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Trump to Talk with Iran Next Week; Trump to Talk to Putin About Ending War on Ukraine; Trump Slams Fed Chief Powell; Trump Again Says Iran Nuclear Sites "Obliterated". Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired June 25, 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]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: the Ukraine war?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Because it's more difficult than people would have any idea. Vladimir Putin has been more difficult. Frankly, I had some problems with Zelenskyy. You may have read about them. And it's been more difficult than other wars. I mean, look, we just ended a war in 12 days that was simmering for 30 years, frankly. We ended, Rwanda and the Congo, it's coming to sign the documents. We've already signed basic documents, but they're coming, I think, to the White House on Friday. We ended Serbia, was going to go at it.

But maybe the most important of all India and Pakistan. And that wasn't whether or not they may someday have nukes, like we're talking about in the Middle East, like we're talking about with Israel and Iran. This is the half nuclear weapons. I ended that with a series of phone calls on trade. I said, look, if you're going to go fighting each other, it's going to -- it was getting very bad. You know how bad that last attack was. It was really bad. If you're going to go fighting each other, we're not doing any trade deal. No, no, no. You have to do a trade deal. I said, we're not doing any trade deal.

And in fact, I had the general who really was very impressive. The general from Pakistan was in my office last week. You know, Prime Minister Modi is a great friend of mine. He's a great gentleman. He's a great man. And I got them to reason. I said, we're not doing a trade deal if you're going to fight. And if you're going to fight each other, we're not doing a trade deal. And you know what? They said, no, I want to do the trade deal. We stopped the nuclear work. Go ahead. Go ahead, Jeff. Here's another beauty, Jeff. He is our beauty. All right. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, follow up on Ukraine. Will the United States contribute any more money to Ukraine's defense this year to the 5 billion that allies are giving? And one question. You had another meeting with the Dutch opposition leader, Mr. Wilders. Can you tell us about that meeting and are you upset about his anti-Muslim stance?

TRUMP: I'm not upset about it. It's just his view. He's unhappy with the way things are going in this country and various countries. He was an opposition leader. And I was asked to meet with the opposition leader by the people that are running. I think they have some deal where if you have a meeting, he's supposed to meet with an opposition leader. I said, that's strange. That's -- that. But I met the -- I don't -- I didn't know him. He seemed like a very nice guy. But he's in opposition to the current people and that was set up by the current people. So, I assume when I met with the prime minister, you're supposed to meet with the opposition. We'll have to try that sometime in our country. Let's not do it.

But he was -- I thought he was very good as far as money going, we'll see what happens. There's a lot of spirit. Look, Vladimir Putin really has to end that war. People are dying at levels that people haven't seen before for a long time. Go ahead. Go ahead. White shirt. Oh, she's all excited.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: BBC News Ukraine.

TRUMP: Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from Ukraine. So, my question to you is whether or not the U.S. is ready to sell anti-air missile systems, Patriot to Ukraine. We know that Russia has been pound in Ukraine really heavily right now.

TRUMP: Are you living yourself now in Ukraine?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband is there.

TRUMP: Wow. I can see you very -- you know, it's amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And me with the kids. I mean, also, actually, because he wanted me to be --

TRUMP: Is your husband a soldier? No?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is.

TRUMP: He's there now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: Wow. That's rough stuff, right? That's tough. And you're living here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: And you're a reporter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am.

TRUMP: Good. So, let me just tell you, they do want to have the anti- missile missiles OK. As they call them. The Patriots. And we're going to see if we can make some available. You know, they're very hard to get. We need them too. We were supplying them to Israel. And they're very effective. A hundred percent effective. Hard to believe how effective. And they do want that more than any other thing, as you probably know. That's a very good question, and I wish you a lot of luck. I mean, I can see it's very upsetting to you. So, say hello to your husband. OK. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. You were criticizing --

TRUMP: Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bloomberg News.

TRUMP: Oh, Bloomberg.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were --

TRUMP: That's wonderful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were criticizing the Federal Reserve chair before coming to this summit.

TRUMP: Yes, I think he's terrible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was wondering if you've begun interviewing different candidates for the Fed pick?

