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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
White House Source: National Guard Presence In D.C. Expanding Tonight; Trump: Friday Meeting With Putin About "Setting The Table": Trump Unveils Kennedy Center Honorees. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 13, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: And one lifeguard in New Jersey is proof positive of that life approach. Ed Kiziukiewicz is now the oldest active lifeguard in the world, according to the Guinness World Record keepers.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: He is 82 years old and sharp as ever. He's been keeping swimmers safe since 1961, and he doesn't take time off during the winter either. When it's not beach season, he works as a ski instructor in Upstate New York.
Look at him, he looks great.
FREEMAN: Tan.
SANCHEZ: I feel like he deserves the slomo that David Hasselhoff and Pam Anderson got in "Baywatch" all those years ago.
FREEMAN: I agree.
SANCHEZ: Just running toward the camera in slow motion.
Cheers to Mr. Kiziukiewicz.
Great to have you, Danny. We'll be back tomorrow.
Kasie Hunt starts right now.
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KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Breaking news, Washington prepares for a surge in National Guard troops. Let's head into THE ARENA.
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HUNT: Tonight, a new wave of troops set to hit the ground in D.C. to support President Trump's crime crackdown. The questions remain, what are they doing? Who's in charge? How long will it last?
Plus, the president warns Vladimir Putin that he could face very severe consequences. This after an emergency meeting with Vladimir Zelenskyy and European leaders ahead of Friday's big summit. And then the MAGA culture war comes to Washington as President Trump
handpicks this year's Kennedy Center honorees and order some of America's most famous museums to get in line with his agenda.
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HUNT: Hi, everyone. Welcome to THE ARENA. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us on this Wednesday.
Right now in Washington, the Trump administration is deploying more troops onto the streets of our nation's capital. A White House official telling CNN to expect a, quote, significantly higher, end quote, National Guard presence beginning tonight. More on that in just a moment.
Last night, 700 local and federal law enforcement officials were on the streets in the district and 43 people were arrested, according to the U.S. attorney for D.C.
Speaking at the Kennedy Center today, President Trump claimed this crackdown is just the beginning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've worked with the mayor for six months, and she's been here for many years. And the numbers are worse than they ever are. Don't let anyone tell you they're not. And the whole statistical charts that they made, the whole thing is a rigged deal. They got rid of the guy that -- because he didn't want to do the numbers the way they wanted to, and they put their own numbers out, they said it's the best in 20 years. No, it's the worst in 20 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The statistics, of course, say that violent crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low. But as we've discussed here in THE ARENA, many people just don't feel safer.
And that is something that the mayor, Muriel Bowser, acknowledged this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D), WASHINGTON, DC: We know how the feelings of crime and perceptions of crime are sometimes different than seeing numbers go down. And we've seen numbers go down. Let me be clear. What we want to do is make sure that this federal surge is useful to us. And that's what the chief has been very, very, very good. And working with the federal leadership and accomplishing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, of course, as you can see, that interview took place on a D.C. local news station. Why might that setting be relevant? President Trump is, of course, both a D.C. resident and an avid
consumer of TV news. Many an elected official has made remarks for that audience of one when speaking to a TV camera.
But in other, less traditional media settings, D.C.'s mayor has sounded, shall we say, different. Here she is first at a virtual town hall with community leaders, and then on the breakfast club radio show with Charlamagne Tha God.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOWSER: This is a time where community needs to jump in and make sure we elect a Democratic house so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push. He wants to send the message to cities that if he can get away with this in Los Angeles, if he can get away with this in D.C., he can get away with it in New York or Baltimore or Chicago. It is a step in fascism when the federal government can bigfoot sovereign states. That's not us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Fascism, that's the word that she used there. All right. Our panel is going to be here to weigh in, and we're joined by CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes, who is on the North Lawn.
Kristen, I do want to start with you and the new reporting you have on this expanded presence of National Guard troops on the streets of D.C. What are we learning?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, we are learning that there's going to be a shift in what exactly the National Guard looked like. Right now, we have seen is the National Guard has just been here overnight. Now we are told that this is going to be enhanced into a 24/7 operation.
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Now, one thing that's not going to change is what the National Guard is doing, or at least it's not going to change yet. Right now, the National Guard says they are not assisting in any arrests. The White House added, and also backed that up, but also, they say what they're doing is essentially helping and supporting the law enforcement officers who are doing those arrests.
