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What We Know with Max Foster
Iran & Europe Hold High-Stakes Talks In Switzerland; Trump To Decide On Potential U.S. Strikes On Iran Within "Two Weeks"; U.S. Judge Orders Release Of Pro-Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil; Trump Speaks To Reporters On The Tarmac In New Jersey. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired June 20, 2025 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:32]
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Tense but positive. That's how Iranian sources are characterizing high stakes talks which have just wrapped up in
Geneva.
This is WHAT WE KNOW.
They were last ditch diplomatic pushes, really, to try to keep the Iran- Israel crisis from spiraling into a regional conflict.
Top diplomats from Europe and Iran just wrapping up their meetings in Switzerland. It was a short while ago. It was the first confirmed face-to-
face talks since the conflict began last week.
Underscoring the importance of the discussions, the British foreign secretary calls this a perilous moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LAMMY, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: We were clear, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. We urge Iran to continue their talks with the United
States. This is a perilous moment, and it is hugely important that we don't see regional escalation of this conflict.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, CNN's Matthew Chance spoke to Iran's foreign minister after those talks. He says Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again and
added that Tehran is open to future meetings with officials from the E.U.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Iran's presidency tells CNN diplomacy between Tehran and Washington can easily be restarted if President Trump orders
Israel to stop the strikes on Iran.
Israel's foreign minister says he's skeptical about the prospects for a diplomatic solution to this crisis. Earlier, he spoke with our Nic
Robertson in Haifa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: What's your understanding of the diplomatic talks between the Iranian foreign minister
and the European foreign ministers in Geneva? Are they making progress? What is your assessment of what's happening there?
GIDEON SA'AR, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, frankly, I was always skeptical with regard to diplomatic talks with the Iranians because they
are misleading. And even until now, we hadn't heard anything from them, which hints they want to change direction. And they are even close to the
American demands. So, as I said, I'm skeptical about it. And our operation will continue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Let's turn to CNN's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward. She's live in Tel Aviv.
I mean, you've covered this sort of diplomacy many times. Just tell us, well, what's going on.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, it's actually not an easy question to answer, Max. I think that the Israelis
publicly are very cautious about what they're saying in terms of responding to the fact that President Trump has basically extended the deadline for
two weeks here. And what that means for their operations and what that means in terms of their ability to continue to keep up the momentum and how
it changes their calculations vis-a-vis Fordow the core, if you like, the heart of Iran's nuclear program, a very complex target, deep underneath a
mountain.
Privately, Israeli officials are saying a number of different things. Some of them are, perhaps optimistically thinking that this two-week deadline is
actually smoke and mirrors to sort of throw Iran off the scent. And they're hoping that President Trump will still intervene militarily.
Others say that they are concerned by what they call a zigzagging back and forth, seeming to change his mind on any given day. And what that means
going forward is certainly not clear. But still, the party line is not to be critical, not to pass judgment, not to be seen in any way, shape or
form, to be strong-arming the U.S. president or trying to pressurize America to get involved militarily. And we heard from the IDF chief of
staff today saying that this operation is going to continue and warning Israeli people that essentially they should prepare themselves for a
prolonged operation.
Initially, they had said weeks. It's been one week already. It remains to be seen how much longer this thing goes on for. There has been a kind of
normalization, if you will, not, in terms of the situation, but in terms of how people are responding to it. It's now kind of a well-worn routine to
head to the shelters.
[15:05:04]
We had a number of missiles earlier on today, as you saw. Nic Robertson there was in Haifa, which was the worst damage. Nobody killed in those
strikes.
But this kind of continuing escalation, which we are seeing as well in the rhetoric coming from Israel and Iran. And despite the efforts of the
Europeans, it doesn't seem diplomatically that there is a clear solution or off ramp in sight at this moment, Max.
FOSTER: Well, the protection mechanisms obviously around Israel are very sophisticated and formidable, but this is a real reminder that missiles
will get through.
WARD: Missiles will get through, and they're getting through on almost every single barrage. And this is very different to anything that Israelis
have experienced in recent history. You can see from these pictures that you're showing that the type of damage, the impact that these ballistic
missiles are having are taking out multiple buildings really reducing homes and hospitals to piles of rubble.
So that is having a profound impact on the Israeli psyche on one level, but on another level, Max, you know, while the rest of the world has really
voiced a lot of skepticism about whether Iran actually wanted to develop a nuclear weapon or whether they just wanted to have the kind of right to
develop their nuclear program, here in Israel, there is absolutely no ambiguity about it in the minds of ordinary people.
They see this as an existential threat. They support Prime Minister Netanyahu's strikes against Iran, and they are willing to stay with it, at
least for now.
FOSTER: Okay, Clarissa, really appreciate all of that. Thank you so much.
