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Trump Family's Money-Making Ventures Raise Ethical Concerns; Interview with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY): Trump Says He's Seeking "Real End" to Iran's Nuclear Program; Interview with Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI): Named in Minnesota Shooting Suspect's Notebook. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 17, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Making venture for President Trump's family, as they capitalize on his presidency in unprecedented ways. Many of those businesses have benefited the president himself, who made more than $600 million last year, according to financial disclosure forms and Reuters. Much of that is from recent ventures like Trump Media and his Trump crypto coin.

He's also made money last year from Trump watches, Trump sneakers, Trump fragrances, Trump guitars, and even Trump Bibles. Though Trump has ceded control of the Trump Organization to his children, experts have called out the many conflicts of interest as the federal government regulates many of the industries he's making money from, including wireless phones.

GOLD: Experts I've been speaking to who manufacture cell phones, who understand the market, they say that this made in America phone is almost completely unlikely to actually be fully made in America.

Only one company is known as of now to domestically produce a cell phone, and even some of their parts have to, by necessity, come from abroad. And those phones go for nearly $2,000. So we'll see when this phone actually comes out, whether and how much of it is actually made in America compared to what the Trump Organization claims.

Hadas Gold, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, President Trump says he's not interested in a cease-fire deal between Israel and Iran. He wants a real end. This comes after he took to social media, sending an ominous warning, telling people in Tehran, a city of 10 million, to immediately evacuate.

This morning, the president is expecting to be huddling with his national security team in the Situation Room today.

Devastated and heartbroken, two days after losing their parents to an assassination, the children of Minnesota Representative Melissa Hortman are speaking out.

And a juror dismissed videos of explicit sexual encounters introduced into evidence. It was an explosive day in the Sean Combs sex trafficking trial. So what may we expect today?

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman, Kate Bolduan is off today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the breaking news this morning, no cease- fire proposal, no peace talks. President Trump says he is not interested in any of that as the conflict between Israel and Iran rages. The president says he wants something bigger, but what could that be?

Early this morning, President Trump arrived back at the White House after abruptly exiting the G7 summit in Canada early to monitor the escalating situation in the Middle East. He told reporters he wants a, quote, real end to Iran's nuclear program.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What specifically is better than a cease-fire? What are you looking for here?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: An end. A real end, not a ceasefire, an end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So something that will be permanent.

TRUMP: Yes, or giving up entirely, that's OK too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you closer, is that even possible? Is that a possibility?

TRUMP: Why not? Certainly possible. A complete "give up." That's possible, yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Well, the president said he will be in the Situation Room today, and he posted this shortly after touching down in the U.S., quote, I have not reached out to Iran for peace talks in any way, shape, or form.

Now, before leaving Canada, the president gave this dire warning to the nearly 10 million people in Iran's capital. He said that quote, Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran.

Overnight, the highway there was jammed with vehicles as residents scrambled to escape.

This morning, we have new images of missiles in the sky over Jerusalem. According to officials on both sides, 24 people have been killed in Israel, 224 are dead in Iran since the strikes began five days ago. Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House for the latest on what the president is saying and doing this morning -- Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, so you mentioned, John, that he's going to be meeting with his National Security Council in the Situation Room this morning, hoping to get more details from that, of course, as it all unfolds. But a couple of things I want to point out here.

One, he did talk about -- he did answer reporters questions about why he told people to evacuate Tehran immediately. He said that there wasn't a specific threat that he was referencing, but that he wants people to be safe. He also mentioned in that same line of commentary that essentially he does not believe that the Iranians would go after U.S. troops. Of course, a key question as this conflict continues to escalate.

Another thing he mentioned is that, you know, there have been reports that he may be sending Vice President J.D. Vance and his special envoy Steve Witkoff to the region to try and broker some sort of deal here.

Now, you played that clip, but I think very notable that the president said he does not want a ceasefire.

[08:05:00]

He wants a permanent end to this conflict but also said that there is the possibility that this, you know, could end in them giving up. He said giving up is a possibility. Very different rhetoric from what we've heard over the past couple of days.

We'll bring you all the news as we get it, including what we can learn from the Situation Room meeting this morning -- John.

