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Trump Speaks On Board Air Force One After Leaving Summit With Xi In Beijing; Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) On Trump Saying I'll Make A Determination" About Arms Sales To Taiwan; Murdaugh Waiting For New Trial After Court Overturns Convictions. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 15, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think he's a pathetic candidate, especially for Texas. OK?

REPORTER: Did you see Secretary Rubio in the briefing room the other day, and what did you think?

TRUMP: Are you talking about his outfit?

REPORTER: Yeah, that's it.

TRUMP: I thought his outfit -- I thought he looked very good in the outfit. I don't know if I'd do it, but I thought he looked very good. I think he's outstanding. I thought he was great. I mean, I saw every word of it. I thought he was great.

DAVID SANGER, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. President, back to what you were saying before about the enriched uranium at Isfahan.

TRUMP: Yeah.

SANGER: So what would your logic be about having just a 20-year deal? I mean, the deal that you pulled back was 15 years.

TRUMP: Yeah.

SANGER: Whether the would have gotten it faster or not is up to you. But what would the difference be here in --

TRUMP: Well, Obama had virtually no deal. Obama had a road to a nuclear weapon and I terminated that deal. And if I didn't terminate it, Barack Hussein Obama -- if I didn't terminate that deal Iran would have had a nuclear weapon two years ago. As you know, that deal long expired. It would have --

SANGER: So it would have taken the most years doing it, then after your bombing --

TRUMP: You know what? I'll tell you what. I know you backed Obama, which shows what a fraud you are because that was the worst deal. They would have had a nuclear weapon within a period of a year and half after I terminated. If I didn't terminate that and if I didn't send the B-2 bombers in nine months ago to obliterate --

You know, one thing that did happen, which was very nice, the top person in Iran representing them -- the top person -- he said I'm the only one, meaning the United States is the only one along with possibly China that would be able to get the nuclear dust out of that disaster that we created with the B-2 bomber.

SANGER: Are you willing to do that? And why did you do --

TRUMP: Yeah, no. At the right time -- at the right time we'll either go in or we'll get it. I think we'll probably get it. But if we don't get it, we'll go in.

SANGER: But you're willing to mount the operation?

TRUMP: No. I think they'll be totally defeated and we won't have any risk. Yeah, we have the equipment to take it out. Nobody else does. China might have the equipment. They said you're the only one -- they said you and China, they weren't -- we have -- we have the equipment to take it.

REPORTER: Sir, John. Did you discuss North Korea with Xi?

TRUMP: I did.

REPORTER: What came out of that?

TRUMP: You know, I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un. Uh, he's been pretty quiet.

REPORTER: Have you had any communications with him?

TRUMP: Yes.

REPORTER: What kind?

TRUMP: It doesn't matter. I don't tell you about that. But I have a good relationship with him. He's been respectful of our country. I want him to be respectful. He's been respectful of our country.

Hey, thank you very much. Enjoy the fight, everybody.

I heard you didn't have cameras back there. In fact, I loved it. I heard -- and now they got a camera. I heard that you were shut out for two hours until we leave the airspace. But he's got a camera. This guy never misses a trick. You better make me look good with that camera, all right?

Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you.

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President.

(END VIDEOTAPE) JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump on Air Force One just moments ago speaking to reporters onboard the flight back to the United States after his two-day summit with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. And made something of an announcement there that I think underscores what's happened over the last few days, and this was on arms sales to Taiwan. There is a proposal before him for $14 billion worth of new arm sales to Taiwan.

After meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, President Trump says he has made no commitment on this. He would not commit to those $14 billion in sales the Congress very much wants to see, and the State Department very much called for. The president would not commit to it, and he acknowledged it was discussed with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which goes against a 1982 agreement between the United States and Taiwan.

And by the way, thank God for David Sanger of The New York Times --

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Who asked the question.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: He remembered the 1982 agreement.

BERMAN: -- pressing the president on several fronts, but Taiwan just one of the many issues discussed on board.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, also on trade and tariffs. He president continues to push that there are big deals and big commitments that have been made. The one that has been announced is that China is going to be buying 200 Boeing jets.

The question has been -- also, he says billions and billions of dollars of soybeans they're going to buy. But the president has not said what that commitment is. Soybean futures fell on the news of the lack of detail on it.

And the president also saying that -- it was asked if they were able to extend the truce on the trade war with China. The president said, "We didn't discuss tariffs. It wasn't brought up."

