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Trump And Netanyahu In Talks Now, Expected To Take Questions Soon; Agents Sue As FBI Turns Over Details On Jan. 6 Probe Employees; Two Of Trump's Controversial Cabinet Nominees Clear Key Hurdles; Trump And Netanyahu Speak After Talks At The White House. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired February 04, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news, President Trump is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House after declaring that Palestinians, quote, have no alternative other than to leave Gaza, that is leave their home. We're standing by for the president and prime minister to take questions from reporters right there in the White House at any moment.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm Jim Sciutto, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

The breaking news, President Trump's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underway right now at the White House.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is in the East Room of the White House where we do expect to see those leaders meet and take questions a short time from now.

And, Kaitlan, President Trump said, and he said it more than once in the last hour, that Gazans would be thrilled to leave Gaza, that they don't have an option but to leave their home. Is he serious about forcing Palestinians from Gaza?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, when you listen to the president, and he did make these comments on multiple different occasions today before the Israeli prime minister arrived here at the White House and even after he arrived when they were there together in the Oval Office, the first time that President Trump has hosted a world leader, I should note, since he retook office just a few weeks ago, but twice he repeated that effort.

But, Jim, the way he's framing it is essentially from a humanitarian perspective, saying that his aides, including Steve Witkoff, his envoy, have been to Gaza. They've seen the destruction and the level there and talking about how long it is going to take to rebuild that. If that effort started tomorrow, it'd take 10 to 15 years, was the number that President Trump and his national security aides were putting on that. And essentially saying that it would take so long that that, as the president was framing it earlier, arguing that the Palestinians would be better to be moved to a different place and have construction built there for them to live in. Now, he has previously suggested Egypt and Jordan, both which swiftly rejected the idea of housing any Gazans in their countries until Gaza could be rebuilt. And the president was asked about that on several occasions today. But what he is essentially suggesting is permanently moving Palestinians out of Gaza, moving them to somewhere else. He said that there are multiple pieces of land that he declined to say which country it was exactly that he was talking about, and essentially having them live elsewhere.

Now, as you noted, Jim, that is an explosive suggestion, certainly in the region, even if the president is framing it from a more humanitarian perspective as he was earlier today. And, certainly, there's going to be a lot of questions for this press conference here that we are expecting President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, where they are going to take two questions from each side, two from the Israeli press, which are seated over here to my right, and two from the American press, which are seated right here on that very notion.

Here's part of why it's explosive, Jim, for people who are watching and listening to this, is there are far right members of Netanyahu's government who have suggested that Palestinians should not live in Gaza, that that should be an area used to resettle Jewish people.

And so there are a lot of questions on what that is going to be, because, really, this is a very high stakes meeting between Trump and Netanyahu, questions about what is going to happen next in Gaza, the day after the war, a question that has remained unsettled for 16 months now, and, of course, now is at the forefront given they are in phase one of this ceasefire deal and now moving to phase two, where that is a big question if this ceasefire remains permanent or not and if Israel withdrawals all of its troops from Gaza. These are the big questions that we are waiting to hear.

I will note that earlier when we were hearing from President Trump as he was taking questions from reporters, he said that he was really here to listen to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on what he believes the path forward is going to look like. We've heard a lot of talk about this. Phase one was negotiated when President Biden was still in office, though, certainly with the help of President Trump's incoming aides. But now phase two is going to happen on his watch.

And it is a very precarious situation in the Middle East. Trump ultimately wants to get all of the hostages home and to bring this war to an end and also to potentially see a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia and Israel. Those are all really big things that are looming over this, Jim, in addition to that question of that repeated comment that we heard from Trump about what is the future of Gaza and where Palestinians live going forward.

[18:05:08]

SCIUTTO: Listen, and it's explosive to the Palestinians and to others in the region because it reeks of forced relocation. And the history of forced relocation in that region is not a pleasant one. We should note, Jordan already has 2.3 million Palestinian refugees, greater than half its population, as a result of previous conflict.

Kaitlan Collins there at the White House.