Now, there is always a chance that this -- this could evolve their role could evolve. But right now, they are simply saying that they are there as a support network to back up the men and women. The law enforcement officials who are actually doing the arrests and serve more of a logistical purpose.
HUNT: All right. Kristen, the president also made some news today on this timeline for his authority over D.C. police. What did he say?
HOLMES: Yeah, there were a lot of questions as to what exactly this was going to look like long term. Remember, right now, he can do this for 30 days. Then he would have to bring this to Congress. It wasn't clear if he was going to actually go through with the full 30 days, but as of today, it sounds like he is. He essentially said that after 30 days, he would go to Congress, but that was after he said that if it was a national emergency. He could avoid Congress altogether, but then quickly said he plans on bringing this to congress after 30 days.
Of course, the definition of national emergency is going to be something that is highly scrutinized. It would be likely that congressional officials or Congress representatives would want this to come to them before moving forward.
HUNT: All right. Kristen Holmes for us, Kristen, thank you very much for that.
And our panel is here now, CNN contributor, "New York Times" journalist, podcast host, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, CNN political commentator, co-founder and editor in chief of "The Dispatch", Jonah Goldberg, former DNC senior advisor Xochitl Hinojosa and Republican strategist Brad Todd, both CNN political commentators.
Thank you all for being here. Really appreciate it.
Jonah Goldberg, I want to start with you on this because, of course, the mayor does seem to be framing things slightly differently in different places. The way that she's handling this is also noteworthy, generally speaking, because she has not pushed back as hard as you might have as certainly some progressives, I think, might have thought she would.
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. I mean, part of the problem is that the law is very much on Trump's side in this case, in ways that it wouldn't be in another American city. The federal government does have basically plenary power to take over the city for 30 days. Which is why I think the more interesting moment will be 30 days or 29 days from now to see what the exit strategy from this is, if there is one.
And, you know, one of the weird things just broadening out for a second about this moment, foreign policy, domestic policy is that everybody has figured out how to work Trump, right?
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GOLDBERG: NATO has. Putin has. Everyone knows you don't go out in front and criticize him. It just makes things worse.
Instead, you flatter them. You try to work with them and all these kinds of things, and then you hope he loses -- he stops paying attention, loses interest, and wanders off chasing a butterfly to the next thing.
HUNT: Lulu?
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I would say they're bound to be disappointed because maybe he gets distracted, but I don't think members of his administration do. But this entire scenario here is a big distraction. I mean, this all happened because they wanted to change the page on the Epstein files. Did I say the Epstein files? Let me say it again. The Epstein files.
And so, what we're seeing here is that I will say, as a resident of D.C., you know, for the past few nights, we've had federal helicopters buzzing our neighborhood for hours, freaking out my dogs, freaking out me, I have PTSD from being a war correspondent.
GOLDBERG: What are you hiding, though?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. What am I hiding? What are they chasing?
And, you know, and we've tracked them and they're just doing sort of wandering loops. So again, this is performative. And it doesn't really solve the problems of a major American city.
Muriel Bowser, however, is up for reelection. And for a fourth term, and we shall see, how she deals with this as a Democratic leader and how she comes out the other side, I don't think well.
HUNT: Xochitl, what do you think?
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't think that Muriel Bowser has handled this well at all. She had the opportunity to really invite federal law enforcement in a way that was strategic and not have it be the National Guard in other ways. If she were smart, though, she would learn from that lesson. And at the end of the 30 days, or even before the end of the 30 days, she needs to have a concrete plan about how she's going to work with federal law enforcement, not only in the next few months, but next summer when violent crime goes up.
I think that what's going to end up happening is in 30 days, I do see more of a police presence and the National Guard on the streets probably will lower violent crime rates. Kids will also be back in school. You will also have -- it will start cooling off in the cooler months. You see violent crime go down.
So, all of these things combined, I do think that Trump is going to take a victory lap.
I just want to mention one more thing. Sarah Lynch from "Reuters", who's the DOJ beat reporter, was trying to ask the FBI and MPD who exactly did you arrest last night? Who have you arrested? We want the names. What are the crimes?
Basic information that any reporter --
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HUNT: Should be on the police blotter, right?
HINOJOSA: Should be on the police blotter. Everyone has a right to know. They referred all questions to the White House.
