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The Situation Room

Trump Meets With Crown Prince of Bahrain; Flood Warnings Face Eastern United States; Interview With Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE); Interview With Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA); Mike Waltz Under Fire. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 16, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:01]

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Because their constituents are going to get poorer and sicker in their districts. But they're doing it because they want to help the millionaires and billionaires and big corporations get another yacht, get more profits, maybe have another luxury wedding that costs $50 million in another country. This is the thing that Americans of all ideological stripes are so furious about, is that wealth is getting concentrated, power is getting concentrated.

And even their Republican members of Congress are not doing what is in the interest of their constituents. They're doing what's in the interest of the lobbying billionaire class.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Congresswoman Jayapal, thank you so much for your time and for coming on the show. We appreciate it.

JAYAPAL: Thank you so much, Pamela.

BROWN: Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And up next: President Trump's former National Security Advise Mike Waltz is still defending his use of the Signal messaging app months after it cost him his job.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:41]

BLITZER: Now to a confirmation fight.

President Trump's pick for ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, skirting around a critical national security question. Did he learn lessons about how to handle U.S. top secrets from Signalgate? You remember that scandal contributed to him losing his job as Trump's national security adviser back in May.

Joining us now, Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

You're a key member of the committee. Do you trust Waltz to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Well, Wolf, I was hoping to hear from a Congressman Waltz, Colonel Waltz, the nominee to be the next U.N. ambassador, some regret, some recognition that sharing highly sensitive military operational detail on a commercial app, Signal, was inappropriate, to hear that there had been any steps taken by the administration to discipline him or to come up with a process that would ensure this wouldn't happen again.

Instead, he tried to blame President Biden for it. So I don't think he's learned anything from this regrettable incident. And I think we should be finding a better candidates for secretary of defense and for U.N. ambassador than the folks involved in this unfortunate incident.

BLITZER: So you will vote to reject his nomination? Is that right?

COONS: Likely yes.

BLITZER: Russia's Vladimir Putin, Senator, just launched a massive, a massive attack on Kharkiv in Ukraine, the second largest city in Ukraine.

This happened a day after President Trump issued his 50-day ultimatum, his warning to Putin to end the war. Do you think Putin is taking that demand from President Trump seriously or laughing at him, in effect?

COONS: Clearly, he's not taking President Trump seriously. I'm encouraged that Trump seems to finally be figuring out that President Trump of Russia has been playing him all along.

President Zelenskyy of Ukraine immediately accepted an unconditional cease-fire proposal from President Trump. Putin has just been playing him, launching bigger and bigger attacks on the civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, attacking schools and hospitals and electricity infrastructure that helps run the Ukrainian economy and civil society.

One of the tragedies of what is happening here in the Senate, Wolf, is that later today we will vote whether or not to cut funding from our efforts as a country to repair and maintain that electrical infrastructure. About $250 million will be cut out of the budget that was previously dedicated to helping Ukraine rebuild its energy infrastructure in the face of these Russian attacks.

It's a positive step that President Trump is saying he will allow U.S. advanced weapons to move into Ukraine and to help support their defense. But, for the love of God, it should not have taken six months for him to come to the realization that Putin is playing him, that Putin is the aggressor, and that we need to link arms with our allies and partners and defend Ukraine in its fight for freedom.

BLITZER: Trump is, as you know, is supporting the delivery of U.S.- made Patriot air defense missile systems through the NATO allies to Ukraine. That's a significant step, to be sure.

But, so far, he's opposing long-range offensive weaponry, missiles that potentially could go from Ukraine and hit various targets in and around Moscow.

Do you agree with him on that?

COONS: Look, I think we ought to be providing Ukraine with the weapons, the systems, and the capabilities they need to defend their sovereignty and their country as they see fit.

