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Trump Arrives in Ireland to Meet Leaders, Attend Golf Event; Saudi Arabia Shuts Down Pipeline after Attack Causes Fires; U.S. Marks 25 Years since 9/11 Terrorist Attacks; GOP Strategy on Midterms; Putin and Modi Meet in India Ahead of BRICS Summit. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired September 12, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world, I'm Salma Abdelaziz, here in London.

I want to go very quickly now to U.S. president Donald Trump, who is now speaking live from Dublin.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE).

(AUDIO GAP)

ABDELAZIZ: OK. We were unable to catch there what president Trump was saying but he has gotten back into his vehicle, into The Beast, into the motorcade and I am sure going off to his next event.

He has just met with the Irish president, a very, very short meeting after an official welcome at the official residence. This was just in the last half-hour. His meeting with President Catherine Connolly is considered a courtesy call.

He is going next to hold bilateral talks with the country's prime minister, Micheal Martin. And after that, he is expected to speak to business leaders at the U.S. ambassador's residence. I want to bring in now CNN's Nic Robertson.

A very, very brief meeting there, very brief, closed-door meeting but an important one and a key one and an opportunity to reconnect with that relationship that is often described as so key and so important between Ireland and America.

But obviously one that that -- there were some questions, of course, given the Irish president's position on president Trump.

How did it look to you?

How did it seem to go?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, we have two read points on this. I think one was when the president went in and shook hands with the -- with Catherine Connolly, the Irish president. And one when he came out and made those comments.

So how do we read each one of those?

It was interesting. You know, Catherine Connolly, from the camera angle we had, appeared to keep quite a straight face when she was greeting and shaking president Trump's hands and -- hand. You know, you usually expect a bit of a smile and a greeting like that.

But her face was quite -- it wasn't a smile. It was a -- it was a friendly and firm look. But then there were comments, while they were shaking hands, from the president and she cracked a smile. Right.

So it did seem that, whatever the feelings, however she wanted to portray the formalities of the situation, the president was already putting her at ease and making her break into a smile. We don't know what was said.

And then the other read point was when the president came out. Look, we know president Trump, if he gets very upset about something, will go on about it at length. Those were brief comments.

So I think we can take away from that, at the very least, that he had nothing so egregious on his mind and that had so upset him that he really wanted to have a long discourse to the cameras about it.

We haven't heard what he said. Let's wait to see what he actually said. But it did seem very much a sort of, you know, a couple of perfunctory remarks and then onwards to meet with the with the taoiseach, Micheal Martin.

Though -- so again, we don't know what went on inside the room. There was the concern that, being a left-wing politician who's been very critical of president Trump and his policies in the past -- and a very popular president. So one that would have a huge public mandate, if you will, to speak her mind, as she likes to do.

We don't know if she did that. We don't know what she said behind those closed doors. But look, from the brief read we see so far from what we see, so far, so good.

ABDELAZIZ: And we are right now looking at those pictures of president Trump's motorcade leaving the luscious green lawns of the Irish president's residence, where there was a bit of pomp and circumstance. We saw that honor gourd (sic). We saw that official welcome ceremony.

We saw him step in to sign the guestbook as well before that courtesy call, before that very short meeting. But you pointed out that the next meeting, of course, with the taoiseach, who holds the real political power here, could potentially be more important.

What can we expect coming up here, Nic?

ROBERTSON: Yes, the big deal for Micheal Martin is all the trade Ireland does with the United States. And that's not something he's going to want to see diminish. He's going to want to find ways to grow it.

President Trump has tried to encourage the big pharma companies that set up in Ireland, because the economic conditions set by the Irish government were favorable toward them -- the same with a lot of the data companies as well that have traditionally, you know, had, you know, a foothold, a growing foothold.

[05:05:04]

And high employment rates across the whole of the island of Ireland, not just in the Republic of Ireland in the south but in the north of Ireland, too, all these trade links have been hugely important, beneficial to the Irish taxpayer because it's big corporate taxation that comes in.

The tax rates are favorable. That's why it works. President Trump would rather have those big tax dollars being, you know, falling into U.S. Treasury coffers than the -- than the Irish treasury. So there is that -- there is that tension there.

The other place the tension lies would be the political differences. There are differences between president Trump and Micheal Martin on, for example, how president Trump has handled the war with Iran. There are differences over how Ireland views the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

So there will be the potential issue of settlers; settler violence may come up.

You know, it would be expected that the Irish prime minister would want to see the United States play a bigger and firmer role in trying to persuade the Israeli leadership to curb the aggression of what the Israelis call a tiny handful of settlers and the settler violence that's going on in the West Bank at the moment. So that's an issue as well.

