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Trump Says Iran Wants to Meet "Desperately" to End War; Trump Says Canada Needs the U.S. to Survive; Trump Meets with Lebanese President at White House; House Dems Investigate if Epstein Acted as Foreign Agent. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 21, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: There's a reason for all this, but part of it was that people just wanted to pull together. This country, for like a four-week period, just pulled together. Really amazing. And I didn't want to say it before the final. I didn't want to say how well it was doing. I wanted to get the final up with because you never know. It only takes a bit.

But we just had the most successful World Cup in history. Did five times the business of any World Cup in history. And I can't wait to get him back, but I think we won't be able to get him for the next time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, do you feel safe here, especially with this upcoming, do you feel safe, especially considering the attempts on your life?

TRUMP: I feel safe. Why wouldn't I feel safe?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, I'm Pedro Ghani (ph) from Al Jazeera. Are you still speaking with Hezbollah? You said in previous interviews that you're speaking with Hezbollah.

TRUMP: I'll never say that, but I would speak to Hezbollah, yes. I speak to everybody. I'll speak to people that -- a lot of people think I shouldn't be speaking to and things work out. I would say this, if the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, you know, he's lived with Hezbollah for a long time. And if the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, I would.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. A follow up on Iran. If the Iranians do not make a deal, ultimately, how long will it take for you to stamp out their threats to the street and enable full shipping?

TRUMP: So, if we left right now, it would take around 20, 25 years to rebuild. OK. And we're not finished at all. But if we left right now, it would take them a long time, years, years to rebuild. But we're not leaving right now. So, we've had a big impact on Iran.

If we didn't do what I did with regard to two things, the Iran nuclear deal done by Barack Hussein Obama, I terminated that. If I didn't terminate it, you wouldn't have Israel right now because they would have had a nuclear weapon years ago. And if we didn't do the B-2 bombers knocking out the nuclear sites a year ago, one of the first things we did early in the administration, they would have a nuclear weapon and you wouldn't have Israel.

And in my opinion, you wouldn't have various other countries in the Middle East that all be gone. They would have been terminated, extinguished. But I believe that by doing what we did by terminating Iran, who's a very evil people leaving their country. You saw the number of protesters that they killed, 52,000 plus. I put a couple of them up today, young kids that kill them. They kill them like they're like they're candy. It's crazy what they do. They treat them so badly. They're just killing people just at random. Over 52,000 people and nobody talks about it.

But if I didn't do the attack on their nuclear sites or if I didn't terminate the Obama agreement with Iran, which was a absolute -- it was an absolute hit on having them get -- that was a road to a nuclear weapon. And our deal will be a wall. It already is. They can't have a nuclear weapon right now. It would take them years to produce it. And we will absolutely attack.

We -- you know, the new site that they're talking about. I mean, how about these people? They're in this because of nuclear weapons and they're trying to possibly reconstitute a site. We'll hit that site. Any site where they're even thinking about nuclear, we'll be hitting it very, very powerfully.

Now, nobody knows except the Iranians, the damage that we've done to them. We have done damage that will take them 20, 25 years to recover from. So, if we left tomorrow, we had a big, we had a big success, but we're not leaving tomorrow. Please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a bill right now that's being considered that would allow illegal aliens who are working in farming to get legal status. Do you support that legislation?

TRUMP: I don't know about it. I'll take a look at it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Canada tariffs. What are those? A response to the wildfires?

TRUMP: No, no, no. That's separate. We're looking at that separately.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what -- is there anything Canada can do?

TRUMP: It's only response to the way they've treated our farmers and our people. Yes. Canada has been very, very tough on us over the years. Oh, for many years. And no other president's done anything about it. I love Canada. I love the people of Canada. Many friends that live in Canada, but their leadership from Trudeau to the current leadership.

[11:35:00]

I mean, in all fairness to them, they need us to survive without us. There's no way they can survive. So, but they've been very, very tough over a period of the last 50 years actually.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tony Berot (ph), CITV from Lebanon. Do you still support Syria entering Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah?

