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The Situation Room

Now, Trump on Way to Summit With Putin in Alaska; D.C. Attorney General Sues Trump Admin Over Police Takeover; Retail Sales Climbed 0.5 Percent in July. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 15, 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, Trump and Putin face-to-face. Right now, President Trump is on his way to Alaska with peace in Ukraine on the line.

Plus, Bondi doubles down. The attorney general is now appointing an emergency police commissioner for D.C. and ending the city's sanctuary city policy.

And breaking right now, the district's A.G. is now suing the Trump administration. He will join us live this hour.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The search for Austin Tice. 13 years after the American journalist was kidnapped in Syria, his family is still fighting to bring him home. His mother will join us live right here in The Situation Room.

Plus, strengthening storm right now, Tropical Storm Erin is churning in the Atlantic. It's set to become a major hurricane in the next couple of days. We're going to bring you the latest forecast.

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 breaking news. Right now, President Trump is on his way to Anchorage, Alaska, for a one-on-one meeting with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. The high-stakes Summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson will focus on a possible ceasefire in Ukraine, but neither Ukraine nor its European allies will be directly involved in today's talks.

The future of Ukraine and even the security of Europe potentially could be shaped by today's talks. More than three years ago, Russia's military ambitions unleashed the deadliest fighting in Europe since World War II.

And new this morning, President Trump's traveling party may also offer a glimpse into the possible areas of discussion. In addition to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the special envoy, Steve Witkoff, the president is bringing his top two economic advisers along with him, the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, have been at the center of President Trump's efforts to broker new global trade deals and Russia has been clear that it wants to improve economic ties.

Here's what the president said about all of this aboard Air Force One just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We get along. It's a good respect level on both sides. And I think, you know, something's going to come of it. I noticed he's bringing a lot of business people from Russia. And that's good. I like that because he'll want to do business, but they're not doing business until we get the war settled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're following all the developing angles of this very important and historic story that's unfolding. CNN's Jim Sciutto is in Anchorage along with Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes, Nick Paton Walsh is in the capital of Ukraine, and CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow.

Let's begin with CNN Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto. Jim, what is expected to come out of today's meeting?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Wolf, it's been interesting. Listening to the White House over the last several hours, it is alternated, I would say, between tamping down expectations, calling the meeting, quote, a listening session. But President Trump has also said he believed that Putin does want to make a deal and puts the odds of failure at just 25 percent.

Just minutes ago, a senior European diplomat told me that the president and his team are, quote, well prepared and well aligned with Europeans, end quote. That's notable because, of course, there have been very public differences between European leaders and the U.S president over Ukraine over the last several months. The president has suggested that if progress is made here in Anchorage, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy could join him and Putin in Alaska for a second meeting of the three of them.

Zelenskyy and his European allies, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, have said that no deals can be made today without their approval. They want to be involved. It's understandable. Zelenskyy wants to see an immediate, unconditional ceasefire today. President Trump would like to secure a second meeting between Zelenskyy, Putin and possibly himself.

Putin wants to, he says, reset U.S.-Russia relations more broadly and eventually keep the four regions of Ukraine Russia invaded and took by force of arms.

CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes is with me here in Anchorage.

[10:05:02] Kristen, you know, it's interesting listening to the president's comments on Air Force One, as he's been flying over, it seemed like there were things he said that I imagine Ukrainians would take some comfort from. He said, for instance, there would be no agreement on land swaps without Ukraine, but also things that might worry them, saying that while there may be security guarantees for Ukraine following an agreement, U.S. won't be involved, or at least won't be involved in having forces on the ground.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right, so that Europe would have to lead the way there. And that was kind of the sense that we've gotten from this White House overall when it comes to these security promises. He stopped short of saying that the United States would be really involved at all, but then kind of pivoted to this idea that it would be Europe.

I do think that what we're looking at is a very different President Trump mindset than we saw the last time these two sat down during his first term. Because you're starting to see President Trump come to the same understanding that so many U.S. presidents before him have that Putin cannot be trusted, that Putin offers a lot of lip service, something Trump has said himself now, but then doesn't follow through on those actions.

