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President Trump Holds News Conference at G7. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 17, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:02]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Please. Yes.

No, please.

QUESTION: Thank you.

TRUMP: You're from ABC. You're fake news. Go ahead.

QUESTION: To follow up on oil, can you confirm, will Iran be able to immediately sell their oil to market? And will U.S. sanctions snap back immediately if there is a delay or collapse in the talks?

TRUMP: They could, yes.

QUESTION: And then, relatedly, is there any safeguard in this deal to prevent Iran from charging what they say could be fees after the 60- day extension?

TRUMP: The thing that's going to stop them from doing that, because you can't cover everything in a document, is common sense. They don't want to get bombed. They don't want to get hit.

As far as sanctions are concerned, at some point, we have sanctions which will never let them rebuild. They would have no money. They would be in poverty. The 91 million people would starve. So something will happen as soon as they behave. When they behave, we're going to let that go. We're going to have to.

I put sanctions on a lot of people, and then I let them go, a lot of countries.

Yes, please.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. My name is Shinji Abe (ph). I'm a Japanese (INAUDIBLE) newspaper company from the Washington correspondent.

My question is about the Strait of Hormuz. Did you ask other G7 nations to send military force? And what specifically are you asking of Japan or...

TRUMP: Where are you from?

QUESTION: I'm from Japan.

TRUMP: From where?

QUESTION: Japan.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I just left your prime minister. Japan's doing very well. She's my biggest fan, I have to tell you. She thinks I did a great job. You have to call her and ask her. She's doing a very good job, by the way. Go ahead.

QUESTION: And military support is no longer necessary.

TRUMP: Yes, but what do you want to know? Go ahead. Just tell me, what you want to know.

QUESTION: Oh, OK. My question is, did you ask other G7 nations to send military force? And what specifically are you asking of Japan?

TRUMP: To send the air force? For what?

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: He wants to know if you asked any country to send military sources to the Strait of Hormuz.

TRUMP: Oh, other countries, not just Japan. No, no, I don't need -- we don't need it. Oh, by the way, they all want to do it. They all want to do it, every single one of them. They want to go be a part of it now, not while the war was going on.

I was a little disappointed. But the U.K., I said, it would be nice if you send ships. I didn't put a hard sell on, but I said, it would be nice if you send some ships. And the prime minister said they will be there, sir, as soon as the war is over.

I said, did he say that? I couldn't believe it, actually.

Japan has offered to get involved. But, I mean, I will be honest. Japan was not willing to get involved during the war. I asked her, I said, you want to get involved a little bit? I didn't put the heavy sell on, but they said, no, we don't want to get involved. Nobody did.

We did it ourselves, with Israel and with the Arab states that got hit, surprisingly hit.

Yes.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: Yes, please. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thanks a lot, Mr. President.

Question on Brazil. I would like to know, how was your interaction here in Evian during the G7 with the Brazilian president, Lula? Did you talk about the new U.S. tariffs on Brazil? Did you talk about the U.S. designation of criminal gangs as terrorists?

TRUMP: Yes, no, we did. We did.

QUESTION: How was it?

TRUMP: I spent a lot of time with him, actually. And it's become a little rough country, right, politically? It's been a little dangerous politically. You're talking about Brazil, yes?

It's been nasty. I hear they arrested somebody that's running for office today. I found that out after we left. I just said goodbye to him, and I heard that they arrested the -- Bolsonaro Jr. He was doing well in the polls, and they arrested him because he made a statement in Texas.

They arrested him, or they want to arrest him. They have something out. The guy is arrested. All right, they play pretty tough. But nobody plays tougher than the United States. Look, our elections are totally rigged. We have rigged elections.

Please, in the back. Yes, sir, go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you so much, President.

TRUMP: Thank you.

QUESTION: Sumisaka Moto (ph) the (INAUDIBLE).

For G7, the concept of the rule of law has long been considered the core principle. During this summit, any of the leaders expressed any concerns on the possible violation of international law on the attack on Iran?

TRUMP: No. No, actually, the opposite. They felt they were very dangerous. They were very relieved because they could get hit too. They were very relieved. No, we never discussed that.

[13:05:00]

They -- no, it would be the opposite. They broke the law. They killed thousands of people. They killed thousands of our soldiers and hundreds of thousands of people.

