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Trump Takes Question from Reporters During Oval Office Event; Interview with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH): Concerns Over U.S. Weapons Stockpiles After Iran Flare-up; Graham-Backed Russia Sanctions Bill Advances in Senate; Bill Would Allow Claims Against U.S. Over Sexual Misconduct; Stocks Tumble as the Fed Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 29, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... anywhere in the world. And if the United Kingdom would use it, they'd be a wealthy country again. And I'll tell you what, I could not get Starmer to use it.

It was incredible. Every oil company that I meet, and these are all big giants. Every person that I know in the oil business said, please, could you open up the North Sea?

Could you get them to open it? They're dying to do it. And if you open up the North Sea to the oil companies, Scotland, Ireland, the UK as a whole, but it's -- I mean, it's right in Aberdeen, Scotland.

It's right in Aberdeen. And that would be one of the most vibrant. You know, it used to be called the oil capital of Europe. Aberdeen was the capital of Europe.

And now it's -- they don't drill oil. And nobody can understand why. You have among -- it's one of the finest oil. It's the best oil anywhere on the planet.

And it's unbelievable blunt, you don't have to pay Norway, triple what it costs them to take out. You have your own oil, I guess, if you use the North Sea, the UK will be a really rich country. I cannot get the point across, the new gentleman when I spoke to him, he said he's going to open up the North Sea. Let's see if that happens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today they voted to keep interest rates unchanged. Are you surprised by that? Are you disappointed in any way with Kevin?

TRUMP: No, Kevin is fantastic. But he's got a board. Yes, Kevin's got a board.

He's fantastic. He's a brilliant guy, smart. I know he'd love to see lower interest rates.

But he's got a board. And it's a political board. And they want to keep rates up. But we fight through rates. We have the greatest -- we have the strongest investment ever made in a country of any country. It was China about 13, 14 years ago, we have far greater 19.2 -- even Jensen would say that's a lot -- 19 -- and Jensen spending a tremendous amount of money by hundreds of billions of dollars. He happens to be in the room. He's spending more than United actually. He's spending 10 billion.

Jensen spending hundreds of billions, right? I don't know. That's not a bad business.

But no, no, we have 19.2 trillion. So it's the biggest number ever spent in any country by far. And that's over a period of one year.

As an example, as you know, the Biden administration for four years did much less than 1 trillion. We're doing 19.2 trillion in one year. So we have things that are happening in our country, the likes of which nobody's ever seen.

Plants and factories are moving in. Toyota just announced they're building one of the largest car plants anywhere in the world and truck plants anywhere in the world. We are building more automobile plants now than at any time in the history of our country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In particular, this is just on of several projects that you have underway in the (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you say that you're so focused on transforming the Washington region right now?

TRUMP: Well, this is an important one. This is travel. So in terms of the importance, I think the arc is going to be incredible. I think the protected ballroom and military center that we're building at the White House is going to be unbelievable.

It's very important. But you know, this is -- the airport. This is sort of the lifeblood of a city or a capital, certainly a capital.

And this will go from one of the worst -- just like Washington. Washington was one of the worst places in this country, and now it's one of the best. You couldn't get into a restaurant because all the restaurants were closing or closed.

They were afraid to have it open. Now, you can't if you're a restaurateur, you can't even find space to have a restaurant. The restaurants are booming.

So, you know, it's a it's a great thrill. And by the way, if you look, Washington is clean. It's safe.

People walk to work every day. A young man or a young woman comes up and says, thank you. So I know exactly what you're talking about.

They couldn't wait. They were afraid to walk to work. Now they literally walk to the White House.

Washington is now a beautiful and clean. We got rid of the graffiti. Seventy eight monuments and different things have been cleaned.

They were strewn with graffiti. We had 28 fountains that not one of them worked for years, for decades. They haven't worked.

They're all up in service and nobody's seen anything like it. We have a clean -- we're changing all the grass and all the parks. That's going to be changed very shortly.

The parks are because the grass is very, you know, grass is like human beings. Grass is a life also. And we're changing.

We're raking, cleaning and changing all of the parks. We don't have people. We don't have the tents anymore.

We don't have all the barbed wire up. We don't have the wire up. Washington's become a beautiful city.

It's become a hot city. But, you know, even more importantly, the United States right now is the hottest country anywhere in the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, Mr. President, this is a point of clarity on the airport. No federal funding will be required.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We've been listening to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office during this announcement regarding renovations to Dulles Airport.

[15:35:00]

The president announcing plans to spend more than $20 billion to renovate that airport, saying that it's already largely financed. But there are several approvals that are needed from Congress. The president also making news on two fronts.

First on Iran, saying that we are going to be hitting Iran very hard after five rockets were intercepted in the region last night. The president saying now it's our turn.