You're also seeing the president really leaning on his European allies in a way that we haven't seen almost ever before, reaching out to them multiple times before this sit-down, saying that the next meeting would have Zelenskyy and even potentially some European leaders, and as you said, your source noting that the Europeans are aware of what President Trump is prepared or not prepared to do. This has been a conversation that is really included a lot of parties in a way, again, President Trump doesn't seem to often do.

SCIUTTO: It's such a great point that a series of U.S. presidents, Bush 43, Obama with the reset button, Trump himself and his first term, and then Biden again, each one thought that if I could just sit down with Putin, I could fundamentally change this relationship. They were all disappointed. I wonder, when you say that the president is approaching this differently, that he's in close touch with his European allies and listening to them and leaning on them, from speaking to White House officials, are you saying that his view of Putin has genuinely changed, that he's genuinely disappointed and doesn't trust him the way he used to?

HOLMES: He's been genuinely disappointed, and to some extent, he's been embarrassed by him. Remember, one of the things that President Trump said on the campaign was that he truly believed that this conflict could be ended by him because of his relationship with Putin. And instead, he's been, in his own words, tapped along by Putin on a number of occasions now. The two of them would talk on the phone. He would make promises to President Trump.

President Trump would start talking about it, and then he would go back on his word to President Trump, something, again, other U.S. presidents have had the same experience with. It just took President Trump longer to get there because he seemed to believe that he had a unique relationship with Vladimir Putin. But he's come to realize that he likely doesn't. And this is why he wants to sit down face-to-face with him. He's tired of having these phone calls. He actually believes he might be able to suss him out, get a real read on him. Remember, this is what Trump believes his specialty is, right, is reading people, doing deals --

SCIUTTO: In the first few minutes, he said yesterday.

HOLMES: Exactly. And he truly believes that. He believes that he might be able to get a feel for Vladimir Putin. So, that's why you're starting to see this meeting too. But he definitely is in a different mindset about the Russian president than he's ever been in before.

SCIUTTO: Well, we'll see if that leads to an agreement and we'll see what the Russian president is, is willing to give when he sits down with President Trump.

Kristen Holmes, I know you'll be covering it. Thanks so much.

We will, of course, be keeping close tabs on all developments today. It's a truly consequential meeting, Wolf and Pam, for the U.S. president, for the Russian president, of course, for the people of Ukraine.

BROWN: It absolutely is, and we are covering all the angles from this. Thanks, Jim. We'll check back in with you soon.

I want to bring in CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joining us from Kyiv.

So, what is Ukraine watching for today, Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I think they are hoping that they do not see what has been the pattern in the past when Trump and Putin get together, that the White House leader is dragged back towards the Russian narrative, the narrative that he was echoing months ago, round about the time of the Oval Office blowouts with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy himself has acknowledged today that the meeting is high- stakes, I think trying to remind people in a post he just put out about the fact that there is an ongoing war here in which Russia is making progress on the frontlines. Zelenskyy talking about shoring up the Pokrovsk area, where Russia's made progress and saying he's receiving intelligence reports about what Russia's plans are.

Remember, Ukraine does not believe for one second they genuinely want peace. They do, Ukraine, where the European allies want a ceasefire, want the current frontlines to be the starting point for negotiations, but deeply wary and suspicious of Putin's motivation here and wary of the timing too.

Each week, Putin's gained since May when the Istanbul process sort have staggered along at a junior level and managed to interrupt the idea for the first time of a trilateral summit between Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin, that Zelenskyy opposing and Trump backed. [10:10:02]

He's had time to prosecute this offensive along the frontlines.

We've seen aerial assaults lessened to some degree over the past weeks, but I think there are real concerns here that if there isn't a deal, they may resume. And that the kind of deal that Putin wants to strike is entirely different to that which is in Ukraine's favor.

I think there are deep concerns that you might see Putin offering arms deals with the United States economic incentives, bilateral improvement of their relationships that makes fixing the war in Ukraine, something that Trump is less focused on immediately or willing to allow to be met and talked about in subsequent summits or meetings.

So, real anxiety here about how unpredictable, regardless of the preparation insurances beforehand, that actual meeting will be.

BROWN: Understandably. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: And, Pamela. I want to get Moscow's perspective on today's talks. CNN Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow. He is joining us right now. What are you hearing from the Kremlin today, Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Wolf. Well, first of all, maybe a bit of breaking news, the Russian spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, he came out a couple of minutes ago and he assured the viewers and the listeners that the Russian president will take off for Alaska on time. So, in other words, this time, the Russian leader won't be late.