Now to Tel Aviv, CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, I wonder what the Israeli prime minister is hoping to get from this meeting. It's quite an honor to be the first foreign leader that the new president meets with, and that is Benjamin Netanyahu.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think he certainly already got quite a bit of what he was looking for in that Oval Office spray. As you saw, the Israeli prime minister smiling very broadly as President Trump was essentially parroting talking points straight out of a right wing Israeli playbook.

And that is because the Israeli prime minister is allied with many of those far right politicians in Israel who have been pushing for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza for quite some time in order to try and establish Jewish Israeli settlements inside of the Gaza Strip. And to have President Trump now pushing for that certainly gives the Israeli prime minister a lot to work with politically inside of Israel.

I do think it is important to note that as President Trump is talking about, you know, Gazans not wanting to live there, that they would surely be happy to live anywhere else, you know, that might sound like common sense if you're not aware of the intricacies of the conflict or of Palestinians deep connection to their land.

But we have witnessed over the course of the last few weeks hundreds of thousands of Palestinians making the journey back to Northern Gaza to live in homes, even though they knew that the destruction was so enormous there that many of their homes had been reduced to rubble and so many Palestinians who we have talked to in recent weeks who have, you know, in response to President Trump raising this idea of displacement over the course of the last couple of weeks, they have all said even amid the war, even amid the misery, even amid the destruction, we want to remain on our land.

And it's also important to note that that is why countries like Jordan and Egypt have so far refused to do so. First of all, they fear stability concerns with bringing in so many refugees at one time. But beyond that, of course, there is also the internal politics in their countries and that taking Palestinians out of Gaza perhaps forever would effectively be giving up on the Palestinian cause, at least inside of the Gaza Strip.

But beyond that, of course, Jim, the Israeli prime minister is indeed looking to address other issues, like Iran, seeing if Trump will support striking Iranian nuclear facilities. And then, of course, there is this big looming potential deal of Saudi-Israel normalization. Jim?

SCIUTTO: And, of course, the other fear is that temporary refuge becomes permanent refuge, which, again, I mean, you have multigenerational refugee camps in countries around Israel.

Thanks so much to Jeremy Diamond.

While we wait to hear from the President and the Prime Minister of the White House, we're joined by a panel of experts. Aaron David Miller, if I could begin with you, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan made his feelings quite clear on this. He said, Jordan is for Jordanians, Palestine is for Palestinians. In the decades of Middle East diplomacy that you've been involved in, can you explain exactly why this would be explosive for a U.S. president to support the movement of an entire population?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: Well, from a human rights perspective, obviously forced transfer even the president's willful commitment to basically pressure Jordan or Egypt to accept Palestinian refugees is all wrong. The president is thinking with the mindset of an opportunistic real estate developer.

For Sisi and Abdullah, and the king is due here next week, they're thinking in terms of existential. It's not a real estate deal for them. It's not even a humanitarian issue for them. It's an existential issue. Hamas is the extension of the Muslim brotherhood. Geography is destiny. Egypt has a core interest. And for Jordan, more than half of the population, Palestinian stability, the Ashramite kingdom at stake.

And, again, Jeremy I think broke the code here. It would be recognition that the Palestinian problem is essentially resolved. And that's not politically acceptable, even while Arab states have, in many instances, undermine Palestinian interests, particularly Jordan and Egypt.

SCIUTTO: Yes, well, they're worried about their own internal stability.

Dana, you've been speaking to people close to President Trump who have their own reservations about this proposal.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, there's a couple of things. One is a theory from somebody I talked to who has been involved in these issues and certainly is an ally of President Trump who has said that one potential theory is that something along the lines of what you wrote a book about, Jim, the Madman Theory, which is that perhaps what President Trump is doing is putting out there the most outlandish idea in the hopes that, as a negotiator, in the hope, which we've seen him do many times on many different issues, in the hopes that it can get the Arab states to -- including Saudi, to a place where they will help -- and even Israel, where they will help with some form of a two-state solution, even though that term, two-state solution, is very toxic inside Israel right now.

