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Iranian Hackers Targeting Airlines, Oil Companies; National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard, Is Resigning; Millions Hitting The Road As Gas Prices Soar To Four-Year Highs; Kevin Warsh Sworn In As Federal Reserve Chair; U.S. Consumer Sentiment Plunges To All-Time Low; Two-Time NASCAR Champion, Kyle Busch, Dead At 41. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 22, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:38]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Breaking News out of Washington. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is resigning from the Trump administration. We'll discuss the impact of her departure.

Plus, gas prices are high, consumer sentiment is low, and Americans are looking at a very cruel summer as the travel season kicks off with millions hitting the road for Memorial Day weekend.

And a new front in the war. Iranian hackers targeting airlines and oil companies, part of an elaborate espionage scheme. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We're starting this hour with Breaking News. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is resigning effective at the end of June.

In a letter to President Trump, she writes, quote, "My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. He faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months. At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through the battle."

I want to get right to CNN's Kevin Liptak, who's live from the White House for us, because the president is now reacting to this letter as well, Kevin. What are we learning?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, he is. And the way we understand it is that Tulsi Gabbard informed the president earlier today of her plans to step down and her reasoning of having to care for her husband, who is battling this rare form of cancer.

Now President Trump has responded. He wrote on Truth Social just in the last half hour or so, quote, "Unfortunately, after having done a great job, Tulsi Gabbard will be leaving the administration on June 30. Her wonderful husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and she rightfully wants to be with him, bringing him back to good health as they currently fight a tough battle together. I have no doubt he will soon be better than ever."

And the president concludes Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her. And he specifies that the current Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, whose name is Aaron Lukas, will step into the main job in an acting capacity.

So the president praising Tulsi Gabbard and really belying none of the tensions that had existed between the two of them, between the White House and Gabbard over the last 15 months or so, you know, despite, you know, this very personal reason that she is citing for departing the administration. This was a very tumultuous tenure. I think it was clear that Tulsi Gabbard did not necessarily have a clear lane inside the Trump administration's national security decision-making.

You know, I think back to when the president was weighing the operation in Venezuela and he was convening members of his team at the White House and she was posting pictures from a beach in Hawaii, apparently unaware that all of this was happening. And she did seem, I think, at points out of step with some of the administration's thinking on some of these foreign interventions. You know, she, at one point earlier in her career, was a Democratic congresswoman.

She ran for president in 2020. In all of that, she had been a real anti-war voice, an anti-interventionist voice. Now this administration is intervening all over the world, and there was a view that she was sort of out of step there. So instead of those projects, she had really taken on these other areas, particularly looking into allegations of voter fraud.

You know, you'll remember she was down in Fulton County, Georgia, when the FBI raided a voting office there. She also put out a report seeming to downplay the role of election meddling by Russia, all, I think, intended to put her in the president's good graces.

But she will now be departing the administration. And I do think it's worth pointing out that after almost a full year of no shakeups inside the Trump cabinet, Tulsi Gabbard is now the fourth cabinet member to step down just in the last few months.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. Kevin Liptak, really appreciate the reporting. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Let's talk to White House and National Security Correspondent for The New York Times, David Sanger, about this.

David, great to see you, as always. What are you learning about Gabbard's resignation?

DAVID SANGER, WHITE HOUSE & NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, much as you just heard from Kevin, it looks like the immediate cause of this was this awful news about her husband and bone cancer. And that's a tough fight.

[14:05:00] And I think anybody would probably want to leave a job and be with a relative if they could and could make that happen. That said, people in Washington believed it was only a matter of time before she was forced out. So, this may have avoided a confrontation that was coming.

She never really got her arms around this job, I think, was the sense in the discussions over Iran and before that, Venezuela, she was rarely in the room. When the president had intelligence jobs to be done, he would usually call on John Ratcliffe, who held Director Gabbard's job at the end of the first Trump term, Director of National Intelligence. He's now running the CIA.

