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Trump to Speak at Board of Peace Meeting; Trump Speech at Board of Peace; Questions on Trump's Plans for Iran. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired February 19, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: To hear from President Trump, who's speaking at the first meeting of his so-called Board of Peace in Washington. He's expected to announce that member states have pledged more than $5 billion towards the rebuilding of Gaza and will commit personnel for a security force there. But many key European allies have declined to sign on.

Joining me now is CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier.

You know, we're talking about this Board of Peace, and I do want to get to what they are going to be convening about. But in the interim, we have reporting from sources to CNN that the Trump administration is ready and willing to potentially strike Iran again. And the dichotomy between these two things, the Board of Peace and what may be happening, and we may hear from him on this very issue, what do you make of that?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, one of the key things to get cooperation from Israel on the Board of Peace, because Israel still isn't happy with the level of Hamas disarmament or lack thereof, is some sort of concerted action to trim Iran's hostilities and its ability to strike Israel. That is what this potential action is all about, and what the talks have focused on. While Iran keeps trying to move the talks to just focusing on the nuclear issue, what Israel is really concerned about, and gulf allies of the U.S. as well, is Iran's ballistic missile capability. It's missiles could reach throughout southern Europe, as well as the gulf and Israel. And so far it said no to discussing of trimming how far or how many they have. And that is a deal breaker for U.S. negotiators, which could put us on a collision course for some sort of military action in the coming weeks.

SIDNER: Now to Gaza and the pledges that have been made, we're talking $5 billion to try and rebuild a place that has been largely, well, completely destroyed. But there are several key U.S. allies who aren't signing on, who are staying away from this. What does this tell you about how all of this is being received just on the whole on the world stage?

DOZIER: Well, they have questions. Questions like, you know, is this really a U.N. sanctioned body, or is this now a Donald Trump vanity project that is trying to steal a march on the U.N. Security Council's peacemaking and try to enforce peace around the globe? If you are a leader in Europe where your people are already furious at the Trump administration for its land grab with Greenland, you don't want to sign up for something where you don't know exactly what the rules are governing what it will do. It looks like something that will be controlled by presidential fiat. And that was actually in the original U.N. resolution setting it up, that whoever was the chairman of the board has a lot of power, can dismiss members, et cetera.

But, you know, what it started out being and what Trump is making it into has raised a lot of questions about how it will be run, what it will eventually do, and where the money is coming from and how it will be monitored. They don't want to sign up for something that is a Donald Trump post-presidential slush fund.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, that is something that certainly all the countries will be looking at there. You know, you talk about them being furious about Greenland. They're also very concerned about what's happening in Ukraine as well vis-a-vis what the United States is willing to do and cozying up sometimes to Russia and sometimes using Russia's talking points at the same time with having discussions with Zelenskyy.

DOZIER: Yes. Yes.

SIDNER: So, that is a real sticky mess there.

But why did some of these countries sign on to this, like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Belarus?

DOZIER: Look, if you are one of the members from the Middle East, from the gulf, this is your vehicle to try to influence what the Trump administration is going to do on the ground in Gaza. This is your way to try to get Israel to step back and let the rebuilding commence in some manner, shape or form. On the positive side of things, look, they've raised $5 billion out of the estimated $50 billion to $60 billion that the U.N. thinks will be needed to rebuild Gaza. They've got a potential group of technocrats who would start that rebuilding. Some of it includes fascinating plans like pushing the rubble into the sea to expand the size of Gaza and then rebuilding the infrastructure. So, you know, this this could be good for the Palestinians who have been stuck in a nightmare situation in Gaza.

SIDNER: Yes.

DOZIER: What stands against that is that Hamas is still in charge.

[09:35:02]

SIDNER: I think I'm seeing the vice president, who has just arrived. The secretary of state. I think Jared Kushner is there. And here comes President Donald Trump as he is just about to make his live remarks here. All of us watching to see what happens, of course, with Gaza, but also to see if he makes any comments on Iran.

