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One World with Zain Asher
Trump Hosts Mark Rutte at WH; Protesters Detained at Trump Tower; Putin Open to the Idea of a 30-Day Ceasefire; 12 Years of Pope Francis as Pontiff; Trump and Rutte Talks at White House. Aired 1-2p ET
Aired March 13, 2025 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:00:00]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, "ONE WORLD": All right. Coming to you live from New York, I'm Zain Asher. My colleague, Bianna Golodryga, is off today. You are
watching the second hour of One World.
And at this hour, U.S. President Donald Trump is hosting the NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, at the White House. Those talks are underway. They're
happening right now. We'll bring you details of what comes out of this meeting as and when we have those details.
The stakes for NATO and Europe right now are incredibly high, coming off the back of Donald Trump's renewed threat to withdraw the U.S. from the
military alliance. Their meeting is happening as U.S. officials are in Moscow to put an American-backed Ukrainian ceasefire proposal in front of
Vladimir Putin.
We are hearing our first reaction from the Russian president on that agreement. Vladimir Putin said he's open to the idea of a 30-day ceasefire
with Ukraine, but that he does have reservations about this one, that a number of questions remain, including how exactly the ceasefire would be
monitored.
The Russian president also said that any pause in fighting should lead to a long-lasting peace. And would have to deal with the root causes of the
conflict as well. Mr. Putin spoke after a meeting with his close ally, the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, in Moscow.
International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is in London to break this down for us. We also have Alayna Treene joining us live now from the White
House. Alayna, let me start with you. So, in terms of what Vladimir Putin said, he didn't say an outright no to this proposal, but he did have a lot
of reservations. In fact, quite a long list of reservations. Just walk us through how Donald Trump is likely to respond to them.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: You know, it's interesting, and we actually are just starting to get the first little trickle out of this
meeting right now in the Oval Office between the president and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. And the president did bring this up,
actually, we're told from some people in the room, that he essentially said that he wouldn't bend -- or excuse me, that he would like the ceasefire
deal from Russia, kind of pushing them on this.
And over the past couple days, he's also been saying that essentially the ball is now in Russia's court, and he hopes that Russian President Vladimir
Putin will come to the table and agree to this temporary ceasefire that the U.S. delegation and Ukraine has come to.
Now, I do think behind the scenes, what I'm hearing in my conversations is they recognize that these negotiations are going to take longer than just,
you know, having this deal be agreed to between the United States and Ukraine, and then have Russia immediately sign into it, but they are very
hopeful that they can get there, and then it will happen quickly.
And it's interesting as well. If you just take a step back to think where we are this week and having this discussion after Secretary of State Marco
Rubio as well as National Security Adviser Michael Waltz met with the Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah. I mean, that is a very different place than
they were just a couple days or a week or so before, when really, it had seemed like the president felt like it was easier to negotiate with the
Russians. He actually said that publicly to reporters.
Now, it's looking like the United States and Ukraine are on the same page and they're waiting for Russia's response here. So, we'll see what happens.
I think a key thing, of course, is what will come out of that meeting today with Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's special envoy. He's been very closely
negotiating and talking to the Russians behind the scenes and he is in Moscow today to meet with the Russians to discuss this ceasefire proposal.
So, again, we have to see how that goes, but I do believe that from my conversations with White House officials, the president is very much
wanting to put pressure on Russia now to come to the table and accept some of these terms.
ASHER: All right. Alayna, stand by. Nic Robertson, let me bring you in, because in terms of what Vladimir Putin said with a list of reservations,
he talked about him being open to the idea -- or welcoming the idea of ending hostilities in principle, but that he questioned how the ceasefire
was going to be monitored. He questioned what was going to happen to Kursk. He wanted there to be some accountability for some of the transgressions
that, in his mind, the Ukrainian soldiers had made there. And he worried that the ceasefire, this 30-day pause in fighting was essentially give
Ukrainian troops a chance to regroup and remobilize. Just walk us through what was said and how much of a tall order Steve Witkoff has, at this point
in time, in terms of getting Vladimir Putin to change his mind and actually agree to this proposal.
[13:05:00]
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's going to be a tall order. I think this peace project has now hit the reality of
Russia's position. And as we've heard it outlined by President Putin, as he said, it's got serious reservations.
Look, there's some code in there, so we can easily understand that code. When he said this peace plan must lead to something that deals with the
root causes. He means NATO being close to his borders. That's always been his allegation for why he wanted to go in and seize Ukraine, because he's
worried about the expansion of NATO. So, he's pre-setting a condition here. It appears that NATO should push back.
He's talked about those Ukrainian troops in Kursk. He's defined the situation in Kursk as one that the Russians are about to win. It's not
clear from the Ukrainian side that that is actually the case. They're on the back foot. But essentially, Putin is saying a situation here where we
can get to that peace deal, that 30-day ceasefire, if the Ukrainians lay down their weapons and surrender in Kursk. I don't think that's something
that the Ukrainians might be on board for.
But it's setting a precondition here, and it's also setting up the Ukrainians to look like the bad guys. If Russia is allowed to stick by that
position, it makes the Ukrainians look bad, and they've been at pains here to show that they do want peace if they're fighting. Of course, the
Russians continue to fight along the whole thousand kilometers of the frontline.
