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Trump Vows to Obliterate Iran's Oil and Power if No Deal Reached; TSA Workers Start Receiving Back Pay After Weeks Without Paychecks; Concerns Grow the U.S. is Inching Closer to Recession. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 30, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Nestle says all of its products can be traced using a unique batch code assigned to individual bars. So if a match from a stolen shipment is found, the company will be alerted. So be aware of your KitKat bar.

The good news is the brand says that there are no concerns for consumer safety. The supply is not affected.

In Japan, workers are ditching their cubicles to compete in an office chair Grand Prix. This is a growing sport. It consists of, well, exactly what you think. Teams of three saddling up in an office chair and racing to finish as many laps as possible in two hours.

By the end, they can cover as many as 12 miles. No souped up chairs allowed, though, people, so do not get creative. The grand prize is almost 200 pounds of rice.

This happens in 10 cities around Japan. Tokyo, though, is going their own, and they're handing out pounds of tuna instead. I know there's a lot to discuss, but --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I think you're making up the ending there.

BOLDUAN: I make up all the news. That's the key to my career. Anyway, let's move on. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BERMAN: The contradiction campaign. President Trump says his favorite thing would be to take Iran's oil, and that U.S. ground troops might be needed for a while to do it. And he's now threatening Iran's crucial water supply. But just moments ago, he claimed there is great progress in talks with Iran.

Breaking this morning, some TSA workers tell CNN they have finally started getting paychecks after the president released funds to get them money. We're going to have an update on what this is doing to the lines at airports this morning.

And then a teenager breaks through a truck window to save a stranger having a medical emergency inside. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. President Trump making a brand new threat to Iran while also expressing optimism of reaching a deal to end the war, practically within the same breath. This morning, oil prices spiking again after President Trump said he wants to take Iran's oil.

And then moments ago, he posted this on his True Social, quote saying, "If for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately open for business, we will conclude our lovely stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electrical generating plants, oil wells, and Kharg Island, and possibly all desalination plants."

Kharg Island handles 90 percent of Iran's oil exports. The president has said he's thinking about seizing it and acknowledged U.S. troops would probably have to be there for, quote, quite a while. He also has said that Iran has mostly accepted his administration's 15-point peace plan, but Iran is disputing that. Last day, our Secretary of State Marco Rubio told ABC the U.S. is in talks with Iran's new leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, they are talking to us in ways that previous people in charge in Iran have not spoken to us in the past. Some of the things they're willing to do, some of the things they're saying they're willing to do. Obviously, they have to go do it.

We're going to test that proposition very strongly, because we always prefer to settle things through negotiation and diplomacy. But we also have to be prepared for the fact that that effort might fail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Thirty-five hundred more U.S. sailors and Marines have now arrived in the Middle East. Iran says it is bracing for a U.S. ground invasion. And Iran says if that happens, they're going to rain fire on American forces -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: A lot going on here, very clearly. Joining us right now is John Bolton, the former national security adviser to President Trump in his first term and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Ambassador, it's good to see you.

Thanks for coming in. Let's start with what the president is now saying today. We know that he says that Iran has already agreed to most of -- his words -- of the 15-point plan that the U.S. sent over. And also this now he just sent out on social media that he's in discussions with a -- the way he's written it, is a more reasonable regime in Iran. And Marco Rubio was just asked about that specifically on ABC. Who is this more reasonable regime?

Here's his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUBIO: Well, I'm not going to disclose to you who those people are because it probably would get them in trouble with some other groups of people inside of Iran. Look, there's some fractures going on there internally. And at the end of the day, I think that if there are people in Iran who now, given everything that's happened, are willing to move in a different direction for their country, that would be great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What do you make of that answer? I mean, do you believe there's a more reasonable regime now in charge in Iran that they can negotiate with?

[08:05:00]

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: No, I think the most significant thing Marco Rubio said is the best news we've heard this month, which is the regime is fracturing at the top. That is exactly what should have been expected when between the U.S. and Israel, we've eliminated hundreds of their top leaders, decimated Revolutionary Guard capabilities, both the Quds Force, their external force, and the Basij militia, their internal force. It is this fracturing of the regime at the top that could cause it to come down, that could give the opposition the opening to affect regime change.

So the idea that the regime is fracturing is what I would have expected and I think has been confirmed. The idea that somehow the people they're talking to now who are either Revolutionary Guard commanders or people strongly supported by the Revolutionary Guard is any different than what the regime that existed on February the 28th is just delusional.

This is an ideological regime. It has gone through repeated purification campaigns for decades. The faces are different, but the ideology remains the same.

