European leaders thus far, or having to interrupt you, so I'd much
rather, Zain, cut me off than you. Gillian, that was a strategy here, but always great to have you on. We still have a few weeks before August 1st,
so we'll definitely have you back to discuss all of this. Thank you so much.
TETT: Thank you. Happy to help.
ASHER: All right, stay with us. We'll have much more "One World" after this short break.
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