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The Situation Room

President Trump Meets With U.K. Prime Minister in Scotland; Trump on Hamas, Israel May Have to Do It a Different Way; U.S. Reaches Terms for Trade Deal With European Union. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 28, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: -- never had the privilege of going to his island.

[10:00:01]

And I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn't want to go to his island.

Yes?

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE), what will you ask him to do?

TRUMP: Say it what? Louder.

REPORTER: Next time you speak Netanyahu, what were you asking to do --

TRUMP: Well, I'm going to say, look, we're giving money and we're giving food, but we're over here and we're over in the United States, and I think I can speak for the prime minister. We are giving money and things. He's got to sort of like run it.

Well, I want them to make sure they get the food open. I want to make sure they get the food, every ounce of food. I think you want the same thing?

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Yes, absolutely.

TRUMP: Because that food isn't being delivered, or at least all of it.

REPORTER: You said you were going to set essentially a tariff for the rest of the world.

TRUMP: For the world.

REPORTER: What percent will that tariff be?

TRUMP: I would say it'll be somewhere in the 15 to 20 percent range.

REPORTER: So, maybe 15 or 20 or?

TRUMP: No. I said, you know, I sort of know, but I just want to be nice, I would say in the range of 15 to 20 percent.

REPORTER: Could you also (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: Probably one of those two numbers.

REPORTER: U.K. steel and aluminum (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Aluminum? You're a pretty big aluminum maker.

STARMER: Yes. That's already covered in the deal that we've agreed. So, we're just doing the implementation of that.

REPORTER: But, Mr. President, when will that come down from 25 percent to zero?

TRUMP: You mean on the overall, on the world?

REPORTER: On steel and aluminum from Britain? It's 25.

TRUMP: Well, we're going to know pretty soon. We're going to have it pretty soon then.

You have no idea that these people are tough negotiators, okay? But we're a big buyer of steel, but we're going to make our own steel and we're going to make our own aluminum for the most part. But we buy a lot of aluminum from right here and a lot of steel too.

STARMER: Yes.

TRUMP: Who are you with? Who are you with? Because you're asking such a nice question.

REPORTER: G.B. News (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Very good. They're lucky.

REPORTER: We have a lot of unhappy farmers in this country at the moment and I'm sure (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: You mean they're going to lose the farm because of estate taxes, aren't they? So, what I've done --

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) pay so much, their cash flow is (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: I know. Well, their cash flow, their land rich and cash flow. A lot of people are. I've had that too. I've had -- sometimes I'm land rich and sometimes I'm cash rich and land poor. I like it both ways. But as they get older, I like the more conservative route.

So, I did something that I don't know if you can do, but it was great. I love our farmers. As you know, in our tax bill, we have a clause that's very important. We were losing a lot of farms to the banks because a mother, a loving mother and father would die and left their farm to their children or their child, but their children, their family. And they loved their family and they thought they were doing them a favor, but they had a 50 percent tax to pay, so the land would get valued and at a high number, because some of the farms were valuable, but they didn't -- you know, they couldn't quantify it. And they'd go out and borrow money to pay the estate tax or the death taxes, it's called. And they'd overextend and they'd lose the farm and they'd commit suicide in many cases.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

STARMER: No. Our levels are nowhere near 50 percent. They're not. We've just introduced where it's paid over many years, works out --

TRUMP: Well, that's good.

STARMER: -- an extra 2 percent a year over ten years. So, it's not at those levels by any s stretch of the imagination. But the other thing that we've done, as you know, is make sure that we've got a pathway for farmers that actually increases their year-on-year income, which is the most important thing. And in all of the deals that we do, we ensure that our farmers are the central focus for much of it, particularly on the agriculture, in including in the U.S. deal, because I don't think we can go on for years saying that it's acceptable for farmers to have a year-on-year income, which isn't sufficient. We've got to fix that problem. We can't simply live with that problem. So, it's a very different situation.

TRUMP: Well, we ended the estate tax. There is no estate tax on farmers. So, when a parent leaves their farm, because, again, a lot of these farms, they don't make a lot of money, but it's a way of life and they love their way of life and they love that dirt. That dirt is the most beautiful thing they've ever seen. They love it. I mean, they're farmers. They love doing -- they don't know how to do anything else, but they don't want to do anything else. I speak to farmers. I say, would you like to live in my penthouse in Manhattan? It's always beautiful. No, sir, I want this farm.

Now, what happens is, I mean, we were losing a lot of people to suicide.