After Secretary-General Mark Rutte of the -- of NATO, of the NATO alliance, met with President Trump, he met with a bipartisan group of us over dinner that evening. And we discussed this exact issue, that we need to be moving forward weapons deliveries to Ukraine that will allow them to make the tactical and strategic decisions they need to, to put pressure on Russia to come to the table, to put down weapons, to engage in a real cease-fire, and to negotiate a just and lasting peace.

That means we need to put more pressure on Russia through sanctions, including secondary sanctions on those countries that are buying cheap Russian oil and sending critical material to Russia that helps sustain their war effort and by providing more sophisticated weapons systems to Ukraine.

[11:40:17]

The Europeans are willing to step up and pay the bill. The United States just needs to release these weapons and allow them to be purchased and transferred to Ukraine.

BLITZER: But after President Trump issued that 50-day ultimatum to Putin to end the war, do you think Putin is taking that demand from President Trump seriously?

COONS: Not at all.

If he were taking that demand seriously, he'd be sending a delegation to negotiate, not increasing the number of missiles and drones he's launching every single night. Putin is trying to break the will of the Ukrainian people, to threaten them with greater and greater attacks and to continue their relentless, grinding assaults along a very long front line.

We need to put our morale, our weapons systems, our funding, in my view, behind Ukraine's efforts to reclaim its sovereign territory and to show solidarity with our NATO allies, who at the recent summit just a few weeks ago pledged dramatically increased investments in defense and security, partly because they see clearly the threat that Putin is to peace and stability in Europe.

BLITZER: Yes, despite all those warnings and threats from President Trump, Putin is escalating the war big time overnight, launching hundreds of missiles against various targets inside Ukraine.

Senator Chris Coons, thanks, as usual, for joining us.

COONS: Thank you.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: And coming up, Wolf, how former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, are responding to those rumors about their marriage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:46:09]

BLITZER: All right, we have this new video just coming into THE SITUATION ROOM of Bahrain's crown prince, the prime minister, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, arriving at the White House for important meetings with the president and other top national security officials.

Bahrain is the home of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf, a key Naval facility for the U.S. military Central Command, and recently Iranians were threatening to target U.S. sailors and Marines and other military personnel in Bahrain at that facility. So we will watch this very closely, an important meeting going on.

BROWN: Absolutely, we will track that.

And, Wolf, there's been so much flash flooding this summer in different parts of the country. Now there's severe flash flooding that has prompted a city in Virginia to declare a state of emergency. The mayor says Petersburg'S old infrastructure can't withstand the level of rain it's gotten.

And Petersburg wasn't the only city and then dated with intense rain. The National Weather Service says the most flash flood warnings ever issued for a single day in July took place on Monday.

BLITZER: Yes, there were even these flash flood warnings here in the Washington, D.C., area as well.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: I want to bring in our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam.

Derek, there's concern about another major flooding event this week. What can you tell us?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this one, Wolf and Pam, could be associated with our next named tropical system, but that has not happened just yet.

National Hurricane Center monitoring a cluster of thunderstorms right along the Florida Panhandle, and because it's onshore, it hasn't tapped into the warm Gulf waters just yet. But there is a lot of moisture to work with, so the flood threat, regardless if this gets named, will certainly be the big picture here.

So, Louisiana into the Gulf Coast states, this is the area we're going to monitor through the next couple of days for the potential of flash flooding. We have had enough. We'd like to say goodbye to it, but, unfortunately, the reality is that a flash flood threat exists. So here's the entity that we are monitoring from the National

Hurricane Center. It's called Invest 93L, not named Dexter just yet. If it does get named this core, the system has to move offshore into the warm waters from the Gulf of Mexico. That would allow it to develop.

Regardless of which way you look at it, it's still going to produce a heavy rainfall threat to this area, including the greater New Orleans region, with the potential for upwards of four to eight inches of rainfall, especially as we head into central and southern coastal areas of Louisiana.