BERMAN: All right, great. Alayna Treene, great to have you at the White House. Keep us posted as to what you hear, because these meetings in the Situation Room, they could be going on very shortly, if not already.

Let's get to CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour.

Christiane, so we hear from President Trump. He says no cease fire talks but he wants something perhaps bigger. What he says is an end to Iran's nuclear program.

What do you think that means? And how is that seen in the region?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: John, I'm befuddled. I don't know what that means. Obviously, there are processes when you want to end a war.

And if he's saying he wants Iran to capitulate, I don't know how else to read what he said. He said giving up, totally giving up. I'm not sure that that's in the cards. And if he wants to end and get a proper, you know, solution to all this, it really requires a huge amount of very difficult and technical negotiations. Just go back to the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal of 2015, which he pulled out of. It took 18 months or so to negotiate it with technical advisers.

So it's very unclear. And certainly the questions I'm hearing out of Iran and elsewhere are, is Trump really trying to get a deal, as he has said he has wanted to in the past, or will he be dragged in by Prime Minister Netanyahu to, quote unquote, finish off or help to destroy Fordow, which is their most deeply buried uranium enrichment facility, requires American mega bombs and American B-52s to deliver?

BERMAN: That is one of the issues, no doubt, under consideration or discussion inside the Situation Room. Christiane, we heard from Nic Robertson inside Israel. The latest salvos of Iranian missiles into Israel, the numbers of missiles, it's been fewer today than it was yesterday.

And there's no way to know for sure, but one of the questions out there is, does this indicate whether Iran's capabilities have been diminished? Is Iran losing capability to strike back at Israel? What would the implications of that be?

AMANPOUR: Well, clearly Iran has been weakened, and we've been reporting this ad nauseam since the beginning of this war that started in earnest on Friday because of what happened last year when Israel and Iran went head to head with missile salvos. Well, Iran did, but Israel destroyed a lot of Iran's missile and air defense capability. Iran doesn't really have an air force that is being employed in this kind of war, but it did have a lot of missiles.

Clearly those are being depleted, and it's probably true also that of a limited stock, they can't rebuild and renew and manufacture more in a very timely way. But also Israel has significantly destroyed, diminished, defanged Iran's other proxies. These proxies were meant to be standing between Iran and a war with Israel.

These proxies were the ones that were meant to be fighting either Israel or the United States, proxies in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon, in, you know, the Palestinian territories, you know, Hamas maybe, and the Houthis. All of them have been diminished over the past year. So that is a big issue for Iran if it tries to, you know, keep up this salvo of back and forth.

But the real question, John, is what is Israel's strategy? Is it destroying, diminishing the nuclear program, or is it regime change? And quite a lot of targets have been leadership-led.

And this idea of President Trump asking 10 million people to leave Tehran, I know he's sort of clarified it, but it's freaking out the people, I might say, from the people who I speak to. They're quite scared. They don't know what's going on.

They haven't had this kind of thing. They don't have the kind of bunkers and air raid sirens and, you know, all of that that Israel does. So it's a terrifying situation for a lot of the people.

BERMAN: And ongoing, to be sure. Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much for being with us this morning. The next 24 hours, so key here -- Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, and because of that, we're going to talk more about it. Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York. You are a ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Have you been briefed or learned anything about why President Trump is warning the citizens of Tehran to immediately evacuate?

[08:10:00]

REP GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): I have not. There was supposed to have been a briefing yesterday, at least with my staff. That briefing was canceled. So I have no clue what the president intends or what he means. It's hard to figure him out in that regard.

I do know that he should be convening with Congress, with me and others that are in positions of authority, but definitely with the speaker as well as the Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries and Mr. Johnson. Congress is the one that has, if he's deciding to enter the United States into any type of a war or event of that nature, Congress should be consulted because that is to be determined by the United States Congress, and we should have those facts in that briefing.

So I'm hoping and putting in a request, as I've done day after day, to get a full briefing on what's taking place.

SIDNER: Is it unusual for you not to have a full briefing in the midst of what has turned out to be a war? Israel is saying, look, we are going to continue these strikes for many weeks ahead. Iran has said this morning that it is going to be striking back again against Israel.

And the United States has said, Trump in particular has said, we're not involved right now, but we could be. Would you normally have been briefed?