It is also interesting to note that this is the fourth woman to leave the administration in the past few months. I was just making a little list here before, Kristi Noem, of course, left as the head of Department of Homeland Security. Pam Bondi was removed as Attorney General and Lori Chavez-DeRemer as the Secretary of Labor amid a number of investigations.

So, that makes this, you know, at least so far has been a lot more male administration as well, at least with the replacements who've been announced so far.

SANCHEZ: That is an interesting note. What do we know about Aaron Lukas, who Trump says is going to take over the role, at least on a temporary basis?

SANGER: Not much, and I think that, from what we can tell, you know, I think the Director of National Intelligence Office, which was intended initially to be a very small coordinating role and it's turned to be a much broader, is a bigger management job than people thought. It's supposed to be the agency into which all of the other intelligence, 15, 16 different intelligence units report into and get connected for sort of large policy.

And my guess is the president is going to want to have a real loyalist there. So, I think, you know, the place will be running a little bit on autopilot until he gets to his true nomination.

SANCHEZ: David, it's notable that she's departing as the United States is at war with Iran, and there's a ceasefire in place, but there have been notable hostilities in the interim, and we're waiting for a decision from President Trump. He's set to decide what course of action to take, whether there will be further diplomatic activity, whether there will be a resumption of full-on hostilities. And it strikes me that on a three-day weekend, where he could be in the Bahamas watching his son get married, he says that he's staying here in Washington, D.C., not even going to his golf club in Bedminster, because of the war with Iran.

SANGER: Yeah, this has grabbed everybody's attention. Obviously, there have been a lot of reports that the president might resume military action. We discussed this with him some on the flight on the way back from China, and he indicated at that moment that he was trying some last bits of negotiation. We don't have any indication that any of those have particularly worked. We know from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine, that the president was in the Oval Office today reviewing options with Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary. General Caine mentioned this at a graduation ceremony at the Naval Academy.

I don't know what that meeting was about, but it comes at a moment that the United States seems poised to resume some level of military action against Iran. Whether that happens, whether it's lasting, we don't know. We don't know what the targets would be. The president hasn't even really described very clearly what his objectives would be in restarting.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, all important points. David Sanger, thanks so much for joining us and sharing your perspective.

SANGER: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: It is notable. This is the first major holiday since the start of the war with Iran, the economy being impacted this Memorial Day weekend with travelers bearing the brunt of the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz.

Plus, CNN learning that Iranian hackers are targeting airlines and oil and gas companies. The dangers this could pose for some critical infrastructure.

[14:10:00]

And Waymo is temporarily suspending service of its robotaxis in several major cities, just days after the cars got stuck in floodwaters and after we saw about a dozen of them circling the same block in Atlanta. We'll discuss when we come back on "CNN News Central."

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[14:15:00]

SANCHEZ: Americans are on the move for the first major travel holiday since the war with Iran began, and despite surging gas prices, a record number of people are expected to get out of town. AAA estimating that 45 million are traveling this Memorial Day weekend, the vast majority by car.

But it is going to cost them. For the first time in nearly four years, drivers in all 50 states are paying at least $4 or more for a gallon of gas. Omar?

JIMENEZ: It's a huge change from just a year ago for people planning out their summers here. Meanwhile, in Washington, Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh just took his oath of office to lead the U.S. Central Bank. And with surging prices weighing on the economy, Warsh says he's ready to get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KEVIN WARSH, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: While I'm not naive about the challenges we face, I believe, Mr. President, these years can bring unmatched prosperity. Our mandate at the Fed is to promote price stability and maximum employment. When we pursue those aims with wisdom and clarity, independence and resolve, inflation can be lower, growth stronger, real take-home pay higher, and America can be more prosperous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: With me now, Henrietta Treyz. She's the Director of Economic Policy at Veda Partners. Good to see you. I just want to start with what we just heard from Kevin Warsh there. Brand new Fed Chair, just sworn in. What is going to be his biggest challenge right off the bat, you think?