BOLDUAN: The president also has now pushed off a deadline that he has set another time, now saying that he's going to hold off until April 6th in targeting Iranian energy sites to allow for these talks that he's now writing about this morning. You wrote that continuing to push this off is a sign of weakness. Do you think he should hit Iran's energy infrastructure, though?

BOLTON: Well, I think if we have the support of the Gulf Arab states who risk retaliation from Iran, if we do that, then the answer is yes. Just on this point, you know, the mediators said that Iran had not asked for an extension of the deadline. That's what Trump said.

They asked for it, so I gave it to them. The mediator, not Iran, the mediator said they never asked for it. So it's very much in question just exactly what the state of play in these negotiations really is.

Maybe we'll know more this week, but I don't think any negotiation that goes on by passing messengers through the mediators is close to a solution. If we sit down with the Iranians and come up with something, that would be different. But I'm not optimistic even on that point.

BOLDUAN: And the president also this morning, I believe for the first time, is now threatening to as part of the retaliation, part of what would come if Iran doesn't come to the table. I believe for the first time he is now threatening to hit desalination plants. That's what he wrote today, which are a critical source of fresh water, of course, for the entire Gulf region.

Is that something you would like to see? What impact do you think that would have on this conflict?

BOLTON: No, I wouldn't recommend that again, mostly because I'm concerned about retaliation to our Gulf Arab allies. And that's something we need their continued support and participation. I think the president's focused on one thing and one thing only, and that's the international price of oil.

Not thinking about nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, terrorism. He's thinking about the closure of the Kharg Strait -- of the Strait of Hormuz, which is why you have this speculation about what the military may be up to. The better answer is to blockade the Strait of Hormuz and not let any Iranian oil out.

If our Gulf Arab allies can't ship oil, then neither should the Iranians, nor should they be able to earn the proceeds from that, which in one way or another filter back to their war effort to kill American service members.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you, the focus is definitely, largely at least, on oil and the price of oil. But we now also have reporting from the Wall Street Journal suggesting that Trump's weighing U.S. military operation to go in to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran. If he would be able to secure the uranium, is it worth sending in ground troops, you believe?

BOLTON: Well, I think at some point we have to make sure that the enriched uranium, the centrifuges, all the sensitive materials and information about the nuclear program don't fall into the wrong hands. At the beginning of this, I thought the time for that to happen would be as the regime collapses, when the disorder might permit people to get parts of that enriched uranium shipped out of the country. I don't think we're there yet.

I think as long as we can keep attacking the program, that for now, that's sufficient. I would be more inclined to take steps to make sure that Iran can't continue to finance its effort. They've blockaded the Gulf Arabs, in effect.

We should do the same for them. That's how to impose more economic pain.

BOLDUAN: I mean, something's got to give in order to start getting things really moving through the strait again. Let's see what that actually ends up being. Ambassador, thank you for coming in -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, some TSA workers starting to get paid. So what does this mean for those long wait times at U.S. airports?

Oil soaring over $115 a barrel this morning. New questions about the R word. Recession could one be on the way.

And then a man clings to a floating fuel can off the coast of Florida.

[08:10:00]

How long did it take for the rescue?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning, some TSA workers tell us that money is starting to hit their bank accounts, getting paid for the first time since mid- February. The president ordered the money from funds already allocated to the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS shutdown, though, is still in effect after House Republicans blocked a Senate plan.

[08:15:00]

As for what this is doing to the long lines at the airports, we've got a look right now at Houston. You can see a line still there this morning, so not out of the woods yet.

How are things in Atlanta, where CNN's Ryan Young has been staked out and is now really the mayor of that airport? Ryan, what's the scene there this morning?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Love it. Pretty good. In fact, if you look behind us, the lines are really short here. One of the things that we'll have to check on, though, all the TSA folks that we've been talking to over the last few weeks, we'll have to see if the money's actually hitting their bank accounts.

Some of the TSA agents telling us they might have to take out a loan because they were so concerned about making their bill payments because they hadn't been paid in so long. But this is something that we really have to show you, John. This right here is where we've been standing and waiting behind people for a long time.

And now, you show up to the airport, it's like the old days. You can walk straight up to the security line and be through within about 10 minutes here. This is the main checkpoint, the line where I'm standing or walking through.

This is where people have been stacked for a while. In fact, we'll show you some video over the weekend. There were still long lines on Sunday, Sunday the most packed day here at the airport, Monday the next most packed day.

But what we're seeing right now is no lines, no waiting. That's TSA pre, that's the main checkpoint. You can see all the way through and that lines are moving very quickly.

