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Trump Suggests U.S. may be Unwilling to Negotiate Iran Deal; Stocks Fall on Investors' Doubts About a Quick End to the War; Asian Nations Issue Emergency Measures Amid Deepening Energy Crisis; Major Airports Brace for Rush of Weekend & Spring Break Travelers; Maduro Back in Court Arguing U.S. Trying to Hamstring His Defense 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 26, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: ... Democrats and, you know, perhaps that's something that can be addressed in the coming months, but right now, those tensions are on full display here in Dallas and it's been something we've been closely watching and seeing in polls as well.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Steve Contorno live for us in Texas at CPAC. Thank you so much, Steve. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Trump says it is up to Iran to convince him to end the war, while Iranian media suggests Iran has doubt about the willingness of the U.S. to negotiate.

And as air passengers wait hours to get through TSA checkpoints, they aren't the only ones going on spring break. Lawmakers are about to head home for two weeks with no solution to the funding fight that has led to gridlock at America's airports.

And ban from the Olympics, the IOC now says transgender women can no longer compete in women's events at the games.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We do have breaking news on the war with Iran. President Trump firing off some new threats as his top officials say progress to end the war with diplomacy is being made. The President says if Iran does not give up its nuclear ambitions, the U.S. will be Iran's worst nightmare. He's warning, if a deal does not happen, the U.S. will just keep blowing them up unimpeded. He also said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I say they're lousy fighters, but they're great negotiators. And they are begging to work out a deal. I don't know if we'll be able to do that. I don't know if we're willing to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Today, CNN is learning more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers will deploy in the coming days to the Middle East. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House.

And Kristen, what are you learning?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, look, we learned a lot through this cabinet meeting. One of the things being that the White House felt like it needed to respond to a lot of the criticism around the Iran war. They used these various cabinet members to kind of hit back at some of the questions that Americans and journalists have been asking that we really haven't gotten answers on.

I think one of the most notable things we saw in this cabinet meeting was the presence of Vice President J.D. Vance. Not just his presence, but his remarks. What he said was that this war was necessary because they needed to stop Iranians from getting the nuclear weapon or from having nuclear capabilities.

We know that Vance is someone who doesn't believe in U.S. intervention outside -- in these foreign countries, so they purposely had him there in that position. We also heard from Steve Witkoff, who gave some new details about these negotiations.

Now, it was stuff that we had already reported about the 15-point plan, the fact that they were using Pakistan as an intermediary, but it was the first time we were hearing some of this on the record from the administration among criticism that they're not telling the American people enough, including what they might be planning for potential boots on the ground.

Now, while President Trump himself said he didn't care if they negotiated, he said that they were the ones begging him to negotiate, it did sound as though they were making some progress. And we actually just heard from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He's on his way to the G7. Here's what he said about those diplomatic talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: There are intermediary countries that are passing messages, and progress has been made, some concrete progress has been made, as you've seen, and has been documented already. There's a growing amount of energy that's been flowing through the Strait, not as much as should be flowing, but some of it has picked up.

So, again, there's been some progress in regards to the exchange of messages, but that's an ongoing and fluid process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: "An ongoing and fluid process." And I just want to point that out because it's kind of the same rhetoric that we heard from Steve Witkoff. They do not sound as positive as they have in the past when talking about negotiations with the Iranians, but they do all say that this is moving forward, that they are trying to have this diplomatic approach as they approach, as President Trump has said, these kind of new threats and ultimatums he's putting forward.

KEILAR: All right. Kristen Holmes, live for us on the North Lawn there. Appreciate it. Boris?

SANCHEZ: If you're worried about where all of this could leave the economy, you're not alone. Today, the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development warned that inflation in the 20 largest economies, including in the United States, will average 4 percent this year. Stock markets have been sliding across the globe today as investors raise doubts about a quick end to the war.