So the possibility to fall into contentious areas exist.

But the prize for the prime minister, the taoiseach, is to keep it all on track and, if at all possible, really trade up the win if you will, of holding the Irish Open at the president's golf course, Doonbeg, in the west of Ireland and trade that up into even better relations.

Where the Irish government doesn't feel that, that the pharma companies, the data companies in Ireland are going to be pulled away by president Trump.

ABDELAZIZ: And we are seeing again live pictures there. The expectation that we will see president Trump shortly arrive for that meeting with the taoiseach, Micheal Martin. You pointed out all these possibilities of contention, these potential pitfalls that could come up. But this is such a brief visit, such a short visit.

Will they really get to the West Bank and the ins and outs of the Iran conflict?

Or as you pointed out, will they be able to just simply stay on track in this very brief meeting that also has this mix of almost a family holiday, kind of, Nic?

Because we saw his children outside and his grandchildren outside. They're really only in Dublin for a few hours. And then they head to the golf course.

Give me a sense of that mix there of how Ireland is welcoming president Trump, both as a president, of course, even though he's not an official diplomatic visit but also as a guest to this country where he is going to be attending that Irish golf open.

ROBERTSON: I think it's been a hallmark of president Trump's presidency, whether it's his travels at times or -- which tend to be the bigger, you know, more obviously state level functions, where it's not always family appropriate.

This clearly is family appropriate because part of it's a vacation, part of it's to his own resort. But we've seen that in the vice president. We've seen that in the secretary of state, who's currently traveling with his wife or was very recently in Central America.

We've seen JD Vance, the vice president, take his wife on trips to the Rome, to the Vatican. So it's in keeping with this White House. But I think it does underscore that in president Trump's mind and in his agenda and what he wants to achieve here, it is some family time.

Look, he's a busy man. his family is important to him. That's very clear. They're part of, you know, his business empire, his former business empire, and how that continues to roll forward.

So I think, you know, this is an opportunity for him maybe to get that little bit of family time that he doesn't get. We often forget just how many issues there are on the president's plate. And there are many at the moment.

The war that he started with Iran is going is going disastrously in the eyes of many people. That is completely unresolved. It's spilling over into a key ally. Saudi Arabia has had to shut down a vital pipeline. That means the oil prices are going through the roof.

The president has a lot of pressures on his plate, so it seems that he's staked out this weekend as an opportunity to try to escape some of that, to do the diplomacy, have the political small talk, if you will, but have family time in Doonbeg in the west of the country.

ABDELAZIZ: And as you're speaking there, Nic, it seems that the president is, I believe, about to step out now for that handshake with the taoiseach.

[05:10:07] As you pointed out, this is an extremely important meeting for both countries, an opportunity, again, for Ireland to foster those key business relations.

And again, we do see there president Trump has stepped out of his vehicle and is standing by. Again, there's going to be a bit of pomp and circumstance, as you can see here, with the honor guard.

Ireland has absolutely rolled out all the stops. Let's pause and listen in here.

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ABDELAZIZ: My apologies. The sound there is not as good as we would like it to be. But again, you see, president Trump there standing by, very somber occasion there, as he waits for that very key handshake that's going to take place with the taoiseach.

Clearly, Ireland is trying to roll out, not just figuratively here but roll out the red carpet. It has done so at the airport in Dublin. It has done so at the official residence for the Irish president and it is now doing that yet again for a third time in just a couple of hours time.

Really with president Donald Trump walking up now to the taoiseach, there's going to be that very key and very important handshake before a brief bilateral meeting, that, as we heard there, is focused on business.

All smiles, firm handshake as you expect, clearly warm, clearly friendly hand on the arm there from the taoiseach. This is an opportunity again for Ireland to demonstrate its goodwill gestures to a president who loves goodwill gestures.

Thank you --

And I want to thank again our diplomatic editor and international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, for bringing in some of that context as we're watching here, on how key this meeting is between president Trump and the Irish prime minister.

There will be some potential pitfalls, some potential contentious issues. But the idea here is to keep it focused on Ireland. A few pictures and a photo op there before heading into that private bilateral meeting.

Again, it's going to be a very brief meeting. He is expected after this to head back to the airport. President Trump is expected to head back to the airport and then on to his golf course, where he's going to attend the Irish Open.

Moving on, I want to go to our other key story this hour. Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen captured a strategic island in the Red Sea. Now Houthi forces took Perim Island just a day after taking control of the nearby port city of Mocha.