Having said that, there are so many concerns with this, first of all, that this is not necessarily the way that the Arab world works, that they are hearing what you just said, what Jeremy was just saying, which is like, are you kidding me? And there is a concern reverberating here in Washington that the Arab nations could get so upset about this that they could punish Israel and the United States, more importantly, Israel by at least freezing or suspending the Abraham Accords and their relations with that.

And the other concern we heard about Jeremy talking about, Iran, is that the country that might be the happiest right now in hearing what President Trump just said, is Iran. Because what this has done, whether it's tactics or not, in the short-term, is throwing turmoil into all of these discussions, including and especially the ultimate goal that Netanyahu has, which is relations and normalization with Saudi Arabia.

SCIUTTO: And that, of course, is a dream of President Trump's as well. He envisions the possibility of a Nobel Peace Prize if he would have been able to bring that across the finish line.

Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director with Human Rights Watch, is with us as well. Omar, when pressed on this issue in the Oval Office earlier, when a reporter asked him, are you talking about forced migration here, he said President Trump said, well, they'd be, in his words, thrilled to move to another place. Would the Palestinian people be thrilled to move out of Gaza to, well, Jordan or Egypt, if that's what the president is suggesting?

OMAR SHAKIR, ISRAEL AND PALESTINE DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: The answer, Jim, is clearly no. And the Palestinians voted with their feet. The first time Palestinians that have largely been displaced in Southern Gaza were given the chance to return to northern Gaza, as Jeremy pointed out, hundreds of thousands on their feet, young and old, took to go back to Northern Gaza. And that's despite -- and this is where Trump is right, a majority of Gaza has been destroyed. Water has been deliberately cut off. Electricity has been deliberately cut off, but people still took to return to their homes, many building tents in the rubble of their own homes.

But, Jim, what hasn't been noted is this is not some accident. This was a calculated policy, and Prime Minister Netanyahu was the architect of that policy. He, on October 7th, 2023 said, we will turn Gaza into a city of ruin. They, as Human Rights Watch has documented, deliberately cut water and electricity. They deliberately attacked water infrastructure. They've razed agricultural land. They've carried out wanton deliberate demolitions. They've destroyed the majority of homes, of schools, of hospitals. They have intentionally rendered Gaza unlivable.

And what is critical to underscore here is forcible displacement is against international law. It can be a war crime and a crime against humanity when committed as state policy and with intent. And that's what the Israeli government has done. Netanyahu has been indicted by the International Criminal Court. The obligation of states should have been to arrest him, not to entertain an alarming escalation, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. And that's precisely what the U.S. president is doing.

And all of this rhetoric, and this is a population that's been displaced, as you noted, multiple times over, many in 1948, many again in 1967, many multiple times since 2023. It's very clear that Palestinians do not want to be displaced and that they want to return to their homes, not just in Gaza, but the homes they were kicked out of inside Israel in 1948.

SCIUTTO: I spoke to an Arab diplomat earlier today who used the phrase, ethnic cleansing. It's on the lips of some watching this play out.

Before we go, Dana?

BASH: No, I just want to add he's absolutely right about what we have seen in Gaza. But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that it's a war. And it is a war that in most recent times began when the Hamas terrorists went in and attacked and killed more than a thousand civilians and then, yes, a very angry, very upset Israeli government, worried about an existential threat to their people, went out and went out in a big, big way.

And the one thing I will also say just real quick, because I spend most of my life covering domestic politics, that is just -- I can't stop thinking about right now, which is that there were so many people in Michigan and other places who were so upset about the Biden policy when it comes to the Middle East, that they didn't go out and vote for Kamala Harris.

[18:15:22]

And this is so much more strident, it doesn't even come close to what we saw from Biden.

SCIUTTO: Exactly, that had been the concern. Some had said, be careful what you wish for.

Dana Bash, Aaron, Omar, standby. We're going to take you live to the White House once that joint news conference between Trump and Netanyahu begins.

First, however, FBI agents are now suing the Department of Justice amid President Trump's bid to purge the Bureau of anyone who worked on January 6th investigations. There are thousands of them.