Despite all that, gas prices actually ticked down today for the first time since the war began. President Trump says he is not surprised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Frankly, I thought the oil prices would go up more, and I thought the stock market would go down more. It hasn't been nearly as severe as I thought. I think they have confidence in maybe the -- the American president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:05:04]

SANCHEZ: With us now is Henrietta Treyz. She's the Director of Economic Policies at Veda Partners.

Henrietta, thanks so much for being with us.

The average price of gas fell today for the first time since the start of the war. Is that a sign of things to come? Is -- is that a relief?

HENRIETTA TREYZ, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC POLICIES, VEDA PARTNERS: I don't expect it to be long-lived. The Strait is closed, and we're forecasting gas prices and crude oil prices up in the $120, in some cases even $175 a barrel. And one of the things that's disorienting about the President's statement there is that if he expected it to be worse, I don't think that incorporates just how bad it is right now.

We've already wiped out all of the benefit of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill. Gas prices, even where they were before the drop, is going to wipe out about $750 a year for the average household, which is what the OBBB was going to bring back in. And, of course, the Federal Reserve is not in a position to lower interest rates now. And that's going to mean, you know, difficulty getting a new home, difficult getting a business loan.

So, those major things that he promised on the campaign trail are now non-starters and wiped off the map from 2025.

SANCHEZ: What's your reaction to President Trump saying that he thought that oil prices would go up more and the stock market would go down more? Do you believe him?

TREYZ: I mean, that's a lot of Monday -- Monday quarterbacking. I don't think that it reflects anything that they expected. Otherwise, you know, the One, Big, Beautiful Bill would have been bigger. I think he would already have a stimulus plan to offset the inflation increases that are coming through here. His explicit agenda was to reduce interest rates. He's jawbone Jay Powell for a year now and trying to force change at the Federal Reserve. So, one of those things has got to be wrong.

SANCHEZ: I wonder if there's a direct correlation between how long this goes and the overall well-being of not only the markets, but also oil prices. But if the outcome matters, in other words, if the U.S. leaves and the region is still unstable and Iran is still attacking some of the U.S.'s regional partners there, does that mean that oil prices will remain just as volatile?

TREYZ: Yes, absolutely. The estimates that we have and that are circulating elsewhere on the street is even if you opened up the Strait tomorrow and everything was perfect, all the mines were gone and the -- the tankers were able to flow through, it would take 200 days from reopening to get rid of the backlog.

And the reality is that the bombs have landed on the largest LNG facility on earth, for example. And so, those factories are shut down for three to five years. This is not an easy fix scenario. We are in too deep. It has gone so far that the President is not in a position to just turn the ship around. The wheels have been set in motion and we are going to be dealing with the reverberations of that for months to come.

SANCHEZ: And the United States, to some degree, is not feeling it quite as much as other countries, right? Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines implementing emergency measures. Japan also releasing some 30 days' worth of oil from its state-owned reserves. Help us understand how the rest of the world is feeling this and how that might reverberate when it comes to their relations with the U.S.

TREYZ: Yes, I mean, the -- the thread that has been pulled here and the domino effects are going to ripple across the globe. The E.U. nations are absolutely much more exposed, as is Southeast Asia, China, Japan, as you mentioned. I mean, the bottom line is that the United States has a lot of domestic capacity, domestic refining and domestic abilities that the rest of the world doesn't have. And it's, you know, much more tethered to the Strait of Hormuz than we are. But it still impacts our fertilizer, our farmers.

The President is going to announce potentially as early as tomorrow that there needs to be a second farmers bailout. And that's because we're going into the planting season. And if you're impacting the flow of urea, of nitrates, of helium, you're impacting every single downstream product from your crop fertilizer to the polysilicon that goes into a roofing shingle, you know, semiconductors. It's literally everywhere.

And so, even if the E.U. is more exposed or Southeast Asia is more exposed, it will hit us on our shores regardless of what the President does from here, but it's too late.

SANCHEZ: Henrietta Treyz, thanks so much for the analysis. Appreciate you.

TREYZ: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Still to come, frustrated passengers getting to airports up to eight hours before their flight, trying to beat these record high wait times. We're live from two of the airports that are dealing with the fallout from the partial government shutdown.