So this is the region we're going to monitor for flash flooding going forward this week -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Derek Van Dam with the latest, thanks very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, we're watching the White House, where President Trump and the crown prince of Bahrain are expected to hold a meeting any moment. We're going to bring that to you live when it happens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:13]

BLITZER: All right, let's go right to the Oval Office, the president of the United States meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. I want to listen to hear what they say.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Congratulations.

We have had a tremendous relationship. I have personally with Bahrain over the years, and has been a fantastic ally. And anything they needed, we helped them. And anything we needed, they helped us. And we're going to be talking about a lot of different things, including the most perfect military maneuver that anybody's seen probably in 50 years, which took place a few weeks ago, when Iran knocked out their entire potential nuclear capacity.

And it was obliterated. I used that term. They say, well, maybe that's too much. I said, no, it turned out it was more than obliterated. They can't go back. And we're just really going to talk about some things, including trade. Whenever we discuss trade. We do a lot of trading with Bahrain. And we're going to have lunch after this, but we will take some questions.

First, I'd like to ask the crown prince to say a couple of words. And he also has a father who's living in well and doing fantastically, as I understand it...

SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA, PRIME MINISTER OF BAHRAIN: He is.

TRUMP: ... and somebody who's respected all over the Middle East and all over the world. Thank you very much for being there.

AL KHALIFA: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, one and all.

It is indeed a great honor to be here on this fine morning to put into action the relationship that exists between our two countries. We will be discussing security issues. We will be discussing trade and investment, which is very important. We're very happy to be announcing $17 billion worth of deals that are coming to the United States.

And this is real. This is...

TRUMP: It's real money.

AL KHALIFA: These aren't fake deals. These are real deals.

TRUMP: Yes. They don't have to borrow the money.

AL KHALIFA: We don't have to borrow it. It's coming in.

And it only builds upon a legacy that we're very proud of. We have had a relationship in the civil side of between our two countries since 1893 and formally since 1948. So may it long continue, and we look forward to many, many more years of productive partnership.

Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Yes. We will have that.

AL KHALIFA: You will honor us.

TRUMP: We will have that indeed. We will have many good years on it. I would say right now is -- is your top here. And I -- we appreciate the investment. It's a great -- we left, as you know, Saudi Arabia. We were just there in Saudi Arabia, and we -- Qatar was so great. The leader was great.

We had UAE. We had a couple of other visits, but all great places. And we left with $5.1 trillion of investment. And they all want to be investing in the United States.

AL KHALIFA: Yes.

TRUMP: We have, I think -- I think we have over $16 trillion of investment coming in, which is a record. And we're only a little bit into the year. And let's say the first two months, I sort of took it easy because we had to fix up the Oval Office. I had to devote my time to fixing it up.

But now we had to fix up our country. So we have -- I think everyone will say we have the hottest country now anywhere in the world. We were dead a year ago. We are a dead country. And now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. And it's a great honor to have you here.

AL KHALIFA: Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Any questions?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) developments in Syria at the moment.

TRUMP: Well, I can comment. I think I will ask Marco to say a few words on Syria.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes, it's complicated, obviously.

These are historic, longtime rivalries between different groups in the southwest of Syria, bedouins, the Druze community. And it led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side. So we have been engaged with them all morning long and all night long with both sides.

And we think we're on our way towards a real de-escalation and then hopefully get back on track in helping Syria build the country and arriving at a situation in the Middle East that is far more stable. So in the next few hours, we hope to see some real progress to end what you have been seeing over the last couple hours.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Mr. President, on Jerome Powell, do you plans or are you back considering firing Jerome Powell? And what's your justification if you're thinking about this to do this?

TRUMP: Well, he's too late. He has always been too late, hence his nickname, too late.

He should have cut interest rates a long time ago. Europe has cut them 10 times in the short period of time, and we cut them none. The only time he cut them was just before the election to try and help Kamala or Biden, whoever the hell it was, because nobody really knew. Obviously, that didn't work. But he tried to cut them for the Democrats, Kamala.