You're in The Situation Room.

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[18:20:00]

Breaking news, we are standing by for President Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. They're in the East Room at the White House to take questions after their meeting. We're going to bring you that as soon as it begins.

However, also breaking this afternoon, several FBI agents have just filed suit against the U.S. Justice Department as officials turn over personal information about thousands of employees who worked on investigations related to January 6th.

Our legal and political experts are joining me now. Good to have you all here this evening. Elliot, if -- Bryan Lanza, if I could begin with you, this is anyone who worked on, not just the classified documents investigation, but also the violence assault on the Capitol, which as you know, included violent, violence against police officers. Many of these are career agents who were following their boss's orders to complete these investigations, which were based on warrants and later grand jury indictments. Why should they be punished right now?

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Well, first of all, thank you for having me. I think part of the review is going to be that their homes were raided. Some charges were ultimately reversed by the courts. There is a view that the Justice Department, some of these FBI agents sort of stretched their power to try to engulf more and sort of bring a bunch of charges on that wouldn't have existed if it had been anybody else in these circumstances.

SCIUTTO: But the thing is they're going after literally anyone involved. There's no judgment here about going after, say, violence against cops, or breaking windows at the Capitol. They're just saying anybody involved, I want the list.

LANZA: I mean, they're doing a review. I mean, they're doing a review. There's certainly been court cases that showed that these things, that these charges have been overturned. So, the question is, did the FBI sort of exceed their boundaries? Did they go too far? It feels to me that the American public want a review. And then we're going to get it. And I think that's a good thing. We always want to have checks and balances when it comes to the actions of the FBI. It's not like they've had a clean history in American history, right?

SCIUTTO: Elliot Williams, does the Justice Department have the legal authority to fire these agents?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, we're talking about career officials that are subject to a wave of civil service protections. And, you know, to push back on this notion that because the president of the United States is the head of the executive branch and the FBI is within the executive branch, that somehow the president maintains the authority to start reaching down into law enforcement agencies and firing people, that flies in the face, Jim, of five decades of history going back to Watergate, this idea -- this separation between the White House and all federal law enforcement, not just the FBI.

And so it is simply not the case that the mere fact that FBI agents work for the government and the president somehow subjects them to being terminated. It's just not accurate.

SCIUTTO: Ashley, there are agents who said to me privately. This is a busy threat environment for the FBI today, including terror threats. And you now have the agency kind of eating its own, as it were, as it goes through this process here. Are Democrats doing enough to make the case that this purge is a national security issue?

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the challenge is that so much is coming at Democrats right now. I mean, we're about to have a press conference with Trump and Netanyahu. We don't know what he's going to say there. He's already said some problematic things in the Oval Office right before this press conference.

Elon Musk is in treasury right now, having access to millions of Americans' data. We don't know what's going on there. We're having confirmation hearings come out with problematic folks who don't have full FBI background checks and people moving out of committee that have real threats to national security. And then we have the president of the United States going and going and attacking FBI agents because he's mad, because he's mad that they did their job and investigated an attack on our Capitol.

So, we do need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. And we talked a lot during this election. It might not have resonated with voters, because this is why Donald Trump is president. But this is the attack on democracy that we're talking about, is when you turn colleague against colleague because they did their job.

And we aren't even talking about, you know, Jack Smith or Christopher Wray. We're talking about agents that get an assignment and go do their job. And so the question is, does this undermine the work that other FBI agents would do that they would be afraid that they have retribution if the president doesn't like it.

SCIUTTO: And, listen, you're talking about years and in some cases decades of experience in highly specialized areas. Are you worried, Bryan, about that being an unattended consequence of this, right, that the agents, the agency takes its eye off the ball on current threats?

LANZA: What I'm worried about is accountability, right? I think the question has become that voters have paid attention to and the Trump administration is saying is something took place with respect to the investigation. They went too far. They've had courts come back and slap them back on the things that they've done. That is fair for review. And if that review means that some FBI agents sort of get dismissed, reassigned, because they went too far, they may have violated people's civil rights in trying to have this broad approach, I think that's a fair review that the American people want.