And I think another interesting takeaway from Putin here was this question, not just about who gets the monitor, I think that's a question for both
sides. I think what he raised was, well, what about these newly constituted Ukrainian military units? And the weapons that are coming towards them that
are being supplied to them? He seems to want to imply there that there should be no longer any need for the Ukrainian military to increase its
strength and to continue to get weapons. That's implicit in what he's saying.
And this is the way that Russian negotiations go in the past. They put something out there that's implicit. They'll get to the detail of it later.
So, what they appear to be trying to do is prescribe the actions of a sovereign nation. And the United States has said that this deal will lead
to the sovereignty and protect the sovereignty of Ukraine. Well, if that's the case, you can't have its neighbor telling it how big its army can be.
It also sets the preconditions for any security guarantees on the ground. It's also setting the preconditions to try to stretch tensions between the
United States and Europe. So, you know, undoubtedly, Mark Rutte and President Donald Trump will be seized of this when they're in their
discussions today. How much detail they'll be able to get in on, undoubtedly, President Trump will want to hear what Steve Witkoff has
directly away from the cameras from President Putin.
But already, the idea that when Putin says, I'll accept this., which is what was expected. He was also expected to throw in preconditions, and
these are massive preconditions. Not easy for the Ukrainians, not easy for NATO, not easy for the Europeans, and probably not easy for President Trump
either.
AMANPOUR: All right. Nic, standby. So, Alayna, to that point, it was expected that Vladimir Putin would want caveats, that there would be some
kind of precondition in terms of him being willing to accept this deal. I'll accept this, but here's here are the changes that I want.
In terms of what levers Donald Trump has at his disposal to get Vladimir Putin to accept this deal, I mean, a lot of people have talked about the
fact that tariffs and sanctions are not going to be that effective anymore, what other tools does he have at his disposal? I mean, a lot of people have
floated this idea of just increasing or threatening to increase military aid to Ukraine. Give us your take on that.
TREENE: That's absolutely part of it. I think you know, definitely. I think people were encouraged, particularly those who want to see Ukraine
obviously thriving in this war from the United States' side of it, were very happy that the United States continued sharing its intelligence and
continued its weapons, sending more weapons to Ukraine and moving forward with that aid. I definitely think that those are huge levers, particularly
if you hear the president's -- President Trump's rhetoric himself call for more of that, if Russia decides to draw out these negotiations, if they
decide to act in a way that perhaps the president doesn't believe is negotiating in good faith, I don't think, you know, it would be that
farfetched to believe that we could see some harsh rhetoric but also real action on the part of the Trump administration, to see what they could do
to further it along for Ukraine, to make it easier for Ukraine to have -- you know, use that leverage against Russia.
Again, I don't want to get into hypotheticals, but I do think him talking out about it would kind of change what we've seen so far among
conservatives and Republicans on Capitol Hill, change the way that they have viewed this.
But I also think part of it, too, and I think this meeting today between the President and the NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutte is key to this.
Because one big thing that has really concerned a lot of the United States European allies is how the president has discussed NATO and NATO
membership, including kind of questioning whether the United States would come to the aid of a NATO member if they did not pay -- excuse me, if they
did not pay their fair share.
[13:10:00]
I think having a very united front when it comes to the NATO allies, including the United States and also a united front in how they are working
with Ukraine and in their support of Ukraine could also be a major lever here.
Again, these are hypotheticals, but are things behind the scenes. I know that the Trump administration, particularly those working on the national
security team, are thinking about and talking through while these conversations are ongoing. But I do think as well one of the key things is
really going to be what Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's special envoy, brings back from these talks today in Moscow with the Russians, how the president
trusts him completely. He is one of the president's most trusted aides. He believes that he has done a great job in negotiating thus far with the
Ukrainians, but also in with -- those in -- you know, between Israel and Gaza and that war.
And so, what he says is also going to have a major impact on how the United States, but particularly President Trump himself, views this negotiation
going forward.
ASHER: All right. Alayna Treen, Nic Robertson, thank you both so much. All right. Some news just into CNN. We are hearing about a protest at Trump
Tower in New York. These images show the NYPD detaining these protesters. This is the stream from the activist group Jewish Voice for Peace earlier
this hour. They are demanding the release of Mahmoud Khalil. He is the pro- Palestinian activist who helped organize the Columbia University protests last spring. And he is right now being detained by ICE agents. He's being
held in a facility -- in an ICE facility in Louisiana.
All right. Now, back to more on NATO and Trump's meeting with Mark Rutte. I want to bring in Fabrice Pothier, a former director of policy planning at
NATO. He's also the CEO of political consultancy firm, Rasmussen Global. Fabrice joins us live now.
So, obviously, it can't be ignored the fact that this meeting between Mark Rutte and Donald Trump comes at a quite a pivotal moment in the Ukraine war
with Vladimir Putin now considering what to do about this 30-day ceasefire proposal that has now been laid in front of him.
But there are other key issues when it comes to the relationship between NATO and the United States. One of the key things that Mark Rutte has to
really get across to Donald Trump is why it is mutually beneficial for Donald Trump not just to be a member of NATO, for the U.S. to be a member
of NATO, but also why the U.S. should really champion NATO's goals as well. How does Mark Rutte go about that?
FABRICE POTHIER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF POLICY PLANNING, NATO, CEO, RASMUSSEN GLOBAL AND SENIOR CONSULTING FELLOW, IISS: Well, I think he's one of the
few leaders in Europe who knows how to speak the Trump language and how, hopefully, to be listened to by Donald Trump. So, I think things are in
good in good hands.