TRUMP: Yes, I know. Within three or four people who all going to pick. I mean, he goes up pretty soon, fortunately because I think he's terrible. We have no inflation. We have a tremendous economy. Hundreds of billions of dollars of tariff money is pouring in, factories are being built because they don't want to pay the tariffs. So, they're building them all over the country.

[10:35:00]

I think we're close to $15 trillion. I told you, 5.1 trillion from the Middle East alone, but of investment money coming in. There's never been anything like that in the history of our country. But we have no inflation and we have borrowing, because Biden stupidly, they did short-term debt. So, we have borrowing coming up.

And, you know, we'll go 10 years, maybe longer, maybe shorter, but we'll go a long period of time when we do the debt. And because of him, because of this guy, we will have to pay four years. We'll be paying for him. And I said to him, listen, there's no inflation. He says, but maybe there'll be some. That's true. I said, if there is some, what you do is raise the rate. I'm OK with that. You raise the rate in two years from now or a year from now.

But because the rate's high, we have to pay more for debt. It's pretty equal. In other words, if it's 4 percent, it's 4 percent. If you drop at a point, you'll pay 3 percent. So, it's fairly equal, not necessarily, but fairly equal. So, we're going to end up paying maybe two points or three points more. Three points would be about $900 billion a year because of this very average mentally person. He's an average mentally person. I'd say low in terms of what he does. Low. Low IQ for what he does. OK.

Wait. So, instead of paying $900 billion, we don't want to pay 900 just because he doesn't want to lower the rate. I said, if there's inflation in two years or three years, or one year from now, you raise the rate and you take care of the inflation among other things. But he's probably a very political guy, I guess. I don't know. I think he's a very stupid person actually.

All right. one more. Let's go. How about you. Go ahead. She looks so happy and everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

TRUMP: So, I picked her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from Spain too. I'm Ana Book (ph) from LaGuardia (ph). I wanted to know if --

TRUMP: You're where?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From Spain. I wanted to know if you want to --

TRUMP: That's the Spain corner right there. Shouldn't have said that. That's OK. I do like Spain by the way. I think it's unfair that they're not paying. But go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to negotiate directly with Spain about --

TRUMP: I'm going to negotiate directly with Spain. I'm going to do it myself. They're going to pay. They'll pay more money this way. Hey, you should tell them to go back and pay. You're a reporter? You tell them to go back. They ought to join all of those countries that are paying 5 percent. Spain's going to be just about the only one that's not. They were the most hostile toward doing it. It just doesn't make sense to me.

OK. All right. Kelly, go ahead. Here we go. There's another one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very --

TRUMP: We got them all today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So, Mr. President, you talked about expecting some on the ground assessments at Fordow and other sites.

TRUMP: Yes. Now, here -- again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that Israeli and U.S.?

TRUMP: It's been obliterated. Kelly. It's been --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your message then, sir, to the Intelligence Community when they present reports? You're not disputing the DIA report, you're just --

TRUMP: They presented a report that wasn't finished. We're talking about something that took place three days ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand that's -- TRUMP: The report was done days ago. Wait a minute.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: They didn't see it. All they can do is take a guess. Now, if you take a look at the pictures, if you take a look how it's all blackened, you know the fire in brimstone is all underground because it's granite and it's all underground. You don't show it. But even there, with all of that being said, the whole area for 75 yards around the hole where it hit is black with fire.

The group that's run by this gentleman, in fact, he may want to talk about it for a second because we're going to issue a report. And I think it's not even a very exciting report at this point. It's been obliterated, totally obliterated. And they did a report, but it was like, if you look at the dates, it's just a few days after it happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Understood, sir.

TRUMP: So, they didn't see it. They said it may be very severe ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Understood. Do you have a message for the Intelligence Community though in terms of unvarnished information getting to you that it's not --

TRUMP: I don't really have a message. I would say issue the report when you know what happened. I wouldn't say that it could be severe or maybe not. They used the word severe. It could be severe or maybe it's not. So, people like you picked up and said, oh, it's not severe. No, the report was not a complete report.

Yes. The message was probably wait till you know the answer before you -- go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's (INAUDIBLE) Zelenskyy meeting for a tactical reason with President Putin?