Plus, ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro making an appearance in court today. You'll hear what his defense team is arguing. We'll take you outside the courthouse.

And later, a big announcement from the Olympics about transgender athletes. That and much more coming your way on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

[15:10:01]

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[15:14:22]

KEILAR: Lines at some major airports are already hours long as thousands of unpaid TSA workers are calling out from work. Tomorrow, the wait times are expected to get even longer as the weekend travel rush begins. And the only chance of relief is a government funding deal. And that is getting even tougher to get to.

SANCHEZ: And that's partly because lawmakers are expected to leave D.C. tomorrow for the April recess without a deal in hand. We have reporters at some of the most troubled airports. CNN's Ryan Young is at Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta. But we're going to start with Ed Lavandera, who's been camped out in Houston for several days.

Ed, Bush Intercontinental at one point had a four hour wait time today. Has that gotten any better?

[15:15:04]

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was -- it's actually kind of fluctuated a little bit throughout the day. But we are back to where we were this morning. Things have -- I heard one person say that some of the lanes had -- during a shift change, had been shut down -- and then within a matter of minutes, all of this was empty just a few hours ago and all of this is now filled once again.

And to kind of remind people of what it's -- you know, you -- you get into the line down here. Sometimes it extends into the basement level. But right now, I believe it's just on here. And then, you come up off an escalator and you end up having to go back outside of the airport, beyond the glass wall there in the passenger drop off area. Then, you get to come back inside and wind your way through the terminal here once again, so it is long.

And a lot of this being caused once again by these -- the call out of TS employees who are not being paid and working without pay. Put up a graphic showing you the -- the -- the percentages of call outs at some of the hardest hit airports. And you see how the two Houston airports are severely impacted. George Bush Intercontinental Airport, where we are, has been one of the most severely impacted, about just over 39 percent. These are numbers from yesterday. They're a day behind. But the day before was over 40 percent.

And it's been consistently around in that range throughout much of the week, which is what is causing a lot of this. And then, government officials are now saying that because of this shutdown, some 500 TSA employees have quit. So, you know, a great deal of frustration.

And you're starting to get a sense, you know, earlier in the week, people were kind of laughing this stuff off. But I think the -- the amount of anger and frustration growing on with -- with politicians continues to grow. We talked to the Houston mayor about just that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JOHN WHITMIRE (D) HOUSTON: I've been in public office my entire adult life. I don't know if I've seen a more bigger mess that really -- there's an easy solution to it. We're the victims of politics and it's sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: The Mayor went on to tell me, Boris and Brianna, that all of these Washington politicians should be locked up in a room and forced to resolve this. And no one should be allowed out until that is done. And, you know, people are making the best of this situation here in this line. But it is affecting people. People are showing up seven, eight, nine hours ahead of their flights, if not missing them altogether and having to reschedule for the -- the next day. So, that is just the -- the -- the juggling that so many of these passengers are being forced to do right now and this week entirely.

KEILAR: Yes, it's hard to find that sweet spot of not showing up too late. But, you know, you can't show up a day early. Ed, thank you for that from Houston. Let's go to Ryan in Atlanta.

And passengers there are kind of struggling with that, right, Ryan? How early do they show up?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And they are struggling with something that Ed was just talking about, the idea they're showing up so early sometimes it actually backfires, because if you show up more than four hours before your flight, you can't check your bags in. So, a lot of people are showing up seven and eight hours early. They're showing up with the bags. They go to check it in and they're like, we can't take your bag right now.

The line right now is starting to extend again. This is the pre-check line. You see people kind of snaking back around. We've seen this over and over, over the last few days as they come down this direction, thinking they're going to have a shorter wait time. A lot of influencers are out there on the internet saying, hey, there's no line. And then, people rush in to try to get to pre-check. And then, they get hit with this. Long lines that stretch all the way

back through baggage. People are not sure where to go. They're asking those questions over and over again. They're expecting to see times on the wall, but that system has been shut down for days. Now, the airport has employees that surge into this area to have conversations, to put people in the right spot. But as you know, that frustration continues to build.