So, it is very clear that this isn't a law enforcement -- law enforcement is not in charge here. It is Donald Trump that is in charge here. And I think this should be seen as a major blow to Muriel Bowser because she does not have control of what is happening in the city.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It was sandwich guy who got arrested, by the way. There was a man who threw a sandwich at law enforcement, a subway sandwich. It's all over social media in the district. He got arrested.
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But let's not minimize the fact -- I mean, Washington had 498 carjackings last year. That's way too many.
There were 190 different killings last year in Washington. Our crime and murders are six times what New York is. Washington is not near safe enough.
The D.C. police union supports what's happening here. The federal government does have an obligation to help keep the federal capital safe, and I don't think we ought to distract ourselves with what's really at stake here. And that is D.C. is not safe enough. And the president is trying to make it.
GOLDBERG: Yeah, but I agree. I agree D.C. is not safe enough for all sorts of ways, in all sorts of ways.
Is that a national emergency? That's the question, right?
The problem I have with a lot of these things is, I think politically, this is smart for Trump to do. But we look at these things in these isolation, in isolation, Trump is saying that this is an emergency. He says that our trade situation are all sorts of ways are emergencies.
He likes declaring emergencies because emergency powers are monarchical in our system. And I just don't think -- as bad as I think a lot of the stuff in D.C. is. And I agree that Muriel Bowser has played things badly. What we're seeing in D.C. isn't as bad as when I moved here in the 1990s, but I grew up in New York City in the '70s.
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: But that doesn't mean it's good.
GOLDBERG: Doesn't mean it's good, but it also doesn't mean its an emergency. But it doesn't mean that the national emergency.
TODD: Muriel Bowser could have asked the federal government for help cracking down on crime. D.C. has a study that says there are fewer than 200 people that are -- that are responsible for the most violent crimes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But do you really think this is about crime? The thing about Donald Trump and you have to kind of admire it is that he sees an opening in the law, which is a small, narrow opening, and he drives a Mack truck through it. And so all of a sudden, you are so far beyond what is normal, what has ever been done before.
You know, we were shocked initially when there were federal troops put in L.A. and now, we're seeing them on the capital and there's discussion about a task force that's going to be deployed for emergencies in other cities across the country. So, what started as something sort of shocking is now being normalized in D.C. And then apparently going to be deployed elsewhere.
TODD: Wait a minute -- well, let's talk about the politics of it. Let's talk about is this good? Is this going -- is it going to be good if D.C.'s made safer? Is it going to be good if all of a sudden the city is bolstered with National Guard troops for a short period of time to take away the worst criminals? Isn't that a good outcome? Why can't we cheer?
HUNT: Well, can you not say that its a good outcome for crime to come down for residents of the city, while still questioning, as I think Lulu and Jonah are the underlying reality about --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That the city needs.
HUNT: -- what is the -- what is the appropriate role of the federal government here? Because I take Jonah's point. I mean, if there was no emergency in the early 1990s in Washington that required this, like, this is not an emergency by comparison.
TODD: But it's the city. The problem we have is its bad politics for Muriel Bowser domestically, in her own party's primary, D.C. is a one- party city, and so she has to win the Democratic primary. She can't ask Donald Trump for help for crime without it hurting her politically.
So now she's going to get the help or what she might even want, by the way, she might even be glad if he can get 150 of these 200 worst criminals off the streets.
HINOJOSA: Yeah, I disagree with that. I will say Mitch Landrieu had the New Orleans police department when it was at an all-time low, and he did. He knew that they were going to come and investigate, and he did ask for help.
Cory Booker did the same thing. What I find interesting is there is violent crime that's high all across the country. And also in Republican states. And you don't see Donald Trump going into those Republican states and deploying the National Guard.
And so, I do find it interesting that all of the states that he has mentioned are blue states where he is trying to pick a fight with a governor in that state for political purposes. And so, if he is going to have a strategy where he is trying to make everybody safer, then he should really focus on the states that the places that have high violent crime.
And not only that, the Justice Department was under all sorts of consent decrees with police departments to provide training and resources and federal funds and a number of things. And they pulled all of those back.
So he can't sit here and say that he is concerned with resourcing police departments and just deploy National Guard here and then rip away resources on the other side. HUNT: One question I do have here, Jonah Goldberg and I know you've
been a D.C. resident for many years, and, Lulu, I'd love to hear you weigh in on this as well. Are these questions about I mean, Trump says the statistics are straight rigged, right?
We do know that if you look at the FBI reporting data, what some of these numbers show is actually part of a national trend, right? We're seeing some of these, and it has to do with the pandemic and other things.