But the reality is that Trump 2.0 is, I think, introducing much more doubt into the U.S. commitment to Europe than before. So, even though on paper
and, you know, if you look at the official statements, the U.S. obligations or U.S. meeting its obligations NATO are the same as before. But Trump's
behavior, Trump's statement, Trump's treatment of Ukraine has introduced a huge doubt among the European allies' minds that, in fact, the Americans
might not have their back anymore.
ASHER: In terms of some of the conditions that Vladimir Putin is going to want in exchange for agreeing to a ceasefire proposal, I mean, obviously,
he touched on some of them in terms of how is a ceasefire going to be monitored, the root causes of this war have to be addressed, but also, a
key aspect and a key priority for Vladimir Putin is NATO.
Number one, he does not want Ukraine to ever be allowed to join NATO and he never wants to see NATO troops in Ukraine. Do you anticipate that those two
points are going to be addressed before Vladimir Putin agrees to any kind of ceasefire? I mean, obviously, that is going to come up between a
potential phone call with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at some point over the next few days.
POTHIER: Well, I think this is a decisive moment because Putin cannot have a say on whether a country should become a NATO member or not. And it's not
only about Ukraine here, I think it's about the political viability and the political unity of the alliance. Because if you are saying, essentially,
that your main adversary is deciding on who should be a member of this collective defense club, then you are really undermining its co-purpose.
And I think that's what Vladimir Putin is after, not just undermining Ukraine, but possibly undermining the political viability of the alliance.
So, I think it's going to be critical how Trump is going to handle this and hopefully to just make very clear that NATO is not part of the
conversation, even though he's clearly said that he was not in favor of Ukraine membership at NATO, therefore, he could argue this is not the
discussion now.
[13:15:00]
There's going to be a sovereign Ukraine. And now, we need to agree on what are going to be the parameters to make that piece hold over the long-term.
ASHER: Putin has talked about the fact that this ceasefire agreement, in its current form, only serves to benefit the Ukrainians. It'll give them a
chance to regroup, remobilize, and give them a much-needed reprieve for 30 days, that it would only make them stronger at the end of the 30 days.
It is clear that there are a lot of benefits for Ukraine with this 30-day ceasefire. What does Russia stand to gain from this 30-day potential pause
in fighting? I mean, a lot of people are saying that they're actually doing quite well on the battlefield right now. What incentive do they have to
agree to it in its current form?
POTHIER: I would be very cautious in relaying Vladimir Putin's speaking points about this notion that somehow a ceasefire will benefit Ukraine. I
think the notion is more that the ceasefire and on the longer-term a possible peace will actually benefit Russia, because they're in a slightly
complicated situation economically, but also in terms of sustainment of the war effort. They are losing something like a thousand Russian soldiers a
day. And this is not sustainable for a very long time.
Ukraine is weaker than Russia, that's true, but I think Russia is facing some real challenges and could do with a pause in order to regenerate and
then possibly in an X number of months or years to start again. So, we have to be very careful about not buying into the Kremlin's speaking points
because I think the real one who's benefiting from a pause would be more Russia.
It is true that Ukraine needs also a pause because it is exhausted, but the will of the Ukrainians to fight is not exhausted. So, I think we should not
get into this game of buying the Kremlin speaking points because I think this is where Putin is trying to undermine us.
ASHER: Right. As you point out Russia, despite some of the gains they're making on the battlefield, that they do stand a lot to gain from a pause in
fighting, as well. Fabrice Pothier, we do have to leave it there. Thank you so much. All right.
POTHIER: Pleasure.
ASHER: We do want to go back to New York. That is where a protest is happening right now at Trump Tower. These are live pictures of the NYPD
detaining these protests. Once again, protests happening around Trump Tower. The NYPD is apparently detaining some of these protesters. This is a
stream. This video is from the activist group Jewish Voice for Peace earlier this hour. They are demanding the release of Mahmoud Khalil.
Just to remind you, Mahmoud Khalil is the Columbia student, the pro- Palestinian activist who was arrested recently and actually detained -- being detained currently in an ICE facility in Louisiana. No charges
technically have been filed against him. A lot of people are speaking out about the fact that this is an attack on the First Amendment because he had
led protests on Columbia University's campus supporting the Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war.
He's being currently held in an ICE facility, an ICE detention center in Louisiana. There's no word yet on when he'll be taken back or brought back
to New York. He is a green card holder, and there is an attempt by the Trump administration to deport him. We will continue to follow this story
live.
All right. Who stays and who goes? That is striking fear in many U.S. federal employees as the deadline for layoffs arrives. The details are
coming back -- are coming up, rather.
And it has been a dozen years of change and leadership from Pope Francis. Ahead, we'll look at the impact of a pope that has been full of surprises.
And a couple of NASA astronauts will have to wait a little bit longer before finally heading back to Earth. But imagine if we went there instead.
They gave CNN our own personal tour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's about the size of, I'd say, like of a 747. The interior of that, as you fly through the space station, takes about 30
seconds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It takes me about 15.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:20:00]
ASHER: All right. Let's go back to New York. That is where a protest is happening right now at Trump Tower. These are live pictures of NYPD, the
police department in New York, detaining protesters. And I also want to show you this other video, a stream coming from the activist group Jewish
Voice for Peace. This is video that we got earlier this hour. These protests are essentially -- the protesters are essentially demanding the
release of Mahmoud Khalil. A lot of attention has been centered around this particular individual. He is the Columbia student and pro-Palestinian
activist who was a leader of a lot of the protests we saw on campus last year, essentially raising the issue of the plight of the Palestinians
during the war in Gaza.