We also want to show you the pictures that we saw earlier today of ICE agents actually now taking IDs from people in line. They're starting to help get people through the lines by taking those IDs. But this is still leading to a frustrating time for people who are showing up to this airport. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got here around like eight hours before my flight.

YOUNG: Why eight hours?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't really have much to do the rest of that day. Like my class is optional today, so I decided to skip that and come early.

YOUNG: How many hours before?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like six hours. I'm in class right now, so yes.

YOUNG: And so, you just wanted to make sure that you didn't miss your flight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, exactly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly, this is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Every taxpaying American does not deserve this. And people need to do their jobs. That's everybody in Congress. And there's one -- one guy in particular that needs to be fired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:20:00]

YOUNG: Yes, the first time I've ever seen that, a student in class, literally on a Zoom, doing that university work while still waiting in line. At this moment right now, through these doors, we can see those ICE agents taking those IDs, trying to get people through.

But this is one of those situations where we have so many people calling out. Here at this airport, 40.6 percent call outs. Man, people are frustrated with standing in this line, not knowing how long it's going to be.

SANCHEZ: It does not look like a good time. One silver lining to showing up early to the airport.

KEILAR: What's that?

SANCHEZ: You get to hang out with Ryan ...

KEILAR: That's right.

SANCHEZ: ... and Ed. Maybe pop over to TGI Fridays. Get one of these guys a drink, please, please. Ryan Young ...

YOUNG: Not bad.

SANCHEZ: ... thank you so much.

YOUNG: Please.

SANCHEZ: So, former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was in a New York courtroom today arguing the United States is trying to hamper his defense. We'll explain what happened and the judge's response when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:27]

KEILAR: Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro returning to a New York courtroom today, more than two months after U.S. forces captured him and his wife in a stunning overnight military operation. Lawyers for the ousted leader were trying to get his drug and weapons charges thrown out, arguing that the Trump administration is blocking the Venezuelan government from paying his legal fees. CNN's Kara Scannell is outside of court and joins us now.

Kara, you were inside of the courtroom. How did the judge respond?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the Judge seemed receptive to Maduro's argument that the government of Venezuela should pay his legal fees. Now, prosecutors have opposed this. They say both the government of Venezuela and the Maduros, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who were both charged in this case, are on the U.S. sanctions list. They pose a threat to National Security and that they could just get court-appointed counsel funded by a fund -- a legal fund in the U.S. The judge, though, said that this case is beyond normal. He said that there is -- there's witnesses that they might need to interview in Venezuela and Colombia, that there's evidence there, and that it would go too much for a court-appointed attorney.

He also said that the Maduros are here in the courtroom and that they no longer pose a national security threat. The judge saying that it's someone's right to defend themselves is paramount. So, he was trying to explore different ways that he might be able to not dismiss the case. He said he wasn't going to do that, but to allow the Venezuela to pay the legal fees for Maduro. He suggested that he could order the U.S. government to issue a license that would make it legal for Venezuela to pay the fees.

The prosecutor in the room said that he didn't think the judge could do that. The judge, though, said that he was going to consider this. He also said that if he did issue an order and that the U.S. government did not comply, then he would reconsider these arguments about dismissing the indictment.

The Maduros themselves were in the courtroom. They were sitting at the tables with their lawyers wearing headsets so they could follow the hearing in Spanish through a translation. They did not speak during the hearing. Now, the judge said he would issue a decision soon. He did not set a next court date. So, we'll -- next steps will be what the judge says here or if the U.S. government decides to issue a license and allow the legal fees to go through to avoid a potential dismissal down the road, blot up in the air. Still waiting to see how this is ultimately going to turn out. Brianna?

KEILAR: Really interesting development here. We'll see what does happen. Kara Scannell, thank you.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says progress has been made in negotiations with Iran. We'll have the latest on the talks. You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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