TRUMP: Let him answer this question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, Mr. Secretary.

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Yes. There's a reason the president calls out fake news for what it is. These pilots, these refuelers, these fighters, these air defenders, the skill and the courage it took to go into enemy territory, flying 36 hours on behalf of the American people in the world to take out a nuclear program is beyond what anyone in this audience can fathom.

[10:40:00]

And then, the instinct of CNN, the instinct of The New York Times is to try to find a way to spin it for their own political reasons to try to hurt President Trump or our country. They don't care what the troops think. They don't care what the world thinks. They want to spin it to try to make him look bad based on a leak. Of course, we've all seen plenty of leakers. And what do leakers do? They have agendas and what do they do? Do they share the whole information or just the part that they want to introduce?

And when they introduce that preliminary a preliminary report that's deemed to be low -- a low assessment. You know what a low assessment means? Low confidence in the data in that report. And why is there low confidence? Because all of the evidence of what was just bombed by 12 30,000-pound bombs is buried under a mountain, devastated and obliterated.

So, if you want to make an assessment of what happened at Fordow, you better get a big shovel and go really deep, because Iran's nuclear program is obliterated. And somebody somewhere is trying to leak something to say, oh, with low confidence, we think maybe it's moderate. Those that dropped the bombs precisely in the right place know exactly what happened when that exploded. And you know, who else knows Iran? That's why they came to the table right away because their nuclear capabilities have been set back beyond what they thought were possible because of the courage of a commander in chief who led our troops, despite what the fake news wants to say.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you're not disputing the report said what it said even though it was initial?

TRUMP: The report said what it said, and it was fine. It was severe, they think, but they had no idea. They shouldn't have issued a report until they did. But we've gotten the information and I think Pete said it better than you can say it. And you know, you should be proud. You, especially you. You should be proud of those pilots and you shouldn't be trying to demean them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

TRUMP: Those pilots flew at great risk, of big chance that they've never come back home and see their husbands or their wives. Let me just tell, you and NBC fake news, which is one of the worst, and CNN, New York Times, they're all bad. They're sick. There's something wrong with them. But you know what? You should be praising those people instead of trying to find some -- by getting me, by trying to go and get me, you're hurting those people. They were devastated.

You know, I got a call from Missouri, great state that I won three times by a lot, and I got a call that the pilots and the people on the plane were devastated because they were trying to minimize the attack. And they all said it was hit, but, oh, but we don't think it was really, maybe hit that badly. And they were devastated. They put their lives on the line and then they have -- and I'm not referring to you, but real scum, real scum come out and write reports that are as negative as they could possibly be.

It should be the opposite. You should make them heroes and heroines. You should make them really people that -- they were so devastated when they heard this news. And you know what they said? One of them I spoke to, one of them, he said, sir, we hit the site. It was perfect. It was dead on. Because they don't understand fake news because they have a normal life, except they have to fly very big, very fast planes. But it's a shame. You should be making them heroes.

All right. In the back. Go ahead. Back white. Yes. White jacket. Yes. Go ahead. Give a mic. Hello.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Deborah Haynes from Sky News. Mark Rutte, the NATO chief, who is your friend. He called you daddy earlier. Do you regard your NATO allies as kind of children?

TRUMP: No, he likes me. I think he likes me. If he doesn't, I'll let you know. I'll come back and I'll hit him hard. OK. He did it very affectionate. He -- daddy, you're my daddy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you regard your NATO allies though as kind of like children and they're obviously listening to you and they're spending more, and you are obviously appreciative of that? But do you hope that actually they're going to be able to defend themselves, defend Europe on their own without being --

TRUMP: I think they need help a little bit at the beginning and I think they'll be able to and I think they're going to remember this day. And this was a big day for NATO. You know, this was a very big day. They took it. One of the gentlemen said, you know what, we've been trying to raise money for -- raise the rate for 30 years, he said, 20 years -- from almost the beginning. And he is been there for a long time. He said, until you came along, it never happened. What you did is amazing. It's been sort of an amazing day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But do you think --

TRUMP: For a lot of reasons, but also for that. Yes, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think they can do it without you though in the future? Can they do it without the United States?

