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The Situation Room

Israel and Iran Widen Their Targets; Trump Family Trump Mobile; World Leaders Meet in Canada. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired June 16, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: -- multiple locations across Israel, including residential buildings in the heart of Tel Aviv. At least 24 people have been killed so far with many more injured, that according to the Israeli government.

And in Iran, key military infrastructure is facing continued bombardment from Israel. The IDF announcing just a little while ago that they've destroyed more than a third of Iran's missile launchers. The Iranian government says at least 224 people have died in the strikes.

Joining us now in the Situation Room, the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog. Mr. President, thank you so much for joining us. How are the Israeli people coping with these attacks right in the heart of Tel Aviv and Haifa, and other major populated areas of Israel?

ISAAC HERZOG, ISRAELI PRESIDENT: Well, as you know all too well, Wolf, we are a very resilient and strong nation. But it ain't easy. It's not simple. It's quite painful, of course, that we are losing dear sisters and brothers of ours from being -- from young children all the way to the age of 94, including Holocaust survivors, veteran Israelis, Muslims, and Jews, and that's the whole difference.

We are targeting an Iranian nuclear program, which its aim is to threaten the region in the Middle East, the world, and destroy Israel. Whilst they're simply trying to spray Israel with missiles. Our air defense systems are operating well. Our home frame command, our spirit of the nation, all the emergency forces, but it's painful and we will go on and we shall prevail and overcome, of course.

BLITZER: As you know, Mr. President, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says he launched this preemptive strike against Iran in order to take out Iran's dual threat of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Was there specific intelligence as far as you know that Iran was rushing to weaponize its uranium to build nuclear weapons that put -- that led to this unprecedented Israeli strike?

HERZOG: It's a unanimous decision of all of the Israeli defense and security establishment, the Israeli cabinet. And I will add to that, it's based on facts. Meaning, information, and intelligence are very sensitive sources that was given and presented also to the administration, to the National Security Council and the advisers of President Trump. And by which, on the one hand, there is massive enrichment of the Iranian uranium. And on the other, is moving towards the armament. Meaning, the explosive that creates the bomb. And that's -- that leads you to a zero-breakout time and extremely dangerous. And you remember and recall all too well, Israeli governments consecutively have made clear that we must remove all threats of nuclear capability from any of our enemies. It happened in the past and it happens now.

BLITZER: The U.S. and Iran were involved in recent months in these negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, Iran pulled out of the talks that had been scheduled to take place yesterday in Oman, in the wake of Israel's military strikes. Why did Israel have to strike Iran now, given that the U.S. and Iran were actively engaged in trying to find a peaceful diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear program because?

HERZOG: The question is, what do you mean by peaceful diplomatic? Because you can speak peaceful, diplomatic, and on the other hand underneath you move forward to the bomb. And that was exactly the situation. And let's not elude ourselves. For decades, Iran has been spreading havoc, terror, hate, building a massive missile program and a massive nuclear program, and with its proxies all over the place, simply planning to destroy Israel. And by the way, by that regaining full control -- or gaining full control of the jihadist regime over the Middle East, and from there on Europe is the next stage.

And one has to realize it. We are not inventing. We don't -- didn't seek this war. None of us did. From October 7th onward. We've been fighting these proxies of Iran, and the message of -- that I'm sending here is clear, what we are doing is contributing substantially to the defense and security interests of more or all Western and free world countries and leaders of whom are convening this morning in Alberta, Canada.

And that is why what we are doing is supporting the security interests of these nations. And we should all align together and be very firm with Israel on this. Meaning, we support -- to support Israel in its fight against Iran's nuclear ambitions, on the one hand, and of course, get our hostages back from Gaza as soon as possible so that we can offer a different trajectory in the region.

[10:35:00]

BLITZER: President Herzog, CNN has learned that President Trump actually rejected an Israeli plan to kill Iran's supreme leader of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Do you believe it would be a good idea to target the Iranian leader?

HERZOG: I don't want to refer to it as such. You know, I'm the head of state, I'm not the head of the executive branch. And I leave it as such to those who have taken the -- or well, take all the decisions in this war. But I do want say that one has to remember that under Ayatollah Khamenei, the worst terror infrastructure, I would, say a Satanic terror infrastructure has spread all over the world with a clear intention.

Why do they have terror cells in Latin America? Why do they kill civilians all over the world by terror activities from Lebanon to Argentina? Why did they do this throughout the years? And why, for heaven's sake, do they arm a little tribe in Yemen called the Houthis, 50,000 people and all, with ballistic missiles and cruise missiles of a major, major world power? Because they have an intention. And that is what we are trying to alert humankind and the world.