[18:25:03]

We want to be safe more than anything else. We want to make sure that our threats are from abroad are challenged. We want to make sure those threats aren't from within. And certainly some people in this process felt that those threats were within the FBI and that they extended their jurisdiction, and these are the consequences of those decisions.

SCIUTTO: All right, everybody stand by. Certainly more questions to follow.

Coming up, a live report from Capitol Hill as two more of President Trump's most controversial cabinet nominees face key votes in the Senate. We're going to speak to a lawmaker who is part of one of those committee votes today, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, he's going to be here live.

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[18:30:00]

SCIUTTO: There is breaking news on Capitol Hill tonight as we watch live pictures from the White House where the President and the Israeli prime minister will be speaking shortly. Today on Capitol Hill, two of President Trump's most controversial cabinet picks have now cleared key committee hurdles and are heading to final confirmation votes, Tulsi Gabbard, nominee for director of National Intelligence, and Robert Kennedy Jr., nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Joining us now is Senator Martin Heinrich. He's a Democrat who serves on the Intelligence Committee, voted today against Tulsi Gabbard's nomination. Senator, thanks so much for taking the time.

SEN. MARTIN HEINRICH (D-NM): Great to be here.

SCIUTTO: You voted against her, calling her, quote, a national security risk. Why?

HEINRICH: One, there's the issue of whether she's qualified, but much more weighing on my mind than that is the issue of judgment. And if you look at some of her actions, especially her travel in the Middle East with your background, you know, that generally when we travel to places like that, as members of Congress, we go with the State Department. Every meeting is carefully vetted. That is not what this was. I mean, she was traveling with financed at the time by a donor of another member of Congress, met with the Grand Mufti of Syria, who had threatened suicide bombers against the United States, met with Bashar al-Assad. My goodness, like I can't imagine a more off-script foreign policy trip.

And if that's how you roll, and you're going to be in charge of all of coordinating all of these intel agencies, and you don't accept the information that comes from those agencies on a regular basis, it just makes no sense to me.

SCIUTTO: She said Bashar al-Assad's Syria was not an enemy of the United States, very much contradicting the bipartisan U.S. view of the Syrian dictator.

RFK Jr.'s nomination to head HHS advanced. We heard from several GOP senators today say they've been assured Kennedy is not anti-vaccine. But just before the vote, we noted Trump posted this quote. 20 years ago, autism in children was 1 in 10, 000. Now it's 1 in 34. Wow, something really wrong. We need Bobby.

I don't have to tell you that that feeds, at least, a position that's not based on the science. How dangerous is that for this country given how vital vaccines are?

HEINRICH: Look, I'm actually kind of a health food person, and so some of the things that RFK Jr. has said in the past on the front of high quality food, I can relate to. But the science of this vaccination denial is not only unscientific and irresponsible, it basically makes every mother who's got an autistic kid question everything she ever did. It's deeply irresponsible. SCIUTTO: As we have the president about to speak alongside the Israeli prime minister now, earlier today, Trump said, as we reported earlier in the hour, that he would like to see the Palestinian people leave Gaza, go to Jordan and Egypt, which we should note, the leaders of Jordan and Egypt said they have no interest in doing so. What would that mean to you? Does that sound to you like a forced migration of people away from their home? Is that something that American presidents should be advocating for?

HEINRICH: I don't think it's our role to take people from land that they've inhabited and tell them what their future should be. I think our role should be trying to encourage a future for the Israelis that create security for them, for the Palestinians, that create some sovereignty and reconstruction and a life that's not under a terrorist organization. You know, this is a president who says outrageous things because he thinks it always will result in a deal. I'm not sure that works as well in the Middle East.

SCIUTTO: Another thing the president has been proposing, he responded to an offer from the president of El Salvador to take American citizens convicted of violent crimes and put them into a, what is quite a brutal prison in that country. CNN's done a story inside there. He was saying, quote, I would do it in a heartbeat. To some, that sounds like creating penal colonies for American citizens abroad and paying other countries to do so. Is that an acceptable thing for an American leader to do?