Yes, please, go ahead. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. President.

TRUMP: Yes.

QUESTION: Yesterday, Pakistan thanks for the Chinese government to help make peace talk between Iran and the United States. So, what do you think about the China's work to get the United States and Iran sitting down to talk and make the deal?

And the second question is... TRUMP: OK, OK, let me answer the question.

QUESTION: OK.

TRUMP: So I think China's been terrific. I told you that before. They could have been bad. They could have sent in to try and block or break the blockade.

They could have sent in an oil ship with six destroyers alongside of it on each side. They didn't do that. President Xi helped me. He tried to help. And I think he probably helped get it solved. They get 50 percent of their oil from that location. So that wasn't that easy.

President Xi was fantastic. He tried to help me solve it. And he didn't give any big weaponry. I guess something -- we will find something somewhere along the line. But he didn't give any big weaponry. I can tell you that.

No, I think China was -- I couldn't ask for much more. Again, they were impacted because they get more than 50 percent of their oil from the Hormuz Strait. And, no, I thought they were fantastic.

OK,how about one more question right here? Go ahead, please.

QUESTION: The latest YouGov/Economist poll shows that Democrats have lost a five-point edge on the generic congressional ballot. They just have now just a two-point lead since February.

Do you think that they're losing momentum?

TRUMP: Well, I see the Republicans in generics. Generics are very important. I don't know how accurate, because I see a lot of bad polls. Polls are very dishonest, just like a lot of reporters, like these people over here are very dishonest. CNN, ABC, it's a whole group of them over there.

They're really dishonest people. But -- and really networks are very dishonest. And they have to straighten themselves out, or they're not going to be very successful, because people don't believe them anymore. But, no, the generics are very interesting, because the Republicans are coming up strong, even before this.

You know why? They're seeing all these lunatics, like the guy in Maine with the swastika. For 10 years, they have been calling me a Nazi. And now they have a Nazi running. He's got a tattoo on him. I have been denying it for 10 years. They know it's not so, but they have been calling -- I don't think they could call it to me anymore.

One more? One more?

Go ahead, Peter. Let me finish with Peter, because he's been better to me than he's been to Biden.

QUESTION: Thank you, President Trump.

I have a question about this weekend. Why not stick around for the signing ceremony with this Iran peace deal?

TRUMP: I might.

QUESTION: You might?

TRUMP: Yes, I might.

But I'd rather -- this is a memorandum of understanding. It's very important, but it might not be the kind of a document that I should be signing.

QUESTION: Is there some element to this where you send the vice president, if it works out great, you will look like a genius for sending him, and if it doesn't work out, it's the vice president's...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I like that idea, sure. This way, if it works out, I'm going to take the credit. If it doesn't work out, I'm blaming J.D. You better be careful, J.D. He's going to turn his plane around and get the hell out of here. Yes, I like that idea. I think it's a good idea.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We have been listening to President Trump speaking at the G7 in France touting his memorandum of understanding with Iran.

The president trying to sell this agreement as achieving everything his administration set out to at the start of the war, though drafts obtained by CNN don't include many of the objectives that had been outlined by Trump early on. Also making clear, the president, that part of his motivation was economic, saying that he didn't want to be Herbert Hoover and lead the U.S. into a depression, much less a global economic catastrophe.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, he said that, if Iran does not comply, the U.S. will bomb them. But he also said that blockading them was more effective than bombing them.

But on that economic note, it was also clear that Iran cutting off all of that traffic to the strait took great economic effect on the U.S. and other countries as well. But he was challenged on the money that would be unfrozen, how that's different, unfreezing money versus giving money. And he said, it's not our money. It's their money.

He's saying, it's -- we have taken a lot of their money. And he was making this case that it's different. It's important to note and we will discuss with our panel of experts that the money that he has lambasted to the Obama administration for giving was also unfreezing money, plus decades of interest.

[13:10:04]

So let's talk about this now. We have Alayna Treene, Kaitlan Collins, Nic Robertson, Beth Sanner, and Ian Bremmer with us. Kaitlan Collins is there.

Kaitlan, tell us what stood out to you.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot, Brianna, as the president seemed to be reading from this memorandum of understanding, something that the White House for days had refused to release the actual final text of it, though they were publicly disputing what was in this deal.