Control of both of these locations gives the Houthis a greater ability to threaten shipping in the Red Sea and it potentially gives Tehran more leverage in its war with the U.S.

Standing by for us now is CNN's Larry Madowo. He's tracking all the developments for us from Nairobi and he joins us now.

Again, just a lightning-fast advance here from the Houthis capturing Mocha, a key port city, and then Perim Island, which sits in such a strategic and important location along the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.

What happens next here, Larry?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What happens next really depends on the regional players here. But this is a serious development for the United States and for Saudi Arabia, because the Iranians have already blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, which is a key shipping route.

The Saudis have been using this alternative route to the Red Sea to access global markets and that is now also under threat. The Houthi rebels, the Houthi militants, essentially, had this rapid advance over 36 hours, where they're now essentially in control of most of Yemen's Red Sea coast.

That is significant because it gives them extra leverage. And that especially worrying for Saudi Arabia that has had to shut down its East-West Pipeline. That is a route it's been using to reroute about 5 million barrels that was previously going to the Strait of Hormuz, going through to the port of Yanbu and through the Red Sea.

Now that also under threat. The U.S. angle for this is that U.S., the oil price has already hit $100 this week. If this continues, that puts further pressure on domestic fuel prices just ahead of the midterms.

But the wider region here greatly condemning this attack on the pipeline. We've seen condemnations from Oman, from Egypt, from Bahrain, from Iraq. The Saudi foreign ministry essentially said that this attack on the title (ph) and several attacks on the pipeline, rather, were from drones fired from Iraq.

[05:15:00]

And that they were not retaliating immediately to allow the Iraqis to investigate and get some action to that. However, the Iranians are celebrating this.

I want you to listen to a spokesperson celebrating and saying, what happens to the Saudis?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YAHYA SARE, HOUTHI MILITARY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): The Yemeni armed forces affirmed that maritime navigation is safe for all companies except Saudi vessels, which were previously declared subject to a ban. They also affirmed that they will continue enforcing the equation of

siege for siege, striking Saudi enemy mobilizations and escalating in response to escalation until the aggression stops and the siege on our dear people is lifted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: That is a spokesperson for the Houthis, an advisor to the Iranian supreme leader, also congratulated the Houthis for this rapid advance, calling it a clear victory and saying that the U.S. and its allies had been essentially driven to a dead end in the region.

On Monday, Iran, Iraq and top diplomats from the Gulf Arab states will meet in Oman to figure out a way to guarantee shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded essentially since the start of this war.

That will be an important one if they can figure out a way to open up to shipping, international shipping in that route. Iran and Oman have been having some conversations. They've made some headway.

But the wider region still seems to want to find a way to open up more shipping there. And then you hear that message that there will be open to shipping for everybody except Saudi vessels, Salma.

ABDELAZIZ: And the kingdom, Saudi Arabia, has been asking for U.S. support, for U.S. help in fighting back against the Houthis. The U.S. has provided technical support but we understand from our sources is not carrying out its own strikes, even at the request of the Saudi authorities.

Larry Madowo in Nairobi there, giving us the context behind this key capture by the Houthis.

There is so much more to come here on CNN NEWSROOM. Republicans in the U.S. had high hopes for their midterm convention deep in the heart of Texas. Just ahead, we're going to take a look at the strategy ahead of November's critical vote.

Plus, a quarter-century later, we're going to look back at how the world is marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

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ABDELAZIZ: After 25 years, after the attacks on September 11th changed the course of history, America has paused to remember. President Trump marked the occasion with a special ceremony at the Pentagon.

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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The president gave a speech about American bravery. He tied the anniversary to the ongoing war with Iran, saying we're being tested today.

He called 9/11 attacks a, quote, "moment of immense and horrible evil" that forced the nation to unite against terrorism.

A fighter pilot who was working that morning spoke to CNN earlier about what she experienced on the day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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MAJ. HEATHER "LUCKY" PENNEY, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE (RET.): But we knew what needed to be done because we had seen the images on the television. We had seen the airliners crash into the towers, aim and crash. And we could see the smoke coming out of the Pentagon from our flight line.

So we knew our nation was under attack and we knew that we would need to do whatever it took to protect and defend.

And if you remember the days and the weeks that followed 9/11, where we came together as a nation and it didn't -- none of the things that are dividing us today, none of that mattered.

But we knew that we were neighbors, that we were human, that we all had families and loved ones and dreams and we all cherished our freedoms and what this nation has allowed us to be able to do, that we all came together.

