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Putin Says, U.S Making Sincere Efforts to End Ukraine Conflict; Zelenskyy Meets With U.K.'s Starmer Ahead of Trump-Putin War Summit; Wholesale Inflation Surges in July. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 14, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, countdown to Summit. New reporting on the final preparations and escalating rhetoric ahead of President Trump's meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Shoring up support, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer this morning, what was said and the new pictures just in.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus this, outrage here in D.C., protesters confronting federal law enforcement and why U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is saying this. Listen.

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JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR WASHINGTON, D.C.: So, there, stick your subway sandwich somewhere else.

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BLITZER: And later, are you ready for it? Taylor Swift gets candid. How she finally got ownership of her own music to dishing on her relationship.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin this hour with the breaking news. This morning, the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, praising U.S. peace efforts as he gets ready for tomorrow's Alaska Summit with President Trump. Tomorrow's high-stakes meeting crucial and consequential. Here's what the Russian leader said just a few moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: To tell you about the stage we are at with the current American administration, which as everyone knows is making my opinion quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict in order to create long-term conditions of peace between our countries and in Europe and in the world as a whole, if by the next stage we reach agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Putin even raising the stakes to claim optimism of a nuclear weapons deal. The Trump White House is striving to lower expectations of the meeting, calling it a listening session.

Also, new pictures this morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sharing a warm embrace with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer. The two met this morning in London. Zelenskyy says they discussed security guarantees for his country, quote, in detail.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Matthew Chance. He's in Anchorage, Alaska, getting ready for this summit. Matthew, what are you learning this morning?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Wolf. Well, we've learned in the last hour or so that it's been confirmed by the White House and by the Kremlin that after this summit meeting takes place tomorrow here in Anchorage, the joint military base, which is just a short distance behind me here in Anchorage, there will be a joint press conference between the two presidents, Trump and Putin, which is something perhaps we, we didn't quite expect. It's happened before in Helsinki back in 2018, where, you know, President Trump basically sided with President Putin over his own intelligence services on whether or not Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

It is going to be a fascinating opportunity to see the two presidents side by side. And this is the first time they've met, remember, in President Trump's second presidential term, side by side, talking about how the relationship is working out, how the summit has gone. It's going to be very interesting to watch that.

Also, the White House now saying that this summit is for the moment overshadowing the threats of tariffs and sanctions that President Trump had previously made on President Putin if he doesn't come to the table and make a peace deal with Ukraine soon. Take a listen to what Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, had to say on this earlier.

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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Certainly, the president has plenty of tools at his disposal that he could use if necessary, but he has always said that diplomacy and negotiation is his primary way of hoping to end this war.

And so that's what he'll be looking to do tomorrow. But, certainly, there are sanctions and many other measures that the president could utilize if he has to. Not that he wants to, he's willing to.

[10:05:00]

But, again, diplomacy and negotiation has always been the way for this president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: Yes, Karoline Leavitt there. And indeed it's an opportunity for President Trump to do what he said he was going to do before he became president. Remember, he said he'd be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in 24 hours. It's now eight months nearly into his presidency. So, this is, yes, another, you know, opportunity for him to try and sort of make that dream happen.

From President Putin's point of view, well, I mean, it's already been a win. I mean, he's been -- they're looking for a way back to the top table of international politics for some time. This summit has basically handed in that. But he also wants President Trump to agree with him on his terms of how best the Ukrainian war should end.

And so it'd be very interesting to see, you know, what they agree to, what other issues they talk about in that summit, which is going to be taking place here in Anchorage tomorrow, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Matthew Chance in Anchorage for us, thank you very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And, Wolf, this morning we have some new CNN reporting on the shifting dynamics heading into tomorrow's summit. Sources are telling CNN that President Trump has been asking White House aides and European officials what has changed in the Russian leader. President Trump has often bragged about his warm relationship with Putin, but is increasingly frustrated as they prepare to meet for the first time in six years.