SIDNER: He also said something that -- we haven't seen the response from China yet to any of this, right, but he talked about Xi telling him that America is the hottest country in the world. Saying that, you know, the country -- it was doing really poorly under Biden and that it was miraculous -- a virtual miracle, as the president put it, he said that Xi said Trump has done.

[07:35:00]

And, I mean, none of us have seen any reporting from there that indicates that is what Xi said, at least publicly. And I think he said he said it publicly.

BERMAN: I will note it doesn't sound like the kind of language that Xi Jinping of China uses -- America is the hottest country in the world -- but we'll see if there is a response from China on that. Let's get to our chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto who has been listening in. Jim, who has been to Taiwan and China many, many times.

This language on Taiwan from the president -- the failure to commit to these arms sales to Taiwan, Jim, is this what China wanted out of this trip?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST (via telephone): It's definitely something for China, right, because the president did not make a commitment to a decision he -- the U.S. had already made, right, to supply these arms. Now, he could change his mind later and decide to send those arms and to move forward on them. But a pause, if we could read it that way, is a win for China.

And leading up to this -- and we spoke about this prior to the summit, this has been the main concern among U.S. allies in the region and frankly, many in this country, both Republican and Democrat, that the president would yield ground on Taiwan whether that be on the arms sales or on language -- as to how the U.S. describes it relationship to Taiwan.

Does it not support independence? Maybe he might move the language to it opposes independence. He didn't say that there. We don't know what he said privately. But that had been the concern going in.

So here on Taiwan, from the president's statement, he gave some ground. Again, he could change it tomorrow or next week and say actually, I'm going ahead with the arms deal. But a pause -- time to think about it. He said also in his comments he's going to -- he's going to speak to the person in his administration who handles the Taiwan issue is an opening for the Chinese leader.

I also noted some other language in his comments here, which is him essentially repeating, mimicking, parodying China's view of Taiwan. He says hey, look, you know we've had it for thousands of years. He's speaking from China's perspective. And then a certain period of time it left. That is China's view that Taiwan belongs to China and that this brief period of time since the '40s when it became -- you know, you can't use the word "independent", but when it became separate from China was the aberration, right?

And it is much like he will talk about the Ukraine war, right, mimicking Russia's language about the invasion. Whose fault it is, et cetera.

I would say on Taiwan, those two -- those two things are movement in the direction of Xi Jinping. He would consider those positives.

The other thing I'll say is, you know, going into this what was the U.S. going to get in return on Iran because that was a prime U.S. concern going in? And the president appeared or at least he didn't say that he got any commitment from China to help -- to help there other than to say that, you know, they'd like to see the strait opened. And he will say we don't need China, and you've heard that from other U.S. officials. But the fact is they would certainly like Chinese pressure on Iran to help open up the strait.

So, you know, other than Boeing arms -- Boeing aircraft sales and soybeans which, by the way, there's no written commitment, right? And if you go back to the first Trump administration China promised to buy a whole -- you know, loads of soybeans and they didn't buy all those soybeans. Um, other than that it's hard to see what the U.S. walked away from this summit with that's concrete.

BOLDUAN: Um, on Iran as well, Jim -- I mean, he -- it seemed what the president is saying was discussed and agreed to when it comes to -- with Xi, was largely previously stated positions. That China does not want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon. That China would like to see the Strait of Hormuz reopened.

I heard the president there say that Iran has told him directly that they do not have the technology to remove the enriched uranium from Iran. Only the United States -- only the United States and China have that technology. So that leaves an open question of OK, now what?

SCIUTTO: Yeah, it does. And in those comments towards the end there, Trump left open the possibility of going in, right? Is he setting up the possibility of sending U.S. forces in there which would, you know, has been an option for some time? And the Israelis have considered that as well. But that would be an enormously dangerous operation.

Is that a serious proposal from the president there that he's actually considering that given all the reporting we have that he president wants to end hostilities or is it, you know, braggadocio or is he saying how we can solve this problem. It's not as big a deal as it has been portrayed. You know, I can't -- you know, I can't imagine a Chinese-U.S. cooperation, you know, to get it out there in a military operation, but could there be -- could there -- could there be -- could that be part of a nuclear agreement if the U.S. and Iran were to move forward to serious nuclear negotiations, possibly. Um, possibly.