[16:15:03]
But it's also true, according to NBC 4, that the Metropolitan Police Department placed a police commander on paid leave. It happened a week after Pulliam filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant chief. The police union accused the department of deliberately falsifying crime data, the union claiming that police supervisors in the department manipulate the data to make it appear that violent crime has fallen considerably compared to last year when, according to the union, perhaps it has not.
And, you know, I'm interested in in your assessment of that, Jonah, but also there is this component that the mayor acknowledged of how people feel about crime. Youve lived here a long time. I don't know that it feels safer here than it did 15 years ago.
GOLDBERG: Yeah. So I'll take the feelings part first just because I have more data on my own feelings.
HUNT: Fair enough.
GOLDBERG: I do think that -- look, first of all, COVID messed up normal crime patterns in all sorts of ways. People -- criminals were going into different neighborhoods, freaking people out in areas that didn't have crime.
We saw it in New York City. The rise in people being pushed off, subway platforms, being pushed off a subway platform statistically wasn't a big deal. It is so friggin terrifying. It's like a shark attack.
And so there's some things that incept themselves in peoples brains and make people feel like the world is much more out of control than other things.
And I think D.C. is still in a long lag from COVID about that. There are carjackings in different neighborhoods than there ever used to be. There are all sorts of things that are freaking out, a lot of parents. And so, I think that's true, even though I think statistically it is safer than it was, you know, 20 or 20 years ago.
On the stats stuff -- look, there are a lot -- I don't know so much about the D.C. situation, but there are a lot of progressive prosecutors. We've been having this fight now for five years or more who pled down gun weapon charges to misdemeanors because they were against the carceral state and all that kind of stuff. And that shows up in crime stats as making the crime situation look better than it really is.
And I think that's why politically, I think Trump is in a good place on this, because it puts Democrats in this position of being against a good thing, which is lowering crime. I still think it is not an emergency. And if you look at how Trump is trying to declare emergency in every aspect of his presidency so he can aggrandize himself powers that otherwise don't belong to him, I find it more troubling than a lot of people do.
HUNT: Yeah. Fair enough.
All right, everybody, stand by.
Coming up, President Trump is already talking about a second meeting with Vladimir Putin even before this Fridays summit in Alaska.
Plus, the newest who's who list in Washington. President Trump unveiling the Kennedy Center honorees and telling us who will host the event.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We ended the woke political programing, and we're restoring the Kennedy Center as the premier venue for performing arts anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't seen the National Guard deployed. You don't know exactly where they are. What communities they're going into. We haven't seen any of that over here in Southeast D.C.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a part of this city that, as I say before, may have a cold, but this area has pneumonia. It shouldn't be about one part of the city feeling safe. It should feel like the whole city wants to feel safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Washington, D.C. residents there telling their local TV station yesterday they know the National Guard is here in their city, but they're just not seeing them, at least not in the areas they thought that they might go.
National Guard troops were spotted near the national mall last night. That, of course, a well-known tourist location, as well as in the affluent Georgetown neighborhood. One White House official telling CNN there will be significantly higher National Guard presence on the ground later today. Jonah, you laughed when you saw the Georgetown footage. Why?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The terrifying streets of Georgetown.
GOLDBERG: Georgetown is easily one of the safest neighborhoods in all of Washington, D.C. It doesn't. And one of the reasons for it doesn't have a metro stop. It's hard to get to.
The idea that that's where the National Guard is needed is kind of preposterous.
HUNT: Lulu, you said that you felt this in your -- in your life here in D.C. and again, I think for people who don't live here, yes, they're going to see that footage. They're going to recognize these monuments. And that may be where they visit when they come here. But D.C.'s crime rate is driven in places where you saw those people talking to their local station saying, hey, this is my neighborhood. They're not here. We could use the help here.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. I mean, there are underserved areas of this city where absolutely south of the river, Anacostia being one of them where, you know, it is high crime. Theres a lot of gun violence. And those places would need the support. And I think that is true.
I will come back to the original idea, though, that I'm not sure the National Guard are the right people to lend that support. They don't have the community relationships. You need violence interrupters. You need a whole bunch of stuff.
You know, I live in a neighborhood that is a good barometer. During the pandemic, it was wild. It was really, really wild. There was lots of crime, carjackings. It was scary.
You know, my daughter was at a park. There was a shooting. All the kids had to hit the deck.