CNN's Kylie Atwood is here in The Situation Room. Walk us through what you've learned from your sources about this, Kylie.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so preparing for this summit, we've learned a few things talking to folks, that President Trump in recent months as his anger with President Putin was growing. He was asking Europeans and White House aides what has changed about the Russian leader since they last interacted during President Trump's first term. And one of the things that he has been told is that the COVID pandemic is partially responsible for the change.

Now, during 2022, there were U.S. intelligence officials who believed that Trump had grown -- excuse me, that Putin at the time during COVID had grown increasingly paranoid. He was not seeing as many people. People had to quarantine for two weeks before getting in to see him. And, of course, there are questions about how much that period of time has actually impacted the president's mindset right now, if COVID really impacted the person that Putin is today. But Trump clearly believes that he had a good relationship with President Putin, and he doesn't so much have that now.

Now, where is the current U.S. intelligence assessment going into this summit? Reporting with my colleagues, Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen, we have learned that there are some indications that Putin's short-term ambitions for Ukraine may have shifted. He might be more open to pocketing some of the territorial gains or getting some of the economic deals that Russia has talked about a lot.

But the overarching U.S. intelligence perspective is that he still maintains maximalist demands, maximalist goals when it comes to Ukrainian territory. I want to read to you what one source told us on this topic, saying, quote, Putin thinks he's winning, so he has no reason to bend. That's according to someone who's familiar with the U.S. intelligence assessments.

Now, we don't know how much President Trump is relying on these assessments going into this critical summit tomorrow, but what we do know is that he certainly believes that he will be able to personally assess if President Putin is serious about coming to a deal within the first few minutes. We'll just have to watch and see how that plays out.

BROWN: Yes, I mean, he's obviously downplayed intelligence assessments in the past, even at one point during that notorious press conference with Putin many years ago, taking his word over the U.S. intelligence agency. So, that is an interesting question there.

Thank you so much, Kylie.

BLITZER: All right, Pamela. There's more breaking news we're following right now, rather hot inflation report for the month of July. A crucial indicator of the strength of the American economy, the producer price index, as it's called, coming in higher than expected, wholesale prices rising just over 3 percent on an annual basis and rising nearly 1 percent last month alone. That's the biggest monthly gain since June of 2022.

Let's go live right now to CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich. She is joining us from New York.

Vanessa, help us unpack the significance of this new data and how it potentially impacts Americans.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. So, this is what wholesale producers are paying every single month, and as you mentioned, in the month of July, up 0.9 percent, really well above estimates. That is the steepest increase in what has been three years of tracking this since COVID. And then if you look at it on an annual basis up 3.3 percent, and this was really led by increases on both goods and services, goods rising 0.7 percent, services rising 1.1 percent.

And when we look at the services category, there's something in there that really talks about margins. The margins are profits that wholesalers are making or taking home, so to speak. And that actually increased. And what that is signaling is that businesses are starting to pass down the increased costs to consumers.

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Historically, in these reports, we've seen the margins shrinking, but right now, what we're seeing in this report is that maybe potentially that the cost, because of tariffs, the rising prices, they're going to start passing that down to the consumer.

Some of the categories that we've been tracking, food costs for producers up 1.4 percent, a significant share of the entire report. Fruits and vegetables, dry fruits and vegetables, up almost 39 percent, transportation costs and warehousing up 1 percent, and then hotels and travel up more than 3 percent, and energy costs up almost 1 percent.

The reason why we look at this report so closely, Wolf, is because it really signals what is to come for consumers. Do these businesses decide to continue to eat the costs? This report signals that they're not so keen on doing that anymore.

Also, worth noting, Wolf, that yes, businesses were paying higher prices, but they were also bringing a lot more stuff unto the country. In the month of July, Wolf, the port of Los Angeles had a record month, more than 1 million containers that were moved in that month. That signaled a lot of businesses trying to bring in more things at higher prices before all of the reciprocal tariff pauses expired.