We can also speak to Matthew Chance. He's in Geneva, where those talks have just wrapped up between the E.U. and Iran -- Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and it's been a pretty hectic day, actually, extremely hot here in Geneva. Very sort of
hectic talks inside this this hotel here in the center of the city between those delegations of European officials, U.K., Britain, France, you know,
France, Britain, Germany and the E.U.'s top diplomat as well. And their Iranian counterparts and other officials.
Look, I mean, there was very low expectations, Max, going into these talks, that there would be some progress coming out of them.
But I've had a sort of briefing from a senior western official who was with knowledge of the talks, who basically told me there was a straightforward
message delivered by the Europeans to the Iranians directly from the Americans, in fact. And it was this that there would be no deal with the
United States if uranium enrichment continued inside Iran. That's a red line from the United States. And that was made clear to the Iranians during
these talks.
Also, Washington was, you know, passed on the message to the Europeans that it wanted direct talks with the Iranians to conclude a nuclear deal.
Now, the Iranians rejected both of those issues. They said that uranium enrichment is a red line for them. It's been their position all along. They
restated it again now, and they said there would be no talks with the United States so long as Israeli attacks against Iran continued.
Now, the Europeans said they would try to get Washington to put pressure on Israel to get it to pause its attacks. The Iranians said they'd go back and
speak to their senior leadership to see if they could get a pause on Iranian attacks on Israel as well. If those two things were to happen, then
there's a possibility, I'm told, by diplomats with knowledge of these talks that the Iranians and the United States could meet for direct negotiations.
It is, though, I have to emphasize at this stage, only a very slim possibility. No one, no one here is holding out much hope that it will
necessarily come to anything, Max.
FOSTER: Okay, Matthew. Thank you.
Joining us live from Geneva, where those talks just ended, U.S. President Donald Trump has been meeting with his national security team to discuss
the conflict between Iran and Israel. This comes as the president says he'll wait two weeks before deciding on any potential U.S. military
intervention, something State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed just minutes ago. In fact, the president wants the two weeks to be a
diplomatic window to broker a deal with Iran.
Kevin Liptak was watching from the White House -- Kevin.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and I think this diplomatic window, for all of the reasons that Matthew was laying out there
is a narrow one. Can President Trump find a way to thread a needle here on this issue of enrichment? He has said very explicitly, and the press
secretary has said very explicitly as recently as yesterday that this idea that Iran must abandon all uranium enrichment is their red line here.
[15:10:08]
That was their red line before the Israeli strikes began. That was a deal that Iran rejected that caused those talks to essentially fall apart. And I
think the real gamble that the president is making here is that this constant bombardment from Israel, the dismantlement in a lot of ways of
Iran's missile arsenal, you know, a week now, under assault, will now make that deal more attractive.
But clearly, the word from the Iranians is that they're not ready yet to abandon that idea. And so that, I think, is the deadlock that President
Trump and his negotiators will have to square away. You know, there had been talk earlier this week about potentially dispatching Steve Witkoff,
the president's foreign envoy, and as well, J.D. Vance, the vice president, to try and potentially arrange a meeting in the region with the Iranians
that had been discounted sort of midweek, as the president seemed to grow closer and closer to ordering these strikes.
Now, I think that idea is potentially back in play. But Witkoff is still in Washington. Vance is in California today talking about immigration. There's
no sign yet, you know, that the plane is gassed up and ready to go to arrange these talks. But clearly, President Trump wants to use this window
to see if this diplomacy can proceed. And I think part of the reason for that is that he hasn't necessarily been convinced that striking Iran will
not drag him into this prolonged conflict of the type that he told his voters he would avoid when he was a candidate last year.
He really has not, I think, heard a satisfactory answer from anyone at the Pentagon, anyone in the White House about what the consequences of this
strike would be in terms of continued U.S. involvement, in terms of now, the president overseeing a new foreign war. And so, you can see the
president kind of torn in his decision making here.
He does believe that the Fordow facility must be destroyed. He thinks that's essential. He has said publicly that he thinks the U.S. is the only
country that has the ability to do it. But I think the concern on his part is that this will put him into a position that he spent all of the last
really ten years saying that he would never drag the U.S. into. And so, you can see all of these inputs now coming into the president's decision
making, hopefully in this two week window, in his mind, a diplomatic solution would be possible, but very clearly not ruling out the military
option -- Max.
FOSTER: Okay, Kevin, thank you so much for that.
The cleanup and recovery underway in some Israeli cities hit by that barrage of Iranian attacks that we saw today. Those included strikes on
Haifa as we were hearing from Clarissa, where people were forced to run for cover. Israeli officials say at least 23 people were injured in those
strikes.
Our Nic Robertson actually spoke to the city's long time mayor shortly after they happened. He stressed the need for peace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: You revived this part of the city. You've been there for 20 years. How do you feel personally when you see it being your work, your
work for the city? This happening?
YONA YAHAV, MAYOR OF HAIFA, ISRAEL: Look, I don't like wars. I've been personally in ten wars. This is not the name of the game. The name of the
game is peace. And we have a lot to help others. And we shall do it. You know, the most important universities are situated in Haifa.