I mean, what I will tell you is that I am not unfamiliar with the crime situation here. I will tell you, though, that it is much better now. And I will also say that when you talk to people, they do want help with crime. They do want their government to feel like they care about them. The question is how you do it and why you do it.
HUNT: Right. So, speaking of how and what may happen here in the District of Columbia under this takeover, the police force by the president, we heard from the president's border czar, Tom Homan, earlier today. He gave an interview talking about the D.C. status as a sanctuary city and whether that is going to continue under these -- this new federal situation.
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Let's watch what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: I think D.C. under federal control is not going to be a sanctuary city. We're working with the police hand in hand. We encounter a criminal, illegal alien that will be turned over to ICE. And that's the way it should be.
I mean, I'm not saying every illegal alien in D.C. is a criminal, but many are. So, these are these are people who are going to focus on illegal alien criminal safety threat. In D.C. is not going to be protected. There's no sanctuary for these people in the city of D.C.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Xochitl Hinojosa, what do you hear when you hear him say that? What do you think that actually means, when the rubber hits the road?
HINOJOSA: So I do think that people are already seeing what's happening all across the country with ice raids. And I think that this scares people. It scares people that in addition to the National Guard, what does this mean for undocumented families? We have seen all across this country, and especially as we're entering back to school season, an uptick in students and parents who are terrified to go to school and terrified of the racial profiling and potentially being stopped.
I will say I have family coming next weekend. They asked me, do we need to bring our passports? Is it possible that we might get stopped?
And so there's a real fear in the Latino community, whether or not you have family that is undocumented or not, about potentially being wrongfully detained. And I think this -- this feeling is real. And it's -- and it's everywhere.
And I think that with the National Guard being here in Washington, D.C., those anxieties are going to be even higher. And what worries me is that, where are these families going to go? Where if they're going to hide in the shadows?
I'm worried that children aren't going to be going to school, which they have every right to if you're an undocumented immigrant. And to me, this just sounds that they're also going to be doing immigration enforcement while they're on the streets.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: They did.
TODD: The way --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: They did yesterday. They went to the Home Depot and rounded up undocumented people there.
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: Americans --- Americans as a whole, though, disagree with sanctuary city policies, especially those who are swing voters and swing jurisdictions. And Democrats actually have an opportunity they're missing here because they can't stand Donald Trump, and they don't want to give him credit for anything.
They need to get right on crime, and they need to get better on immigration. That's the key for them to win elections in the next two cycles. It's two issues that have probably hurt them more than any other. The last 3 or 4 elections.
D.C. is a unique situation because it is a federal city. Donald Trump does have a right to help out here and make D.C. safer. This would be a pretty good laboratory for them to try out a little more moderation and say, hey, look, we don't love Donald Trump, but maybe he can make the city safer. And maybe the sanctuary city policy is a bad idea. Let's give it a shot.
HINOJOSA: Well, I agree with you on that. I agree with you in the sense that Democrats need to get immigration right and Democrats need to be better on crime stuff. And I do think that Democrats should be saying no violent crime is good. And when it comes to immigration, I do think they should say we all want violent criminals deported.
It is where we are deporting families and people who are here that are not committing crimes, that the vast majority of the American people don't agree with Trump. And I think that's what Democrats should be leaning in.
GOLDBERG: I also think there's a --
HUNT: Last word.
GOLDBERG: There's a bigger picture thing, which is that the Democratic Party is fundamentally, demographically and every other way. The party of urban liberalism and the whole point of being the party of urban liberalism is to be able to run cities well.
If you can't run cities well, then why do you even exist? And the problem is, is that for people, for a long time now, Democrats have said, we want to do all these transformative things with cities without doing the basic things that cities are supposed to be good at, fighting crime, protecting -- you know, providing travel and, you know, and all that kind of stuff and words that cannot get out of my mouth for some reason.
And that's a huge problem for Democrats is if they can't figure out how to do urban liberalism, what are they here for?
HINOJOSA: That's true.
HUNT: Interesting.
All right. Coming up next here, Donald Trump back to his TV roots. If he ever really left them announcing a high-profile hosting gig set for later this year. But first, the new expectations for this week's high stakes presidential summit. What could happen when it's over?
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TRUMP: If the first one goes okay, we'll have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately, and we'll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself if they'd like to have me there. (END VIDEO CLIP)
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TRUMP: That's what I do. I make deals.