[07:40:05]

I mean, the other point I'll just make is, you know, the president said that Iran would have used a nuclear weapon by now under the previous nuclear deal. It's not clear. There's no U.S. assessment of that and it's not clear what he bases that on because Iran had far less enriched uranium under the JCPOA than it has now -- more than 400 kilograms.

So it's a comment President Trump has made -- a claim he's made repeatedly but there's no intelligence assessment we're aware of that the U.S. has assessed that China -- sorry, that Iran would have used a nuclear weapon in the last couple of years.

SIDNER: Yeah.

All right, Jim, stick with us. I want to go now to Sabrina Singh, global affairs commentator for CNN, to ask you a couple of things but first, on this policy with Taiwan. We heard from Secretary of State Rubio yesterday saying look, the policy in Taiwan is unchanged. But now we've heard from the president that they did discuss arms sales, him and Xi, and that the whole thing, as the president put it, with the arms sales was in great detail. And then he said the last thing we need is a war.

What does that tell you about his thinking here?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR, FORMER DEPUTY PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Well, this is exactly I think what someone like Marco Rubio and others in the administration do not want, but it's clear that the president freelanced in his meetings with President Xi.

You know, when I was in the administration and working at the Pentagon our language when it came to Taiwan was always pretty scripted because it was very precise. And we did not want to get ahead of any conversations, especially when you're dealing with your Chinese counterparts, when it comes to Taiwan. And so, you know, our policies are guided by these assurances and communiques and, of course, the Taiwan Relations Act, that keep the -- this idea of strategic ambiguity.

But the fact that it clearly came up in their conversations and the fact that the president is considering maybe withholding arms sales to Taiwan, that is incredibly significant. And I would say that if that does happen and if those sales are put on hold, I mean, that would be an incredible win for President Xi coming out of these meetings.

SIDNER: Um, when you think about that, um, it is -- it is a change in policy, is it not? Because he's saying -- Rubio is saying no change in policy but that -- we just saw what appears to be a change in policy -- even the discussion of it, correct?

SINGH: It definitely could be. And you saw that exchange even with, you know, David Sanger there reminding the president about these assurances that were signed in 1982 that clarified the relationship between Taiwan and the United States. So it definitely could be a change in policy. We don't know yet.

But the fact that it was even brought up -- I mean, this is something that those assurances and the communiques guide the U.S. policy and that it's not to be discussed. It is absolutely up to Taiwan to decide its own sovereignty. And, of course, when it comes to arms sales -- I mean, that is something that the U.S. has committed to. So there could be a change in policy.

I think at the end of the day, the president is going to take a victory lap on this -- on these two days of meetings. I mean, he can say that he walked away with some trade agreements -- you know, this last meeting that he had with President Xi. President Xi is planning to send roses to the White House. You know, the president literally had the red carpet rolled out to him.

But I think the upper hand really goes to China here, and that's really unfortunate because the Iran war clearly loomed over these conversations. And there was no commitment from China at any point that I have seen that says they are going to work to pressure Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, which I think is something that this administration would gladly have taken and really wants to see open. Because as we know here in at home, the economic clock, the political clock -- that is ticking towards the midterms, and this administration wants to see that strait opened.

BERMAN: Sabrina Singh, thank you very much. Our thanks to Jim Sciutto as well.

I will say you can see there the market futures down this morning. Both stocks and oil prices seem pretty uncertain about what happened at these meetings, wanting to hear more concrete details which just aren't available obviously.

BOLDUAN: Just from the president's own recitation right now --

BERMAN: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- it seems unclear as to what really went on.

BERMAN: We're going to go through this much more carefully. A lot of breaking news. Stay with us. Our coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:48:43]

BOLDUAN: The breaking news this morning. As we just heard, President Trump speaking aboard Air Force One on his way back from his big meeting with China and Xi Jinping. The president now saying that he has not determined whether to move forward on the major multibillion dollar arms package for Taiwan after this summit and this two days of meetings with the Chinese leader.

I want to play for you a little bit more about what he just told reporters on Air Force One about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We discussed Taiwan. You know, the whole thing with the arms sales in great detail actually. And I'll be making a decision.

SANGER: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: But, you know, the last thing we need right now is a war that's 9,500 miles away. I think that's the last thing we need. We're doing very well.

REPORTER: Would the U.S. defend Taiwan if it came to it?