That's so much bigger than what I was. And to me, that was worth and still is worth giving my life for, to protect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: From the Pentagon to Ground Zero in Shanksville, communities gathered to honor the victims and salute the heroes. Some 3,000 people were killed when hijackers crashed four passenger jets on that fateful day. Countless more were injured and suffered deadly health consequences in the years following,

U.S. president Donald Trump is doubling down on his promise to give out checks for $5,000. He has vowed to pay every American adult if Republicans keep control of Congress after the midterm elections. It remains unclear if the president's plan will pass muster.

But the midterm convention that the Republicans staged in deep red Texas offers some insight into their strategy around the November vote. CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak has more details for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: This week's Republican midterm convention in Dallas gave us the best window into President Trump's strategy heading into the midterms. And it is one that puts himself at the very center. He was at the very center of this convention. He spoke for 2.5 hours, spread over two nights.

And even on the evening that was ostensibly meant to feature the vice president, J.D. Vance, it was President Trump who ended the evening alone, center stage as the balloons fell, which really kind of crystallized his view of himself as the best and perhaps the only motivator for Republicans this midterm cycle.

And you heard him say it again and again: pretend that I'm on the ballot, really reflecting his concern and his advisors' concern that those low-propensity voters who have supported him and have gone out to vote for him when he is on the ballot will not turn out this time around.

Now this is a strategy that is not without some risk. President Trump is historically unpopular.

According to polls, majorities of Americans say that they think the country is heading in the wrong direction. And plenty of Republicans, including those who didn't show up at this week's convention, think that making this election a referendum on his first two years in office is essentially a recipe for disaster.

[05:25:10]

And that's not the only place where we've seen Republicans split with the president on a critical election issue. The other is this question of a dividend for voters if Republicans keep their congressional majorities. The president unveiled that during his speech, promising a $5,000 check for every American adult.

But you've heard many Republicans say that that could contribute to inflation, that it could inflate the already $40 trillion U.S. debt.

And it's something that virtually no other speaker at the convention mentioned, even after the president brought it up, including the vice president, the Speaker of the House and the president's own son, Donald Trump Jr.

Now nevertheless, the president is promising quite an intensive campaign schedule over the next two months. He says he has 35 races that he's focusing on. In particular, he says he'll be out across the country stumping for Republicans.

That first trip will come next week when he's scheduled to visit North Carolina. Still, when a Fox News interviewer asked him whether he intended to be on the campaign trail at the same intensity level as he was during his own presidential campaigns, the president answered pretty bluntly, saying no -- Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ABDELAZIZ: Live pictures of Capitol Hill as president Trump says that the United States is in a battle with China to dominate artificial intelligence. The president has dismissed concerns from researchers about AI killing humans and other risks posed by the technology.

In July, some OpenAI agents went rogue and actually hacked third-party content. This week, an Anthropic employee left the company and warned that the technology could kill humans within a decade.

And on Friday, a group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson warning of the catastrophic risk of advanced AI and asking to bring Congress back in session to pass AI safeguards immediately.

Now to that nasty outbreak in the U.S. of the lettuce-linked illness, cyclosporiasis. It is over. The Food and Drug Administration added that it's confident all the suspected salad ingredients are now off the market.

The parasitic infection caused several intestinal problems in its thousands of victims, two of whom passed away. CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard has this wrap up for us.

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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: This is a major turning point now that the cyclosporiasis outbreak has been declared officially over. That means all of the contaminated lettuce tied to this outbreak has been taken off the market. It's no longer in stores or restaurants.

And the CDC says there has been a significant decline in the number of recent cases of cyclosporiasis.

And keep in mind, this outbreak was the largest known cyclosporiasis outbreak on record here in the United States. It's sickened more than 12,800 people. Among them, at least 570 were hospitalized and sadly, two people had died as part of this outbreak.

Now even though the outbreak has officially come to an end, the FDA's investigation into how the lettuce got contaminated in the first place, that is still ongoing.

You probably remember when the outbreak first emerged, the FDA linked the contaminated lettuce back to the company Taylor Farms and specifically growers based in Central Mexico.

Well, the FDA's inspections and some of the lettuce samples collected during those inspections are still pending analysis. That's why the FDA's investigation is ongoing even though the outbreak is officially over.

And this outbreak itself, it's an important reminder for all of us to remember to practice safe food handling behaviors, like washing our hands regularly, washing fresh produce. Remember when you cook food, that can help kill germs. Like when you cook food to at least 158 degrees Fahrenheit, that can kill the cyclospora parasite. And this is a good reminder for all of us to stay up to date on outbreaks like this as well as up to date on food recalls.