HEINRICH: No, but there, there are going to be many things that President Trump says that are outside the lines of the norms. And I think the thing that bothers me the most is that when you are willing to break the fundamentals of the Constitution, the fundamentals of law, like the Impoundment Act of 1974, and say that Congress doesn't matter, and go into whether it's USAID or Treasury, and start turning off the switches to individual programs, you can do that to American citizens.

[18:35:01]

If you can get away with that, you can say, I'm going to turn off this USAID program, you can say, this person is not going to get their Social Security, but this one is. And I'm going to make sure all my supporters get their Social Security, but you other folks, sorry, you voted for the wrong candidate.

SCIUTTO: Are you surprised that some of your Republican colleagues seem so willing to give up, it seems, Congress' congressional powers, whether that be the power of the purse in terms of previously allocated funding, or the power to end departments, whether that be the Department of Education, USAID? Are you surprised that they seem willing to just cede that power to the White House?

HEINRICH: They're not willing. They're scared. The amount of pressure that this administration has been able to put on members of Congress and up until now we're just seeing -- not seeing a lot of profiles in courage. SCIUTTO: How about from the Democratic point of view? Because there are Democrats who say, of their own party, that is, it has yet to come up with a unified approach to the Trump administration? The New York Times wrote today, quote. More than 50 interviews with Democratic leaders revealed a party that is struggling to define what it stands for, what issues to prioritize, and how to confront a Trump administration that is carrying out a right wing agenda with head spinning speed. Is that a fair criticism?

HEINRICH: I think that the Democratic Party needs to find its footing. And I think one of the things that we have to do is be strategic in all of this. Our constitutional principles are being tested. There's going to be a role for the courts in that battle. There's going to be a role for Congress in that battle. And there's going to be a role for the American people.

I do think we have to pick and choose our battles. And no one voted to have Elon Musk in charge of their personal data. No one voted to have him ransacking federal agencies that many of my constituents rely on for various things. That is where I think we need to really draw a contrast that, at least for my constituents, they voted for lower gas prices, they voted for cheaper eggs, they did not vote for this chaos.

SCIUTTO: Senator Martin Heinrich, we appreciate you taking the time this evening.

HEINRICH: Thank you very much.

SCIUTTO: Thank you so much.

Just ahead, how China is responding to President Trump's tariffs. Is the U.S. on the verge of an all-out trade war with one of its largest trading partners?

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[18:40:00]

SCIUTTO: Tonight, the United States and China could be on the verge of an all-out trade war as President Trump makes good on his promise to levy steep tariffs on one of the U.S.'s biggest trading partners.

Our Senior International Correspondent Will Ripley joins us now from Taiwan with the latest. Will, this is an enormous trading relationship. We're talking about potentially enormous costs here.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, already, these are bigger tariffs in effect than what we saw during the first Trump administration, and Beijing, they're fighting back hard. They're not just you know, having their own tariffs now, but they're also targeting U.S. tech. They're taking the fight to the World Trade Organization, and President Trump kind of brushing off these concerns, saying he's in no rush to speak with President Xi, saying the U.S. is going to be just fine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RIPLEY (voice over): The retaliation from China, fast and fierce. Just minutes after President Donald Trump's sweeping 10 percent China tariffs kicked in, Beijing fired its own economic salvo, a 15 percent tax on some U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas, a 10 percent tariff on American crude oil, cars, and farm equipment, new export restrictions on rare minerals vital for U.S. tech and defense.

RYAN PATEL, SENIOR FELLOW, DRUCKER SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY: When you're dealing with the Chinese government, you really are looking to try to find a way that nobody really looks bad.

RIPLEY: With tariffs piling up and both sides digging in, all eyes are now on a crucial upcoming call between President Trump and Chinese Leader Xi Jinping. That conversation could set the tone for whatever comes next, a last minute deal or a full blown trade war.

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Trump has shown himself, frankly, to be an unreliable partner. I'm not sure I'd want to invest in the United States right now if I were a foreign entity, given that these sorts of shenanigans can be on again, off again, according to the president's whim.