Let's listen.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, thank you very much. This is a big day and lots of people watching, and especially from other countries, the leaders of, as you know, the other countries because we have a large group of leaders. And the ones that aren't here are watching on Zoom. I hope they enjoy it. And the press, we appreciate it very much. So respectful. You've been so respectful of what we're doing.

What we're doing is very simple, peace. It's called the Board of Peace, and it's all about an easy word to say, but a hard word to produce, peace. But we're going to produce it. And we've been doing a really good job. And some of these leaders that are with us have helped me very much during just this first year. We have a first year like probably no other ever in our country because we settled eight wars and I think a ninth to come. It's turned out to be a tougher one. I thought that was going to be the easiest one. But with war you never know what's easy and what's not so easy.

But we've had a great relationship. And I've become friendly with so many of the people. And I appreciate you being here. These are great people. These are great leaders. And the people that are watching by closed circuit and open circuit in many cases, they're so proud of it. They want it to be open. But they're -- they've become incredible friends of mine.

And, you know, we rebuilt our country in my first term, and now we're at a point that the United States has never seen before. We broke 50,000 on the Dow. They said that would take four years. We broke 7,000 on the S&P. They said you couldn't do that within four years. It would be impossible. And when I came in, they were all saying, if he could get to anywhere close to 40,000, 45,000 it would be an amazing achievement over four years. Well, we hit 50,000 in the first year. And we hit 7,000, which was actually tougher to do according to the Wall Street geniuses. We hit 7,000 in the first year. They said it could take four or five years. They'd be very happy. It would have been a great job. We did it in one. But we're doing -- we're doing a great job.

The Board of Peace is one of the most important and consequential things I think that I'll be involved in. We've been involved in a lot. And really I've been involved in a lot with the people up here. We work together on ending wars with their country. Some of the wars were 32 years long, 32, 34 and a 37. That's a long time. And we ended it in about two days, each one of those. But we have some other work to do and we're getting it done.

Gaza is very complex. It's been amazing, I want to thank Steve and Jared for an amazing job. Marco is over there watching. Everybody's fantastic. And, J.D., what a job they were all doing as a team. I think it's the best team ever assembled. And you see that by the results.

So, today is a tremendous honor to welcome you all to the United States Institute of Peace for the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace. Very important. I believe it's the most consequential board certainly in terms of power and in terms of prestige. There's never been anything close because these are the greatest world leaders. Almost everybody's accepted. And the ones that haven't, will be. Some are playing a little cute. Doesn't work. You can't play cute with me. But they're playing a little bit. But they're all -- they're all joining. Everybody. Most of them very immediately. A few that we really don't want because they're trouble. We'll take care of them. But this is the most prestigious board ever put together.

You know, I've seen some great corporate boards. I've seen some great boards, period. It's peanuts compared to this board because we have virtually everyone is the head of a country, other than Johnny (ph), but he's the head of soccer, so that's not so bad, right, Johnny? I like your job the best, I think. And by the way, your World Cup has set every single ticket record in the history of soccer. In the history -- nobody's ever seen anything like it. The sales are virtually complete. Nobody's ever seen anything. So, congratulations. You made a good decision. We did it together. Thank you, Johnny. Great guy.

[09:40:01]

So, I want to thank the many leaders and dignitaries who have traveled great distances and lengths for the important gathering that we're at right now. This building was built for peace and nobody knew what to name it. And then Marco named it after me. I had nothing to do with it. I swear I didn't. I swear. I had no idea. They said, there's a surprise coming. I didn't know the surprise. I thought they were going to give me a lot of money or something, maybe cash. Can always use some extra cash. But I came and they stopped the beautiful beast. I got out, very safely I'm sure, and looked up and there it said Donald J. Trump on the building. And when I say that that was -- had nothing to do -- nobody believes it, and that's OK. But I appreciated it. That was Marco and J.D. and a group got together and they did that, and I just thought it was very nice. And it makes me work harder. We're going to have to work harder. We're going to have to make this building much more important.

They built -- it's brand new. They built it for peace, but nobody occupied it. You know, nobody knew what the purpose of it. But the architecture is so beautiful. And it's -- it was -- with the meeting rooms, the reception rooms. It's really amazing. Who would think that it was built without anybody in mind or anything in mind. And then the State Department took it over. They liked it. Marco came over one day. He saw this. He said, this building is great. And he actually claimed it, right? He claimed it. And that's what he does.