ROBERTSON: It is a mixed city, and it gets on for the most part.
YAHAV: It's the only mixed city in the world which is exercising for more than 100 years. Full peace between Jews and Arabs.
ROBERTSON: So let me ask you this question then. There's diplomacy going on in Geneva right now with the Iranian foreign minister, some European
foreign ministers, President Trump right now has said he's going to wait two weeks before he makes a decision what to happen next.
What are you hoping for from these different diplomatic pieces?
YAHAV: Peace, that the peace treaty will come out of it.
ROBERTSON: And President Trump waiting two weeks to make a decision. What do you think about that?
YAHAV: It's too much.
ROBERTSON: Why?
YAHAV: Because we have no time. You see what's going in the middle time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: (INAUDIBLE) from Haifa.
Meanwhile, Israel says it struck dozens of military targets in Iran overnight, including missile production sites and a nuclear research
facility in the capital, Tehran. Among the targets, the headquarters for a program that the U.S. says is the direct successor to Iran's pre-2004
nuclear program. The IDF says more than 60 air force fighter jets were involved in that attack.
Meanwhile, across Iran, events are described as marches of wrath and victory are being held. Thousands of people have taken to the streets of
Tehran and other cities to protest against Israeli strikes. They're waving flags, chanting anti-Western slogans and carrying images of Iranian
commanders who've been killed by Israel since this conflict began.
[15:15:04]
Our senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, and senior producer Claudia Otto are the first Western journalists to enter Iran since the
conflict began. Here's their report from today's protest in Tehran.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Massive crowds have turned out here in central Tehran to protest against Israel's strikes
against Iran, but also against the policies of the Trump administration as well. Many of them were chanting "death to America", were chanting "death
to Israel". We saw them burn American flags and burn Israeli flags.
"We will punch the United States and Israel in the mouth," he says.
"Trump, you are threatening my leader," this woman says. "Don't you know my nation believes death is sweeter than honey?"
"What do you have, Israel?" he says. "You have nothing. You are occupiers, unreligious. You're killing people, killing women. You kill everyone.
You're terrorists."
(CHANTING)
PLEITGEN: So, you can see that anger here being voiced by many of the folks who are walking here in this protest. Whereas the Iranian government has
said that as long as the Israelis continue their bombing campaign of sites here in Iran, there will be Iranian missiles flying towards Israeli
territory. They're calling on President Trump to try and end this direct confrontation. Otherwise, they say, there could be a direct military
confrontation between Iran and the United States.
The Iranians say it's not something they want, but they also say it's something that they're ready for.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Well, still to come, the reaction to Donald Trump's two-week pause before a decision. Is that enough time? We'll take a look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:20:01]
FOSTER: A U.S. judge has ordered the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. He was arrested three months ago and sent to Louisiana
immigration detention center.
Khalil is not a U.S. citizen, but has legal status to be in the U.S. The Trump administration says he's violated terms of his status by
participating in antisemitic protests on the Columbia University campus.
Joining us now, Raul Reyes, he's an attorney and CNN opinion writer.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Can you just explain where this actually leaves him?
RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER: Sure. Well, right now, Mr. Khalil is set to be released from detention in Louisiana, which is a major victory for him
and his supporters. But this -- the fact that he's being released is not the end of his case. His case will most likely be appealed by the Trump
administration. So, it will go on, although he will not have to stay in detention while it does.
And then on a separate track, there will be a case most likely centering around constitutional rights of free speech that will continue on as well.
So, it's a victory for Mr. Khalil, but for now.
FOSTER: Yeah. And in terms of the Trump administration, is this an acceptance that he has a case or how does it work? They're still going to
fight it.
REYES: Well, what has been interesting about this case from the start is the legal grounds upon which it was based. Originally, the Trump
administration invoked a very obscure, rarely used provision of the immigration act, which does allow secretary of state to order someone
detained and deported on the grounds that that they are have an adverse effect on U.S. foreign policy.
Remember, Mr. Khalil was never charged, even now has not been charged with a crime. But when a judge, when the same judge last week found that that
that that basis was not sound, then the administration came forward with a new legal rationale, saying that he -- their case, the government's case,
is that basically he lied on his green card application.
So, we've had a change of the rationale. My sense is that with so much else going on in the country now, the immigration raids, the protests that
pushed back in California, it seems as though the ongoing detention of Mr. Khalil may not be such a high priority for the government anymore.
FOSTER: It's really unusual to see someone not charged stay in confinement like this, isn't it, for such a period of time? I mean, what other cases
can you think of?
REYES: Oh, well, there have been several. What's interesting here is that Mr. Khalil was really the first foreign student, although actually he has a
green cardholder, but he was the first student activist to be detained under the Trump administration's crackdown on what they saw as unacceptable
political speech. And he's also been the last to be released from detention, because we have seen several other high profile cases, Rumeysa
Ozturk in Boston, professor in Baltimore, other international students at U.S. universities caught up in this detention crackdown. But they have been
-- majority of them have been released.