HENRIETTA TREYZ, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC POLICY, VEDA PARTNERS: You know, I think the biggest challenge is the fact that, since this war started, gas prices have increased $0.13 a week on average. There's no way you can cut the interest rates going into a situation where there's no end to the war in sight.

There's no opening up of the Strait of Hormuz. And this is a global commodity. So even if we have domestic supply, the price of gas is going to continue to rise. And it is unpredictable. So he can't even telegraph that they'll start to cut soon or that they're seeing good news out of the unemployment data. There's nothing to do but wait out the war.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. And if there's no news on the diplomatic front, there's certainly no news on the economic front as well. You know, part of the challenge is we're looking at the new consumer sentiment numbers at an all-time low, contrasted, by the way, with the stock market that is still finding ways to hit all-time highs.

But on that consumer sentiment, what is the data telling you about how people are coping with the hard economic reality right now? And why hasn't it seemed to affect the stock market in the same way?

TREYZ: Yeah, they are definitely unrelated, especially now, the stock market is a basket of mostly A.I. and tech stocks that are driving an unprecedented boom and a brand new technology that the entire stock market is exposed to and excited about.

But the flip side of this is that the market cannot afford to go down and get very concretely convinced that they know what's going to happen with the war. We have -- on the Street, we have this concept of verbal intervention, where the president can effectively tweet at any time and your entire play could get blown out because you don't know what's going to happen from one second to another.

So it is not core economics, it is chaos. And that is part of the reason that consumer sentiment is so low. And that is translating into the president's approval numbers as well across Democrats, independents and Republicans. People really want the president to focus on bringing inflation down. And the war creates havoc and they can't even predict when it might get back to normal.

JIMENEZ: I mean, it's interesting. I mean, the consumer sentiment data has been taken this way since the '50s.

TREYZ: Right.

JIMENEZ: And this is a consumer sentiment below even just in recent memory, the Great Recession, COVID, the inflation that came after that. So really interesting, even if the prices -- look at inflation post-COVID, for example, not quite at the same rate that we're seeing right now.

But one place that we have seen volatility is the bond market. And on its face feels like just a niche economic a focused person that someone like you would be paying attention to, which I know you are. But as we hear more about gas and oil prices and inflation, the bond market volatility also could trickle down to consumers as well. How?

TREYZ: Well, the bond market is telling you that this is not going to be a short-lived event. When you see crude oil prices spike, it's 60 to 90 days before you start to see grocery store prices start to spike. And it's another 60 to 90 days from there until you see the production and the fertilizer costs get passed on and start to hit restaurants, the service industry, packaged goods, cell phones.

I mean, everything is going to be hit and it's going to cascade and last for the rest of this year.

JIMENEZ: Because it affects the rate at which people can borrow or the government can borrow, right?

TREYZ: Well, that is well.

(CROSSTALK)

TREYZ: The bond market for sure. So the bond market is telling you that inflation is going to be higher for longer and they don't know where it's going to max out at. And that is a debt issue and it's a problem for growth in the country. And eventually, you'll see GDP growth numbers start to get hit as well. That's what the bond markets are telling us.

JIMENEZ: You know, we just got off of, I mean, it's now been about a week or so now from President Trump's visit to China. And China may look to ramp up diplomatic engagement with both the U.S. and Iran on reopening the Strait.

[14:20:00]

They're feeling the pinch of the closure too, in a different way, not quite the same as the U.S. But do you think their potential involvement could lead to faster relief, not just for Americans, but for the global economy? How do you see them in this? TREYZ: I think China is doing quite a lot already. They clearly have a very large strategic petroleum reserve of their own that they are tapping into, and it's creating a relief valve across all of Asia, into India, and because it's a global commodity, even into the United States. So China is, in fact, coming to the rescue of the rest of the world, and that is very much in China's best interest.

They've tried to contrast their relationship with the globe and President Trump through his first term and now the second term as seeing as someone who is reliable, a good partner. They've expanded their relationship with Germany, the E.U., Africa, India, and even Japan in some cases.

So you're seeing a shift from President Xi that is talking about being an equal with the United States and being a major world power that can be an alternative, and that's the way they're presenting themselves, and the president has given them that opportunity here.