[11:55:04]

And how did that work out? You will tell me. It didn't work out too well, did it? But he's -- I think he does a terrible job. He's costing us a lot of money. And we fight through it. It's almost -- the country has become so successful that it doesn't have a big impact.

But it does hurt people wanting to get a mortgage. People want to buy a house. He's a terrible -- he's a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed. I was surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him. But they did.

So we're not planning on doing anything. We're very concerned. He's doing a little renovation for $2.5 billion at the Fed, building a renovation. And they have a close to $900 million cost to overrun. And it's a shame. But the biggest cost to overrun is the cost to overrun for interest rates, because we should be paying three points lower.

And we would save a trillion a year in interest if that were the case. And all it is, is the stroke of a pen. And that goes for his board, too, because his board is not doing the job, because they should try and rein this guy in. So he's doing a lousy job. But, no, I'm not talking about that. We get -- fortunately, we get to make a change in the next, what, eight months or so.

And we will pick somebody that's good and we will pick somebody. I just want a fair job. We want to see lower interest rates. Our country deserves it. We're making a lot of money. We're doing great as a country. We have no inflation, record stock market, record business, record everything. Everything's a record now.

We had the worst inflation in history under Biden. And now we have almost no inflation. We have done a great job. And we should have the interest rates cut.

QUESTION: So you were saying the other day that Scott Bessent, you're so happy with him at Treasury, that he's not your top option to replace Jerome Powell, whenever that may be, whenever you decide what you want to do with him.

Is...

TRUMP: No, Scott's doing a very good job. No, I'm very happy with Scott.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Is Kevin Hassett on the top of your list?

TRUMP: Kevin is somebody we would consider him, sure. Kevin is fantastic too.

We have a lot of good people for that job. It's not a tough job, to be honest. Assuming you're smart, it's not a tough job. But if you're a dummy, then I guess it's a tough job. But it might be one of the easiest jobs I have ever seen. And now, on top of it, he's building a close to $3 billion little nest egg for himself.

He's not doing the right job. We should be saving a trillion a year in interest. When he talks about costs, we should be saving. Think of it, a trillion a year. Add that with the tariffs and everything else. But he just doesn't want -- he's a knucklehead.

But we will see how that -- we will see how -- he's listening to this. That's a strange conversation. But we like to say it like it is. But we have a lot of people that want that job very badly. And I'm only interested in low interest people, frankly, because you don't need.

I know -- so they had the 71 different economists and people that they -- experts that they picked about a month ago. I was the only one, along with one person from maybe the Wharton School of Finance, the two of us got it right; 69 people, including Powell, got it wrong. And he wants to hire thousands of new people to help them decide where we're going.

And if he -- it only takes one good mind. It doesn't take 5,000 good minds. So they're expanding the Fed. It's the dumbest thing I have heard of. But it's very autonomous.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Are you completely ruling out the idea of firing Jerome Powell?

TRUMP: I don't rule out anything. But I think it's highly unlikely unless he has to leave fraud. I mean, it's possible there's fraud involved with the $2.5 billion, $2.7 billion renovation. This is a renovation. How do you spend $2.7 billion?

And he didn't have proper clearance, et cetera, et cetera. So you know that's going on. So there could be something to that. But I think he's not doing a good job. He's got a very easy job to do. You know what he has to do? Lower interest rates.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: If you decide that you are going to fire him, have you drafted a letter?

TRUMP: No, I haven't drafted a letter.

QUESTION: So you didn't show a letter to Republican lawmakers last night?

TRUMP: No, I talked about the concept of firing him. I said, what do you think?

Almost every one of them said I should. But I'm more conservative than they are.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: No, we did. We talked about it.

In fact, we had 11 of the 12 people here yesterday for a very big bill having to do with crypto, et cetera, and other things. And we -- all of the votes are going with us, every single vote. But, during the conversation, when we were talking about it, I asked, what would you do about that?