But what you just saw was the president come out here after meeting with these leaders for several days and defend this memorandum of understanding and make clear it is only the beginning of this agreement, and saying that, if they get to the end of this 60-day period where they're supposed to negotiate on the major issues and things don't go as planned, he said that they will resume the bombing in Iran potentially.

He also seemed to downplay the significance of the MOU there at the end when he was being asked about why it is the vice president who was coming to participate in this signing ceremony and not President Trump himself.

But, Brianna, there were a few key things that stood out from what the president said just now compared to what he said on February 28, when this war launched and the president put out a video explaining his rationale for going to war with Iran. And several of those things included, he said initially that he wanted to raze the industry, the missile industry in Iran to the ground, so that they could not use that as a threat.

That's something subsequently we also heard from the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in terms of what their goals here were going to be. Just now on this stage, the president made the case for giving and letting Iran -- for not giving, but for letting Iran have access to missiles.

He raised the question, well, if Saudi Arabia has them, then why should Iran not also have them? That stood out to me. He also praised the Iranian leadership.

And if you will remember, the night that this war started, the president put out a video basically saying this was the time for the Iranian people to stand up, to take back their government, and that they should take this chance now when they had it, because it would only be one that they had for the next several generations, he argued.

Instead, on stage, he was praising the Iranian leadership. He was saying that they were practical and that he thought that he could work with them and was talking about how pragmatic they have been over the last several weeks while the United States has still carried out these bombings against Iran.

All of that stood out, as well as he was talking about this MOU, Brianna, and he was saying that they did send a copy of it to Israel. He was arguing that this is stronger than the granite that he

installed recently outside of the West Wing, this temporary agreement that basically extends the cease-fire for the next 60 days, but also provides economic incentives for Iran, including sanctions relief and unfreezing of their assets, if they comply with the deal as it is stated now and if they feel that they are acting in good faith.

Also, immediately, there is one huge economic benefit that they are going to get. And those are waivers for them to be able to sell oil on the market while they work on getting rid of those sanctions. Iran, immediately upon the signing of this, according to the text of this agreement, will be able to sell oil.

And so you just see such a difference from when this war started to where they are now. And I really think, Brianna, what the president drove home was, the price of oil is too high. And he argued that if this war went on for longer, that the stocks of oil are going to be depleted.

He said that there would be bedlam if that was the case and the oil reserves were entirely depleted and made very clear that he did not want to have a Herbert Hoover presidency, and basically underlining, Brianna, the domestic politics of this, the pain that Americans have been feeling because of this war is driving why they got here today.

SANCHEZ: All right, Kaitlan Collins live for us at the G7 press conference, thank you so much.

Let's go to Alayna Treene, who's also traveling with the president, because, Alayna, you have some new details on this drafted memorandum of understanding.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I do.

And just to give you a little sense of my backdrop here, I am at the Versailles Palace, where the president is going to be having dinner tonight with the French president, Emmanuel Macron. But I do want to get into the text of this memorandum of understanding.

Obviously, we had reported earlier this morning my colleagues and I have obtained a draft of that text. They had added a few different things to this final text that some U.S. officials read over the phone to reporters simultaneously while the president was giving this press conference.

Now, some of the things I want to outline, much of it was the same, for those of our viewers had been reading what we had shared, but also some of the differences really lie in, one, the specifics of what the nuclear discussions are going to look like.

It is still clear in this memorandum of understanding in the text that U.S. officials have read that it is going to be really up for discussion during the 60-day highly technical negotiating phase. Now, one of the things that they talk about in here is that there is some level of agreement. I'm going to read for you what these officials said. They said that: "The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran have agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpile-enriched material pursuant to a mechanism that will be mutually agreed upon in accordance with the schedule outlined earlier in the agreement."

[13:15:01]

They talk about how it will be destroyed on site under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Basically, to break down what that means in layman's terms is that they have discussed this kind of minimum mechanism for allowing the IAEA to go in, retrieve and destroy some of that nuclear materials.

Again, that provision states that much of this, though, is going to be subject to a final agreement following the 60-day period for highly technical talks.