Of course, Vladimir Putin is known for notoriously being late to meetings. And if you recall the last summit in Helsinki between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, I think at that point he kept President Trump waiting for about an hour. So, the Russians seeming to indicate that that's not going to happen this time, maybe also an indication of how seriously the Russians are taking this summit. That certainly is the projection that they're giving.

Vladimir Putin at this point in time is still in Eastern Russia in a town called Magadan, where he had several meetings there with local officials. He went to a local factory there as well. But should the next couple of minutes start making his way on that roundabout four- hour flight from Magadan to Alaska.

The Russians are saying that, for them, there's several issues that are on the table. Of course, first and foremost, they do acknowledge that Ukraine is going to be the main and by far the most important topic that the two leaders are going to be talking about. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister who is already on the ground in Alaska, saying that Russia feels that it has very strong arguments in that case. He said that he was not going to be willing to say what exactly is going to come out of the summit or what the Russians hope will come out of the summit. But he does believe that it's going to be a frank face-to-face talk, especially between President Trump and Russian leader of Vladimir Putin.

But then, as Nick was saying, certainly, the vibe that we're getting here on the ground in Moscow over the past couple of days from Russian officials is that, of course, they also want to talk about other topics as well. They want to make this about a larger reset of U.S.- Russia relations possibly in the future, offering business deals, sanctions relief, obviously a big thing as well, possible minerals deals, especially in the Arctic regions. That's one of the reasons why the Russians think that Alaska is so important in all of this.

So, for the Russians, several topics, but, of course, they understand that for President Trump, by far the most important one will be Ukraine. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Fred Pleitgen in Moscow for us, Fred, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And, Wolf, our coverage continues on today's historic meeting between President Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. We're going to talk live with a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee about what he wants to see from today's summit.

BLITZER: Plus, one of the biggest sticking points is land with Ukraine, adamant it will not surrender any territory seized by Russia during the war. We're going to show you where negotiations stand right now.

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

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BLITZER: New this morning, the Washington, D.C. attorney general is now suing the Trump administration. This comes as a challenge to the attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, further asserting her power right here in Washington. Bondi announced an emergency police commissioner for the nation's capital, the current head of the DEA, Terry Cole. She's also ending sanctuary city policies that restricted D.C. police from assisting with immigration enforcement.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is joining me here in the situation room. Gabe, who exactly is in charge of the Metropolitan Police force right now? Would it be the White House, the mayor, or the police chief?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that, Wolf, is the million dollar question today, and it's one that we can't really answer. If you ask the White House, they say that it is Pam Bondi and Terry Cole, who are now in charge of the Metropolitan Police Department. If you ask the city, they say that is not lawful, and that is the reason that we are seeing just in the last couple hours, the filing of this lawsuit from DC's attorney general suing the Trump administration over this latest escalation from Pam Bondi late last night when she announced that Terry Cole is officially the emergency police commissioner, essentially ousting Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith.

I want to read this statement from the attorney general of D.C., Brian Schwab, who said, by declaring a hostile takeover of MPD, the administration is abusing its limited, temporary authority under the Home Rule Act infringing on the district's right to self-governance and putting the safety of D.C. residents and visitors at risk. This is the gravest threat to home rule that the district has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.

So, essentially, they're arguing that the Trump administration is brazenly violating the Home Rule Act, stripping D.C. of its autonomy and arguing that that law really says that the president is allowed to ask the mayor for law enforcement assistance here locally, but really for federal purposes, for protecting federal property or federal workers, not to unilaterally strip D.C. of autonomy and say, we now run your police department.

[10:20:14]

They are asking for a temporary restraining order from a judge today. It hasn't been scheduled as far as we know quite yet. But the answer to your question may come in the coming hours, who really is running the Metropolitan Police Department?

BLITZER: Very, very strong words from the D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwab, who's going to be joining us live here in The Situation Room. That's coming up. We have a lot of important questions for him.

How else are the residents of Washington, D.C., and the population of D.C. is, what, about 700,000 U.S. citizens who live in Washington, D.C., how are they and the local authorities responding?