There'll be some swapping, there'll be some changes in land.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This bilateral meeting is a bilateral meeting between one party in this two-party war, right? You need both countries to agree to a deal. This is a listening exercise for the president.
TRUMP: The first meeting will not work that out at certain great things can be gained in the first one. It's going to be a very important meeting, but its setting the table for the second meeting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The White House's expectations for President Trump's Friday summit with Vladimir Putin evolving over the week from "this is an opportunity to make a deal" to "this is more of just a moment to feel out Putin". And the president speaking today with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, their last chance to communicate their wishes ahead of Trump's sit down with Putin in Alaska.
Zelenskyy emerging from that virtual call with this message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Everything about Ukraine will be discussed with Ukraine. We have to get prepared for a three-sided format of the conversation. There should be a ceasefire first, then security guarantees real security guarantees. And by the way, President Trump expressed his support for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: And joining us now is Admiral James Stavridis, the former supreme allied commander of NATO.
[16:35:01]
Admiral, I'm always grateful to have you. Thank you so much for being here.
I want to start right there with what Zelenskyy said about Trump supporting. According to Zelenskyy, security guarantees. We have not heard President Trump talk about that extensively in public ahead of this summit with Vladimir Putin. What do you make of that discrepancy?
ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I certainly hope that President Zelenskyy is correctly conveying what President Trump told him, because if so, that's extremely encouraging.
I think the interesting question is, okay, what would these security guarantees look like? The gold standard would be membership in NATO. That's not going to happen.
But the security (INAUDIBLE) of continuous flow of significant offensive weapons, a guarantee from the west of cyber protection, more intelligence and above all, security guarantee could mean the use of economic tools to put more pressure on Putin and his economy.
So, let's hope President Trump goes into the meeting in a stern frame of mind. I've also seen quotes from the president in the last few hours saying there will be serious consequences if Putin does not get to a deal, get to a ceasefire. So far in the run up to this meeting, I'm hearing the right things, at least at this moment.
HUNT: And what do you make, sir, of how Putin has managed to use past meetings like this in terms of whether or not the resolve that you note that the president seems to be showing here ahead of this can hold in the face of a personal interaction with Putin?
STAVRIDIS: That's the worry, of course, Kasie. And we all think back to the first Trump administration and that, really unsettling press conference in Helsinki where President Trump seemed to defer to Putin above the analysis of his own intelligence community.
I truly hope that doesn't happen. I don't think it will. I think the President Trump is going to show up. Is the president Trump, who launched the strikes against Iran, the president Trump who launched the killing of Soleimani, the Iranian general. I think if President Trump takes a tough position with Russia, he'll be best served.
And I'll finish with a, you know, an old Russian military proverb, which is the Russians say probe with a bayonet. If you encounter mush, keep going. If you encounter steel, withdraw.
I think President Trump has a lot of cards to play here. That ought to turn this one to a success for the United States and for Ukraine.
HUNT: Really interesting way to think about it.
Admiral, from a historical perspective, we've seen some commentators in the New York times, for example, liken the summit to what we saw in 1945 at Yalta. They write this. Trump and Putin could decide each other's fates, echoing the Yalta summit in 1945. The map of Europe was redrawn in Yalta without input from the affected countries. Ukraine and Europe fear a repeat in Alaska.
Do you think this is fair? Do you see echoes here?
STAVRIDIS: I do, and you can go back to World War I, at the end of World War I, you saw the map being redrawn at conferences in Versailles. President Wilson of the United States, representing us at the time, it didn't turn out well. And you end up with the wrong lines drawn, and it leads to further conflict.
I think the approach here, Kasie, is this bilateral meeting is fine in my view, and I like the fact that we are effectively summoning Vladimir Putin to the United States. Good first meeting. Bilateral.
The next meeting, in my view, ought to be not bilateral and not trilateral. I think the next meeting ought to include the U.S., Ukraine, Russia and the European Union. They're a significant part of how this is going to unfold.
So I'd like to see the president try and expand the format to include the Europeans. He certainly taking input from them right now, having them at the table ultimately, I think would be helpful.
HUNT: So just to kind of dig into that a little bit, how do you think Zelenskyy would see that? Do you think he would prefer to have the Europeans at the table, or would he like to have a chance with Putin and Trump?
STAVRIDIS: I can't read his mind, but if I were advising him, I'd say, President Zelenskyy, the Europeans have been very strong supporters.
