Trump tells CNN he’s not worried whether Iran becomes a democratic state

By Dana Bash, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump told CNN Friday that Iran’s leadership has been “neutered” and that he’s looking for new leadership that will treat the United States and Israel well, even if that’s a religious leader and it’s not a democratic state.

“Iran is not the same country it was a week ago. A week ago they were powerful, and now they’ve been indeed neutered,” he told CNN in a brief but wide-ranging phone interview.

In that call, he also said Cuba would fall “pretty soon” and emphasized the importance of voter ID legislation, which he suggested could be determinative in his Texas Senate endorsement.

Trump expressed confidence in the ease of picking a new leader in Iran — which he’s said he must be involved in — and again compared the mission to Venezuela, where the US captured Nicolás Maduro earlier this year and put his deputy in power.

“It’s gonna work very easily. It’s going to work like did in Venezuela. We have a wonderful leader there. She’s doing a fantastic job. And it’s going to work Iike in Venezuela,” he said, referring to acting president Delcy Rodriguez.

Trump also said he was open to having a religious leader in Iran. “Well I may be yeah, I mean, it depends on who the person is. I don’t mind religious leaders. I deal with a lot of religious leaders and they are fantastic,” he said.

And pressed on if he is insisting there needs to be a democratic state, Trump told CNN, “No, I’m saying there has to be a leader that’s going be fair and just. Do a great job. Treat the United States and Israel well, and treat the other countries in the Middle East — they’re all our partners.”

He went on to tout his relationship with those countries in the Middle East, claiming they’re “fighting for us.”

“And I became very friendly with all those countries. That’s why they’re all fighting for us. Before I got involved, we didn’t even speak to UAE and Saudi Arabia. You know, (President Joe) Biden shut out. Biden and (President Barack) Obama shut Saudi Arabia, UAE Qatar, he shut them all out. They were all going to go to China, and I got involved in very short period of time that became my friends,” Trump said.

And while the president praised the US operation against Iran — saying it’s a “12, maybe 15 on the scale of 10” — he suggested he wasn’t worried about rising gas prices.

“That’s all right. It’ll be short term time. It’ll go way down very quickly,” he said, while dismissing that prices are up significantly and saying he’s “already figured out” the Strait of Hormuz.

“We’ve knocked their Navy because, you know, when you knock out the Navy, they can’t do what they wanted to be able to do. The Navy is almost, we just hit about the 25 mark. Can you imagine that? Big ones — 25 ships are down,” he said.

Trump suggests Cuba will soon ‘fall’

Trump separately told CNN that Cuba “is going to fall pretty soon.”

“Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon, by the way, unrelated, but Cuba is gonna fall too. They want to make a deal so badly,” he told Bash when touting US military success in his second term.

“They want to make a deal, and so I’m going to put Marco (Rubio) over there and we’ll see how that works out. We’re really focused on this one right now. We’ve got plenty of time, but Cuba’s ready — after 50 years,” he added, explaining that Iran is the current priority.

He continued on Cuba: “I’ve been watching it for 50 years, and it’s fallen right into my lap because of me, it’s fallen, but it’s nevertheless fallen right into the lap. And we’re doing very well.”

CNN has reached out to Cuba’s presidential office for comment.

A day earlier, Trump said at the White House that it’s only a “question of time” before American Cubans can return to their home country, appearing to say that’s next on the administration’s agenda after the ongoing war with Iran.

“He’s doing some job, and your next one is going to be, we want to do that special Cuba,” Trump said Thursday referring to his secretary of state. “He’s waiting. But he says, ‘Let’s get this one finished first.’ We could do them all at the same time, but bad things happen. If you watch countries over the years, you do them all too fast, bad things happen. We’re not going to let anything bad happen to this country.”

Trump emphasizes voter ID law

After the war with Iran, Trump said the next most important issue for his administration is passing voter ID legislation — and that it could be key to his endorsement in the contentious Texas Senate runoff.

Trump has said he’ll soon make a choice between Sen. John Cornyn, the incumbent, and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s been pushing the SAVE America Act.

“I’m making a decision fairly shortly, but I want and then I feel very strongly that we have to have the full and complete SAVE America Act, OK? I want the SAVE America Act. It is more important than everything else we’re working on other than the war,” he told Bash.

Trump suggested he needs assurances that both candidates would support the legislation.

“I’ve got to have the assurance of — you have a big story here come to think of it, but I’m just telling you — uh, I like John Cornyn, get along with him well. Get along with both of them very well. But we have go in with the SAVE America Act,” he said.

“We have to have voter ID. We have to have proof of citizenship. We have to have no mail-in ballots except the military, illness, disability and travel. We have to have no men in women’s sports — I added two things, and we have to have no transgender operations for youth,” he added, reiterating two additional two demands that he posted on Truth Social Thursday.

In addition to requiring voter ID to vote in federal elections, the bill would mandate documentary proof of US citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

Trump also repeated his demands that the Senate eliminate the filibuster to get the legislation passed.

“The Senate has to act on it. The House on it. And I don’t want the watered down one — that doesn’t mean anything. I want the one that just told you, five things,” he said.

Cornyn supports the bill but has refused to say whether he personally would vote to change Senate rules in order to pass it.

“There’s not the votes in the Republican conference to change those rules,” he told CNN ahead of the primary.

Paxton said this week he would consider dropping out of the contentious runoff if Senate leaders agreed to gut the filibuster and pass the legislation.

“The Save America Act is the most important bill the U.S. Senate could ever pass, and I’m committed to helping President Trump get it done,” he wrote on X.

Cornyn shot back: “I repeat what I have consistently said: I support the bill and have encouraged Senate Republicans to get it done.”

He later added on X, “I keep my word to Texans. I was one of the first sponsors of the SAVE America Act, and I agree with President Trump that the Senate must pass it now.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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CNN’s Sol Amaya contributed to this report.