If you have a recalled product at home, throw it out immediately. So even though this outbreak is officially over, it's an important reminder to still practice food safety. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, world leaders gather in New Delhi for a BRICS summit that is overshadowed by war and escalating global tensions.

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We have a live report from the region up ahead.

Plus an escalation of Russian drone strikes continues on the capital of Ukraine. We're going to have the latest right after that break.

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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Welcome back. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

U.S. President Donald Trump is in Dublin, Ireland, this hour, meeting with Irish leaders. He's visiting with the country's prime minister after a welcome ceremony at the president's official residence. Later, Trump will head to Western Ireland, where the Irish Open is being held at his golf resort.

Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen captured a strategic island in the Red Sea. Houthi forces took Perim Island just a day after taking control of the nearby port city of Mocha. Control of both of these locations gives the Houthis a greater ability to threaten shipping in the Red Sea.

The Houthis, for their part, say navigation through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait is safe for all vessels except Saudi ships.

And leaders of the BRICS nations are meeting in New Delhi this weekend for a two-day summit there, a group of emerging markets and developing countries seeking greater global influence.

Russian president Vladimir Putin met with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi beforehand and the two leaders pledged to deepen their country's longstanding ties. For more on the summit I want to bring in now CNN's Ivan Watson, who is standing by in Hong Kong and following all the developments for us. [05:35:00]

So the summit is kicking off now, with India, of course, as the host country but it's going to be carrying out a very difficult balancing act as we mentioned there. Narendra Modi has already met with President Putin. He has welcomed Xi Jinping today.

How is India going to position itself both as a central leader within this bloc but also as a friendly nation to the United States?

IVAN WATSON, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a difficult balancing act because you really do have an assortment of countries, 11 countries, that are in the current formup of BRICS.

And the last time that the foreign ministries of these 11 member states got together in New Delhi, that was back in May, they weren't able to come to consensus to publish a joint statement because of the dispute over the war in Iran.

Iran is a member state. Its president is present and meeting and criticizing the U.S., perhaps understandably so. But so are other member states, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They both host U.S. military bases.

And they've both been under attack periodically from Iranian drones and missiles since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran back in February. So there are some deep divisions and different ways of looking at things from within the 11 member states of the BRICS group.

That said, there are some fences that are being mended. This is the first time that the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has visited India in more than six years after those two countries, their militaries came to blows in a deadly series of clashes in disputed border regions up in the Himalayas. That was back in 2020.

And the relations sharply deteriorated. Both leaders have been improving ties in recent years. They were even at the same Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Kyrgyzstan about 1.5 weeks ago.

Part of the purpose of this is for emerging economies, developing economies to get a better, bigger say in global trade and global affairs. And there are some resentments about how affairs have been traditionally run in the past.

President Putin of Russia, he was talking about how the world is changing and suggesting that these emerging economies are the future. Take a listen to what else he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): Over the last five years, around 40 percent of the world's GDP has been produced by BRICS countries; whereas the contribution by the G7, the so-called G7 -- I don't know why they call it the Group of Seven -- stands at only 29 percent. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Right. And so these BRICS countries and their affiliate members, they represent about half of the global population and about 26 percent of global trade. The Chinese leader has ambitions for BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to be a kind of voice of the global south.

ABDELAZIZ: Our Ivan Watson, following every turn of that summit. Thank you so much for joining us from Hong Kong.

I want to bring in now to this conversation Vrinda Sahai. She is a research analyst in the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India.

You know, Ivan just closed with a really key point that I think is the backbone of what BRICS is about, right?

Which is that BRICS now accounts for 49 percent of the world's population. It accounts for 40 percent of global GDP, 26 percent of international trade. On paper, this should be a very strong bloc.

But how powerful is it when it comes to its aim of countering Western hegemony when you think about how divided this bloc is?

VRINDA SAHAI, RESEARCH ANALYST, SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM, CARNEGIE INDIA: So thank you for having me. And that's a that's a great question.

I'll begin by saying that, more than countering Western hegemony, the BRICS has always been aimed at providing an alternative and bringing a reform to the existing systems of financial and economic governance.

So I think since 20 years now, the agenda has been to bring about that reform, to bring about better and alternative ways of financial and economic cooperation for these countries.

It is a dominant bloc in terms of contribution to the global GDP. And I think incremental measures and progress in that sense will be useful for the group to focus on. Definitely, as you mentioned, the group is diverse, geopolitically diverse and fragmented.

But the goal of the group is to come together on certain issues that will help developing an economy, emerging markets and economies. And that will bring forth more financial freedom and more economic cooperation.