RIPLEY: China also announced it's going after Google, launching an antitrust investigation. Google's search engine is not available in China, but it does have limited operations there. The move signals Beijing's willingness to target major U.S. tech firms in its retaliation.

One wild card in Trump's China strategy, Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO has deep business ties in China. The Shanghai gigafactory produces a significant portion of Tesla's global output. His close relationship with the Chinese authorities could make him a pivotal figure in the unfolding trade tensions.

LEV NACHMAN, NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITY: Not only does Donald Trump think he is. I believe his wording was super genius, but we know that the PRC is also very invested in Elon Musk maintaining his business within China.

RIPLEY: China is also taking the fight to the World Trade Organization, accusing the U.S. of violating international trade rules. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce says trade and tariff wars have no winners.

Trump and Xi once shared what Trump called magical diplomatic moments, from their first meeting at Mar-a-Lago, to an unprecedented state visit to Beijing's Forbidden City. He's even called Xi brilliant.

TRUMP: I have a great respect for their president, as you know. President Xi.

RIPLEY: But now, Trump is ramping up economic pressure, still insisting he can strike a deal with Beijing, a fast-moving, high- stakes economic battle that may be just beginning.

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[18:45:04]

RIPLEY: President Trump announced these China tariffs when most of the nation was on vacation for the lunar New Year holiday. This is actually the first official day that Beijing goes back to work.

But obviously people got called in to try to come up with these retaliatory measures over their vacation, Jim. Maybe that's why they were so harsh. China signaling more retaliation, warning of additional countermeasures if the U.S. doesn't back down here. President Trump giving no sign that he is going to back down.

So, you know, the markets that are watching this and worried that this could blow up into a trade war, has a lot of people thinking that's a distinct possibility.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. Trade war breaking out in lunar New Year. That's -- yeah, that's going to spark some comments.

Will Ripley, thanks so much.

Coming up, the shell shocking decision today by one of America's most recognizable restaurant chains.

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[18:50:00]

SCIUTTO: We are waiting any moment now for President Trump and the Israeli prime minister. In fact, here they are, Trump and Netanyahu, following a lengthy meeting in the White House about to address the press.

Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much. That's a lot of press. Congratulations. You bring them out, you really bring them out.

Today, I'm delighted to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to the White House. It's a wonderful feeling and a wonderful event. We had fantastic talks.

And thank you very much with your staff. He's the first foreign head of state to visit during our administration. And, Bibi, I want to say it's an honor to have you with us.

Over the past four years, the U.S. and the Israeli alliance has been tested more than any time in history, but the bonds of friendship and affection between the American and Israeli people have endured for generations, and they are absolutely unbreakable. They are unbreakable.

I'm confident that under our leadership, the cherished alliance between our two countries will soon be stronger than ever. We had a great relationship. We had great victories together four years ago. Not so many victories over the past four years however.

In my first term, prime minister and I forged a tremendously successful partnership that brought peace and stability to the Middle East like it hadn't seen in decades. Together, we defeated ISIS. We ended the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, one of the worst deals ever made, by the way, and imposed the toughest ever sanctions on the Iranian regime.

We starved Hamas and Iran's other terrorist proxies, and we starved them like they had never seen before. Resources and support disappeared for them. I recognized Israel's capital, opened the American embassy in Jerusalem and got it built.

By the way, built it, too, just not only designated it, but got it built at a price that nobody's seen for 40 years. We got it built. It's beautiful, all Jerusalem stone right from nearby. And it was -- its something that's very special.

And recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, something that they talked about for 70 years, and they weren't able to get it. And I got it.

And with the historic Abraham Accords, something that was really an achievement, that was, I think, going to become more and more important because we achieved the most significant Middle East peace agreements in half a century. But the Abraham accords in particular, and I really believe that many countries will soon be joining this amazing peace and economic development transaction. It really is a big economic development transaction, and I think were going to have a lot of people signing up very quickly.