[16:40:04]
They appear quite unified behind Ukraine, having, for example, Ursula von der Leyen, very competent official, the head of the European Union. I know her well from her days as defense minister of Germany. She is a very tough negotiator herself. I'd love to see her there. The Ukrainians ought to push for that.
Putin will undoubtedly push back on that. So the best we could possibly get to is the trilateral. But yes, Ukraine has to be at the table eventually. And that's what I just heard President Trump say as well.
HUNT: Really interesting.
All right. Admiral James Stavridis, so grateful to have you on the show today. Thanks very much for your perspective.
See you soon. I hope.
STAVRIDIS: Thanks, Kasie.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here, President Trump flexing his veto power not over legislation but over who's on the list of Kennedy Center honorees in an effort to root out what he calls, quote, wokesters.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:45:30] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Since 1978, the Kennedy Center honors have been among the most prestigious awards in the performing arts. I wanted one. I was never able to get one. This year -- it's true, actually.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: I would have taken it if they would have called me. I waited and waited and waited and I said, the hell with it. I'll become chairman and I'll give myself an honor. Maybe I'm going to honor -- next year, we'll honor Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was classic President Trump at the Kennedy Center earlier today, where he announced this year's nominees for the prestigious Kennedy Center honors. The president of the United States, also now the chairman of the Kennedy Center, will host the event. His first time attending the ceremony as president after he skipped it all four years of his first term. This time, he was heavily involved in picking the awardees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I would say I was about 98 percent involved. No, they all went through me. They came over, Ric and Sergio and everybody. They said -- I turned down plenty. They were too woke. I turned, I had a couple of wokesters. No, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Wokesters, that's his word.
So, this year's honorees are the country music singer George Strait, the actor and singer Mchael Crawford, actor, Philly legend Sylvester Stallone, the disco icon Gloria Gaynor, and the rock band Kiss.
Our panel is back.
Jonah, Dana Bash was particularly excited about Kiss, I think. I think this is very much in her, like, '80s era. She asked me if I knew who Kiss was. I thought that was a little bit unfair.
But what do you make of how the president has handled this? I mean, it's clearly -- he's got a personal. It's personal to him.
TODD: Yeah, well, remember, Trump has said in several interviews that he really wanted to be like a Broadway producer. Like, that's a big part of his actual persona. And he's run his presidency somewhat like a producer, like he cares about the stagecraft of these things. So, it doesn't surprise me that he's interested in this.
I have to say that the thing I'm fascinated about, I think this the honorees are fine. You know, whatever. This is not something I care a great deal about. Him hosting it, I think there's going to be really -- it's going to put the director of that award show in the hospital. Just the idea of, like, having him hit his cues and be short and pithy and that kind of thing, it's going to be interesting.
HUNT: Let's watch Trump talking a little bit more about the role. He'll apparently have hosting this show, because it is a TV show. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, it's going to be a big evening. I've been asked to host. I said, I'm the president of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that?
Sir, you'll get much higher ratings. I said, I don't care. I'm president of the United States. I won't do it. They said, please.
And then Susie Wiles said to me, sir, why can't you host? I said, okay, Susie, I'll do it. I used to host "The Apprentice" finales and we did rather well with that. So, I think we're going to do very well.
HUNT: Brad Todd, is this a good idea?
TODD: You know, I think I's good for the Kennedy Center. And this is going to be an unpopular opinion with people who are subscribers to the Kennedy Center right now. But Donald Trump could open up an entire new audience for the Kennedy Center, which relies on private funding donations from regular Americans. Season ticket buying, show buying. This could open up an entire new audience for the Kennedy Center.
And by the way, I want to put in a plug George Straits, "Amarillo by Morning", maybe one of the best songs ever written. I'm glad you're --
(LAUGHTER)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Are you really saying that there is a new audience by bringing Kiss from the '80s. Like if you want to get a new audience, give it to Taylor Swift. I don't think you're going to get a new audience with Kiss. The other thing I'll say about this is normally the show is broadcast on PBS, which was of course, defunded. So, I think that will be interesting to say the least.
HUNT: Interesting that he'll want to take the ratings up, I guess.
GOLDBERG: Fox Nation will pick it up.
HUNT: Xochitl Hinojosa, I want to talk about another kind of piece of this. It's not exactly the same, but definitely related. The president has clearly shown an interest in taking some narrative control of, in the case of the Kennedy Center, the arts, and he's also doing it in some of our museums at the Smithsonian.