But this this case is much bigger than these students themselves. Or in Mr. Khalil's case, green cardholders, because we have 12 million green
cardholders in the United States, we have about a million international students. And so, when you look at it from a very broad perspective, we're
talking about questions of civil liberties, due process, constitutional rights, all of which are major issues for our American democracy. In many
ways, these issues define what it means to be an American.
So, as this case goes forward, I think it's no surprise that the world will be watching. Mr. Khalil has become something of an international cause
celebre, and now so many people beyond, just beyond the immigrant rights community or beyond, say, the Israel and Hamas activists are watching this
case. It is really shaping up as a test of some of our funding, what Americas generally think are our fundamental freedoms.
FOSTER: Yeah, absolutely. Massive debate around it.
Raul, thank you so much.
REYES: Right.
FOSTER: The European Union welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump's two-week diplomatic window to strike a deal with Iran. The president says he's going
to hold off on any type of U.S. military involvement in hopes of getting Iran back to the negotiating table. This as E.U. and Iranian officials meet
in Switzerland for talks. Those talks just ending.
Meanwhile, CNN's Fred asking a top Iranian official about the potential to give up enriching any nuclear material.
[15:25:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Do you think that Iran would be willing to give up enrichment and, for instance, join a consortium?
MAJID FARAHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICIAL: No, no, no, Iran announced that so many times the enrichment -- we will do the enrichment and we don't
accept the stopping of enrichment. Maybe the enrichment can be lower, but we don't stop it anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: However, a French official counters this, saying zero enrichment in Iran has to be the goal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHE LEMOINE, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: The zero enrichment is something that we put on the table, and that's something we
think will guarantee some stability because there cannot be, you know, a military nuclear program in Iran. That is not possible.
So, we have to set those kind of thresholds. We have to be clear about this. And I think that's what president macron said today, and that's what
he wanted to state today, a clear position on zero enrichment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: But we don't know then, can Europe help reach a deal with Iran?
Joining us is Ali Vaez. He's the director of the Iran Project, an international crisis group.
I mean, we certainly are getting a some good intel from these meetings, it seems, doesn't it? We're getting the Iranian position.
ALI VAEZ, DIRECTOR, IRAN PROJECT, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: It's good to see you, Max.
Yes. And it appears that the deadlock that has existed in nuclear negotiations with Iran for 22 years still continues, that the West is still
insisting on zero enrichment in Iran, and Iran is still insisting on preserving the rights to enrichment. And unfortunately, that means that the
conflict between Iran and Israel is likely to continue and turn into a protracted conflict that could drag the United States in and turn into a
wider regional conflagration.
FOSTER: But this meeting with the European leaders isn't the crucial meeting, is it? Wouldn't you? Because the crucial meeting would obviously
be with the U.S. but wouldn't you expect Iran to draw this red line in this meeting, going into any future meetings with the U.S.
VAEZ: Well, the one thing that was very important, given the fact that European foreign ministers were actually in Washington yesterday, and so
they were conveying messages from the Trump administration to their Iranian counterparts, was for Iran to signal that it would be willing to show more
flexibility than it had in the previous five rounds of negotiations with President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
If they haven't, and their expectation is that Trump stops the war and holds Netanyahu back before they are willing to even consider compromise on
the -- on the question of enrichment. Then again, I think this deadlock will continue. What needs to happen is that these two things need to be
simultaneous, that Iran signaling that it is willing to accept the consortium idea, which would wrap Iran's national enrichment into a
multinational regional enrichment program. And President Trump also signals that it is willing to pull the plug on Israel's ability to continue this
conflict.
FOSTER: Yeah. I mean, when it comes to the common ground with President Trump and they've got to reach it in two weeks, according to his deadline -
- you know, where is it?
VAEZ: Well, it's hard to say because I think on the one hand, the president is tempted by the desire to go in, maybe with one impressive surgical
strike using massive ordnance penetrators and destroy the underground Iranian nuclear facility in Fordow, which Israel cannot destroy, and be the
person who finished Iran's nuclear program.
Or, you know, but he's also afraid -- that temptation is there. But he's also afraid of the potential risks of being dragged into another Middle
East conflict that would basically get out of control. And so, he is hoping, and I think, waiting for the Iranians to signal preparedness. But
Iranians are also hoping and waiting for him to signal that he's willing to hold Netanyahu back again.
Again, the trick is that those two things have to be simultaneous.
FOSTER: What do you make of the this window from the Israeli point of view? Because I'm seeing two sort of narratives here that its putting Israel in a
difficult position because it's now in this sort of holding pattern when it wants to desperately get some U.S. support, but at the same time, it's a
signal, really, from the White House that, you know, they've got free rein for a couple of weeks, isn't it?