JIMENEZ: Especially as you laid out, if the markets can be moved, their economic sentiment can be moved from a post on social media or any sort of message.

TREYZ: Exactly.

JIMENEZ: Henrietta Treyz, got to leave it there. Good to see you. Thanks for being here.

TREYZ: Thanks for having me.

JIMENEZ: All right. Coming up, the death of two-time NASCAR champion, Kyle Busch, shocks the sports world. We'll tell you what we're learning about his sudden passing and how NASCAR plans to honor the fallen legend. Stick around.

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[14:26:19]

SANCHEZ: Tributes are pouring in to honor the life of NASCAR legend, Kyle Busch. Busch's family announced his sudden death on Thursday, just hours after revealing he had been hospitalized for an unspecified severe illness. Busch was scheduled to race tonight in Charlotte, and he won a competition just last week where he gave this now prophetic interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Busch, your 69th victory in this series, your fifth right here. Why do these moments never get old, Kyle?

KYLE BUSCH, NASCAR CHAMPION: Because you never know when the last one is, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We're joined now by Yahoo Sports writer Jay Busbee. Jay, thanks so much for being with us. How are you reacting to the passing of Kyle Busch?

JAY BUSBEE, SENIOR WRITER, YAHOO! SPORTS: It was absolutely stunning. This is obviously not an on-track event. It was quite literally a here -- he was here, and then he was gone. This is the kind of thing that has the entire NASCAR community rocked because of the suddenness of it, because of the fact that Kyle Busch was still a vibrant and active racer, and because Kyle Busch was such a huge personality at the track.

It's still -- it's going to be very difficult this weekend in Charlotte for the entire sport to reckon that he's no longer there in the garage on the track.

SANCHEZ: I understand there was an incident on Wednesday when he was testing a racing simulator, and also during a recent race, he had asked specifically for a doctor to see him once it came to a wrap because he wasn't feeling well. What can you tell us about these incidents?

BUSBEE: This is about all we have at the moment. There has not been an official cause of death released by a medical examiner. There are still just pieces of the story at this point that we're putting together one after the other.

None of it sounds very good. Without speculating, it all seems to be heading towards one larger conclusion, but none of it sounded good, and it's the kind of thing where once we find out, I think it'll make a lot more sense and be all the more tragic.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Of course, and our hearts go out to his family. I think a lot of the curiosity surrounding what happened is the fact that, as you said, he was such a vibrant personality and that this happened at a relatively young age.

NASCAR described Kyle as a rare talent, a future Hall of Famer. He reveled as well in playing the villain, right? I do wonder what he was like off the track.

BUSBEE: He was a showman, without a doubt. And yes, he did revel in playing the villain. As you say, at one point, he won a trophy that was a handcrafted guitar in Nashville, and he proceeded to smash it --

(LAUGH)

BUSBEE: -- Pete Townshend style, in a way that horrified the creator. But that was all part of the act for him, and it was a bit of an act. It was a bit of a pro wrestling deal, but it was also what drove him, what made him the best driver that he could possibly be, was that he was very cocky. He was very arrogant. But then the further that he got in the sport, he got married, his wife Samantha, he had two children.

That mellowed him out a bit. He went from being the arrogant, cocky, young fireball to being an elder statesman of the sport. That's generally what happens when you're around long enough. And so, for those of us who are around to see him through that whole transition, from when he was booed as a young driver to when he was cheered as an older one, it's all the more tragic because he really had a role as an elder statesman and NASCAR awaiting him for the next few years.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, and these are images coming from Charlotte Motor Speedway of a memorial that has been put up to Kyle Busch. As we think about his legacy, what should fans of the sport and what should those that are perhaps unfamiliar with racing take away from the life of Kyle Busch?

BUSBEE: He was a true character. He was a racer, and that's the highest compliment that drivers pay to one another, is he was true to himself, he was true to his talent, he maximized every single bit of his talent, and he made you enjoy it.