TRUMP: I don't want to say. I'm not going to say that. Uh, there's only one person that knows that. You know who it is? Me. I'm the only person. That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said I don't talk about that.

REPORTER: Yesterday --

TRUMP: But --

REPORTER: -- he asked you if you would send troops.

TRUMP: He asked me if I'd defend them. I said I don't talk about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Taiwan is a democratic and self-governing island. Beijing has long viewed it as part of its own territory.

Joining me right now to discuss is Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida. Congressman, thank you very much for being here.

All of this really just unfolding as we speak, getting a little bit more of a window into President Trump's view of his two days of meetings.

Your reaction to what he is now saying about Taiwan and the arms deal that he now says he's not making a commitment of whether or not to approve.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): Well, I think in the end that he will approve it. He is being ambiguous as our policy says that we are, you know, ambiguous towards Taiwan. So when asked whether he would defend Taiwan -- again, he said well, you know, uh, it's up to him and maybe we will and maybe we won't. He does not want a war. Nobody wants a war.

But I think what's happened recently in the last couple of months, especially with Iran, is actually it has exposed China's weakness, and China's weakness is double.

Number one, their energy dependent. And so now what's happening, the Straits of Hormuz actually hurts them more than anybody else because they're not getting the energy that they need -- the oil that they need in order to keep their economy going. Secondly, they're food dependent. They need to import 30 percent of the food to feed their people.

And so this war has really kind of exposed those weaknesses of China.

And so when I -- look, when I -- when I -- when I hear the president, I take what President Xi says with a grain of salt and I also take what President Trump says with a grain of salt. What they're saying publicly and what they're saying privately may be actually two different things. And so, we'll see what the president does. I don't take much stock in what he says right now and -- but I know that there's bipartisan support to get those arms to Taiwan.

BOLDUAN: So that -- I mean, what I'm hearing you say is important because right now -- I was looking back right before we came on. You co-sponsored a resolution amongst members of Congress -- a bipartisan resolution that said when President Trump meets with Xi Jinping in Beijing this week, Taiwan cannot be on the table.

When you hear that the president says that Xi -- that he and Xi discussed Taiwan a lot and that he has not determined whether or not to move forward on this major arms deal, you are saying you don't necessarily believe the words he's saying right now. You think in the end what?

GIMENEZ: I think in the end that we give the arms shipments to Taiwan. We don't want conflict and the best way to have -- avoid conflict is to make sure that Taiwan has the arms it needs in order to exact a price from China if they do cross the straits.

And so, you know, I am confident that the arms will be sold -- will be given to Taiwan and I'm also confident that we will be there to defend Taiwan.

But again, as with the previous administration when the president said that we're going to defend Taiwan and then members of that administration kind of -- kind of backed away from that and kind of left it ambiguous, I think that's exactly what's happening right now.

Remember what Secretary Rubio said just yesterday that our policy towards Taiwan has not changed. And so I don't believe that our policy towards Taiwan has changed. And our posture and what's going to happen in that region, we're going to -- we're going to let -- leave the Chinese to guess as exactly what it is that we're going to do in case that they invade Taiwan.

But I can tell you what we're doing is that the president has given us a request for $1.5 trillion defense budget. Much of it has to do with defending the threat that is China. They're our pacing partner and we may -- want to make sure that they never catch us. That's why he's requesting all that money for defense.

BOLDUAN: I also want to ask you -- you are the only Cuban-born member of Congress. And we have now learned that the CIA Director Ratcliffe has been in Cuba meeting with Cuban officials.

The Associated Press actually quoted a CIA official about this visit saying that "Ratcliffe was there to personally deliver President Donald Trump's message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes."

You've long advocated in support of regime change in Cuba though. What do you make of the CIA director going down there? What are they ready to negotiate?

GIMENEZ: Well, number one, there's $100 million worth of humanitarian aid -- excuse me -- that the United States is willing to give to the Cuban government as long as it's not distributed by the regime because the regime will steal it.

So that's why Secretary Rubio went and spoke to Pope Leo and said that we want to use Catholic Charities to distribute this aid. We have used Catholic Charities there in Cuba in the past to distribute this aid. The Cuban people desperately need this help -- the humanitarian aid that we're willing to give them. But we're not willing to give it to the regime because the regime will steal it like they've stolen everything else in the past.