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They'd buy -- they'd borrow money to pay the estate tax, and they wouldn't -- were not able to pay it. And some banks are ruthless, they wouldn't do anything and they would end up committing suicide. We have totally ended the estate tax. So, those situations -- so there's no estate tax. So when a parent leaves the farm to the kids, they don't have to worry about their local, possibly unfriendly banker coming in and stealing their farm.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) one of the hot button issues in prison is migrants being housed in hotels to keep them in communities not being safe. Is that an appropriate place to have?

TRUMP: I don't like anything about it. They shouldn't be allowed in. Anybody illegally should not be allowed in the country. Thank you all very much. Thank you.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off today. You're in The Situation Room.

And we've all been listening to President Trump speaking in Scotland as he meets with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer. They're meeting in the face of crises, including Israel's war with Hamas as it grinds on and on, and the threat of starvation is clearly escalating in Gaza right now. International concerns are growing as the world sees truly heartbreaking images of death and desperation.

President Trump says more countries are joining efforts to deliver aid. But with ceasefire talks collapsing just in the past few days, President Trump says Israel may need to change tactics in dealing with Hamas.

CNN's Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny is joining us right now. He's on the scene in Scotland. Jeff, so what else did the president say? Well, Wolf, it was clear that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Donald Trump shared one voice and spoke in unison against the scenes that they are seeing from Gaza, the humanitarian images, President Trump saying that talking specifically about the food centers, he said the U.S. would help set up, Prime Minister Starmer talking about the revulsion that is swept across the British public.

But the president calling on Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And now possibly the fight will have to be a little bit different, but they have totally changed now. They don't want to give hostages, very unfair. You have 20 living people, in this case living. You have many dead people too that they want to get --

STARMER: (INAUDIBLE) a long time as well.

TRUMP: Yes. They have 20 living people. And I told Israel, I told Bibi that you're going to have to now maybe do it a different way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: You have to do it a different way, President Trump said. He also said he would speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu in the coming days about a more specifics on that. But it was notable President Trump talking at some great length about the starvation images. He said, that's real starvation, you can't fake that.

Of course, his words also stood as a bit of a rebuke to a Prime Minister Netanyahu, who, over the weekend, raised some questions about the actual starvation going on in Gaza. So, certainly, Gaza was one of the overriding issues in a very, very lengthy news conference here in Scotland, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, went on and on for about an hour, indeed, that joint question and answer session with the president and the prime minister.

The president also issued, Jeff, a new ceasefire deadline for Russia's President Vladimir Putin, the Russians continuing their brutal attacks against Ukraine. Tell our viewers about that.

ZELENY: Wolf, that was also very notable. Of course, all eyes have been on Ukraine and Russia for so long now, but it was two weeks ago when President Trump set a 50-day deadline for Russia to come to the table and make some kind of piece. President Trump shortened that dramatically. He said he is disappointed and frustrated in the Russian president. So, now, he said it's a 10 to 12-day timeframe. The president also said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today. There's no reason in waiting. There's no reason in waiting. It's 50 days, I want to be generous, but we just don't see any progress being made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, President Trump said that he's disappointed in Vladimir Putin. He stopped short of saying that he is lying. He was asked that question directly if he believes that President Putin has been lying about his interest in working toward some type of a peace deal.

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But the American president said that the sanctions and new tariffs could be on the table with Russia.

The question, though, in this long evolution of President Trump, he almost sounded wistful, Wolf, as he was talking about what once, in his words, was a friendship with Vladimir Putin now is anything but that. So, he used the word, disappointed, once again, but it's that 10 to 12-day deadline now that is so important. Ukraine, of course, is welcoming that announcement here today. Wolf?

BLITZER: And that deadline now, 10 to 12 days, as opposed to 50 days, very significant because the president once again saying that he would impose secondary sanctions, what he calls secondary sanctions, against countries that trade with Russia. In other words, if you're a country that does a lot of trading with Russia, purchasing Russian oil, for example, India or other countries, you're going to be facing major sanctions from the United States, tariff sanctions and other sanctions as well. This potentially is a significant threat to the Russian economy, I assume, right?

ZELENY: It certainly is. I mean, the Russian economy has been struggling already, as we know. But sanctions would certainly heighten that and enhance that. There have been many Republican members of Congress who were eager to put sanctions on, but there has been a bit of a waiting game for these ongoing deadlines.