And, of course, that pause with China has been extended, but we know that retailers and importers were really nervous that those tariff rates on China in particular were going to rise. Wolf?

BLITZER: And very quickly, Vanessa, I assume since inflation is going up, it's going to reduce the prospect of the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, reducing interest rates, right?

YURKEVICH: Actually, quite the opposite, Wolf. It actually signals that the Federal Reserve will likely cut interest rates in -- later in September because of the fact that as inflation rises, they want to be able to tame that a little bit. And the only way to do that is to sort of cut interest rates, the amount that people are paying on things like car loans, student loans, et cetera.

So, this report could be sort of the go ahead for the Federal Reserve to cut rates in September. That would be the first rate cut all year, and as we know, really what President Trump has been clamoring for. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. We shall see. Our Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, hundreds of National Guardsmen are arriving on the streets of the nation's capital. New video this morning is showing troops and military vehicles stationed along the National Mall. You see it right here. That is generally one of the safer areas of the city.

As President Trump's plan takes shape, outrage across D.C. is growing. Take a listen to this.

Boos and chants of go home from protesters last night at a checkpoint along one of the city's busiest streets. And here's some D.C. residents. Here's how they're reacting to the increased presence by law enforcement.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't tell if it's just words because I haven't seen much crime and I haven't seen any federal agents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a native. Crime is down. Is there still a whole bunch of other crazy things going on in the city? Yes. But to this escalation, absolutely not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right. Let's go live now to CNN's Gabe Cohen. He is right there at D.C.'s Union Station where National Guard troops and humvees have just arrived. So, Gabe, bring us there. What's going on?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, a pretty quiet, pretty typical Thursday morning out here at Union Station, biggest train station here in D.C. And you can see one of four National Guard humvees that we can see around there, at least a dozen of these troops here. And if you look, you can see on that one, zip ties on his back. That is because most of these National Guard troops are really here just for visibility. They're not here to make arrests. They are just here to assist local police any way they can.

Although I'll tell you, we have also seen FBI agents, DEA agents. We saw some Homeland Security vehicles pull up in front of the train station just a little while earlier. And you could see right in front of me another humvee and another group of National Guard troops right outside just interacting with the public. That's most of what they've been doing out here.

Primarily, their job is visibility. Some of the other officers that we have seen from other agencies, FBI, DEA, they are actually going out and patrolling more of the city working with local law enforcement.

But there's a really interesting power dynamic happening right now between top officials in the city, the mayor, the police chief, and the White House. Because if you ask sources at City Hall here in Washington, which I have, they have said, functionally, right now, the district leaders are still in charge. The police chief is still calling the shots when it comes to local law enforcement efforts. But if you ask the White House, it's Attorney General Pam Bondi and Terry Cole, the head of the DEA, who are the ones actually running the show here.

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So, it'll be interesting to see guys in the coming days, given especially that the president has extended that order federalizing D.C.'s, police force, what that is going to look like, what the dynamic between the two will be.

But we've heard the police chief and the mayor of D.C. say, you know, ramping up federal law enforcement, they don't hate that idea. The police force here is down several hundred officers. They don't mind more visibility, more presence of officers. What they don't like is losing autonomy, when the federal government and the president comes in and says, we now run the local police department.

The question is who is actually running it right now? The sources I'm talking to say it's still the city.

BROWN: And a man in D.C. we should note, has been charged with assaulting a federal agent after he allegedly threw a sandwich at him. Tell us about that.

I don't know if you can hear me, Gabe.

All right, Gabe, thank you so much for reporting there at Union Station. Wolf?

BLITZER: We'll stay on top of this story, to be sure.

And still ahead, we're just over 24 hours away from President Trump's crucial meeting with Russian President Putin. I'll talk with one lawmaker about what she wants to see from this historic meeting that's about to take place in Alaska.