COHEN: Well, look, there have been tense moments that we have seen, particularly at night with some of the increased federal law enforcement patrols from FBI, from Customs and Border, from DEA and, of course, the National Guard presence that we have seen on the National Mall or outside Union Station.

It is causing some tension. There are plenty of residents who argue this is not necessary. Remember, the president has said there is this crime emergency in D.C. The data from D.C. police shows that crime has actually been declining over the past couple years after it spiked in 2023.

So, a lot of people in this city say the president is way overstepping. They do not want to see federal law enforcement out on the streets, outside restaurants, outside homes. And you know, with the escalation that we're now seeing, it's unclear if those tensions are only going to boil over here.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. It's a very tense time in D.C. right now as you and I can testify personally. We've seen it unfold.

Gabe Cohen, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And, Wolf, breaking this morning, the Commerce Department is reporting that retail sales went up by 0.5 percentage points last month, but American consumers are feeling less confident despite low unemployment rates.

So, let's go live now to CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich, Vanessa, what story do these numbers tell?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It essentially tells us that the consumer is feeling resilient in the face of tariff headwinds. This is a solid report. This showed that consumers were willing to open their wallets, and it's important because consumer spending drives about 70 percent of U.S. GDP growth. The numbers really signal a solid report here. You have a half a percentage point in terms of retail spending in the month of July and then year-over-year spending up almost 4 percent. And this really indicates that consumers are willing to spend and maybe also trying to still get ahead of some of those higher tariff rates that hit this month.

Also, it signals that businesses maybe up until now have been absorbing much of those price increases because of tariffs. And if you look at this bar chart, you can see now that we've had two continuous months of increased retail spending, and actually June's numbers were revised up to nearly almost 1 percent.

Now, the categories that really have driven this retail report are spending on motor vehicles, so cars and car parts up 1.6 percent, furniture, that's a bigger ticket item, those are also heavily tariffed items, furniture up 1.4 percent. But then you saw a pullback from consumers of spending on electronics, down 0.6 percent. And restaurants and bars, Pamela, this has been a sort of weak category over the last couple months. It is a signal that consumers might be starting to pull back a little bit because that's really discretionary spending. Restaurants and bars are extra, and signs that there may be weakening could be seen in that category as consumers start to pull back a little bit.

BROWN: All right. Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: Also new this morning, hurricane hunters are on the move in the Atlantic as Tropical Storm Erin is expected to gain strength very quickly, potentially intensifying to a major hurricane. They are on the ground right now on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands waiting for the storm to intensify so they can gather more data.

Tropical storm Erin is expected to bring strong storm surges to Florida and other parts of the East Coast. A live picture here of Miami where things are calm, at least for now, but that potentially could change very quickly.

Let's go live to CNN's Derek Van Dam. He's over at the CNN Weather Center tracking all of this for us. How big could this storm potentially get, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Look, Wolf, we are on the verge of having our first Atlantic hurricane of the season and our first major hurricane. It's really off to the races from here. As you mentioned, the hurricane hunters are in the storm, as we speak, sampling every quadrant of what is now Tropical Storm Erin. And as it does so, it's found lower pressure, it's found increased wind speed, and it's also found a stacked eye. So, it's really just getting into its act together for potential strengthening going forward.

But as it stands right now, still a tropical storm at 70 miles per hour or about 500 miles to the east of the Northern Leeward Islands.

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Remember, we get an update from the National Hurricane Center, an official cone forecast update as we head into the 11:00 A.M. hour. So, that's what we'll monitor. We still have tropical storm watches for the Northern Leeward Islands, including St. Martin, Barbados. But look at the forecast. We do call for a hurricane here going forward today, major hurricane by the end of the weekend, potentially Category 4.

And then look at that curve, very important. We'll talk about those details in a second. But notice Puerto Rico, the Northern Leeward Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands have the potential for tropical storm force winds because they're on the outer fringes of this storm with a core staying just north of the islands. But this high is really going to help steer it away from the East Coast. That's what we see. Certainly big wave impacts for the entire eastern seaboard next week. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. We'll watch to see, get what the forecast tells us.

Derek Van Dam, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: Coming up, Wolf. We're going to go back to our Jim Sciutto in Anchorage. He's going to look at what some U.S. lawmakers want from today's Trump-Putin summit. A very busy Friday for us. We'll be right back.

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