So, Wolf, a question that certainly should be raised is this 10 to 12 days an actual deadline, or is this a giving a bit more time here. But in any respects, it is shorter than the 50-day deadline that President Trump made back on July 14th, two weeks ago today. BLITZER: So, the Russians now have 10 to 12 days to stop launching rockets and missiles and drones at targets inside Ukraine. We'll see if they -- if President Putin accepts that or not.

Jeff Zeleny on the scene for us in Scotland, thanks very, very much.

Also, this morning, the Palestinian Health Ministry says 14 people have died from starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in just the last 24 hours. Today, Israel's military responded to the crisis by resuming what's being called a tactical pause that opens routes for funneling aid into parts of the enclave.

International pressure is clearly building on the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who claims there is no hunger crisis in Gaza. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a boldface lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I want to bring in our International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson, who is joining us live from Jerusalem right now. Nic, today, a leading Israeli human rights group accused Israel of committing what's called genocide in Gaza. What has the response been to the Prime Minister Netanyahu saying there is no starvation in Gaza?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, President Trump was asked that question specifically, does he believe Prime Minister Netanyahu? And he said, not particularly. And he pointed to the images that people are seeing on television of starving children. So, I think even the U.S. president there isn't aligning himself with those publicly-stated views of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Some of the other conversations that President Trump had in that press conference were very illuminating because they perhaps seemed to indicate at conversations that he and others are having with the Israeli government about this alternate way to get the hostages released, talking about sort of, almost sort of weighing up the possibility of going and getting them militarily. He said that there would have to be ruthless and violent and even said it's known where these hostages are. But seemed to indicate if you went that route, then there was a real possibility that you wouldn't be able to get all the hostages back, that that was a concern.

So, I think what we've heard from the president today illuminates some of the discussions that he is having with Israel. And another one of those, the president talking about these new aid distribution centers. And it appears throwing away in part or completely the model that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the U.S.-Israeli-backed group that's been distributing aid in Gaza, that's been heavily criticized for the number of deaths and casualties of people have gone there and gone into these sort of long wire cages, these controlled areas to get aid, President Trump saying that would not be the way going forward in these new locations.

So, again, I think a sense here of where the president has a different view from Prime Minister Netanyahu, Wolf.

[10:15:02]

BLITZER: Clearly unfolding. Nic Robertson, thank you very, very much.

Also new this morning, President Trump announcing the framework for a trade deal with the European Union. The deal comes after months of talks and avoids potentially destructive trade war. The framework calls for a 15 percent across the board tariff on imports from the 27- nation bloc, the E.U. The president calls it the biggest deal ever made, his words the biggest deal ever made.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining us right now. Matt, walk us through this deal.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well Wolf, this is significant because it means that both sides have averted what would have been a self-destructive transatlantic trade war.

A lot of the details here, though, they do remain murky. This is not a legally binding agreement. I haven't even seen a White House fact sheet on this. But one thing we do know is the tariff rate. This framework calls for a 15 percent tariff on imports from the E.U., and this is lower than the 30 percent rate that had been threatened by the president starting on Friday.

However, let's make no mistake here. This is not a cut to tariffs. This is an increase. It's an increase from the current level of 10 percent. It's an increase from the 2024 average tariff rate of 1.2 percent. And economists, they say that the bulk of these higher tariffs are going to be paid by consumers and businesses.

And, look, the E.U. is the biggest source of imports into the United States. Last year alone, the U.S. bought more than $600 billion of goods from the E.U., everything from pharmaceuticals and cars to car parts, autos, alcohol, and machinery as well.

As far as what else is in this, again, the details are a little bit murky. The president says the E.U. has agreed to buy $750 billion of U.S. energy. He says that the E.U. has agreed to invest an extra $600 billion in the U.S. And in a win for European consumers and U.S. businesses, there's a 0 percent tariff on U.S. exports to the E.U.

But at the end of the day here, countries that reach a deal with the United States, they face higher tariffs than they did a year ago. Countries that don't reach a deal, they also face higher tariffs than a year ago. And that's why Mary Lovely from the Peterson Institute, she told me that U.S. businesses and consumers still remain the biggest losers from these trade deals. Wolf?

BLITZER: And what do they say about the argument that this 15 percent tariff on all imports coming from the European Union into the United States, 15 percent will raise the price of various products imported from the Europeans? It's basically a tax on American customers.

EGAN: That's exactly right. And, again, the E.U. is a major source of imports into the U.S. You think about it, pharmaceuticals, aircraft, alcohol, all of these items faced dramatically lower tariffs just about six or seven months ago. And now the question is, what does this 15 percent tariff do to consumer prices and to the overall economy? And, Wolf, we're going to find out very soon.