But on top of all this, you don't think for a second that these travelers have forgotten who they're mad at. Take a listen to this one woman we talked to saying she's focused on who got us into this trouble in the first place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY FRANCK, TRAVELER AT ATLANTA'S AIRPORT: I wish that we could collectively fire them all. I just think it's ridiculous that they're on Easter break and that the TSA agents were not being paid. It's completely unacceptable that they can't come to a resolution.

Collectively, they work for us, and I feel like they should be held accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, John, over and over again, we've been hearing from people say they are mad at Congress. The idea that they could take a break. These agents haven't been paid.

We do see some of the ICE agents up here still checking IDs, but the conversation though today we'll see how many people called out because now they do expect to get some sort of payment sometime soon. But how long before it hits their bank accounts? That's the big question.

But so far today, I can't believe I'm saying this. The wait is under five minutes. We're still waiting to see when they're going to turn back on the computer screens to show the wait times.

Hopefully that'll happen sometime today -- John.

BERMAN: I mean, just the visual difference here, Ryan. Normally we have this shot of you and there's a sea of people behind you.

Now it's basically -- that's just different. Right there. It's just completely different.

YOUNG: Yes, and as we turn this corner, one of the things that you see is all the green lights that are up here.

BOLDUAN: Oh, yes.

YOUNG: So that's the good thing. Yesterday, all the lanes weren't open. So now you get more than five of them open.

I'll tell you, the business travelers who have been rolling through here, even the people who have been traveling have said to us, look, we thought we got here two hours ahead of time. We're going to have breakfast now.

That's a good thing. It's nice and smooth.

BERMAN: Yes, enjoy that breakfast. Pass security. Ryan Young, that's a welcome sight behind you. Thank you very much for that this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Looking different.

BERMAN: Yes, fair. BOLDUAN: Looking different this week. New CNN reporting this morning, how a federal funding shift is putting tens of thousands of veterans at risk now of becoming homeless. We've got new reporting coming in on this.

And a record number of Republicans are retiring from Congress. What does this mean for the midterms? Harry Enten is running the numbers next.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: As everyone is watching oil markets around the world and watching them continue their rise, economists are now saying the R word again, asking if the United States could be inching closer to a recession. The war has just sent oil prices soaring, and the International Energy Agency now says that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has resulted in the biggest oil shock in history.

CNN's Dave Goldman back with us with more on this. How concerned are economists, Americans, everyone right now?

DAVE GOLDMAN, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER: Everyone's really concerned. I mean, we are already at $115 a barrel this morning. There's a calculation you can do, and about $10 in an increase in oil means about $450 in expenses for the average American household over the course of a year.

And so you do the math, and that's $1,500 over the course of the year if oil stays around here. That's not affordable for a lot of people. So sure, there's a lot of concern.

BOLDUAN: And Dave, there's a lot of talk of gas prices. You say oil markets, you think gas prices, but it's starting to feel like gas prices are a drop in the bucket of what the closure of the Strait and the shock to global supply is actually going to mean. And now we're like running out of plastics is basically now becoming the fear.

I mean, are we going to see a recession as well?

GOLDMAN: Yes, well, the economy is $30 trillion, right? So you're exactly right, because what you and I pay in gas prices, that's a small sort of payment for, you know, just filling our tanks.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GOLDMAN: One of those 777s, that's 45,000 gallons of jet fuel every time they fill up. So that's why a penny in an increase in gas prices is about $50 million for American Airlines, right? So there's a huge increase in what companies are having to pay. That's where you start to get a little bit worried.

But then you also wonder, well, why haven't we gone into a recession yet?

BOLDUAN: Right.

GOLDMAN: That's because, well, there's a few reasons for it. The big thing that you need to remember, though, is that we have a K-shaped economy in the United States.

So what middle income and lower income people are paying, that feels really, really painful to them. But for wealthier people, they can afford this, and they continue to spend, and that kind of cancels it out a little bit.

[08:25:00]

When you're talking about a $30 trillion economy, that's where you start to say, well, this really needs to go significantly higher, to drag even the wealthiest Americans spending down. And that's why some of the forecasts that we're seeing today, where if this drags on until June, we might have $200 oil, that's when you start worrying about a recession.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I would say so. It's good to see you, Dave. Thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate it -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, guys.

New this morning, some TSA workers say they're finally seeing some relief as some of the back pay. Their owed is finally hitting their bank accounts. Is everyone saying the same thing? We're going to be talking to someone from the TSA in just a bit.

Plus, Donald Trump will soon be represented by a Democrat after the district that includes Mar-a-Lago's flipped blue. The representative elect joins us ahead.

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[08:30:00]