ABDELAZIZ: And Vrinda, I'm so sorry to interrupt our conversation but we just have more live images coming from Dublin, where president Trump was holding a bilateral meeting with the Irish prime minister.

[05:40:09]

And I do want to go to those live images now and come back to you later, hopefully, if we have time.

Trying to go now to those live images. Again, this is president Trump. We have our cameras now inside, of course, the Irish prime minister, the Irish taoiseach's residence, where he is holding that meeting right now with president Trump. Let's listen in and see if we can hear them speaking here.

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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): My apologies, we do --

(OFF MIKE COMMENTS)

MICHEAL MARTIN, IRISH PRIME MINISTER: Over a thousand were of Irish heritage. We'll always remember the incredible courage, bravery, and sacrifice of the first responders, firefighters, the NYPD authority, people who put themselves in harm's way, sacrificed their lives to try and save the lives of their fellow citizens.

And in many ways, it remains inspirational to the entire world, the bravery of those American first responders. So that's something we're very conscious of.

We're particularly pleased that you've made it for the Irish Open. You did say to me 12 months ago that you would do everything possible to get here when it was announced that Doonbeg would be the venue for the Irish Open.

And I think it illustrates the very strong sporting relationship between our two countries and what a great year it's been for you with the World Cup, which we all watched avidly. We didn't make it through to it but we still watched it. All our stars were playing.

You had the Olympics Los Angeles coming. We had American college football recently, North Carolina and the Texans, et cetera. And you know we have the Irish Open now. We have the regular cup next year. So the sporting connections between our two countries are huge.

And the people of Doonbeg are particularly appreciative of your investment and the investment of your family. And we welcome your family. Delighted that they could make the trip.

In terms of the investment in Doonbeg, it's about 350 people in that remote part of West Clare. And it's a valuable, valuable asset to the area and they're particularly welcoming of it.

And in many ways I think that illustrates the strength of the economic relationship between our two countries. I know the ambassador has taken you to his residence where you will meet hundreds of Irish business people who have investments in America, who are employing American people.

Over 200,000 Americans employed by Irish companies and, yes, there are American companies in Ireland who are employing about 245,000 Irish people. They get access to the European market from the base here and the Asian market. And they do particularly well.

So it's a -- it's a very strong, old relationship. I showed you the gift that you gave me or gave to the state outside, which is the Declaration of American Independence in 1776.

And then you have a lovely book that you presented to me which I have on display now in government buildings, with nine people, some born in Ireland, three born in Ireland and others of Irish descent. The printer was an Irish man and so on like that. And that's how long, enduring and how deep the relationship between our two countries is.

And that's why we're very pleased to welcome you to Ireland and to this house here, Harmony House, which I think reflects part of that as well.

TRUMP: TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. And we've been friends and we've had a great relationship right from the beginning. And I did make a promise to come over.

I said, "If I can, I'm going to do it," because we talked about it. The Irish Open is a very big event in Ireland and frankly all over the world really because it's a great golf event. And you have the best players in the world right now.

In fact, Shane is an Irish person named Shane. We just call him Shane. He is winning and he's leading. You know, he's got a long way to go.

MARTIN: Everybody's watching.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Rory's playing well but he always plays well.

MARTIN: Always plays well.

TRUMP: But there you have a lot of great Irish players that are doing very well at an Irish course. And it's been a tremendous success. It's rated one of the greatest courses in the world. And I'm very honored to have it. I've owned it for -- I built it, about 22 years right on the ocean.

So it's very exciting and I'll be going there later. But we do business. We've had some discussions on trade and various other things. We have a big relationship with Ireland and that'll continue stronger than ever. But it's doing -- we're doing very well. The two countries do very well together.

We've had a very long but I would say it's never been as good as it is right now. So it's -- thank you for hosting us and I know you're going to the Irish Open tomorrow. You're going to spend the whole day there.

MARTIN: All day there.

[05:45:00]

TRUMP: And you're going to see some good golfers, I can tell you.

MARTIN: Absolutely. Looking forward to it.

Well, thank you very much. It's really.

(OFF MIKE COMMENTS)

QUESTION: When will the war in Iran end, Mr. President?

TRUMP: I think very soon. I think it'll be probably right after two terms. They're trying to hold out as long as they can to complicate the election but I think people are wise to it because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

It's very simple. This is a very simple thing. Iran cannot have they were two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon. If they had it, they would have blown up Israel. They would have blown up the Middle East. And they would have hit some of Europe's -- in my opinion, Europe's cities and beyond cities.

And they would probably hit us, too, before we put out the fire. But they cannot have a nuclear weapon. But I would say shortly -- and oil will come tumbling down. When that happens, oil prices will come tumbling down.