If you want world stability, if you want this war to descalate, get the nukes out of Tehran's hands and move to peace and not enable them, and to undermine peace. Not enable them to derail any future of peace in the region. And they're doing that with that enormous war machine. Rather than feeding their people, they're spending all of it on havoc, terror, death, and nuclear developments.

BLITZER: The U.S. has helped defend Israel from Iran's attacks over the past four days, but President Trump has repeatedly stressed that the U.S. was not involved in the strikes against Iran and he has not committed to joining Israel in the future. Can Israel destroy Iran's nuclear capability, so much of it is deep underground in mountains, without direct U.S. involvement?

HERZOG: We are very grateful to President Trump for his support and friendship, and also to other nations of who explicitly stressed that Israel has the full right to defend itself by eradicating and removing the Iranian nuclear program. As per the facts on the ground and the capabilities and what's up next, I don't really feel that I have the capability of giving you all the details, but I'm quite confident that what we've shown so far can continue dramatically and can change the course of how things are also in Iran.

After all, the Iranian people have been oppressed for decades and we all believe they're fed up and it is their chance to rise and change the regime, but it's not one of our objectives, per se. Our objective is to remove the Iranian nuclear program, which includes with it a massive missile program.

BLITZER: How much has Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile capability, Mr. President, been set back with these latest Israeli strikes?

HERZOG: We believe it's been set back in many ways. We will come out with it once we conclude all the details. You know, we've heard and we've undermined and we demolished a lot of their infrastructure of terror and nuclear capabilities. But there's a lot of work still to be done.

BLITZER: President Isaac Herzog of Israel, thank you so much for joining us.

HERZOG: Thank you.

BLITZER: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00] PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, new this morning, President Trump's network is expanding quite literally. The Trump organization is announcing the launch of a self-branded wireless phone service, Trump Mobile. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who run the company overseeing the president's business interests are also saying that this new venture will have call centers in the U.S. and phones made in America.

BLITZER: All right. Let's go live right now to CNN's Lisa Eadicicco in New York with the latest. Lisa, this is a venture aimed at rivaling major telecom providers like Verizon and T-Mobile. How does the Trump family plan to compete?

LISA EADICICCOM, CNN BUSINESS TECH EDITOR: Yes. So, there are two big ways they're planning to compete. One is by being competitive on pricing, and the other is by appealing to Trump's supporters with -- by really leaning into that made in America element. As you mentioned, this is a service and an upcoming phone that is really branded around the idea of being made in America, but it is going to be challenging because these big carriers have spent decades striking deals with major phone makers to make devices really cheap if you trade in your phone for a new one.

So, there's really a lot going on there that's complex and that really kind of lures in consumers by being -- by providing value in other ways than just making the plan itself cheaper. So, it remains to be seen how successful this will be, but there's certainly -- this certainly is a difficult market to break into.

[10:45:00]

BLITZER: Certainly. Lisa Eadicicco, thank you very much for that report. And coming up, we'll be joined by the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, as world leaders gather in Canada with tension still high over President Trump's tariffs. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

BROWN: Right now, President Trump is stepping back onto the world stage as he prepares to meet with world economic leaders at this year's G7 Summit in Canada. It's the president's first world leader summit of his second term, and it comes not only as world leaders monitor the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, but as they try to forge a path forward amid the president's ongoing trade war.

Joining us now for more on this is Ontario premier, Doug Ford. Premier Ford, welcome back to the show. So, the last time the summit was in your country back in 2018, during President Trump's first term, it was immortalized by this picture right here, we're putting up, that many say really perfectly capture the dysfunction of the summit. So, how can world leaders avoid a repeat of this amid the president's trade war?

DOUG FORD, ONTARIO PREMIER: Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me on, Pamela. And I just really hope that President Trump brings a different attitude towards the rest of the world, and especially as close as friends and trading partners, that he actually wants to strike a deal, he doesn't want to be fighting with the entire world, and specifically, this number one customer. As I always say, we do more trade than China and Mexico and Japan and U.K. and Germany combined.

And I'm just here in Boston with -- convening with six governors and six premiers. And I just want to give a shout out to Governor Healey. She's doing a great job here in Massachusetts.

BROWN: Yes. I'm going to talk to you about Boston in just a second, but I want to follow up with the president meeting with Prime Minister Carney at any moment now. We're expecting that. How do you expect he'll walk the line between keeping the summit on track and pushing back on President Trump's trade war?