Also being asked about the testimony of Dr. Anthony Fauci today on Capitol Hill. The president there saying that he disagreed with him on a lot, saying that he inherited Dr. Fauci, then making the claim that many more people died from COVID under President Biden than during his term. That is factually correct in terms of raw numbers, but there's important context missing there. The outbreak happened with less than a year of President Trump's first term, with less than a year of him still in office. Vaccines were not deployed until December of 2020.

Notably, President Biden had to deal with several waves of coronavirus Delta and Omicron over, again, years of his term in office.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It's a claim that is misleading at best. You also had Biden who claimed at one point that he would sort of take credit for the decline in COVID deaths. These numbers have been politicized over and over again.

Trump's claim there is certainly misleading. It is of note that death rates were actually higher in some areas that were pro-Trump, where there was some reticence to vaccines. So, as we witnessed all of this play out on Capitol Hill today and the politicization still years later of the COVID pandemic, we're just seeing it play out there again in the Oval Office for sure.

We have much more news ahead. We'll be back in just a moment.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Moments ago, President Trump said it was the U.S.'s turn to hit Iran after Iran restarted the fighting in the war during a pause in strikes. U.S. Central Command says Iran launched ballistic missiles in a surprise attack on U.S. forces based in the Middle East. And this video that you're seeing here shows missiles being intercepted in Jordan, where military officials there confirmed five missiles were stopped.

CENTCOM also reports Saudi Arabia joined U.S. strikes on Iranian-tied militias in eastern Iraq, responding to, quote, 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours. Twenty people were killed in Iraq, another 32 hurt, according to an Iranian-aligned group known as the PMF. Now, a coalition backing the PMF is threatening the U.S. and the Saudis if the Iraqi government does not respond.

Let's talk about this now with Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. She sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, thanks for being with us.

I just wonder, how are you seeing these joint Saudi-U.S. strikes that CENTCOM detailed against the PMF group in Iraq overnight?

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH), RANKING MEMBER, FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Well, I think it is a change in the strategy that we've had. It's an escalation to be joining Saudi Arabia in these strikes. And it points to several concerns.

First is the danger to our troops across the Middle East because of the war in Iran, the potential and the importance of the Patriot missile systems and the interceptors to intercept those missile strikes against U.S. bases and U.S. service members and our allies across the Middle East, and the importance of ensuring that our defense base is producing those interceptors at a rate that we are not now doing. So we've got to ramp that up.

And again, it points to the fact that there isn't a strategy to end this war, to get back to the negotiating table, to none of the President's stated goals have been accomplished. And we are in a stalemate, basically, where our service members are in danger.

We're spending billions of dollars, and the American taxpayers are paying the price. KEILAR: A new CSIS report says fewer than 827 Patriot interceptors and 278 THAAD ballistic missile interceptors remain in American stockpiles. Those are defensive munitions. You referenced them.

NBC News reports that U.S. commanders are opting to not shoot down Iranian projectiles that are on track to hit unpopulated areas of regional U.S. bases as they try to not waste interceptor missiles. The Pentagon is asking for $67 billion in supplemental funds. Without that money, are the lives of American troops in the region in greater danger?

SHAHEEN: Well, the Pentagon has money through the Big, Beautiful Bill that was passed, the reconciliation bill passed last year, that they've only spent about half of $150 billion. So they have money they can transfer. They just need to request that transfer authority, and that's done all the time.

And the challenge here is having a strategy that's going to end this war. And so far, we haven't seen anything.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Can I ask you about what General Caine said? Because he said he takes issue with what you're saying about that. He said last week to senators that without the additional funding, the Pentagon won't get the munitions it needs.

I mean, if that is the case, wouldn't that be problematic?

SHAHEEN: Well, General Caine is not an appropriator, and I'm an appropriator, and I can tell you that General Caine's wrong. They have the funding.

[15:45:00]

They have chosen not to use it because they claim to have -- Secretary Hegseth was before the Appropriations Committee last week, and he refused to answer how they were going to spend that money.

So I think General Caine is not accurate.

KEILAR: I do want to ask you about this bipartisan Russia and Iran sanctions bill that advanced overwhelmingly in the Senate yesterday. You vociferously supported the bill. 12 senators, 11 of them Democrats, did not, including the junior senator from New Hampshire, Maggie Hassan.

She said the bill, quote, gives the president new authority to impose tariffs, even on our allies. Are those legitimate concerns that need to be addressed?

SHAHEEN: No. The fact is, the bill is very narrowly crafted to address the top five users of Russian oil and gas, and we have carefully crafted the language around gas to ensure that our allies in Europe and Japan, who are making every effort to get off of Russian gas, are not affected. And essentially, the top users are China and India. And what we need to do is to ensure that Russia no longer gets the revenue from selling oil and gas through their shadow fleet to China. So we cut off the funding for their war machine.