TRUMP: You mean coming in and doing something with Hezbollah?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TRUMP: Well, it's a concept. You know, we get along very well with the president of Syria. He's done a very good job. I wouldn't be surprised if this gentleman is going to do a job just like that. He's done a very good job. He's pulled Syria together. He would like to come in and do something with Hezbollah. You know, they've been fighting, he's been fighting Hezbollah for a long time. I think it'd be very effective. So, it's something I think about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On tariffs you increased the tariffs on Canada yesterday. Can you say if you still expect to impose tariffs on the wildfire problem? And can you say when you might impose 301?

TRUMP: A lot of damage has been done. They're not managing their forests properly, and the wind has a tendency to blow right over New York City, right over. You saw Detroit that had closed the whole place. Michigan was really affected. They had to close businesses for four days. It's very serious what they're doing, and they don't seem to be able to do anything about it. If they managed their forests, they wouldn't have the fires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe that Iran is trying to impact the midterm elections by threatening the Strait of Hormuz?

TRUMP: They won't have any impact on me. I'm just going to do the right thing. I don't view it as, gee, we're having an election in a period of time. You know, everyone says, oh, I'm doing something before. No, the election, I can't think about that having to do with this. I think people are very impressed.

I mean, we took over Venezuela. We now have a great relationship with Venezuela. We went to war with Venezuela, and the war ended in one day. And we have now an incredible relationship with Venezuela. We're taking out millions of barrels of oil. They're making more money now than they ever made before, ever. And we're making a lot of money. We paid for the war many times over with Venezuela. We lost nobody. We lost nobody. We didn't lose one. And it was a violent attack.

As you know, we took out a man who was a very evil man. What he did was very evil, many, many, in many different ways. We took him out. But, you know, the Venezuelan, they said the same thing. When I did Venezuela, everyone said, because look at the drugs, look at look at what they did, where they took all of their prisons, they opened up their prisons, and they have everybody in a prison come in through Biden's absolutely insane open borders policy. And we did that in one day. Think of it. And now, we are working very closely with the administration. And we get along very well. Venezuela is a very happy place. They had a tragic incident with the, you know, with the event that took place a couple of days ago, a couple of weeks ago. What a terrible thing that was. They had a they had a movement, a shifting of earth. That was unbelievable. Nobody's ever they've never seen anything like it. A lot of people were killed. So, it's all unrelated. But by the way, we were the first ones there to help. We were there to help Venezuela. It was an earthquake. I guess you'd call it was a pretty massive earthquake. And we were able to do a lot of good. But they lost a lot of people.

Venezuela, the people are so happy that we're there. The jobs, everything's happening. And we're taking out many, many times the money that we spent on the war. This one, Iran is bigger. It's more -- it's a more complex situation. But we're probably doing equally as well. If you look at the damage that's been done. And again, as I said to the young man that just posed the question over here, if we left today, it would take them decades to rebuild. And I don't believe they could ever rebuild. And honestly, they haven't seen anything yet. We've been nice. We've been nice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Haley Bull with Scripps News. Thank you for the question. Do you believe that Iran has moved nuclear centrifuges into Pickax Mountain? And when you say we're not done yet, what is left to finish?

TRUMP: Well, I think that they may have -- we don't have it on record. What we do is read the fake news. You know, we see -- the news is so wrong so many times. So, you know, maybe this one they have right. But it's OK.

It doesn't mean anything unless they have the material. You're talking about the centrifuges. Yes, it doesn't mean anything unless they have the materials they don't have it. We follow the material. That's where the action is. And we'll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon. And there's not a thing they can do about it.

[11:40:00]

You know, normally, I wouldn't say that if I thought they could do something about it. I would never say that. But we'll be hitting that area pretty soon and very heavily.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two years ago, during the campaign, I interviewed you and you told me on MCP Lebanon that the peace will happen in Lebanon. And every word you said during the interview, it's happening today. Like from the first day in the administration, you were working hard for peace. I've been here daily.

TRUMP: I understood Lebanon. And I understood how horribly Lebanon has been treated as a country. It'd be like a whipping post what's happened with Iran and with Hezbollah. But Lebanon's been treated very incredibly badly. And maybe I'm a little prejudiced in favor of Lebanon because I have so many Lebanese friends.

JOSEPH AOUN, LEBANESE PRESIDENT: Do you not at all?

