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00:00The president is mixing official and personal business at Trump golf courses in Scotland.
00:05I want to bring in CNN's chief national affairs correspondent, Jeff Zeleny,
00:08who is traveling with the president in Scotland.
00:10So, Jeff, what are we expecting from Trump's meeting with European Union's leader today?
00:15And what's been the reception so far from the Scottish people?
00:18Good morning, Monty.
00:19President Trump is back on the golf course here in Scotland this morning at Trump Turnberry.
00:24He'll be playing golf for a couple hours before he is heading into a very important and critical meeting with the chief of the European Commission.
00:33Of course, there is a deadline looming on tariffs for next Friday.
00:38The president has set a deadline for if there's not an agreement brokered,
00:43there could be a 30 percent across the board sweeping a tariff that would really spark a trade war, a transatlantic trade war.
00:49So the president is going to be meeting with Ursula von der Leyen in just a couple hours to try and negotiate some type of an agreement.
00:57Now, what officials are telling us is that they believe a leading possibility is cutting that in half, a 15 percent across-the-board levy.
01:06Certainly, that would end some of the uncertainty that really has been going through European businesses.
01:12Of course, America is the biggest trading partner of the European Union.
01:16The two have had a frosty relationship in the past, but the president, when he arrived here in Scotland, seemed to signal optimism.
01:23Ursula will be here, highly respected woman.
01:26So we look forward to that.
01:27In terms of a deal, we're meeting with the European Union.
01:31And that would be actually the biggest deal of them all if we make it.
01:34So we will see if a deal comes together, of course.
01:41This is just one in a series of the on-again, off-again trade war that really has been a through line of the Trump administration.
01:47I'm told the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, and the U.S. Trade Representative have flown here over the weekend.
01:52They will be joining these meetings as well.
01:54So that is the working part of this trip.
01:56But there's plenty of private vacation part as well, and that is the golfing that was underway all day yesterday.
02:02And that is the real purpose of this trip, the president coming here to Scotland to view his golf courses and open a new golf course that's named after his mother.
02:11Of course, she is from Scotland.
02:13So he has expressed a fondness for this country.
02:16Of course, he's visited many times before.
02:19But yesterday, protests also broke out, not to the extent of the 2018 protests.
02:24We saw thousands of people in the streets during his first term as president.
02:28But there were significant protests here in Edinburgh and elsewhere.
02:32And talking to many demonstrators, they are concerned about the president's foreign policy as well as his stance on democracy.
02:40So certainly not a warm welcome from Scots here.
02:42But the president is largely ensconced from all of this, playing golf and then having a meeting today with the EU chief and meeting tomorrow with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
02:52All right, Jeff Zeleny, live for us in Scotland.
02:55Thank you so much.
02:57And let's break this all down with my excellent panel this morning.
03:00Politico's Dasha Burns, Jasmine Wright from Notice, CNN's Isaac Dover, and The Wall Street Journal's Molly Ball.
03:07Nice to see you all.
03:08Well, Trump overseas, look, this has been a tumultuous second term, to say the least.
03:15This has probably been one of the most tumultuous periods of his second term, not just with Epstein, but also these crises overseas.
03:21And Gaza, this starvation crisis in Gaza doesn't seem to be getting any better.
03:27This is obviously a difficult period for the president.
03:30Indeed, although he seems like he's having a great time over there, we should say.
03:34But I think it is a reminder that, you know, he has left the domestic chaos behind to some degree.
03:40And to a remarkable extent, we did see the Epstein scandal start to sort of consume Washington and the administration.
03:46But it's a reminder that there are just as many crises facing him overseas as well, whether you're talking about all of these trade deals that have yet to be made with the deadline looming,
03:56whether you're talking about the international crises that he promised to resolve pretty much instantaneously, which are not only ongoing, but seem to be getting worse.
04:06Certainly in the case of what's happening in Gaza, it's a stark reminder that that conflict is very far from being resolved, despite Trump's promises.
04:15So I think all of this is a looming sort of cumulative political problem for the president.
04:21Yeah, and it adds up, right?
04:22It adds up to how he's perceived among the American public, among his voters.
04:27And a striking poll from this past week was the Gallup polls talking about how he is viewed now among voters.
04:34A significant drop among independents from January, 17-point drop from 46 percent approval to 29 percent.
04:42And it's been somewhat consistent with other polling as well.
04:45Dasha, you covered the White House.
04:47How concerned is the White House about all these different problems adding up for the president?
04:52Well, the White House is really frustrated right now.
04:54And President Trump in particular has been furious, as some sources have described it to me, because of this Epstein scandal,
05:01that they just have never been in this position where the president cannot change the subject on something.
05:06He's so good at wielding the media, at spinning the narrative, and that's just not working right now.
05:11At the same time, this is a moment where they really thought that they would be doing a victory lap.
05:16Six months in, they've gotten their agenda passed through Congress.
05:20He's making these deals.
05:21But a lot of those promises that he made, to your point, Molly, they have not been fulfilled.
05:26And he's got these two strong men in Putin and in Bibi, guys that he thought that he had great relationships with,
05:32that he could wheel and deal with.
05:34And that is not working.
05:35Those two are massive crises that have his base split, by the way.