VAEZ: That's true. I mean, and in a very typical fashion, I think President Trump, when he's facing a difficult decision, prefers to postpone it to see
where the chips fall and where things are standing a few days from now, has Israel been able to effectively degrade, destroy Iran's nuclear program.
[15:30:02]
Whether Iran is more desperate and therefore more willing to compromise. Whether, you know, there is a balance of devastation that is reached
between Iran and Israel and that basically strengthens President Trump's position vis-a-vis both stakeholders here.
So, I think he's just playing for time to see what happens. But the reality is that one week into this, I think the likeliest scenario of the
continuation of this conflict, if it remains limited to Iran, Israel and the U.S., doesn't get involved, is something similar to the 2006 war
between Israel and Lebanon, and Hezbollah and Lebanon, which basically came to a draw.
FOSTER: Okay. Ali Vaez, I really appreciate you joining us today. Thank you so much.
And our coverage of the Israel-Iran conflict continues after the break. We'll look at the role that the U.S. has in this conflict and what happens
without the American influence.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Donald Trump speaking in New Jersey on the tarmac.
Let's listen in.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have Israel and nobody really knows what that one is all about. We're going to find out pretty
soon I guess.
REPORTER: The Iranian foreign minister -- the Iranian foreign minister this afternoon said if the U.S. is serious about negotiations, that you would
call up Israel and request that they stop their airstrikes.
Will you make that request?
TRUMP: Well, I think it's very hard to make that request right now. If somebody is winning, it's a little bit harder to do than if somebody is
losing. But we're ready, willing and able, and we've been speaking to Iran and we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.
REPORTER: What was the thought process behind two weeks' timetable?
TRUMP: Just a time to see whether or not people come to their senses.
[15:35:03]
That's all it is.
REPORTER: Did the Europeans help at all in talking with the Iranians?
TRUMP: They didn't help. No. Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want -- they want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help on
this one.
REPORTER: Twenty years ago, you were skeptical of a Republican administration that attacked a Middle East country on the idea of
questionable intelligence, of weapons of mass destruction. How is this moment different with Iran?
TRUMP: Well, there were no weapons of mass destruction. I never thought there were. And that was somewhat pre-nuclear. You know, it was -- there
was a nuclear age, but nothing like it is today. And it looked like I'm right about the material that they've gathered already. It's a tremendous
amount of material.
And I think within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months, they're going to be able to have a nuclear weapon. We can't let
that happen.
I was very much opposed to Iraq. I was -- I said it loud and clear, but I was a civilian. But I guess I got a lot of publicity, but I was very much
opposed to the Iraq war, and I actually did say, don't go in, don't go in, don't go in. But I said, if you're going to go in, keep the oil. But they
didn't do that.
REPORTER: What intelligence do you have that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Your intelligence community has said they have no evidence that
they are at this point.
TRUMP: Well, then my intelligence community is wrong. Who in the intelligence community said that?
REPORTER: Your director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.
TRUMP: She's wrong.
REPORTER: Mr. President, are the Chinese in any way helping Iran in this moment? We're hearing reports of mysterious planes landing in Iran from
China.
TRUMP: They said that they're there to take people out. But I can't tell you about that. I get along very well with China, get along very well with
President Xi. I like him, he likes me. We have a very good relationship.
We'll see what happens. I can't imagine them getting involved.
REPORTER: This decision that you need to make on Iran, whether to strike militarily, is this the biggest decision you will have to make as
president?
TRUMP: Well, I can't tell you that. I have to see what happens. I can't, you know, really say that. It depends what the decision is, but I wouldn't
really be able to tell you that now. I'll tell you in about a year from now, maybe five years or ten years from now.
You never know about decisions. You never really know.
REPORTER: Sir, would you support a ceasefire while the negotiations happen?
TRUMP: I might, depending on the circumstances.
REPORTER: Would you --
TRUMP: It's very hard to stop. I will say this -- it's very hard to stop when you look at it. Israel is doing well in terms of war. And I think you
would say that Iran is doing less well. It's a little bit hard to get somebody to stop.
REPORTER: Sir, Liam Cosgrove with Zero Hedge.
Former Congressman Matt Gaetz wrote an interesting idea, suggesting that if you were to broker a deal where nuclear inspectors go into both Israel and
Iran, that you could win a Nobel Peace Prize and they might even rename it the Trump Peace Prize. Did you hear those? What do you think of that?
TRUMP: Well, they should give me the Nobel prize for Rwanda. And if you look, the Congo or you could say Serbia, Kosovo, you could say a lot of
them. You could say, I mean, the big one is India and Pakistan. You could - - I should have gotten it 4 or 5 times. I should get it for the -- I would think the Abraham Accords would be a good one, too.
But they won't give me a Nobel Peace Prize because they only give it to liberals.
REPORTER: Would you support Iran being able to have nuclear, or would you support Iran being able to have civilian nuclear energy capabilities up to
3.76 percent?
TRUMP: You know, they're sitting on the top of one of the largest piles of oil in the world. I just don't know why they need that for civilian work.