The Trump administration has accused him of siding with terrorists, of siding with Hamas, but have not provided any evidence to that. We know that
he has not been charged with a crime. But that ICE agents essentially stormed onto Columbia's campus several days ago and arrested him,
threatening to revoke his student visa. It was then determined that he did not have a student visa, he's actually a lawful and legal permanent
resident, a green card holder. He was then told that his green card was going to be revoked as well.
In terms of what we know so far -- these are live pictures by the way. In terms of what we know so far, he is currently being housed in a detention
facility in Louisiana. His wife, who is, by the way, eight months pregnant, has been pleading for his release, pleading for his return back to New
York. And again, no crime. He's been charged with no crime so far. A lot of attention has been focused on this particular case because there are some
serious concerns about what this means for free speech protections in this country. Obviously, there is a difference between siding with a terrorist
group and supporting the plight of the Palestinians. We're hoping to get a live reporter on this story a little bit later on this hour.
All right. Today marks the 12-year anniversary of Pope Francis' election to the papacy. The pontiff is spending the day battling pneumonia in a Rome
hospital. CNN's Christopher Lamb has the details from Rome.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Zain, it's 12 years since Pope Francis appeared on the balcony after his election here in St.
Peter's. Francis, of course, on that day, asking people to pray for him. And that's something that people have been doing with great intensity these
recent days as he has been in hospital.
He's been at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome now for almost exactly a month, battling pneumonia in both of his lungs. He's 88 years old. This has been a
very serious health crisis for Francis. We don't know how long he's going to be in hospital, but we have been told by the Vatican in recent days that
his condition is improving. He's no longer in imminent danger, but he is on high flow oxygen during the day and advanced oxygen therapy at night.
[13:25:00]
Now, Francis has received good wishes on his anniversary, including from Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, the Italian bishops. He's also
received cards from children across the world wishing him well, including children who are sick in hospital. Those have been delivered to the pope
today.
But of course, it's poignant that he's marking this anniversary of his election as pope from the hospital. There are lots of questions in the
Vatican about what comes next. How will Pope Francis be? If he's able to come out of hospital? Clearly, he's going to be a more vulnerable person, a
more fragile pope. And that, for some people, will be sending a message to the world, that here is a pope, a world leader, who many people see as a
moral voice on the world stage. He'll be communicating a sense of fragility and vulnerability through his ill health.
Of course, many people at this time want to see the pope able to speak, to give his voice about what is a very uncertain situation in the world. Of
course, it remains to be seen when Francis comes out and what he will be like in terms of his physical condition. A lot of uncertainties here on
this day of the pope's anniversary. Zain.
ASHER: Our Christopher Lamb reporting there. We'll be back with much more news after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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ASHER: All right. I want to take you now to the Oval Office where U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke a short
time ago. Let's listen in.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: What a great job he did and I'm not at all surprised when I hear it. We had to support him and we supported him as
soon as I heard the name. But he was a fantastic prime minister and he's doing a fantastic job, an even tougher job. Which is tougher, being the
prime minister of Netherlands or --
MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: This job is quite tough.
TRUMP: I would think this is a tough job.
RUTTE: But Dutch politics is also brutal. So --
TRUMP: But this is pretty tough. You're doing good. We're going to be discussing a lot of things. Obviously, we'll be discussing what's happening
with respect to Ukraine and Russia. At this moment, we have people talking in Russia. We have representatives over there, Steve Witkoff and others,
and they're in very serious discussions.
As you know, Ukraine has agreed, subject to this, what's happening today, to a complete ceasefire and we hope Russia will do the same. Thousands of
people are being killed, young people usually, mostly, young people. We're just talking about it. Thousands of young people are being killed a week,
and we want to see that stop. And they're not Americans, and they're not from the Netherlands, for the most part.
RUTTE: No.
TRUMP: They're not -- they're from Russia and they're from Ukraine. But they're people, and I think everybody feels the same way. We want it to
stop. It's also a tremendous cost to the United States and to other countries. And it's something that would have never happened if I were
president, and it makes me very angry to see that it did happen. But it happened, and we have to stop it.
And Mark has done some really good work over the last week we've been working together, and he's done some really good work. So, I'm very happy
about that.
We'll also be talking about trade and various other things, and I think we'll have a very strong day. We're going to have lunch afterwards. That'll
go and then we'll see you all later.
But, Mark, would you like to say something?
RUTTE: Yes. First of all, thank you so much, Mr. President, dear Donald, again for hosting me and -- but also for taking time in Florida, a couple
of weeks after you were re-elected.
TRUMP: That's right.
RUTTE: And of course, our phone call a couple of weeks ago. And I must say Trump 45, you -- basically, you originated the fact that in Europe, you're
now spending, when you take it to aggregate, $700 billion more on defense than when you came in office in 2016, 2017. But that was Trump 45. But when
you look at Trump 47, what happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering. The Europeans committing to a package of $800 billion defense
spending, the Germans now potentially up to half a trillion extra in defense spending. And then of course, you had Keir Starmer here, the
British prime minister, and others all committing to much higher defense spending.
We're not there. We need to do more, but I really want to work together with you in a run up to the (INAUDIBLE) Summit to make sure that we will
have a NATO which is really, really reinvigorated under your leadership, and we are getting there.