Where is Marco? I say, Marco, is that true, you claimed this building? You took it away from about five groups that wanted it. It was -- that was done very quickly. Very methodically. But it was really, really built so beautifully and such a beautiful building.

But we worked together to ensure the brighter future for the people of Gaza, the Middle East and the entire world. I think that the Board of Peace, because it's mostly leaders and unbelievably respected people, but mostly leaders of middle eastern countries, countries from all over the world. And they've been very generous with money also. And the United States, which I'll say in a moment, is also very generous with money, because there's nothing more important than peace.

And there's nothing less expensive than peace. You know, when you go to wars, it costs you 100 times what it costs to make peace. We have a man at the end right there that's smiling because you learned that after 30 years of fighting, right? Thirty years of fighting. We got it done.

I want to thank you very much. That was a great thing you did. You and your new friend. They came to my office and they said, I've been fighting for 22 years. Now you're there for 23 years, right? But I've been fighting for 22 years. That's all I've done is fight this gentleman. And his counterpart was there for seven years. He said, I've been there for seven years. All I've done is fight this gentleman.

And we had it worked out in about 24 hours, right? And it's been a good peace -- and I think they've become friends. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say that, but I think so. I think they've become friends, right? Right? Great. Stand up. Stand up. These are two tough cookies, too. These are -- you think that was easy? It wasn't easy. These are two tough people. Good people, but tough people.

But, you know, we're in the Oval Office and we were getting near. But the one was at one side of the room -- I have two chairs right in front of the desk. The beautiful Resolute desk. One's over here. One's on the other side of the room. I said, folks, could you get a little closer? Well, I don't -- they felt very uncomfortable. You know, they've been killing each other for 32 years. So, I say, can you get a little closer? After one hour they were right next to each other, we made a deal. They hugged. They signed. And we had peace with two very important countries. And I'll never forget it.

So, they started off a little weak and they ended up really strong. And you can be very proud of yourselves. It was a beautiful thing to see. Thank you. Yes, look at that. Do you believe it? Thirty-two years.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

But we're honored to be joined today by Prime Minister Rama of Albania. President -- where is President Milei? You're another one, I'll tell you. Where is President Milei? I had -- I endorsed him. I'm not supposed to be endorsing people, but I endorsed -- when I like people. You know, I've had a very good record of endorsing candidates within the United States. But now I endorse foreign leaders, including Viktor Orban, who's here, and others. And I endorsed this gentleman, Milei. He was a little behind in the polls. He ended up winning in a landslide.

[09:45:03]

I just endorsed the prime minister of Japan. She was in a tight race but was probably going to win. And she won in the largest number in the history of Japan. So, she likes me a lot.

But it was an honor. And you're doing great. Oh, look, they're sitting right next, Viktor. I think -- ultimately, I think I'm going to end up endorsing -- hey, look, as long as it works it's OK with me. But the endorsement seems to be working in foreign countries, too, so that's good. But nice to have you both, Viktor. Nice to have you both. Very proud of you.

The prime minister of another really just a great guy, Pashinyan of Armenia, President Ali Asadov of Azerbaijan. I love saying that name now. You know, at the beginning he was giving me a hard time. Now I love saying it. It's a beautiful name. I love it.

His majesty, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, Bahrain, thank you. Thank you. Where are you? Where are you? He's so rich he can sit there. He can sit wherever the hell he wants. You know, he could sit up in the corner. He could sit up top. He might take a piece of this building, Marco. He'll take 25 percent of the building for about $6 billion. Thank you. And you've been very generous also. We appreciate it.

Prime Minister Hun Manet of Cambodia. Raise your hand wherever you may be. Because -- yes. Hi. How are you? Congratulations. That was another one, right? We did a good job with that one.

Prime Minister Madbouly of Egypt. Thank you very much. And say hello to the general/president, OK.