MEEKS: I can tell you I've been in Congress, Sara, for now 27 years, and even in the Iraq situation, George W. Bush briefed me and us, and I was not the ranking member at that time, made sure information was available, and then you could look, either agree with it or disagree with it. I disagreed with it at that time, but I was briefed, and I was able to get any information that I wanted, as well as, you know, when we were -- when Joe Biden was president and I was either the chair or the ranking member, complete briefings.

I was -- we was invited down to the Situation Room in the White House. We had members of the administration there that would talk and give their viewpoint of what's going on and what they thought would may be happening in the future in that regard. So in this case, thus far, I have had absolutely no briefings.

Well, there has been one staff briefing in the very beginning, but other than that, nothing.

SIDNER: I do want to get back to some of what the president said this morning not too long ago, that he has not reached out to Iran, he is not negotiating a peace deal. He claims it's something better. Are you disappointed, worried, concerned in any way that he is saying that he has not reached out to Iran and that this is no longer a ceasefire that is on the table, but something else?

MEEKS: Here again, we have a situation with the president where there's uncertainty. Number one, I think the fact that we are where we are is because he pulled out of the JCPOA. So that's number one.

Number two, you know, I was saying despite that, the fact that he was talking about having diplomatic dialogue and conversation, I would agree with that. I think that is important to have with Iran to continue to talk with Israel. I agree with him ultimately signing on to the G7 agreement yesterday or last night.

Those are the kinds of things that I think. I think Ms. Amanpour is correct. These things are complicated.

When you talk about trying to negotiate and get an agreement with reference to how do you stop or how there's an agreement to get rid of the weapons that Iran possess, there's no question in anybody's mind that Israel has the right to defend itself, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. We could not let them have a nuclear weapon. But that takes dialogue and conversation and diplomacy.

And I would hope that we always try to give diplomacy an opportunity here because I am always concerned, of course, of the innocent loss of lives.

SIDNER: So far 24 people have been killed in Israel.

MEEKS: As well as our U.S. troops. Right.

SIDNER: Right, I was going to ask you about that. Is there a concern here --

MEEKS: I'm concerned about the --

SIDNER: that U.S. troops will be harmed?

MEEKS: I'm concerned about the Americans that are on the ground to make sure that they're out -- for their safety. Those that are working in the U.S. Embassy. All of the personnel that's there.

You know, I think our military will stand strong, and I believe that they should not be attacked because then that changes the whole scenario also. But I am very concerned. We need to get our civilians out of that area, out of Israel, out of the area for their safety while all of this is now taking place.

[08:15:00]

SIDNER: Yes, 224 people confirmed dead in Iran. 24 confirmed killed in Israel after the strikes have been traded back and forth.

Thank you so much, Representative Meeks, for coming on and walking us through this. And there's so much happening with this. We'll be updating everyone every half hour or so about what is going on.

And the president is expected to be in the Situation Room today after saying some very alarming things and leaving a lot of folks with a lot of questions, including, you say, you as well, because you haven't had your normal briefings. Really appreciate your time this morning.

All right, ahead, police revealing new details about the alleged hit list of the suspect in the Minnesota lawmaker shootings. What we've learned about his messages to his family and how he was finally caught by authorities.

Plus, we are just moments away from another day of testimony in the federal sex trafficking trial against Sean Combs. Jurors shown video yesterday of the so-called freak off for the first time. And there were some serious reactions on their faces. We are live outside the courthouse with more details on that.

Plus, brand new reporting this morning, why some experts are now pointing the finger at former President Biden for President Trump's ethical conflicts.

[08:20:00]

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BERMAN: This morning, investigators in Minnesota say the man suspected of shooting two lawmakers and their spouses at their homes, killing a state rep and her husband, also went to the homes of two other lawmakers the same night. Authorities say Vance Boelter planned extensively and had notebooks full of names of lawmakers and public officials in Minnesota and other states, most of those names Democrats.

One of them is Congresswoman Hillary Scholten, a Democrat from Michigan, and she joins us now.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us. What did that feel like when you heard your name was in his writings?

REP. HILLARY SCHOLTEN (D-MI): Well, it's truly chilling. You know, here in Michigan, you know, we are used to, unfortunately, political violence being a part of political life here. It shouldn't be.