BLITZER: We certainly will. Matt Egan reporting for us, thanks very, very much.

Still ahead, sliding to safety passengers forced to slide out of an American Airlines plane on the tarmac in Denver. Now, the FAA is investigating what went wrong.

And next, on the ground in Gaza, I'll speak to the project coordinator for the organization, Doctors Without Borders, on what she's seeing there as more aid is beginning to trickle in. Is it enough?

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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[10:20:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, Palestinian health officials now say 14 more people died of starvation in Gaza in the last 24 hours. Food has begun moving into Gaza once again after Israel's military announced a daily tactical pause to let in more humanitarian aid. But one man who got a bag of flour for his family questioned how food was being given out. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The way of aids distribution is very harmful and dangerous, but we go out for the sake of children because a child cries telling you, uncle, I want a loaf of bread. It breaks your heart. It feels like a million knives into your heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now, Caroline Willemen, she's a project coordinator for the organization, Doctors Without Borders, and she's joining us now live from inside Gaza. Caroline, thank you so much for doing what you're doing, and thanks so much for joining us.

Have you seen things change since aids started moving in into Gaza a little bit more readily?

CAROLINE WILLEMEN, GAZA PROJECT COORDINATOR, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: It's extremely early to be able to say that things are changing. You have to keep in mind that indeed we are talking about a population that has not have had access to food in months. In our primary healthcare clinic where we screen every child under the age of five last week, 25 percent of these kids under the age of five were malnourished.

We do see today, I saw some flour in the markets. For example, there might be a small drop in the prices. But given how long this blockade has already lasted, how hungry people are, how many malnourished people there are, it will take a long time for things to stabilize and it will take a much higher flow of aid and a much -- yes, it will need more aid to come in order to really be able to feed the, the desperate population here.

[10:25:01]

BLITZER: So, I take it, Caroline, that not enough food and other humanitarian aid is coming into Gaza now to fully address the hunger crisis there.

WILLEMEN: Absolutely. At this moment it is absolutely not enough. You need to keep in mind that in spring, there were a few months of a total, total blockade with nothing entering Gaza. Then now since May, we've had a few months with a small, small trickle of food. People have been hungry for months. And you also need to keep in mind that before this war started, hundreds of trucks would enter the Gaza Strip every single day because of the economic blockade.

So, the Gaza Strip is not able with the way that things are at the moment to provide food for the population here, even before the war. And so with the desperate situation and the desperate levels of malnutrition that people are already in, we need much more aid to come in than what we are seeing now. We're seeing the airdrops as well. We can say, okay -- desperately need aids.

It is also important to mention that these airdrops are -- can be very dangerous. People do get injured. People might get killed as well. And it's not a way of distributing aid in a dignified and in a safe way. What we have been seeing as well for the past two months are people being shot at, people being killed, being people being maimed at the sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

So, really, what we have been seeing is a policy of people being deprived of food. It is a little bit better since yesterday, but it is nowhere near what we need.

BLITZER: As far as you raise the issue of these airdrops, we know that several countries, including what the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, and even Israel, have started some relatively modest amounts of airdrops of food and humanitarian supplies into Gaza. The U.S. is considering doing the same thing. Is it a good idea or a bad idea?

WILLEMEN: I mean, there are roads, there are trucks, there are people who can bring in the trucks in a way that is a million times safer and more dignified than having food dropping from the sky. We know that this is also an expensive and not usually a very effective way of delivering aid. So, it might be an addition, but it cannot, in any way, replace what is actually needed, which is free access for humanitarian assistance for food aid to come in, and that can be distributed through the U.N. system. BLITZER: We heard from a doctor in Gaza last week who joined me here in The Situation Room, who said there wasn't enough food even for his own staff, in his own hospital in Gaza who were trying to care for people. Our doctors, your doctors and other workers that you're in touch with getting enough to eat so they can continue to do their really important work in saving lives?

WILLEMEN: Very many of my Palestinian colleagues come to work hungry every --

BLITZER: I think we just lost our connection. But go ahead, Caroline, if you can hear me.

WILLIEMEN: So, these are the very doctors, nurses, midwives who are supposed to take care --

BLITZER: All right. Caroline, we'll stay in close touch with you. Thank you very much for all the important work you're doing and we will continue our coverage.

Also coming up, a leading Republican is speaking out about the talk of a possible, a possible pardon for Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice. Why House Speaker Mike Johnson says Ghislaine Maxwell's original prison sentence doesn't even go far enough.

Stay with us.

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