You know, it's one thing for certain countries to say, hey, I want to have a certain amount where I can go nuclear a little bit because we need it for
electricity, we need it for air conditioners, et cetera. But when you're sitting on one of the largest oil piles anywhere in the world, it's a
little bit hard to see why you need that.
Yeah.
REPORTER: Mr. President, are you concerned that Iran or its proxies would wage terror attacks against American targets abroad if you order military
action?
TRUMP: We're always concerned about that, and we have to take them out and be very strong. You're even in danger talking to me right now. Do you know
that? You are in danger talking to me right now? So, I should probably get out of here. But you guys are actually in danger. Can you believe it?
REPORTER: One more --
REPORTER: Mr. President, is it still your expectation that NATO countries spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense spending?
TRUMP: Well, I think they should do that. I don't think we should, but I think they should. We've been spending -- we've been supporting NATO so
long in many cases, I believe, paying almost 100 percent of the cost. So I don't think we should. But I think that NATO countries should. Absolutely.
REPORTER: Like Spain decides not to?
TRUMP: Well, NATO is going to have to deal with Spain. Spain has been a very low payer. They were always a very low payer. They were either good
negotiators or they weren't doing the right thing. I mean, I think Spain has to pay what everybody else has to pay.
Spain has been notorious for low pay. You know who else was low payer? Just about the lowest. A place called Canada, because Canada said, why should we
pay when the United States will protect us free? And we've been right about that.
REPORTER: ICE --
REPORTER: Ukraine, you've been making progress towards a peace deal. But I don't know if you know this, but Lindsey Graham and Mike Pompeo were there
on the ground in Ukraine, seemingly doing the opposite, trying to provoke the Ukrainians to keep fighting. What do you think of that?
TRUMP: Well, we're going to see and people have to be very careful with what they say. They've got to be very careful with their mouth because
their mouth can get them into a lot of trouble.
REPORTER: One more. ICE. ICE has said that they're trying to arrest up to 3,000 individuals a day. There are some communities that are saying they
are fearful of being wrongfully detained or separating some families, even if they are undocumented. Is the fear in some of these communities worth
the deportations of these undocumented individuals? A mass deportation program.
TRUMP: Always a tough subject because, look, we have farmers, I love farmers, I won 80 percent, 85 percent of the farmers, and I love them. And
I'm never going to do anything to hurt our farmers. And you can also say the leisure business, et cetera. There are some businesses where you have a
disproportionate amount of people that are the people that you're talking about.
At the same time, we have to get the criminals out of our country, and we're looking at doing something where in the case of good, reputable
farmers, they can take responsibility for the people that they hire and let them have responsibility because we can't put the farms out of business.
And at the same time, we don't want to hurt people that aren't criminals.
Most of the people that came in over the last three years under Biden, I would say probably three and a half to four years, those people, you have a
lot of criminals, you have a lot of -- I mean, were looking at that very closely.
You've had people that have worked on farms for 20 years. It's very hard to go in there and say, you know, you're coming out, but we're going to let
the farmers take responsibility. They're great people. They'll do it. They know the good and the bad.
So the hard part about this is not like a normal war that where people wear uniforms, they don't wear uniforms. But we have murderers that came out of
the last four years. We have murderers, we have drug lords, we have people that we don't want to. We have prisoners.
They emptied out Venezuela and many countries. They emptied out their prisons into the United States. We have to get those people out.
But we have stone cold murderers, 11,888 murders. We've already gotten a lot of them out of here, but we don't want them. So, we have to be careful.
But I never want to hurt our farmers. Our farmers are great people. They keep us happy and healthy and fat.
REPORTER: Are there other cities that you're going to try to replicate what you've done in Los Angeles?
TRUMP: Well, I mean, we had a big victory last night in the court. Court of appeals, with respect to Los Angeles. But really, the country where Gavin
Newscum, who is really an incompetent governor, he's just doing a terrible job between his fires, between all the houses burning down his forest
fires.
And now, Los Angeles, if we didn't go to Los Angeles and the sheriff admitted it, he had no control. He would have lost control. We saved Los
Angeles by having the military go in and the second night was much better. The third night was nothing much, and the fourth night nobody bothered even
coming.
We put out that fire and we did a great job of it. He sued us for going in and for helping him. We went and helped him. Right now, you'd have Los
Angeles burning to the ground. Largely, it would have already been destroyed.
REPORTER: Do you think deportations should --
REPORTER: Do you still want your legacy, Mr. President, to be that of a peacemaker? Do you worry that striking Iran would change that?
TRUMP: Always a peacemaker. That doesn't mean sometimes you need some toughness to make peace. But always a peacemaker.
REPORTER: Can you win in Iran without ground forces?
TRUMP: Say it?
REPORTER: Is an aerial campaign in Iran enough, or do you need ground forces?
TRUMP: Well, I'm not going to talk about ground forces. The last thing you want to do is ground forces.