It has no place in this state, any state, any country for that matter. And it seemed all too familiar. It's truly chilling to think of what this individual was planning to do.

I got the call Sunday night, of course, while the shooter was still at large. You know, at that time, we didn't know what these different notebooks meant. You know, and many of -- much of that is still coming to light.

BERMAN: And you canceled a town hall you had scheduled for last night. Why did you make that decision?

SCHOLTEN: You know, in light of the evidence that was still coming to light, we wanted to give law enforcement the space that they needed to do their jobs and protect their community. And most importantly, make sure that my constituents were safe and felt safe in coming and engaging with me. And we were just hearing incredible feedback, you know, from the community that, you know, this was just a time when they felt deeply unease -- you know, ill at ease.

It had been less than 24 hours since we found, you know, my name among the shooter's possessions. And we wanted to just give some time for law enforcement to further investigate. But rest assured, we're not going to allow this to deter us, ultimately, in doing this work.

We are going to reschedule that in-person town hall. I'm, you know, one of, you know, the only lawmaker in my part of the state who is doing in-person town halls. And I think that those events are so important.

And that's why it's important to do them in a way and in a manner in which our constituents can feel safe.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about the response to this from one Republican senator, Mike Lee from Utah, who posted on social media when this manhunt was very much still ongoing. He posted this picture of the suspect who was there wearing a rubber mask. And he said, this is what happened when Marxists don't get their way.

And of course, there's no evidence at all that this man was a Marxist. There's all the evidence now that many, if not most, if not all the names on his list were Democrats there.

But even that aside, what's your reaction to seeing a post like that when a lawmaker had just been killed?

SCHOLTEN: It's horrific. Insensitive doesn't even begin to describe the level of depravity of comments like that. I was so proud of my colleague, Senator Tina Smith, for going and confronting him directly.

We need him and all of our other Republican lawmakers to not only denounce this violence but denounce actions like Senator Lee's that make light of situations like this. We know that political violence of this nature is not restricted to one side of the aisle. This shooting happened on the anniversary of the shooting of Steve Scalise on the baseball field and in preparation for the congressional baseball game.

We have to come together at this moment, regardless of party, lower the temperature and root out political violence wherever it tries to rear its head.

BERMAN: I will say Senator Lee on his Senate account later issued a note of sympathy there, but I don't think he's taken this post down to be sure.

[08:25:00] And you're right to point out the fact that this took place on the anniversary of the shooting at that softball practice, which was so horrific.

I want to ask you about policy right now, because all morning we've been covering the in Iran and Israel with this exchange of missile fire. Now, in the House of Representatives, a bipartisan measure by Ro Khanna, a Democrat and Thomas Massie, a Republican.

They're going to put forth a measure that would force President Trump to get approval from Congress before entering this conflict in some kind of greater way.

A, how do you feel about that measure? And B, how would you vote on it?

SCHOLTEN: Well, I -- you know, I think the Constitution is pretty clear. You know, only Congress has the power to declare war and the president should be consulting with Congress. I know you had my colleague, Mr. Meeks, on here just prior, and he's exactly right. You know, the president should be engaging with members of Congress from both sides, you know, as a co-equal branch of government, you know, the branch that has the authority to declare war.

If this is something that the president is considering, the American people deserve a say in that through their representatives in Congress. This is an incredibly serious time and it needs to be handled with the utmost thoughtfulness and care.

BERMAN: Would you like to see more U.S. involvement?

SCHOLTEN: You know, I think we have to take the threat from Iran incredibly seriously. We cannot allow Iran to develop and have a nuclear weapon. I think you're seeing pretty much unanimous consent across Congress on that particular point.

So we need to be having those conversations to make sure that we are taking the steps necessary to prevent that from happening. But, you know, the president moving forward with brash and rash actions is not the way to deal with such a potent enemy as Iran.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Hillary Scholten from Grand Rapids, Michigan, one of America's great cities. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time.

So a new juror, 15 pills of Mali and an escort named Paul. Explosive details from the sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs as one of his former assistants is set to take the stand this morning.

And we have our eyes on stock futures down a tick this morning. Investors waiting on some key economic data expected to be released in just minutes.

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