[10:45:00]

TRUMP: We'll ask Mark. I mean, you have to ask Mark. OK. So, we're heading back. We're heading back. I want to thank these two gentlemen behind me. They're incredible people, both of them. They're really -- they've done a fantastic job. And then Susie's in the front and she's done great. And Monica, thank you very much. That was quite an exciting time. And we're going to be heading back. We'll be back soon and we'll see you in Washington, D.C.

Remember this, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Thank you very much everybody. Thank you.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We just heard the president of the United States speaking at the NATO Summit in the Netherlands watching all the specific things he's claiming what he's saying. And we have full analysis right now here in the Situation Room.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. I first want to just address what was very blatantly manipulative from President Trump and Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, saying that because of our reporting and other reporting about the preliminary U.S. intel assessment that that is some way disparaging members of the military involved in this mission. That is false. That is absolutely false, and that is a strong man argument.

Those brave men and women who were involved in that mission, executed on the mission, and there were questions, -- always questions before this, right, Wolf, about whether these MOPs, the bombs, bunker busting bombs, effectively do the job because they've never been used before. And these nuclear sites are very deep.

So, both can be true, right? That these troops execute on the mission and they are brave. And I say this as a veteran's wife but also that the initial intel assessment showed that it didn't fully obliterate the sites as President Trump said.

BLITZER: Yes, and I speak as a former Pentagon correspondent and we appreciate, we love the men and women of the United States military who risk their lives to protect all of us, and we're not criticizing them at all. The only thing that we were doing was, of course, reporting what the Pentagon's top intelligence agency, the DIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in their preliminary report about the damage that was assessed as a result of this mission. And we reported that fairly and accurately and in detail, and it was not fake news. It was what the DIA itself was saying as the -- even the president of the United States acknowledged. This was a DIA, a Defense Intelligence Agency Report.

And David Axelrod, you're with us. You're familiar with the U.S. Intelligence Community. There are a lot of different parts of the U.S. Intelligence Community, but the Defense Intelligence Agency, the main intelligence arm of the U.S. Defense Department, the Pentagon is significant.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST AND FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes. Look, I would note that the president said that his message to the Intelligence Community is issue the report when you know what happens. He stood in front of the country hours after this mission and declared what happened. And now, it's more complicated than he told the country. General Caine, and I admire him for it, stood before reporter Sunday --

BLITZER: The chairman of the Joints Chief --

AXELROD: -- stood before reporter Sunday morning and said, we cannot assess the battle damage right now. And we -- that is a process we have to go through. And so, the president created this problem for himself. As to the point you were making, Pam, I have not heard one person say anything other than the fact that these brave flyers discharge their responsibilities with valor and precision. That's not the question.

I was in the White House. And even when I was in the White House, now going back 15 years, this debate about bunker busting bombs was very much in the air. And the question was, are they really sufficient to do that job? And that, no one really knows the answer to that. President also says it's done. It's -- we don't need an agreement. It's all done. No one really knows where that highly enriched uranium, 800 pounds of it that we know Iran had here, you know, is. And he's proclaiming that it's buried there. We don't know the answer to these questions.

So -- but I thought it was cowardly and cynical to hide behind the flyers who discharged this mission. And --

BLITZER: Standby for a moment. I want to bring in our CNN Anchor and Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, I know you were there in the room. He called on you, I think first to ask the first question. You pressed the president on the Israeli intelligence assessment about the damage that the Iranian nuclear facilities there. I want to play this exchange that you had. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think everyone appreciates our soldiers and our warriors. I do have two questions for you, Mr. President. You cited Israeli intelligence on these attacks. Earlier you said U.S. intelligence was inconclusive. Are you relying on Israeli intelligence for your assessment of the impact of the strikes?

[10:50:00]

TRUMP: No, no. This is also -- Iran made the statement and it's also -- if you read the document that was given that Pete can talk about if you'd like. The document said it could be very severe damage, but they didn't take that. They said it could be limited or it could be very severe. They really didn't know other than to say it could be limited or it could be very, very severe. And you didn't choose to put that because it was very early after.