Prime Minister Orban of Hungary, who has my complete and total endorsement for election. Not everybody in Europe loves that endorsement, but that's OK. He does an unbelievable job. He's done an incredible job on immigration, unlike some countries that have hurt themselves that they're working on it. But I just want to let you know, you have my total and complete endorsement. And I'm putting it out. I already did, but I'm putting it out again. And you're coming up with an election. And I think he should be good. I'll tell you, Milei did pretty well, who was a little down, right, and then he was -- he ended up winning in a landslide. So, that's pretty good. You're going to do great, Viktor. Thank you very much for being here. I appreciate it. You run a great country.

A man that I really like a lot is -- he's definitely tough. I don't want to fight him. President Prabowo of Indonesia. Thank you very much. Please. This is a big guy. I tell you, I said, how many people in Indonesia? He said like 240 million. I said, no, no, say it again, how many? It's a big country you have. And you do a great job and respected by everybody. And thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

President Tokayev of Kazakhstan, thank you very much. What a country that is. It's a wonderful country and a rich country, in case anybody has any question. We have some very rich people here today.

President Osmani of Kosovo. President, thank you very much. Great, great job you're doing too. Thank you very much.

Prime Minister Sharif, I like this man, of Pakistan, because there was some fighting going on when I got to know him. And your field marshal, general, great, great general, great field marshal, a great guy. And I got to meet the prime minister. And he said in front of our chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who's right here, he said, you know, nobody knows this, but I believe that President Trump saved 25 million lives when he say -- when he stopped the war between us and India, right? You made that statement. He said 25 million lives. Could have been much more, actually. But it's -- it was really a beautiful thing. You said that in front of a group of people that was -- they walked out. They don't think about it. But you're talking about that kind of lives. That war was raging. Planes were being shot down, right? And it was Pakistan and India. And I got on the phone with both of them, and I knew him a little bit. I knew Prime Minister Modi very well, actually. I got to know Pakistan through a little trade. They were trying to make too good a deal, and I got a little upset with them and, in the end, they got what they wanted, right?

[09:50:04]

And they made a good deal. And I got to like them, the prime minister, the field marshal, who's a tough man, a tough, good fighter, right? Good -- serious fighter. I like good fighters, actually. And when I heard that they were fighting, I picked up a certain newspaper -- I won't tell you which one because it's fake news generally -- but I picked up this newspaper and I saw that Pakistan and India were really going at it. And then it got worse and worse, and planes were -- many planes were shot down. It was -- it was all out.

And I called him. And I said, listen, I'm not doing trade deals with you two guys if you don't settle this up. They said no, no, no, that has both of them. They didn't want to do that. I said, no, it has to. If you don't do it, I'm not doing a trade deal. We're not doing a trade deal. And they do a lot of business with the United States. And they sort of softened up all of a sudden. And all of a sudden I read where there was a little bit of a pullback by one and the other and all of a sudden we worked out a deal, right? But I said, if you fight, I'm going to put 200 percent tariffs on each of your countries. It was essentially makes you not allowed, you know, you can't do any business.

One of them, I won't say which one, said, no, you can't do that. They both wanted to fight. But when it came to money, nothing like money. When it came to losing a lot of money, they said, I guess we don't want to fight. And we solved that deal in two, three days, right? And we did. We said, these are two very powerful nations. These are two nuclear nations. And I don't want to say what was going to happen, but, you know, bad things happen.

So, Prime Minister, I want to thank you because that was a big -- that was a very big deal. People have no idea. A lot of them say, oh, well they weren't fighting. They were fighting, 11 jets were shot down. Very expensive jets. And they were all in. Both of them were all in. And now they're not. And I think we'll always be able to settle up with them. I really do. I think you're going to have, you know, it's -- a lot of progress was made, even in the relationship. And Prime Minister Modi also, he's a great man. He's a great guy. They're all great. But I was very proud of it.

President Pena of Paraguay is here. President. President, thank you very much. Young handsome guy. It's always nice to be young and handsome. Doesn't mean we have to like you. I don't like young, handsome men. Women -- JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, President Trump is speaking to his Board of Peace. This is the organization he founded first to help rebuild Gaza. And what he's doing right now is going through a list of the people in the room by name, based on the country they're from, in alphabetical order. And he just got to Paraguay. So, he's on p. So, he's got some time left to go here.