And the White House wrote this letter, on August 12th. So yesterday, to the Smithsonian. And, of course, we should note we can put up the museums that are going to be reviewed in phase one of this apparent White House review. It's some of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Natural History, African American history and culture. The American Indian, the National Air and Space Museum, the American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
And they wrote in this letter, quote, within 120 days, museums should begin implementing content corrections when necessary, replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying historically accurate and constructive descriptions across placards, while didactic digital displays and other public facing materials.
The Smithsonian wrote back that their work is grounded in a deep commitment to scholarly excellence, rigorous research, and accurate factual presentation of history. We are reviewing the letter with this commitment in mind. What does this mean?
HINOJOSA: Well, the arts and museums should not have politics involved in them. I mean, I think that what's happening with the Smithsonian should concern a lot of people. And frankly, people are reaching out to me and saying, does this mean were not going to have an African American Museum anymore? They're trying to build a Latino Museum. What does this mean for that?
I mean, all of these things have great history in them the good, the bad and the ugly. And that is part of visiting the museums. We take our children, they learn about our history. And just because Donald Trump might not like something in an exhibit that doesn't necessarily mean we should take it out.
What happens in the next president comes in and decides they want to do an audit of the Smithsonian again, and they want to take out things that might not be beneficial to their party. This is very dangerous. This is dangerous.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Art is political. Art has always been political. The way that we consume it, the way that exhibitions are put together the things that we choose to emphasize or deemphasize. Look at what's in the White House, taking away Obama and putting up, you know, Lincoln.
I mean, there are always choices involved in this, and I would say that it is dangerous. Absolutely. But to say that there is no politics in art, I think is not true.
TODD: I agree with Lulu. It always has been. In fact, many patrons of the arts had political agendas when they sponsored the art they sponsored. And even in a historical scholarly environment, there are biases and perspectives that come into play. It's going to be, in the case of who writes a museum placard.
So I don't think this is politics being introduced. I think this is just different politics.
HINOJOSA: I still don't think you should politicize the Kennedy Center as a place where bipartisan Republicans and Democrats have enjoyed the Kennedy Center and the arts in that place, regardless of who is president of the United States. And the president shouldn't go in and just pick his friends to come and perform and potentially give awards to.
TODD: But Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden's press secretary, was on the board of the Kennedy Center. Biden's board was very political in itself. Like, that's a -- it's a politically appointed body.
HUNT: Do you see, Brad, a difference between -- because I actually I'm more with you in terms of the way art and certainly our history, right? The choices we make, it's not new right that we are having political debates about how to characterize historical events. One recent example here was the placement of the Enola Gay at the new, what was then the new Air and Space Museum, and how we were going to characterize what happened when the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb.
Do you think there's a difference between that and, for example, wanting to write that Donald Trump was not on the list of impeached presidents in the Smithsonian? Like, do you see a difference between those two things?
TODD: Well, he wasn't -- he wasn't impeached. He should be on a list of impeachment. But his proper historical placard would talk about the politics involved in that. And was it a political impeachment, much like the other impeachments had political implications, too.
The Smithsonian eventually decided to pull what was a temporary placard. They're going to put a permanent display back up, I'd say you'll see it mentioned that he was impeached. I hope it will say the context, that it was viewed as a partisan impeachment.
HUNT: Jonah, what do you think?
GOLDBERG: Yeah, I think all impeachments are political by definition. And it says it's a constitutional thing, that they're political.
Yeah. Look, I generally agree that a lot of our elite institutions, we've seen this with the fight on higher education. Were overly swung too far to the left on all sorts of ways and all sorts of ideological ways. And there's a -- there's a beneficial narrative to Trump to say this is all a beneficial corrective to all of that.
At the same time, it seems like, they use the language of saying, were going to depoliticize things by actually just politicizing them on their own terms. And we should at least acknowledge that.
HUNT: Yeah. All right. This has been a fascinating conversation. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:59:32]
HUNT: All right. Thanks to you all for joining us today. Really appreciate all of your time.
Thanks to you at home for watching as well. And don't forget, if you missed any of today's show or any of our shows, you can always catch up by listening to THE ARENA's podcast. You can just go ahead and scan the QR code below. Follow along wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also follow us on X and Instagram. We are @TheArenaCNN.
Jake Tapper is standing by for "THE LEAD".
And, Jake, I understand you are about to head to Alaska. Of course, President Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin set for Friday. Looking forward to it.