TRUMP: Well, no, but there's so many Lebanese friends. And so, I know I understand Lebanon. Tom Barrack is Lebanese, the ambassador.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Regarding the Lebanese army -- president, the Lebanese army currently have the funding, equipment and manpower necessary to implement the agreement. How are you asking today, President Trump, for additional U.S. assistance today to do their job?

AOUN: Definitely with the support of President Trump. And we spoke over on the phone and I told him, I need two things from you, political support and supporting of the LAF, which is the LAF is the most trusted institution in the country. And it has the most powerful weapon, which is the trust of the public.

Like any other -- any armed forces in the world, the Lebanese armed forces is the backbone of security and stability. We need to support the LAF. The LAF maintain the country safe and stable. Without the LAF, everything will collapse. We don't want that. I think President Trump doesn't want that.

In 1975, the first institution to collapse was the LAF. And as a result, we saw the emergence of many local militias and the south was empty, allowing the Palestinian to run the south and launch attack against Israel. We don't want to see that back again. All we're asking is keep supporting the LAF. And they know that the LAF is doing a great job performing its duty to the fullest. I fully trust the LAF. I fully trust the leadership of the LAF.

TRUMP: They did a great step forward with the recent signing with Israel. That was a big step.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allow target flight from America to Lebanon again? I'm Pedro from --

TRUMP: I can see that happening, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Question for president. Tony Murad (ph) from LBCI TV. So, Ambassador Issa -- the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, told me that the president would not leave Washington empty- handed. What concrete outcomes will you be bringing back to Lebanon?

TRUMP: You'll find out. Thank you all very much. We're doing very well with Iran. We're doing unbelievably with the economy. We have investment. As you know, Toyota is coming in with the biggest plant, I understand, anywhere in the world. They're leaving Mexico. They're coming into our country. They're going to come into Texas, to be specific. We have more plants under construction now than at any time, by far, by many times.

We have over $19.2 trillion being spent in America. And they're going to be opening up in a year, or a year and a half. And there's never been a time like this in America. Truly, it's the golden age of America. Thank you very much, everybody.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So, there it was. Very long exchange of reporters' questions for the President of the United States and the President of Lebanon, President Trump and President Aoun of Lebanon. They were both praising each other repeatedly over these recent developments.

And in the course of the war with Iran, President Trump saying repeatedly, there won't be any talks with Iran unless the Iranians are serious about some sort of deal. He says they're not serious about it now. Until they meet us in a meaningful way, we will not be talking to them. And he also repeated several times, there is no chance, no chance of Iran developing some sort of nuclear weapon.

If they're moving advanced centrifuges and rich uranium to Pickaxe Mountain, as has now been widely reported in the media, and Israeli officials are reporting that as well, the U.S. is going to bomb them and make sure that they can never, ever develop a nuclear weapon. He said even if the U.S. were to completely withdraw from this war, it would take around 20 to 25 years to rebuild, 20 to 25 years to rebuild.

Kevin Liptak is our senior White House reporter. Kevin, what jumped out at you as we were listening to this lengthy exchange with the journalists in the Oval Office?

[11:45:00]

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: You know, I was listening in the President's comments for some sort of roadmap of how he sees this conflict going. Yes, he provided a very dim view of the prospects that diplomacy could prevail, even though he claimed that the Iranians, quote, desperately wanted to meet. He suggested that that wouldn't be happening anytime soon. And he did list out some specific targets that will now be on the U.S. list, including Pickaxe Mountain. He said that that was essentially a new Iranian nuclear site that they were trying to revive.

But I think in sum, we did not get a clear picture of how the President sees this going. And in fact, in his own view, he believes that the war has been a complete success. He said if the U.S. left tomorrow, this would be a complete success for the United States, despite Iran's ability to close the Strait of Hormuz and despite Iran's ability to target American forces that are arrayed across the Middle East.

And so, I think just in listening to him, we do now have a better picture of where he sees this going in the short-term, which is strikes on Pickaxe Mountain, but not necessarily where he sees this going in the medium to long term in terms of diplomacy.