REPORTER: Does Iran have two weeks, or could you strike before that? Or are you essentially giving them a two-week timeline?
TRUMP: We're giving them a period of time. We're going to see what that period of time is, but I'm giving them a period of time. And I would say
two weeks would be the maximum.
REPORTER: Mr. President, do you think deportations should focus on criminals. Or all people who are here illegally?
TRUMP: Should start focusing on criminals, and that's what we've been focused on. Very bad criminals, dangerous criminals.
REPORTER: But Stephen Miller said to go out and arrest every person who's here illegally. He's told ICE to arrest everyone who's here illegally. Do
you agree with him?
TRUMP: Stephen and I have a very good understanding. He is a terrific person. We have a great understanding.
REPORTER: Mr. President. If there are, if there is an attack on U.S. assets, will you promise to conduct a full investigation and make it
transparent with the American people before blaming Iran for such an attack?
TRUMP: Well, if there's an attack, we'll know almost immediately with modern equipment, who made the attack. And those people will be very, very
unhappy.
REPORTER: Prime Minister --
[15:45:00]
TRUMP: I want to get you people out of danger. You're in danger standing with me.
REPORTER: One more. Prime Minister Netanyahu said that they had the capacity to take out all of Iran's nuclear facilities. So what role would
the U.S. be able to play, and why would they if Israel says that they have all of the abilities their own military?
TRUMP: Well, I'm not sure he said that. But they really have a very limited capacity. They can break through a little section, but they can't go down
very deep. They don't have that capacity.
And we'll have to see what happens. Maybe it won't be necessary. Maybe it won't be necessary.
REPORTER: Would you like to see Congress pass a bill that bans child transgender surgeries?
TRUMP: Well, I know they're talking about it, aren't they? We're going to have to see how it comes to me in what form. Certainly, it's been something
I've been talking about also. Okay? Thank you.
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate it.
TRUMP: Thank you, everybody.
REPORTER: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.
FOSTER : Speaking live on the tarmac there in New Jersey, saying that they've been speaking to Iran and they'll see what happens.
So clearly. No decision yet. He has given it this two-week window before he makes a decision on whether or not to get involved with Israel on those
attacks in Iran.
Also, a reference to the talks going on in Geneva between European countries and Iran. He basically said Europe's not going to be able to help
with this one. So, because Iran wants to speak to America, which is probably realistic, there. And then he was asked some questions.
I want to speak to bring Cedric Leighton in on this, actually, because he's with us.
And, Cedric. I -- it struck me he was asked some questions about WMD in Iraq. He was obviously referring back to the Bush era, where Bush obviously
claimed there was WMD in Iraq, invaded and didn't find them, and making parallels to this situation and whether or not there are nuclear weapons in
Iran.
And President Trump said he didn't think that Iraq should have been invaded, but they've got a lot more information now. He's suggesting they
do have the intel, and he still says in a matter of months it looks like they'll have a nuclear weapon.
What do you think of that?
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yeah, it's very interesting, Max.
And, you know. Having seen the Second Gulf War up close and personal, being part of that, it's pretty clear that the intelligence pictures are a bit
clearer for the Iran situation, or at least they seem to be at present than they were for the Iraq situation. However, having said that, and I think
we've learned a few lessons in the meantime. But one of the key elements here is that there are still parts of the Iranian nuclear program that we
really know nothing about, or very little about.
So there's a risk that we might think that they have something and we end up kind of like the Iraq WMD story, where there is nothing that that can be
seen at that particular point in time. So, it's -- it's a bit risky for the United States to go into something like this just from that pure vantage
point. And, you know, without even considering the diplomatic or political risks associated with this.
The other part, I think, Max, that that was quite interesting in the president's remarks was that, you know, when he looked at the Iran
situation, he kind of talked about the two week limit. He was asked about the two-week limit, but he said that was the maximum amount of time.
So, this will force the intelligence communities to really look hard, or it should force the intelligence communities to look really hard at what
intelligence there is and see with certainty as much certainty as one can possibly get, whether or not this is something that the Iranians have
pursued in spite of international sanctions on their nuclear production capabilities.
FOSTER: Okay, Cedric. Thank you.
I want to go to Kevin Liptak. That was the part that stood out to me. But what stood out for you, Kevin? It was quite a wide-ranging interview,
wasn't it?
LIPTK: Yeah. And I think the most important thing to me was when the president was asked, and you and I were talking about this earlier, whether
he would put in the request to Israel to hold off on these airstrikes as he tries to get this diplomacy off the ground, and the president saying very
clearly that that would be a hard request. His words for him to make at the moment, because in his view, Israel is winning.
And so, as we talk about this prospect that these negotiations could get back on track, obviously, the Iranian foreign minister said earlier today
that they could not come to the table with the United States if they continue to be under assault from Israel.