[07:55:10]

So we -- we're not going to go down that path. Catholic Charities can do it. And the people of Cuba need that help. Apparently, Diaz-Canel, the Cuban president, has said that he will accept that and accept that kind of -- kind of a deal.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, really quickly though, CBS and others are reporting that the U.S. is making moves to also indict Raul Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba.

What are you hearing about this? Are you hearing that?

GIMENEZ: Yeah, I'm hearing those rumors too that -- there is a press conference, you know, the 20th of May, which is Cuban Independence Day in Miami in the Freedom Tower by the -- by the attorney for, you know, the U.S. attorney down in South Florida. And we're hearing that they're going to be indicting Raul Castro for ordering the shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue flight back in 1996, which killed three American citizens and one American resident.

Brothers to the Rescue was an organization that would do flights over the Florida Straits in order to rescue those thousands of Cubans that were really throwing themselves into the sea and trying to make it across the Florida Straits to -- for freedom. Uh, many Cubans died trying to make that -- make that trip. Brothers to the Rescue, again, were trying -- would spot these Cubans in the water and tell the Coast Guard where they were so they could be rescued.

Raul Castro has on tape from what I understand saying that he ordered the shootdown of one of those planes over international waters by a MiG which killed those four individuals, three of which were American citizens.

BOLDUAN: Let's see when that major move and major escalation will occur.

Congressman, thank you for coming in -- I appreciate it -- on this breaking news -- John.

BERMAN: This morning Alex Murdaugh is waiting for a new trial and there are questions about how different a second trial would be. The New York Times reports that even he was surprised after the South Carolina Supreme Court this week overturned his convictions for the 2021 murders of his wife and son. This case received enormous attention all around the world. The justices say a county clerk's improper comments to the jury violated his rights to a fair trial.

The state's attorney general says his office plans to retry Murdaugh on all the murder charges. And that attorney general Alan Wilson is with us now. We should note he's running for governor of South Carolina. Attorney General, first of all, thank you for sticking around. The president's comments on China delayed everything a little bit, so I do appreciate your patience with us.

You were at the prosecution table for those convictions of Alex Murdaugh -- the double-murder convictions.

Talk to us about your plans and the timeline for a new trial.

ALAN WILSON, SOUTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL (via Webex by Cisco): Well, first off, we're obviously disappointed in the court's decision. We respect the court's decision.

But we want to remind people that our office secured convictions on financial crimes that Alex Murdaugh engaged in and admitted to, and he received a 27-year sentence. That was followed by his admission to guilt on federal crimes, which he is receiving a concurrent 40-year sentence. So Mr. Murdaugh will be in prison for several more decades.

As it relates to the timing of his trial, obviously, we're aspirational in our goals. We'd like to try to get it scheduled before the end of the year. We don't yet know if that's possible, but we do not plan to sit on this for much longer.

We're evaluating all of our legal options right now. We're reading the court's order. We're looking at what our options are and we're going to make a decision here shortly on how we want to proceed. But we do intend to retry this case as quickly as possible.

BERMAN: Understood.

And as you know, this has become something of a political issue in South Carolina. One of your opponents in the governor's race -- a spokesperson for Lt. Governor Pamela Evette said, "This guy [you] screwed up the most high-profile trial in South Carolina history and now wants to be governor? We can't afford to give Alan a promotion. He can't even do his current job."

What do you say to that?

WILSON: Well, that person either can't read or can't hear because if he had looked or if he had read the Supreme Court order and if he'd followed all of the news, it had nothing to do with our office. In fact, the Supreme Court agreed with us. The Supreme Court said we did an excellent job -- a superb job. It was the fault of an -- of a county clerk who is unrelated to our office and had nothing to do with us. So that individual is missing a couple of brain cells or maybe only has a couple of brain cells.

But the reality is this falls on the shoulders of one individual who did something that was inappropriate. The court believed it was -- it basically violated the rights of Mr. Murdaugh, and it was -- it's her fault. People want to politicize this -- people who have never been in court. That just shows the juvenile immaturity on their part.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about something else happening in South Carolina. Governor McMaster has called a special session on the legislature to redraw the congressional districts -- to draw out the one Democratic-held seat in the state currently held by Democrat Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. I -- and you support this. You support the special session to redraw the maps. I do want to note people have already voted in the primaries, right? You sent out absentee ballots and military ballots -- several thousand -- and some ballots have actually been returned already.

So what do you tell these people who have already voted?