Another thing that is in here -- and we heard a lot of the president and a lot of other officials pushing back on this idea that there could be a $300 billion fund for Iran should they comply with the agreements.

Well, the text that these officials read out on this call is that, yes, that is in here. It says that: "The United States of America undertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with at least $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republican of Iran."

The last thing I want to mention, Kaitlan touched on this, is -- this is the waivers for Iran to begin selling their crude oil again. That is also in here. Now, of course, this is a 1.5-page document. There are 14 points, some new details that they had shared, but largely a lot of -- like I said, the nuclear programs, a lot of what the president has really touted even just moments ago on stage at that press conference still needs to be sorted out in the 60-day period -- Boris, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, 60 days expendable with mutual consent. So this could slide if they do agree to it.

Alayna, thank you so much, obviously, a lot of news here.

Let's bring in Beth Sanner, who's here on set with us to talk a little bit about what we're seeing in this.

You have had approximately a minute-and-a-half to flip through it, but you had some of the broad strokes already. So what are you seeing here?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, I mean, this is still a deal that is about money for opening the strait. That's what it is. And some of that is phased.

But as Alayna was saying, this is -- the immediate part of this is the oil sanctions are lifted. So, for example, reporting yesterday said that Iran has 70 -- 7-0 -- million barrels of oil in floating storage -- that means tankers -- in Asia. They can sell that now right away.

And one of the important parts of this is that the sanctions on banking, on insurance, on all the ability to make that money and have it immediately go back to Iran is now. It's happening now.

And then once they sign it and, after the 60 days, it's implemented, which means that Iran actually does follow through with opening up the strait, which I think that they would. It says that then they will receive the frozen assets.

So that could be upwards of, I don't think it'll be $100 million, but it -- minimum $24 billion, OK? The other part of this that I think is important that was written in here and not in the last one is, it mentioned explicitly that Iran would not be taking tolls during the 60 days.

It did not say forever. It just said during the 60 days. And it said that there would be some kind of mechanism set up between the Gulf states, Oman included in that, and Iran on how this mechanism will work.

Now, the White House will argue, probably rightly, that the Gulf states, they so don't want this toll. But on the other hand, maybe we don't call it a toll. Maybe it's an environmental fee. Maybe it's solving the dolphins fee.

KEILAR: It's still money, whether you're solving the dolphins...

SANNER: It's still money, yes.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: ... or getting some navigation, some stargazing fee, whatever it is, right?

SANNER: Yes. Yes. Right.

And even though the $300 million is something that's kind of down the road, and I don't really know if I believe that that amount of money would be available, certainly right away. During the 60 days, they're going to set the fund up. So it will be ready to go, and then the dangling of this.

But I think the big picture here for me, and I don't want us to lose sight of this, is this kind of pie-in-the-sky thought that money will change people. And the last time we made this mistake, if we can roll our hands of time back to October 7, we found out that Netanyahu's policy of trying to incentivize Hamas to be a responsible governing power, instead of a terrorist organization, failed.

Because you can do two things at once. They can walk and chew gum. They can take the money, and it can go into the central bank, and under this agreement, they can use it for anything they want. Tell me these people are different.

SANCHEZ: Well, President Trump certainly has said so. He tried to suggest that this new leadership in Tehran is equivalent to regime change, because they're much more eager to open a new chapter with the United States, in the words of J.D. Vance.

[13:20:00]

I do want to bring in Ian Bremmer, because he's been waiting alongside us, to get a reaction regarding President Trump's statements.

He said that this deal accomplishes everything that the U.S. set out to. When you read these 14 points, what does this memo accomplish?

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP: Look, I think that you have had guests already talk about this. It ends the war. It opens the strait.

And, by the way, even though neither of those things have anything to do with the war goals for why Trump and Netanyahu started this conflict, it is the two -- they are the two things that have worried everyone in the world since, and causing an enormous amount of pain and potentially leading to escalation that really nobody wanted to see.

So, a good thing that President Trump has decided that the off-ramp that was on offer, he needed to take. But this deal is very different from the JCPOA, the Iranian nuclear deal with Obama, not only because it doesn't involve the nuclear weapons. It's much more limited -- I mean, the nuclear capabilities much more limited, but also because it doesn't involve other countries, right?