But President Trump, making very explicit that he does not plan to put in that request to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. So how all of that
gets resolved, I think, remains very unclear. The president also completely dismissing this effort on the part of the Europeans to try and get this
diplomacy on track.
Obviously, the European foreign ministers in Geneva today, discussing this with the foreign minister.
[15:50:04]
The president making the claim that Iran has no interest in talking to the Europeans, that it is really the United States and himself that they really
want to negotiate with, which I think, as you make the point, is probably true. But obviously, the Europeans are trying to cede the ground in some
ways for these negotiations to get underway. President Trump clearly not -- no love lost there for -- between himself and the Europeans on this
particular front.
But, you know, I think listening to the president here, it doesn't seem as if there's any sort of ground being seated, whether it's on the enrichment,
whether it's on asking Israel to stop its bombing campaign, which I think leaves open the question of how exactly he hopes to get the Iranians back
to the negotiating table over the next two weeks.
FOSTER: Yeah. Cedric, what did you I mean, he was very dismissive of the European leaders today, wasn't he? And, you know, it's fair to say that
Europeans aren't the key players here. President Trump is the key player when it comes to negotiation. But he was quite dismissive of it.
But what we did learn from those talks in Geneva was that there's a red line for Iran on uranium enrichment. They believe that they you know, they
won't cross the line to say they're not going to enrich uranium, but that is absolutely a red line for President Trump. So, it looks like we're at
deadlock already.
LEIGHTON: Yeah. It does seem that way, Max. And one of the key things is, you know, when you look at the enrichment piece, basically the Iranians
already are at 60 percent level. According to most reports of enrichment. It doesn't take that long to get to 90 percent, which is what you need for
weapons grade uranium.
And that is, of course, something that both Israel and the United States want to prevent. The aspect with this, you know, the way the Iranians are
couching it is, is if they have a, in essence, a right to enrich to, to a level that far exceeds what would be normal for the peaceful use of uranium
for nuclear power or something like that.
So, yeah, it does seem that they are at an impasse. The other part of it, though, Max, I think, is that when you know it comes to speaking, the
Iranians had initially said that they were not going to be talking to the United States because they see the United States as being behind Israel and
Israel's attacks on Iran, and that basically the path to forward from a diplomatic standpoint seems to be talk to the Europeans first and then to
the United States. So it's a -- you know, it's a bit of a diplomatic dance that seems to be going on at this particular point in time. And it's a very
obviously complex situation that I think all parties Israel, Iran and the United States, of course, and of course, Europe find themselves in.
FOSTER: Kevin, if he was dismissive about the Europeans, he was also dismissive, wasn't he, about his intelligence, one of his intelligence
chiefs saying she's got the intel wrong and he's got it right.
LIPTAK: Yeah. It's incredibly striking. The president talking there about Tulsi Gabbard, who's the director of national intelligence in the United
States. You know, we had heard that the president had been growing less and less confident in essentially, her advice over the last several weeks. But
I think the president really there putting a pin in that, the president saying that her assessments that Iran may not be as near to a nuclear
weapon as perhaps he has been suggesting in public, are just not true.
And I think it is now an open question of whether or not Tulsi Gabbard will want to remain in her position. If the president is now openly and publicly
dismissing what she's telling him and what she's saying in public, you know, we had not necessarily heard that behind the scenes. The president
was preparing to fire her, but certainly she is not at a stature that I think you would want to be inside the president's cabinet.
And I think this is now the second time this week that the president has publicly dismissed what her assessments are when it comes to Iran's nuclear
program. And when you're in the intelligence community and when your job is to prepare these assessments for the president's consumption, that is
something that's going to be very difficult for her, I think, to recover from in the end. But I think the bigger issue and the bigger a potential
problem for the president is that he's not just dismissing Tulsi Gabbard, he's dismissing the analysis and assessments from American intelligence.
And essentially suggesting that he believes that Netanyahu and the Israelis have it right when they are telling him that Iran could be potentially on
the verge of creating a nuclear weapon.
And I think that at the end of the day might be the bigger issue for Americans who are wondering what the U.S. interest is and potentially
striking Iran. You remember, Americans have been through all of this before, and a lot of ways this has echoes to the Iraq war buildup back in
2003.
[15:55:01]
Americans are much more wary, I think after that experience of what the president is saying about intelligence, particularly when it comes to
weapons in the Middle East. They just don't necessarily believe what the government is telling them.
And now the president is saying that he doesn't believe what his own intelligence analysts are telling them. I think if he ultimately decides to
go ahead with this strike and if this results in a prolonged American conflict, many Americans are going to look back on this and wonder where
all of the wires got crossed. And I don't know that the president, in doing this and publicly rebutting what his intelligence chief is telling him, is
not, is necessarily going to provide a lot of confidence to them as they assess what's happening here.
FOSTER: Okay. Kevin, Cedric, thank you so much for your analysis. We'll be breaking that down as well in the next hour.
But I'm Max Foster. That is WHAT WE KNOW.
"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" up next.
END
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