05:39You're seeing some folks get frustrated with his seemingly unconditional support of Bibi Netanyahu
05:44and what he's doing in Gaza, and frustration with getting further involved with Ukraine.
05:50Some are championing it, like Lindsey Graham, others are not.
05:53So his base is not on the same page on a number of issues.
05:56Of course, Epstein has been looming over all of it.
05:58But that's just one element of a number of cracks that have formed over the last six months.
06:02And that's why he's trying to do things, to get the base back in line.
06:06You mentioned some of the things he's trying to do to change the narrative on this.
06:09We saw just over the past day on his Truth Social post.
06:12You ever want to get a sense of what Trump is thinking?
06:14Just look at his Truth Social post, of course.
06:16This is Barack Obama in the O.J. White van escaping the LAPD.
06:25Trump has been baselessly accusing Obama of committing crimes and suggesting that he and others should be prosecuted.
06:34Even saying that in another post yesterday, that Beyoncé, Oprah, Al Sharpton, Kamala Harris, among others, they should all be prosecuted.
06:43Not Beyoncé.
06:44No, let's not go to Beyoncé.
06:46Come on.
06:47She's in Vegas right now.
06:48We're all excited.
06:49I know.
06:49The last night of her tour, my God.
06:52Listen, this is just food for the base.
06:54These are the greatest hits that the president can play.
06:56The normal people that he can be derogatory towards that his base will pick up, particularly in a moment where you're right.
07:03There is that split.
07:04There is that tension.
07:05I was talking to one White House official last week, and he was complaining that we continue to say that this is a distraction or that the president is trying to distract.
07:14But the reality is Donald Trump does not want to talk about Epstein.
07:18That was very clear when he left the U.S. on Friday.
07:21He, when he was continuously asked by the press, both when he left the White House, when he got to JBA, and when he got to Scotland, whether or not he's considering a partner from Ghislaine, for Ghislaine Maxwell.
07:33He said, I'm not even thinking about that.
07:34I'm allowed to do that.
07:35But you should be talking about Bill Clinton.
07:37You should be talking about all these other people who are not me.
07:40And so the White House is consistently facing this kind of breakdown with their base.
07:45It's unclear how far it goes and how long they will ride with the White House as they kind of try to move the ball a little bit.
07:54But if you want to say, you know, you can close the door on the Epstein saga for doing a lot of different things.
08:00But on the Ghislaine Maxwell piece of it all, why don't you say there's no way I would pardon?
08:03He could say a lot of things.
08:05Look, all of these meetings also, including having his former criminal defense attorney, who's now the deputy attorney general, meet with Maxwell, that could have happened six months ago.
08:15It's only happening now because of the pressure that he feels on this, as is the case for everything else going on.
08:20I talked to somebody close to Bill Clinton the other night when there was the revelation in the Wall Street Journal about the birthday greeting that Clinton had sent.
08:29And the person said, listen, we broke off, Clinton had broken off his relationship with Epstein long before, but has called for a release of all the materials.
08:39That's what Donald Trump used to be doing.
08:41That's what J.D. Vance used to be doing.
08:42Cash Patel used to be doing.
08:43Now that they're all in power, they are not releasing all of it.
08:47And in fact, what they're doing is dragging out this process more and more and more.
08:52And the polls also bear out that this is actually something that Democrats, Republicans and independents agree with in terms of should there be more information released?
09:01This question about has the government been open and transparent about the Epstein case?
09:06Sixty seven percent of the public say the government is not transparent about Epstein.
09:10And that includes 60 percent of Republicans.
09:14This is a rare.
09:15You usually don't see that when it comes to Trump.
09:17Well, and that's why this story continues to have legs is it's not just coming from a few influencers.
09:23It's not just coming from the media.
09:25It is really penetrated into pop culture in a way that we don't often see with Washington scandals.
09:32So how do Republicans also feel about the way the president has handled this issue on Capitol Hill?
09:38Should they should he do more to get ahead of this story?
09:41What do you think about the way that the White House has handled this Epstein matter, this sort of drip, drip, drip rather than putting everything out?
09:50I don't know. I'm kind of a rip the Band-Aid off sort of guy myself.
09:53Do you think the appearance is that they're not releasing it because his name is on there?
09:57Are you worried about that appearance?
09:58Well, yeah. I mean, I think that's that's a risk you run doing what they're doing.
10:05But I don't know everything that they may know.
10:08Release all the Epstein stuff.
10:09You think all of it?
10:11Justice Department should.
10:12Yeah, just release, release stuff on to protect victims, but be as transparent as you can with Epstein.
10:19Rip the Band-Aid off.
10:20Yeah, rip the Band-Aid off.
10:21I mean, they want to get over this hump.
10:23They want to stop talking about Epstein.
10:25They want the White House to release what they have and the DOJ to release what they have and move forward.
10:30The problem is, is that the DOJ has effectively stayed on this kind of drip, drip, drip environment.
10:37We're obviously hearing periodic updates about the conversations with Maxwell.
10:42We're hearing periodic updates about whether or not there's an ongoing investigation and to see if there should be more documents released.
10:50And so unless they do a full sale transparency release, you're going to continue to see update after update after update, keeping this in the media.