We also discuss defense production because we need to produce more weaponry. We are not doing enough, and not in the U.S., not in Europe. And
we are lacking behind when you compare to the Russians and the Chinese. And you have a huge defense industrial base and Europeans buying four times
more here than the other way around, which is good because you have a strong defense industry. But we need to do more there to make sure that we
are (INAUDIBLE) at the production. And kill the red tape. So, I would love to work with you on that.
And finally, Ukraine. You broke the deadlock. As you said, all the killing, the young people dying, cities getting destroyed. The fact that you did
that, that you started the dialogue with the Russians, and the successful talks in Saudi Arabia now with the Ukrainians, I really want to commend you
for this.
So, well, The Hague is my hometown. I'd love to host you there in the summer, and work together to make sure that that will be a splash, a real
success, projecting American power on the world stage.
TRUMP: What Mark is saying is when I first went to NATO, my first meeting, I noticed that very few people were paying. And if they were, they weren't
paying their fair share. There were only seven countries that were paying what they were supposed to be paying, which was --
RUTTE: (INAUDIBLE).
TRUMP: Yes.
RUTTE: Even worse.
TRUMP: It could be even worse. But there were just very few countries that were paying. And even the paying, it was at 2 percent, which is too low, it
should be higher, it should be quite a bit higher. But you had Poland, and I remember Poland was actually paying a little bit more than they were
supposed to, which I was very impressed with. And they've been actually terrific, and some of the others. But most of them weren't paying or they
were paying very little, and I didn't think it was appropriate to bring it up there, but I said, it's going to be brought up at my next meeting, and
my next meeting. You know, the first meeting you want to give a little break, the second meeting, it began.
[13:35:00]
And I was able to raise hundreds of billions of dollars. I just said, we're not going to be involved with you if you're not going to pay. And the money
started pouring in and NATO became much stronger because of my actions and working along with a lot of people, including Mark. But they would not pay
for other presidents, and I don't think other presidents even knew that they weren't paid. I asked first question, has everybody paid up? And
literally, I mean, they should.
They told me seven, you could be right. It could be three, but that makes it even worse, but they just weren't paying. And I said, no, I won't
protect if you're not paying. If you're delinquent or if the money isn't paid, why would we do that? And as soon as I said that, we get a little hit
from the press because they said, oh, gee, that's not very nice. But if you said the other, nobody would have paid. And the money started coming in by
the billions.
And, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars flowed into NATO and NATO became strong. And you remember that your predecessor, who I thought was a
very good man.
RUTTE: Absolutely. Jens Stoltenberg. He sends his best --
TRUMP: Yes. He was terrific. Stoltenberg, secretary general. And he made the statement that when Trump came in, the money started coming in like we
never saw before. Hundreds of billions, actually, probably close to $600 billion dollars came in. And NATO became strong from that standpoint. And
now, we have to use it wisely, and we have to get this war over with. And you'll be back to a normal -- much more normal life. And maybe we're close.
We're getting words that things are going OK in Russia. And it doesn't mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is, but they have very
serious discussions going on right now with President Putin and others. And hopefully, they all want to end this nightmare. It's a nightmare. It's a
horrible thing when you look.
I get pictures every week. They give me the pictures of the battlefield, which I almost don't want to see. It's so horrible to see young people
laying arms and legs and heads laying all over the field. It's the most terrible thing that you'll ever see. And it's got to stop.
These are young people with mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and friends. And it's got to stop. So, we hopefully are going to be in a
good position sometime today to have a good idea. We'll have -- we know where we are with Ukraine and we are getting good signals outside of Russia
as to where we are with Russia and hopefully, they'll do the right thing.
And so, really humanity -- we're talking about humanity. We're not talking about the money, but then you add the money to it and, you know, hundreds
of billions of dollars is being spent and really wasted so unnecessarily. It should have never happened.
So, it's an honor to have you here. They picked a great gentleman. I'll tell you that I was so happy to hear because you had somebody --
Stoltenberg was really good. And you have somebody that's going to do an incredible job. And I was so much in favor of you. You have no idea. They
had another person that I did not like. I was not happy. And I think I kept him from -- you know, what I'm talking about. I said, this is the right man
to do it. And he really did. He was a great prime minister of the Netherlands. He did a great job. And that's what he's doing right now.
So, thank you everybody for being here. And it's a very great honor to have you. And we even have some of our great energy people here today, right? We
have the governor and we have Chris, you know Chris, right?
RUTTE: Absolutely.
TRUMP: Supposed to be the most talented man in the world of energy, according to the governor. So, I don't know if he's right. We have general,
you've been fantastic, thank you very much. We have all -- a lot of good people that won't be so much involved with this, but they wanted to see
what was happening. It's become a little bit of a show. But we wanted -- they wanted to see what was happening, and I think a lot of good things are
happening.
So, with that, if anybody would have a question?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry. Steve Witkoff's trip to Moscow, you spoke about it. What sort of agreement do you hope he comes away from there with?
TRUMP: Well, we'd like to see a ceasefire from Russia. And we have, you know, not been working in the dark. We've been discussing with Ukraine land
and pieces of land that would be kept and lost and all of the other elements of a final agreement. There's a power plant involved, you know, a
very big power plant involved. Who's going to get the power plant and who's going to get this and that? And so, you know, it's, not an easy process.
But phase one is the ceasefire. A lot of the individual subjects have been discussed though. You know, we've been discussing concepts of land because
you don't want to waste time with the ceasefire if it's not going to mean anything. So, we're saying, look, this is what you can get. This is what
you can't get.