FORD: Well, of all the confidence in the world and Prime Minister Carney, he'll be very obviously very polite being the host, but he also has to be stern. And it's hurting both the U.S. and Canada. As I always say, President Trump's tariffs as attacks on Americans. That's unacceptable. We have to send a message to the rest of the world. There's certainty here now in these two countries and come and invest in the U.S. and Canada. But attacking everyone, which has been doing over the last little while and attacking economically Canada, his number one customer, that just doesn't -- that doesn't work and it won't work.

BROWN: And it's notable that President Trump is there at a time when he has been calling on Canada be annexed, to become America's 51st state. How much is that hanging over all of this?

FORD: Well, as we talk to the governors, a lot of governors are saying it's insulting. It's insulting to your closest friend and allies. We love the U.S. I love the U.S. Canadians love Americans. There's one person that is causing this issue, and that's President Trump. Hopefully, he'll take another avenue and start mending fences. Because right now, as the governor's told us here, they're seeing a drastic decline in Canadian tourism.

BROWN: Yes, that has certainly been an issue, particularly for the states like you're in right now. I want to ask you also, before we let you go, about this Bill 5. This was just signed into law in your province and allows for the creation of these special economic zones that can exempt companies or projects from provincial law. How do you plan to use that to counter the president's trade war?

FORD: Well, we're going to speed up permitting rather than sitting there and waiting for a permit in 15 years, we're going to get it done under two years, And we have the full support of the federal government as well to get the critical minerals out to the world out -- out of the ground to compete against the rest of the world.

And who do I want to send it to? I want to send it to our American friends. Ontario has more critical minerals than anywhere in the world, as China is cutting off our great friends, south of the border. Who's there to hand over the critical minerals? Ontario is. And China is not supporting any critical minerals that go to your defense, aerospace, or manufacturing. They've cornered the market, but they haven't cornered Ontario's critical minerals.

We have more than anywhere in the world, and along with our energy as well. I want to send more energy to our friends south of the border.

BROWN: As you know, the bill is getting pushed back from indigenous communities who disagree with the limited requirements for consultations with them on projects that impact their lands and their treaty rights. What are you saying to these communities who feel like their rights are being stripped away in favor of economic growth?

FORD: Well, there's a few of them and not a lot of them, but I'm going to -- I've had a great relationship with all the indigenous communities. We're putting $3 billion in the window until they can get grants and have equity partnerships.

[10:55:00]

We're giving them $70 million of training in skills development, $10 million worth of scholarships. And don't kid yourself. There's a tremendous amount of chiefs out there that want move forward. They want to be progressive. They want their kids to have a better life than they had, and there's always going to be respect for their treaty rights. And there's always going to be duty to consult. They know it. Everyone knows it. And that's why a recent poll came out, 73 percent of the people in Ontario want to move forward with it, but it will move forward with consultation with our First Nations communities.

There's a few that's making noise, but the vast majority, you watch, they'll be full steam ahead. And we're going to work collaboratively with our First Nations communities.

BROWN: I want to circle back to Boston, where you are right now. You said you were meeting with governors. Obviously, a big point of discussion as you mentioned is tourism. Do you see anything being worked out on that front to help revive tourism with Canada?

FORD: I really do. And I think it's really going to help if they sign a deal. As the governor -- Governor Hochul was saying that they're seeing one-third the amount of tourism than they used to see. And we're all working together. It's really -- I'll call it this way, it's a love fest in the room. And there's a mixture of everyone in the room and we just want to get things back on track and move forward. And we're just two great countries, great trading partners. And let's move forward, because everyone in that room knows Canadians love Americans.

BROWN: Ontario Premier Doug Ford, thank you so much.

FORD: Yes. Thank you so much. Say hello to my good friend Wolf. He's a champion.

BROWN: He's right here next to me.

FORD: Thanks, Pamela. BLITZER: Always good to have you in the Situation Room, Premier. Welcome back.

FORD: Yes. Thank you.

BLITZER: And we'll continue these conversations for sure down the road.

FORD: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And as somebody, as you know, who grew up in Buffalo, right on the border with Canada, we love Canada, we love Canadians, and we hope that tourism flourishes as it always has in the past. Thanks so much for joining us.

FORD: Excellent. God bless America. God bless Canada. Thank you.

BLITZER: Good point. All right. Coming up, any moment now, President Trump will meet directly with the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney. We're going to bring that to you live as soon as it happens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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