So this just supposed to be ending the war in Lebanon. But Israel is not a signatory. Neither is Hezbollah. And what happens if that war continues? What happens as the Israelis refuse to withdraw from the territory they have occupied?

The likelihood that we're going to continue to see fighting, even if it's not fighting between the United States and Iran or Iran and the Gulf states, is pretty high in this environment.

Secondly, the Gulf states are not signatories. Now, there are a lot of things that the Gulf states need to do. They need to figure out the mechanism by which the strait continues to be open, how Iran is going to be compensated for that. They need to figure out the mechanism of how the $300 billion is eventually going to be funded.

They need to figure out how they're going to pay protection money, stabilization money to the Iranians to ensure that they don't get attacked going forward, that they can get their energy and their petrochemicals and their helium and their LNG through the strait, because Iran isn't going anywhere.

And Iran's military capabilities are only going to be bolstered by the money that they have and by the peace that they're going to enjoy. And that means that Iran -- it's not just about what happens in 60 days, when Iran will still know that Trump doesn't want oil prices up and he doesn't want to go back to war. So they can kick the can on the nuclear file. It's also how much they can squeeze other countries that have deep

pockets that aren't a part of this deal. So, I mean, the United States had maximum ability to sort of create the parameters of these 14 points. But, going forward, a lot of the action on what happens with Iran is not going to be decided by Trump or Washington.

It's going to be decided by Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, Doha, lots of other places.

KEILAR: So, then, Ian, how is this everything the U.S. set out to accomplish?

BREMMER: Well, it's not. He lied. But he does that, right?

I mean, it's not -- that's not just spin. I mean, it's just a lie. But, again, Trump cannot be responsible for something that's bad. That's just not in his personality. He did the war. It was the biggest mistake of his administration, either one.

And it's not like he always fails. He's had major successes, because not only is he willing to roll the dice and be far more of a risk- taker than any American president in recent history, but he still is the president of the most powerful country.

And so sometimes that works out for him, like with the Abraham Accords, for example, or like with Venezuela, for example. This time, he rolled the dice, he took a big risk, and it was disastrous.

And so as a consequence, he has to sign a deal that has literally none of his war aims, not a single one, not the ballistic missiles, not the nuclear file, not the support for terror or for proxies in the region, not choosing the next supreme leader, not rescuing the Iranian people.

There was not a single war goal that the Americans decided that this was why they had to go and decapitate the Iranian regime that is being resolved by this agreement, not one. And he can say -- he can speak otherwise if he wishes to. And 70 percent of Republicans will say that they support the war, as they continue to.

But everybody else in the U.S. and everybody else around the world understands that it is not as he says it is.

SANCHEZ: Beth, going back to leverage that the United States might have looking forward into this 60 days of negotiations, the president seemed to lay out a contradiction.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, on one hand he says, if the broader deal doesn't get done within 60 days, we will go back to bombing. He said -- quote -- "It's amazing what bombs can do."

[13:25:06]

Simultaneously, the president also said: "If we didn't do this memo, we could have been dropping bombs for two years, and you wouldn't have gotten the Strait of Hormuz open."

So, what is the effectiveness of American power going up against Iran in this situation?

SANNER: Deterrence has everything to do with your will to actually execute your threat and your adversary's belief that you will follow through.

And, as Ian just said, everybody knows that he doesn't want to go back to war. And so that's why we have a deal that's so one-sided. We were all driving down the highway, and someone convinced President Trump that this shortcut to a new future in the Middle East looks so good.

And we banged up the car. We -- we're like running on fumes. And, all of a sudden, there is one off-ramp, and we, by God-, are going to take that off-ramp. That doesn't make this a good deal. It means that the bleeding has stopped for the world, hopefully.

But as Ian also pointed out -- and we haven't talked about Lebanon and Israel. They bombed Israel -- Israel bombed South Lebanon again, and the very first tick in this agreement, the very first paragraph is an end, a cessation of all fighting.

It's not happening, and we're not going to be able to make Israel do it, I don't think.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

Beth Sanner, Ian Bremmer, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate you and your perspective. Thanks for joining us.

Still to come: confusion on Capitol Hill, confirmation hearings being called off, at least for now, for President Trump's nominee to lead the nation's intel agencies after the president told his own pick to not show up.

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