They discussed NATO and being in NATO, and everybody knows what the answer to that is. They've known that answer for 40 years, in all fairness.
[13:40:00]
So, a lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed. Now, we're going to see whether or not Russia is there. And if they're not,
it'll be a very disappointing moment for the world. Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vladimir Putin just said he is open to a ceasefire, but he does still have some concerns. He suggested that you two should
speak directly. Do you have plans to speak to him soon? If so, are you confident you can get this across the table?
TRUMP: Sure. He did say that today. It was a very promising statement, because other people are saying different things, and you don't know if
they have anything to really -- if they have any meaning or I don't know. I think some of them were making statements. I don't think they have anything
to do with it.
No, he put out a very promising statement, but it wasn't complete. And yes, I'd love to meet with him or talk to him. But we have to get it over with
fast. You know, every day people are being killed. It's not like -- as we sit here, two people will be killed. Think of it. Two people are going to
be killed during this little period of time. Thousands of people a week are dying. So, we really don't have very much time. We have to make this fast.
It shouldn't be very complicated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, a representative of Canada, the finance minister, are in town and will meet members of your administration during
the day. Any chances that you will ban on the tariffs on aluminum and the ones that are planned for April 2nd?
TRUMP: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are not going to change your mind?
TRUMP: No, I'm not. Look, we've been ripped off for years and we're not going to be ripped off anymore. No, I'm not going to bend at all. Aluminum
or steel or cars. We're not going to bend. We've been ripped off as a country for many, many years. We've been subjected to costs that we
shouldn't be subjected to.
In the case of Canada, we're spending $200 billion a year to subsidize Canada. I love Canada. I love the people of Canada. I love -- I have many
friends in Canada. The great one, Wayne Gretzky, the great. Hey, how good is Wayne Gretzky? He's the great one. But we have -- I know many people
from Canada that are good friends of mine.
But, you know, the United States can't subsidize a country for $200 billion a year. We don't need their cars. We don't need their energy. We don't need
their lumber. We don't need anything that they give. We do it because we want to be helpful. But it comes a point when you just can't do that. You
have to run your own country.
And to be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. It doesn't -- we don't need anything they have. As a state, it would be one of the great
states anyway. This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it, between
Canada and the U.S. Just a straight artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago. And it makes no sense.
It's so perfect as a great and cherished state. Keeping "O Canada," the national anthem. I love it. I think it's great. Keep it. But it'll be for
the state. One of our greatest states. Maybe our greatest state. But why should we subsidize another country for $200 billion? Of course, there's
$200 billion dollars a year.
And again, we don't need their lumber. We don't need their energy. We have more than they do. We don't need anything. We don't need their cars. I'd
much rather make their cars here. And there's not a thing that we need.
Now, there'll be a little disruption, but it won't be very long. But they need us, we really don't need them. I -- and we have to do this, I'm sorry,
we have to do this. Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President.
TRUMP: Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have made it very clear that NATO needs to step up, although great progress has been made in the first mandate. How do you
envision this new transatlantic?
TRUMP: You're talking about NATO stepping up?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
TRUMP: Well, NATO is stepping up for this man. This man is a man that only knows how to step up. And we have the same goal in mind. We want the war
ended. And he's doing his job. He only knows how to do a good job. That's one thing. That's why I fought for him to get that job. Because they had
some other candidates that I'll tell you would not have done a very good job.
RUTTE: I need this part of the movie for my family.
TRUMP: So, we're going to -- we'll get you a clip. We're going to get him a clip of that little last statement. The rest of the statements he doesn't
care about.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, how does this new transatlantic cooperation -- how do you envision it?
TRUMP: Well, we have -- that's one thing. I mean, you know, we're on the other side of the ocean. And they're right there. And yet, we're in for
$350 billion because of Biden, and they're in for $100 billion. So, it's a big difference. And it's unfair. And I said, you have to equalize. They
should equalize. They should have. It should have never happened where Biden just gave this money away.
[13:45:00]
Now, as you know, we're -- we have an agreement with Ukraine on the rare earths and other things. And that'll get us something back, a lot back.
It'll get us our money back. We're not doing it for that, though we're doing -- I'm just doing this to get the worst up. I'm doing it really to
save lives.
But at the same time, we were treated very unfairly, as we always are by every country. And we're in for very substantially more than the European
nations are in for and that shouldn't be. You know, they're much more affected by it than we are because we do have an ocean in between.
But I don't know. I think good things are going to happen. I really do. I think good things are going to happen. I do say, we were talking before and
Mark was very nice. He said, if you were to get involved, there would be no -- you'd just be going on. This thing would have gone on for a long time.
RUTTE: Breaking the deadlock. It was crucial.
TRUMP: Yes, we broke a deadlock. We did break a deadlock. I hope it's meaningful.
RUTTE: Yes.
TRUMP: Yes, did you have one? Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Amanda Head with Just The News. On the southern border, you've got DHS and ICE who are
reporting that there was a little bit of fudging of numbers during the Biden administration on both the catch and the release side with respect to
reporting the number of illegals coming into the country.
TRUMP: They cheated on the numbers. They were -- the numbers were -- I love that question. Who are you with?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just The News, Amanda Head.
TRUMP: Very nice. That's good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know how many of those are criminal illegal aliens? And Biden's out of office. Alejandro Mayorkas. Who could tell the
difference?