Unfortunately, for four years, nobody signed up. Nobody did anything for four years except in the negative. Unfortunately, the weakness and incompetence of those years, those past four years, the grave damage around the globe that was done, including in the Middle East, grave damage all over the globe.

The horrors of October 7th would never have happened if I were president. The Ukraine and Russia disaster would never have happened if I were president. Over the past 16 months, Israel has endured a sustained, aggressive and murderous assault on every front.

But they fought back bravely. You see that? And you know that what we have witnessed is an all out attack on the very existence of a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland. The Israelis have stood strong and united in the face of an enemy that has kidnapped, tortured, raped and slaughtered innocent men, women, children and even little babies.

I want to salute the Israeli people for meeting this trial with courage and determination and unflinching resolve. They have been strong in our meetings today, the prime minister and I focused on the future, discussing how we can work together to ensure Hamas is eliminated and ultimately restore peace to a very troubled region. It's been troubled, but what's happened in the last four years has not been good.

I want to thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for working closely with my transition team.

The special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who's here somewhere, Steve. Stand up. Steve, please. What a job you've done. What a good job you've done. I'm proud of you.

(APPLAUSE)

[18:55:02]

TRUMP: He's done a fantastic job.

National security adviser mike waltz, thank you, Mike, for working so well with us. Thank you.

We have, in addition, Marco Rubio, who is on the phone right now listening to every single word that we say. And he's going to be great.

And, Pete, congratulations. And, Scott, congratulations. I see you're here. And, Karoline's been doing a great job. She's really probably talked about more than anybody here. She's done a fantastic job.

And thank you very much, Karoline. We're proud of you.

But we'll only be satisfied when all of these problems are solved. And we have the team to solve them. And that's going to happen, and it's going to happen. I think very quickly. I also strongly believe that the Gaza Strip, which has been a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades and so bad for the people anywhere near it, and especially those who live there and frankly, who's been really very unlucky.

It's been very unlucky. It's been an unlucky place for a long time. Being in its presence just has not been good and it should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there.

Instead, we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction and frankly, bad luck.

This can be paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, 12. It could be numerous sites, or it could be one large site. But the people will be able to live in comfort and peace.

And we'll get sure -- we'll make sure something really spectacular is done. They're going to have peace. They're not going to be shot at and killed and destroyed like this civilization of wonderful people has had to endure.

The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative. It's right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down there living under fallen concrete. That's very dangerous and very precarious.

They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony instead of having to go back and do it again, the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.

Do a real job. Do something different. Just can't go back. If you go back, it's going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.

I'm hopeful that this cease fire could be the beginning of a larger and more enduring peace that will end the bloodshed and killing once and for all. With the same goal in mind, my administration has been moving quickly to restore trust in the alliance and rebuild American strength throughout the region. And we've really done that. We're a respected nation again.

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. We are actually a very respected nation. Again, I ended the last administrations de facto arms embargo on over $1 billion in military assistance for Israel. And I'm also pleased to announce that this afternoon, the United States withdrew from the antisemitic U.N. Human Rights Council and ended all of the support for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which funneled money to Hamas and which was very disloyal to humanity.

Today, I also took action to restore our maximum pressure policy on the Iranian regime, and we will once again enforce the most aggressive possible sanctions, drive Iranian oil exports to zero, and diminish the regimes capacity to fund terror throughout the region and throughout the world. We had no threat. When I left office, Iran was not able to sell oil.

Nobody was buying oil because I said, don't buy it. If you buy it, you're not doing any business with the United States. And Hamas was not being funded. Hezbollah was not being funded. Nobody was being funded.

There would never have been an October 7th. Two weeks ago, I once again designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization.

They're trying to destroy world shipping lanes and that's not going to happen. And over the weekend, I ordered airstrikes against senior ISIS leaders hiding in the caves of Somalia and took them out.

Here in America, we've begun the process of deporting foreign terrorists, jihadists and Hamas sympathizers from our soil, just as we have people that are extremely evil and we're sending them out of our country. They came from jails, they came from mental institutions and insane asylums, and they were dumped into our country. They're gang members, and were getting them out at numbers that nobody can actually believe.