KEILAR: And while I've got you, I do want to ask you about something entirely separate, which is a bill that you and Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy, working together, you introduced this last month, and it advocates for survivors -- it's a bill you introduced last month. And I do want to tell you, I've heard from a lot of advocates for survivors of military sexual assault.

They're watching this with a lot of interest, as you know. The bill would allow victims of sexual assault in the military, so service members, to bring negligence claims against the U.S. government in certain instances. Right now, they're largely prevented from suing the government.

There's that immunity. How would this change that, and how would you pay for it?

SHAHEEN: Well, the fact is, as you know, because you've talked about this, our military, sadly, still has not addressed military sexual assault in a way that has ended this scourge that's affecting both men and women, more women than men, but also men in our military. And we need to ensure that those people who are responsible are held accountable. We've seen issues in our own New Hampshire National Guard with this.

And what this bill would do is allow members of the military who have not been able to hold the perpetrators accountable to do that through the legislation. And I think it's past time we have changed all of the requirements in our military to try and address sexual assault. We've had leadership we have a no-tolerance policy for sexual assault, and yet it continues to go on.

So we need to make sure that people are held accountable, that they know that a culture is no longer going to be tolerated that allows military sexual assault.

KEILAR: If suits are paid out, I mean, right now, the Ferris Doctrine really protects the government, and then they don't have to pay out suits for things that are considered incident to military service. Advocates will say, well, why is sexual assault incident to military service? But if you do allow service members to sue the government and they're receiving monetary compensation as they would if they were civilians, that obviously could create a significant expense.

Advocates will say, well, yes, and they'll do it. But at the same time, there's a cost there. So where do you fund that?

What's the pay for there?

SHAHEEN: Well, the military has requested $1.5 billion. I think there's plenty of money there to ensure that victims of sexual assault whose lives have been totally turned around are able to be compensated. And it will serve as a deterrent for both the military in terms of the culture of the military.

And when we've got a secretary of the Department of War who suggests we should have testosterone testing for every member of the military, I think they've got enough money to ensure that victims of sexual assault are provided some compensation.

KEILAR: Senator Jeanne Shaheen, thank you so much for being with us.

SHAHEEN: Thank you.

KEILAR: And ahead, the Federal Reserve deciding to leave interest rates unchanged. And a quick look at the big board. And it's a tough day for investors. The Dow, you see it way down there, more than 1,100 points.

We'll go to CNN's Matt Egan next.

[15:50:00]

He's at the Federal Reserve with the latest on that decision and why stocks are taking a bit of a nosedive here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: So as we take a look at markets, stocks are tumbling all three indices down. Wall Street reacting to the Federal Reserve's vote to hold interest rates steady.

The fifth straight meeting where the central bank left rates alone, despite new signs of jumping oil prices. This time, though, three governors of the Fed dissented, saying that they wanted to raise interest rates instead.

KEILAR: CNN's Matt Egan is at the Fed's main office there in Washington with all of the good news here today. Matt, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh just spoke to reporters a short time ago, and this is sort of the climate of him not sharing all that much information about the Fed's thinking.

[15:55:00]

So this is really interesting.

What did he say?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Brianna and Boris, Chairman Warsh, he struck a pretty positive tone on the economy. He noted that unemployment is stable, that investment in artificial intelligence is booming, and he described growth as solid. Now, on inflation, he stressed that, yes, the Federal Reserve is going to get inflation back to its 2 percent target.

And he stressed that, yes, the target really is 2 percent. He said it several times. He noted that the Fed is determined here.

He said the Fed will not waver, and he noted that the Fed's credibility depends on it. Now, during the press conference, Warsh was asked repeatedly about what some see as a divide here, because on the one hand, Warsh is saying they're going to fix inflation. On the other hand, since he's taken over, the Fed hasn't really taken any actual action.

Take a listen to his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN WARSH, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: The patience, the impatience that households and businesses feel have been going on for 63 months. We are on the job. We will deliver.

We are focused like a laser on making sure we can do it. But the suggestion that we're going to be able to do it with our magic wand is one I want to disabuse you and everyone else of. But the discussion in the last two days give me more confidence even than I had eight and a half weeks ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: OK, so no magic wand here. But the vote count that you just alluded to, the fact that there were three people who dissented in one direction for the first time in almost a decade, that does suggest that some officials inside this building, like the public, they are losing patience with inflation. Now, on the dissents, Warsh did address that.

He said at one point, I asked for a good family fight and I got one. But he stressed that officials, they didn't hide from the big questions of the day. Look, bottom line, no action on rates today.

But the vote count does suggest that that could change unless inflation starts to come down soon. Back to you.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And there's an open question about when that might happen, given where energy prices are with the ongoing war with Iran. Matt Egan, thank you so much for that update.

We'll keep an eye on where markets are headed as we pivot over to "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt. It starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END