QUESTION: How was your call with MBS and what is the U.S. willing to do?

TRUMP: Well, I have had a call with MBS. He's a good friend of mine and it's going to -- I can just say everything's going to work out fine and dandy. It's going to be very good. So you don't get involved in these things. I have a very nice -- but you have your own difficulties, I would imagine.

MARTIN: Now and again, you --

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: President, how -- ?

TRUMP: But no, I think it's going to -- it's all working out fine. I would say shortly after they -- we had a great convention. We went to Dallas, Texas. We had a midterm convention. It was never done by either party. It's probably going to become a staple. It was -- it was so successful, so beautiful and the arenas were packed both days.

And frankly, nobody expected to ever see anything like it. It felt -- I think it actually felt better than the so-called original conventions. It was as good as it could get. And the Republicans had a good time. We had a good time. A lot of great people running for office.

And they're sane people. You know, we're running -- we're running against some major insanity but we don't have to get into that. Major insanity. But we had a tremendous -- that was a tremendous two-day period.

QUESTION: Mr. President --

QUESTION: Mr. President, what would you say -- QUESTION: Mr. President --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can we just can we just take Mike in there?

QUESTION: Mr. President, what do you say to some people in Ireland, who say the U.S. is facilitating genocide in Gaza and also facilitating Israel around the illegal occupation of territories in the West Bank?

TRUMP: Well, when you say Gaza, you know, we put out the fire and we got all the hostages back. There's very little happening right now in Gaza. That's not the place that people are talking about actually now, is all about Gaza.

And we got involved and we facilitated a peace of a kind. But we got all the hostages back, some dead, some living. We got them all back. They wanted, you know, it's amazing the parents of those dead hostages. They knew they were dead. They wanted their son or daughter but mostly sons. They wanted their sons back, their babies.

The mothers said their babies, they wanted the babies back, just as much as though their son was alive. And we got him back. We got every one of them back. We had, in the end we had 28 that were dead and we had a lot that were alive.

If you go back over the, you know, three-, four-year period, we got -- many people forgot. But I always said that last 30 or 40 is going to be very tough because of what happened.

But we are, if you look at Gaza, there's a lot of good relationships taking place right now in Gaza. It's been quite amazing. I think we've done a great job. Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, the whole group, they've done a very good job with it.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

MARTIN (voice-over): I'll just say -- sorry -- just to make -- the president discussed the need for ongoing humanitarian aid to go into Gaza. And we will continue our discussions in terms of Irish aid and support and going into Gaza under the president. And we're trying to facilitate that.

TRUMP: I will. We'll get it done.

(OFF MIKE COMMENTS)

MARTIN: -- that's something on the peace plan that the president has announced, is something we support, the 20-point peace plan. And it is difficult and it is challenging but I think it's the right direction --

(CROSSTALK)

MARTIN: -- particularly the humanitarian --

(CROSSTALK) MARTIN: -- do more there.

TRUMP: Your aid will get done very differently. So I'll let Dan Scavino work on it.

OK?

QUESTION: Mr. President --

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: -- what would you say to the thousands of Irish people who will be protesting today because they don't want you to come to Ireland?

TRUMP: I didn't know there was a protest.

(VIDEO GAP)

TRUMP: -- early in the morning and we've been all -- we landed early and we got here.

[05:50:00]

And we've made a couple of visits, as you know, and we have others to make but I haven't seen any protest. It's a friendly protest, let me say. But we have a great relationship with Ireland. The United States and Ireland have a fantastic relationship, a very profitable one for Ireland.

It's less profitable for us, to be honest with you. Rather big surplus, your country. You can be very proud of your country because it's a big surplus, right?

But you know, we have a great relationship. I have seen no protests.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Say it?

QUESTION: Is Iran responsible for the attack on the East-West Pipeline?

And what do you think Saudi Arabia is going to be able to get?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, I think they are. Probably they are. You know, they're on the balls of their feet right now. But I think they are. They've been in charge of that for a while. We've had discussions. The Houthis called us and they don't want to fight with us. They let us know they don't want to fight with us.

They don't want me to go after them. They don't want us to go after them. But they've called and they've talked to us and they don't want us to. They would much prefer not having us involved. And they're letting most ships go through.

There's just one country that they're not too happy with and we'll get that straightened out. But, I have to say, we've done a great job. You know, we control, as you know, we really very powerfully controlled the Hormuz Strait. And nobody saw that happening. But we have very powerful control over it.