Since then, we've collected additional intelligence. We've also spoken to people who have seen the site and the site is obliterated. And we think everything nuclear is down there. They didn't take it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. So, Kaitlan, I want to get your assessment. You're inside, you're our chief White House correspondent, as well as being a major CNN anchor right now, give us your assessment of what the president said.

COLLINS: Yes, Wolf. And on that last part there, we tried to follow up and asked what assessment he is basing this off of, what U.S. Intelligence, when he repeatedly has been saying that the sites there that the United States bombed on Saturday night were obliterated. He did not cite anything specifically. He moved on to another reporter. But I thought what he said to me was very telling, and that, one, he said that people have been to the site of these bombings and he relayed what they had seen. He did not say who that was, whether that was U.S. official, Israeli officials, or who exactly he was referencing there.

He didn't say if that was a classified mission where they went to kind of get an after-action report to see what had actually happened as a result of Saturday night. He made very clear that the U.S. report that we had reported on yesterday, he believes is inconclusive and was issued too early, even though, of course, it was just a preliminary report that was done in the wake of that.

And, Wolf, what they were citing and why I asked that question because it's unusual for the White House to issue an intelligence statement or an assessment on behalf of another government, but that is exactly what the White House did earlier, citing the Israeli Atomic Agency when they were putting out that report, essentially backing up the president's claims on this.

And so, Wolf, as he was getting into that and in terms of what that looked like, he was making that argument there. And then, also, when I said, are you only relying on Israeli intelligence here? The president said no. He also cited Iranian intelligence or Iranian statements that we have seen assessing the damage that was done to that sight, Wolf. And so, those are obviously key questions here in terms of what the intelligence is and what that looks like and what is backing up these reports and the assessments that we have seen coming out of the administration.

Wolf, what I will say is notable that we heard there was when the defense secretary himself stepped up to the Pentagon -- or stepped up to the podium to criticize that report and to downplay it. This is a report, I should note, that came from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the career military official who runs that is the principal intelligence adviser to the secretary of defense. This is the Pentagon's intelligence arm that they have been downplaying.

And earlier, the president was kind of pointing to Secretary Hegseth on this report. And so, that was an incredibly notable moment there as the president was talking about the intelligence here. And of course, saying that they've gathered more information as we wait to see what these further reports from the United States intelligence have to say about this.

BROWN: And it's notable, you know, and as you well know, Kaitlan, intelligence reports, preliminary ones that's common practice, particularly after a big mission like this. President Trump said, well, come back to me when you actually know. Well, intelligence is more of an art than a science, right? I mean, that's why they have different levels of confidence in it.

And according to our CNN reporting, one of the sources said that the intelligence assessed enriched uranium was moved out of the sites prior to the U.S. strikes. But it was interesting today, Kaitlan, that President Trump said he didn't believe that it had been moved out. Just another example of raising the question of which intelligence assessment he's believing in this moment right now.

COLLINS: Yes, Pam, that's a huge statement there because that has been a key question that officials have had that we have not gotten a ton of answers on. Even the Israeli prime minister, when he was asked about this, said they have ideas of what happened to it, but he said it was intelligence and he wasn't going to share it. The president is confidently saying he does not believe that enriched uranium was moved out of the facility. And just to give people backstory of why this is such a pressing question. There are satellite images showing over a dozen cargo trucks parked at the entrance of the Fordow nuclear facility in the days before the United States struck.

And so, obviously, Iran had an indication that the president might strike. He was essentially saying it publicly that it was under consideration. And so, that has been a key question here. And again, that is a moment where we don't know exactly what the White House is basing that intelligence off of that uranium is accounted for and was inside the nuclear facilities that were hit on Saturday night.

These are key questions that lawmakers have had as well, though they have not gotten those intelligence briefings from the top officials who were on the stage here, the defense secretary and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio.

[10:55:00]

BLITZER: And the president kept saying -- he kept calling it the 12- Day War. I think he was referring to the six-day war that Israel fought back 1967. He was calling this the 12-Day War. The war is done, he said, they've had it. It's over. We think it's over. We shall see if it's over. Kaitlan, don't go too far away. We'll get back to you. The next hour of our coverage, exclusive coverage right here in the Situation Room will begin right after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Happening now, breaking news could be limited or could be very --

[11:00:00]