And I do just want to point out one additional thing that the President was addressing, which was this new front in the conflict, which is the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait that the Houthis are now threatening to close. They have threatened to blockade on Saudi shipping, which would be a whole new headache for the administration and for President Trump when it comes to energy prices. The president said that if something happens there, that he would take care of it. And so, an additional front that perhaps the U.S. would have to become involved in here.

And so, I think if you're listening for an endgame here from the president, you didn't necessarily hear one, but you do get a picture that he is not pursuing diplomacy at the moment. He is pursuing additional strikes on Iran.

BLITZER: Yes, he said the Iranians haven't seen anything yet, a direct quote. And he said they have no chance, no chances, words, of ever developing a nuclear weapon. The U.S. will do everything possible to prevent that from going forward. Kevin Liptak, we'll be back with you. Thank you very much.

Let's take a quick break, resume our special coverage here in the Situation Room right after this.

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[11:50:00]

BLITZER: Much more coming up on the war with Iran. That's coming up. But there's other important news we're following this morning as well. Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, there you see him. He's launching an investigation into whether Jeffrey Epstein acted as what's being described as an unregistered foreign agent for multiple countries.

He points to documents from the U.S. Justice Department saying they show substantial evidence that the late sex offender had ties to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russian and Israeli -- and Israel, raising serious concerns about a potential security risk. Raskin's push comes as a survivor of Epstein's abuse, shares her story exclusively with CNN. She explains the abuse began when she was 18 years old. And while he was on work release as part of his sex crime sentence.

CNN senior national enterprise correspondent, MJ Lee, is here with me in the Situation Room. You did an amazing interview with this woman. Tell us about that.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, you know, Roza's story is so wrenching and it is so painful and it is so important because it helps show in such a vivid way just how brazen Jeffrey Epstein was abusing victims even while he was serving jail time. It raises a lot of questions about this controversial 2008 plea deal that he received. And it also just shows how he purposefully went after victims, girls, young women who were extra vulnerable.

Roza was young. She was a foreigner. She was in debt. This is a part of my interview with Roza and we just want to offer the warning that it is quite graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROZA GILLES, JEFFREY EPSTEIN ABUSE SURVIVOR: He gives me his foot and I'm looking at his foot and it has an ankle monitor on it. But to me, what it looks like, it has a plastic thing wrapped around his foot with a black box on it with a blinking light, right? And I go, what is this? And he flips around and he goes, take off your shirt. I froze.

And the woman comes over and starts unbuttoning my blouse. She takes it off. Then she takes off my bra. And then she walks out. I sat in that room staring at the bottle of effigy water while a man was groping me and masturbating. And then when he was done, he stood up and he left. I couldn't scream. I didn't ask for help. And I thought this was all a dream. I sat back at the table and I answered the phone calls, same exact way I did before. I never told any soul about this. I thought I'm going to die if I do.

LEE (voice-over): Roza says Epstein abused her in Florida every weekend after that. She is still haunted by an encounter she had one morning at Epstein's mansion with a man in uniform, someone she thought was a sheriff.

[11:50:00]

GILLES: I thought to myself, thank you. This is going to be the day that this all stops. Followed, the sheriff walked in, Jeffrey. They giggled, they laughed together, they buddied it up. I just stood in the kitchen looking at this sheriff thinking to myself, at some point he's going to turn to me and be like, who are you? And he walked out.

LEE: Didn't say anything to you?

GILLES: Nothing. And then I figured it all out. He's currently serving his sentence while he's doing the same thing to everybody and nobody's there to help us. He works wearing an ankle monitor. He didn't stop what he was doing while convicted. He was doing the same thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE (on camera): And, Wolf, Roza's decision to fully share her story for the first time was a really tough one for her. And she said that ultimately, she is hoping that somebody, even one person who is going through the same thing that she went through will hear her story and say the words, help me.

And just to that end, you know, I would just encourage everybody to go on cnn.com, read the full story, watch the full video from me and Nikki Robertson. It's a really powerful story and it's also inspiring.

BLITZER: I watched your full interview with this young woman, Roza. It was so, so powerful. Thanks so much for doing this.

LEE: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: MJ Lee, appreciate it very, very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us. We'll, of course, see you back here tomorrow morning, two hours, 10:00 a.m. Eastern, Inside Politics with Dana Bash starts after a quick break.

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