TRUMP: No, Biden fudged the numbers. The numbers were totally fake. And he gave fake numbers. I knew they were fake. Everybody knew they were fake.
But now it came out. And terrible what they did. That administration was a horror show for this country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you hold anyone accountable?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know. They gave phony numbers. And phony numbers are a very bad thing to give. But I'm not sure about that. I don't know how it
would play. We want to get it straightened out. We have -- we're after many, many bad people that were let into our country. And Kristi Noem and
my friend, Homan -- How good is Tom Holman doing, right? And they're after him, and they can't -- I mean, you see they're taking him out in record
numbers. Gang members, gang leaders, drug dealers. This is a problem the Netherlands does not have. The Netherlands never had this problem. If you'd
like to take a look.
RUTTE: A (INAUDIBLE).
TRUMP: I can deliver some people. I can deliver some nice people to the Netherlands, if you'd like.
RUTTE: I'm not sure.
TRUMP: No, what he did to this country, letting 21 million people flow through an open border, many of those people were hard criminals from
prisons and jails, from mental institutions. And I always say insane asylums because they were seriously deranged. And they're here from not
south America from all over the world from South America, but from all over the world. And it's so sad. You'd say, why would anybody do this? Why? Yes,
go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And one more. There's some new internal Democrat polling that doesn't look great for Democrats, but it also has 54 percent
unfavorability for Republicans in swing states and battlegrounds for the midterms. Do you consider those voters capturable for Republicans?
TRUMP: Yes, well, we did -- you know, I won every swing state, as you know, by a lot. And I won the popular vote by a lot. And we won the
counties. If you look at the counties and districts plan. We had 2,725 and they had 501. That's a real. That's why the map is all red. So, we had a
great thing.
Yes, I think winning from the Democrats, I saw -- if you look the other night, I made a speech and I introduced two young ladies who were killed,
two killed viciously, violently killed people, young, unbelievable, both outstanding people, they were killed by illegal aliens. And the Democrats
wouldn't get up and applaud. The mothers were, I mean, inconsolable. They were crying and everybody was crying. The Democrats sat there with stone
faces. They didn't clap. They didn't stand. They didn't do anything.
We had a young man with very serious cancer. Wanted to -- his dream is to be with the police department someday. And he was introduced. They didn't
even clap. I mean, they were disgusting, frankly. They were disgusting. There's something wrong with them. They're deranged. They're deranged, like
Jack Smith. They're deranged people.
And I never saw anything like it. I'm standing up when I introduce the mother and the parents of these two young girls that we just recently or
essentially killed, violently killed, and the Democrats are like this. It's so sad.
And I saw this morning, one of them is pretty well known, one is arguing fighting like crazy over men being able to play in women's sports. I said,
yes, I thought that was tried. I thought that was about a 95 -- I think it's a 95 percent issue.
[13:50:00]
But in a way, I want them to keep doing it because I don't think they can win a race. I mean, and I tell them, Republicans, I said, don't bring that
subject up because there's no election right now. But about a week before the election, bring it up because you can't lose. And everything's
transgender this, transgender that. You know, it's -- they have bad politics.
But one thing they stick together, you know, I wish -- and the Republicans stick together mostly, but we have a couple that are grandstanders. You
know, you always have grandstanders in life. But the Democrats, they don't seem -- they have grandstanders, but when it comes to a vote, they do stick
together, right? So --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It seems like they'll stick together on the shutdown. Will that hurt Democrats going into midterms?
TRUMP: Well, if they do a shutdown, and ultimately, that might lead to very, very high taxes, because we're talking about a shutdown, we're
talking about getting to work immediately on the greatest tax bill ever passed. That was the one we did. It's a renewal, and it's an addition to
it. And we're going to cut people's taxes.
And if the -- if we don't open, the Democrats are stopping all of these good things that we're providing we're providing the greatest package of
benefits that this country has ever provided. The biggest part of that is going to be tax cuts for the middle class, and for businesses, small
businesses, employers, people that hire people in jobs. And if it's shut down -- it's only going to be -- if there's a shutdown, it's only because
of the Democrats, and they would really be taking away a lot from our country, and from the people of our country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, on tariffs, you made clear you're not backing down from this, but many American small business owners say they
are concerned that these tariffs are going to hurt them. What's your message to them?
TRUMP: They're going to be so much richer than they are right now. And we have many yesterday, General Motors was in, they want to invest $60
billion. The people from Facebook were in yesterday. They're going to invest $60 billion by the end of the year. Other people are talking about
numbers. Apple, as you know, a few days ago, announced $500 billion investment. They're going to build their plants in the United States,
which, as you know, almost all of their plants are in China. Now, they're building in the United States.
Nobody -- I was -- look, the reason is two things. Number one, the election, November 5th. And the other thing is tariffs, I think probably in
that order. But Tim Cook came in and he announced a $500, think of it, $500 billion, not million. $500 million is a lot when you think about it, right?
So, I would have been happy with $500 million, but it's a $500 billion dollar investment by Apple in the United States.
And that's because of the election result and it's because of the tariffs and the tax incentives too. You know, tariffs and tax incentives. And I've
never seen anything like it. We have plants going up now in Indiana. We have plants going up in Michigan, a lot of plants going to be planned for -
- I'm trying to steer them to Michigan because Michigan got so badly beaten by, you know, what happened with Europe.