I will say that this event, which is designed to talk about what's happening in Gaza, is being very much, I don't know if overshadowed is the right word, but what people are looking for here is any sign, any hint, indicate -- any indication of what President Trump's plans are vis a vis Iran. There is a huge military buildup right now of U.S. assets in the region, and there is a sense that the United States military could be prepared to strike if the president chooses, as soon as this weekend.

So, let's get to the White House, as the president moves on in the alphabet here, and bringing Kevin Liptak and get a sense of that reporting here, because I really do think that there is an enormous amount of focus on what could happen next.

Kevin.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there is, and not a lot of clarity, really. You know, we're told that this buildup of military assets in the region is essentially getting bigger by the day. The USS Gerald Ford, that's the world's largest aircraft carrier, I'm told should be in the region by the weekend or early next week. So, it does seem to be setting up, you know, this big question that's now in front of the president, which is to pursue diplomacy, to keep trying to get the Iranians to agree to some kind of deal, or essentially to go to war. It's a decision by all accounts he has not made yet. You know, behind the scenes we're told he's continuing to pull people around him about the relative advantages of each option here.

You know, the president came into office, and I think this is sort of a bigger picture thing, he came into office promising to extract the United States from foreign wars. And you know what we see him doing here today, this Board of Peace was created after he successfully negotiated a ceasefire in Gaza. And so, the fact that he is now weighing what seems to be a major military operation in Iran, you know, the buildup that he has ordered in the Middle East does not suggest this is going to be something discrete or small. It seems like it will be something sustained, potentially.

I think it's, you know, against the backdrop of a president who promised the American people that he would not go into foreign wars.

[09:55:06]

And, you know, the objectives that the president is trying to accomplish here, I think, aren't necessarily clear at this point. You know, he's hinted at the idea of regime change. But we should note his own secretary of state said earlier this month that it's not clear what would replace the current regime if the existing one is ousted. He talks about the imperative of not allowing Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. And that certainly is very important. And a lot of people would agree with that.

But, you know, the president also says that the strikes in June that he carried out in Iran obliterated Iran's nuclear program. And so, as the president is weighing this very, very important decision, there are a lot of questions, I think, about what he's trying to accomplish. And so far, he has not necessarily tried to gain the buy in from Congress certainly, many members of Congress wondering whether they will be involved in this decision in any way. But also the American public. He hasn't gone out and delivered, you know, an address to the nation, laying out what exactly he's looking for here.

And so certainly a lot, I think, on the president's plate and a lot of decision making factors that he's bringing to play here. He is allowing the diplomacy to continue, at least for now. American officials say that they expect Iran to come back within two weeks with more clarity about what exactly their position is. But I think a lot of uncertainty, not a lot of optimism, really, that the Iranians will come back with something that the president can agree to.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And, Kim, as you've been listening, you were having a conversation with Sara about this kind of ahead of this, what is -- Kevin is talking about that it's not clear that his objectives with Iran are -- have been really laid out. What's also adding to that lack of clarity is where this all began. This began as the president promising protesters that -- or anti-government protesters in Iran, promising them that he had their back, saying keep protesting, help is on the way. And then we get to where we are today. I mean do you understand, especially speaking with your sources, the origins of all of this?

DOZIER: I don't think the president has decided what he wants out of Iran that is actually gettable. Yes, he'd like regime change and some more malleable governments to take power. But all indications are that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has a system in place that no matter how many of its top ranks get taken out, no matter how many of the clerics from the other side of the regime get taken out, it will most likely take power after any sort of U.S. campaign.

The other risk that President Trump has to consider is that, you know, the last time Iran was under fire in that 12 day campaign in June, Operation Midnight Hammer, it didn't feel like it was under existential threat. This time it might hit back much harder.

SIDNER: All right, thank you to you, Kim Dozier and Kevin Liptak there at the White House/

And thank you for joining us. This has been CNN NEW CENTRAL. You're watching live pictures of the president speaking at the board of peace. "THE SITUATION ROOM," up next.

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