We have a naval -- a naval blockade that's been so incredible. Boy, your oil prices would be much higher, I would think. We're taking a lot of boats out. We take out, on average, 25 boats a day, most of them at night. We take on average about 25 boats out every single day.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: -- in Gaza and elsewhere, what did you discuss with the meeting with Catherine (ph) earlier today?

TRUMP: About what?

QUESTION: She's been critical of your foreign policy in the past in relation to operations in Venezuela and also in the Middle East.

What did you discuss with her today?

TRUMP: Do you want to talk about that, Micheal?

Do you want to think about it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About your conversation with the president today?

Yes. The president had a very constructive conversation with President Connolly today about a whole range of issues, including energy and European supplies of energy. Europe has plenty of sources of energy right here on the continent and in the surrounding waters of Europe. And they had that conversation very specifically.

TRUMP: OK?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Did President Connolly, did President Connolly bring up the conflicts in the Middle East with you?

TRUMP: We discussed a lot of things quickly. We weren't there very long but it was a very nice meeting. We had a very respectful meeting. We did discuss Northern Ireland. I always find it to be very interesting, as we did --

(CROSSTALK)

MARTIN: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: I find it to be a very interesting discussion because we know people of Northern Ireland and we know people of Ireland and they sometimes say, hey, when are you guys getting together? Right?

Did you ask that question every time?

MARTIN: We do.

TRUMP: But --

MARTIN: Consistent with that --

TRUMP: I'm sure -- I'm sure it's complicated but life is complicated. But now it's -- we discussed a lot of things, yes. A lot of very positive things. We have a very positive trade relationship with Ireland.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Go ahead.

QUESTION: How was your phone call with prime minister Andy Burnham last week?

Did he talk about the Falkland Islands and Argentina?

TRUMP: Well, the Falkland Islands is very interesting because here we go again. I remember as a young boy, pretty young boy, anyway. But the Falkland Islands and I think it was a different country at that time, the U.K. a little bit.

But they went in and they took it over. I'm not sure they -- if they're doing that, they have a little problem with immigration. They have a little problem with energy and they have some other problems they have to take care of. So I don't know.

You know, I don't know if they're going to be willing to travel that far. That is very far away. You know, you're talking about --

QUESTION: Sir?

TRUMP: -- you're talking about weeks by boat. So I don't know. It's -- I'm sure I'll be called into that potential disaster. But if they do, I'll probably be able to settle it out. But right now you have two countries that are not happy concerning the Falklands. That's a good question.

QUESTION: Mr. President --

TRUMP: Is that better than ask that question?

That was a very good question.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: -- next year, President?

TRUMP: Say it? QUESTION: Will you return to Ireland for the Ryder Cup next year.

TRUMP: I will absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I do think it should be held at Turnberry. I do think the Ryder Cup should be held at Turnberry.

[05:55:00]

But there won't be, probably, because I think they give it out 10 years in advance.

MARTIN: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Is that right (ph)?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Mr. President?

QUESTION: Mr. President, what's your view?

QUESTION: Mr. President, what's your view on Irish unification, Mr. President?

TRUMP: What Irish?

QUESTION: Unification, what's your view on it?

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to cause any problems. But I will tell you I'd love to see it unified. I have friends on both sides. Great people. They're Irish people.

How can they be bad, right?

I'd love to see it uniform. I think it would be a great -- a great feather in everybody's cap if that happened. It's going to happen eventually.

QUESTION: Mr. President.

TRUMP: You know what?

The way I look at it, it's going to happen eventually. It will happen. Now we're talking about it. And you got the right man over here to get it moving. But, yes, I think it would be a fantastic thing.

Now the U.K. will have something to say about it, obviously. But I think it would be a great thing.

I mean, how could it be bad?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: President Trump --

QUESTION: Are you considering withdrawing from the USMCA deal?

TRUMP: What does that mean?

QUESTION: Are you considering withdrawing from the USMCA deal with U.S., Mexico and Canada?

TRUMP: It's a strange question to be asked over here. No, I get along great. We're going to have a great relationship with Mexico. We actually have a good one with Canada. But the United States has been ripped off for 50 years by Canada. We don't need their product and they need our product.

They do all of their business almost with us and we do very little with them. But you know, they've taken advantage of our farmers. And also Canada wants to make a deal very badly.

ABDELAZIZ: You were watching what is essentially an impromptu press conference now at Farmleigh House with the Irish president, Micheal Martin, sitting alongside president Donald Trump, who is in Dublin for a brief two-day visit. He is expected to move on very shortly to his golf course.

Thank you so much for watching us. I'm Salma Abdelaziz here in London. Please stay with CNN.