BROWN: And then later, a Situation Room special report into tracking ICE flights as the number of flights surge.

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RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the plane that we've been tracking all morning. This is it. And we just saw like more than 30 detainees handcuffed, walked up those steps and get on board.

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BLITZER: There's breaking news we're following. Russian President Vladimir Putin says, the White House is making, and I'm quoting now, energetic and sincere efforts to end the war with Ukraine, this just the day before Putin meets face-to-face with President Trump in Alaska.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrapping up a meeting, a separate meeting in London this morning, with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer. Zelenskyy and European leaders held virtual talks with President Trump yesterday about his upcoming summit with Putin.

Here's what President Trump said after that meeting, when asked what happens if Putin does not agree to peace?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: There will be -- I don't have to say there will be very severe consequences. Yes. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Trump previously tamped down expectations for the Putin summit, calling a, quote, a feel-out meeting.

The White House confirming moments ago that President Trump and President Putin will hold a joint news conference later in the day tomorrow.

And joining us now, Democratic Congresswoman Julie Johnson of Texas. She's a key member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us.

I know you heard President Trump's threat for, quote, very severe consequences, as far as Russia's concerned, if Putin doesn't agree to end his war in Ukraine tomorrow. Do you support the president's efforts?

REP. JULIE JOHNSON (D-TX): Well, you know, we all support peace, right? Everybody wants to have a lasting peace in Ukraine and in Europe and for everyone. But the problem with what we're seeing right now is not everyone is at the table. You know, obviously, Zelenskyy needs to be at the table. Obviously, he's invoking the British prime minister in Europe. They need to be at the table. So, the fact that this is just the Putin-Trump meeting, I think, is just a little premature and doesn't have everyone there that needs to be there for a lasting piece to be achieved.

BLITZER: If Presidents Trump and Putin cannot make any sort of real progress tomorrow, what more can the U.S. do to punish Russia for this war, which the Russians started?

JOHNSON: Well, I think there's a lot that we can do. You know, sanctions is clearly something, sanctioning other countries that do business with Russia. Economic sanctions are a very key effective tool and there's other diplomatic things.

But, you know, one of the things we're very concerned about is, you know, the Trump administration has dismantled many of their Russian specialists that have worked for the United States State Department for many years. So, who knows what experts they have left there. And the fact that, you know, Zelenskky was -- and met with Putin without any Russian-U.S.-trained people to help him in that meeting was just outrageous the other day.

And so, you know, I have a lot of concerns about what Trump is actually willing to do with the heavy hand with Putin going forward.

BLITZER: Based on all of your briefings, Congresswoman, briefings you've received as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, what is it that Putin really wants the most out of these talks with President Trump?

JOHNSON: Well, he's gotten it a lot. The fact that he is being received by the United States president on American soil, just that alone is a huge win for Putin. And he's going to take that back as a big victory, just the fact that the meeting in itself is happening.

And, you know, there's always been this strange relationship between Trump and Putin going forward. That's something that has mystified many U.S. security experts. You know, what is it about their relationship, why Trump seems to be so beholden to Putin. And I think just the fact that they have this meeting, who knows with Trump, right? He's very, very unpredictable and his ego drives more than the policy.

And so I'm very concerned about what can happen given the fact that not all of the key players are at the table.

BLITZER: All right. Congresswoman Julie Johnson of Texas, thanks so much for joining us.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

BLITZER: Pamela?

BROWN: And coming up, Wolf, a Situation Room special report, why ICE flights are getting harder and harder to track.

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BLITZER: Now a Situation Room special report. As the number of people deported by Immigration, Customs and Enforcement, the planes carrying them are becoming harder and harder than ever to track.

CNN's as Rene Marsh tracked down one of those planes as it flew across the United States.

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MARSH: More than 30 migrants, detainees handcuffed, walked up those steps and get on board, one, two, three, four more detainees.