You know, if you look at Europe, take a look at the E.U. We're not allowed to sell cars there, it's prohibitive because of their policies. And also,
their non-monetary tariffs, that's -- they put obstacles in your way that you can do nothing about. But if you take a look at what happened.
So, we sell no cars to Europe. I mean, virtually no cars, and they sell millions of cars to us. They don't take our agriculture. We take their AG.
It's like a one-way street with them. The European Union is very, very nasty. They sue our companies. Apple was forced to pay $16 billion on a
case that like very much like my cases that I want, they shouldn't have been even cases, but we felt they had no case and they ended up having an
extremely favorable judge and decision.
But they're suing Google, they're suing Facebook, they're suing all of these companies and they're taking billions of dollars out of American
companies, many more than the ones I just mentioned. And I guess they're using it to run Europe or something. I don't know what they're using it
for. They treat us very badly. China obviously treats us very badly. Almost everybody does.
And I blame past presidents, to be honest. Because when I was president I - - we received so far about $700 billion from China over the years on the tariffs that I put in. No other president got 10 cents from China. And that
was only beginning, except for COVID. It would have -- I would have been able to finish the process. But we had to fight the COVID thing and we did
really well with it, but we had to fight.
And then, we had actually -- as you remember, Mark, we actually handed over the stock market. It was higher than just previous to COVID coming in,
which was sort of a miracle, frankly. We did a good job. But the tariffs are very important.
[13:55:00]
And I think the psychology, there's great spirit. When Mark came in, he said, Congratulations. There's a whole new spirit. There's a whole new
light over this country and really over the world because you have somebody that -- a whole group of people, really, because I talk about this whole
group that we know what we're doing and a lot of great things are happening.
But I've never seen investment like this. Trillions of dollars is being invested in the United States now that would have never -- our country
could have failed. Another four years of this, what happened in the last four years, our country would have been a crime ridden mess. And I don't
know if you noticed little thing, they call it, but it's not a little thing if you don't have -- if you like eggs and you don't have a lot of money.
Eggs have gone down 25 percent in the last couple of weeks. We inherited that problem, eggs. Groceries have gone down a little bit. Energy's gone
down.
Do you want to speak to that for a second, Governor? Would you just say a couple of words, you know, Chris, about energy, what's happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, happy to. But I think that Chris and I just came from CERAWeek, which is the largest conference in the world. So, global
leaders, people from the E.U., officials from all the energy producing countries all there, and all the global nationals, all the U.S. The spirit
of that group is through the roof because now they realize that in the United States that President Trump's policies are pro-developing more
energy as opposed to we're trying to shut down energy and that pro-growth, pro-business, pro-energy approach is giving people the optimism so then the
markets are reacting to that and energy prices on the futures market are going to go down because people know we're not going to be killing off the
energy we need for prosperity in all of our countries but also, for peace.
Because people have used energy to fuel these wars that President Trump is working so hard to end and we know that energy -- high energy prices were
driving the inflation that he talked about. So, it accomplishes two goals for us, which is prosperity for the world, peace for the world, when we
have smart energy policies, and President Trump has brought common sense back to how we think about energy.
TRUMP: And it's brought down now 65 a barrel, I saw this morning. That's phenomenal news, and that's going to bring -- that's what brought it up.
The energy went -- they took our beautiful energy policies, and they just messed them up. And then they went immediately back to them, because -- but
by that time, they lost it. They lost that Bronco, as the expression goes.
Chris, do you have something to say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I think Doug said it well. But you just can't overstate how important the return of common sense, the return of knowledge
about energy and pro-American consumers, pro-investment in our country. I think globally that was welcomed. It means capital flows, it means more
sobriety and lower energy prices, more economic opportunity for Americans. So, yes, it was -- it laid an atmosphere at a global energy conference.
TRUMP: Well, we're working on one project. It should be very easy. It's a pipeline going through a small section of New York. New York's held it up
for years, actually, for years. They wanted to do it for years and years. And it will reduce the most expensive energy almost in the world, is in New
England. Because they have no way of getting it there, because it's been held up by New York. And the whole of New England and Connecticut and New
York, the energy prices are through the roof.
And this one pipeline will save for -- per family, $2,500 just on heating and another $2,500 on everything else. So, the energy, by just a simple
pipeline going through an area that wants it, an area that's not a rich area. It's actually a very poor area. It would create jobs and everything
else. And it's going to be way underground. Nobody's going to see it. Once they fill it up, nobody's going to see it. Nobody's going to know it's
there.
And families in New York and Connecticut and New England are going to save $5,000 a family. Think of that. Because right now they have the highest
energy prices, maybe in the world, they say. New England is a disaster. So, we're working on that.
In fact, the governor's coming in, governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, who's a very nice woman. She's coming in tomorrow morning at 9:00 to meet
me on that, and other things, not only that, but other things. So, I hope we don't have to use the extraordinary powers of the federal government to
get it done. But, if we have to, we will. But I don't think we'll have to.
I can tell you, Connecticut wants it, and all of New England wants it. And who wouldn't want it? And it's also jobs on top of everything else. So,
that's going to be very exciting. So, we're meeting with the governor tomorrow morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Greenland. What is your vision for the potential annexation of Greenland and getting them
potentially --
TRUMP: Well, I think it'll happen. And I'm just thinking -- I didn't give it much thought before, but I'm sitting with a man that could be very
instrumental. You know, Mark, we need that for international security, not just security, international. We have a lot of our favorite --
[14:00:00]
END
