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Trump & Advisers Meeting to Make "Final Determination" on Iran Deal; Federal Judge Halts Work on Trump's "Anti-Weaponization Fund"; First Survivor Freed from Cave; Rescue Mission to Resume Tomorrow; Blue Origin Rocket Blows Up During Ground Test in Florida. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired May 29, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And 18 cruise passengers who were exposed to hantavirus tell CNN that they will be allowed a return to their homes on Monday, though there is one condition. They say that federal officials are going to require their home states to post a monitor outside of their homes for the remaining three weeks of their six-week quarantine. The group arrived at a national quarantine center in early May after three passengers linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship died.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A nine-day nightmare is now over for one man trapped in a cave in Laos. In just hours, the mission to free the remaining four villagers is set to resume, and we are tracking the latest.

Plus, legal setback. A federal judge is temporarily blocking the White House from taking any action to set up President Trump's controversial anti-weaponization fund.

And then later, a huge fireball lighting up the sky after a Blue Origin rocket explodes on the launch pad. The impact that it could have on NASA's plan to send astronauts to the moon. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We're standing by for breaking news on President Trump's decision on whether or not he will accept a new Iran peace proposal. Just a few hours ago, the President announced that he was meeting with his national security team in the Situation Room to make a final determination. After weeks of negotiations, Trump is weighing a major breakthrough that would extend the current ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The deal would also set up a future negotiation on Iran's nuclear material.

Let's go live to the White House with CNN's Alayna Treene.

Alayna, what is the latest you're hearing?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, look, Boris, we're still awaiting word on whether this meeting in the Situation Room is actually broken. We have not yet heard from the President or any other advisors that he has, in fact, made a final determination on whether or not to give his approval on this memorandum of understanding that we know that both sides have largely agreed to. But of course, we're waiting for the approval of President Trump.

And also, it's still unclear whether or not the Supreme Leader of Iran has signed off on what is in it as well. And just to take you through, you know, how we got here, we know that earlier in the week, we were told that Iranian officials had largely agreed to the text of what -- for the short-term framework of what they were going to be using, essentially, a deal to make another deal and trigger that 60 days of negotiations on further nuclear conversations and the specifics of what that would look like.

But President Trump, we're told, needed a few days to really decide whether or not he wanted to get on board. And then, of course, we had this post from him this morning. I do want to lay out what he said, in his view, would be in this short-term agreement. He said, one, there would be that commitment from Iran to not have a nuclear weapon. Two, that they would agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels, and then also that they would take out mines that they have placed in the strait during the course of this war.

What he also said, and these are a few things that stood out to me, was, one, you know, this really thorny issue of the stockpile uranium that is still in Iran's position. He essentially said that it would be, quote, unearthed by the United States and destroyed in coordination with Iran. That is a new development.

It's unclear, you know, from the conversations I had, that the decisions on what to do about the highly enriched uranium had not been made. He also argued that no money would be exchanged until further notice, something, of course, we know is a crucial desire of the Iranians. So, we'll have to see, really, where this leads. But again, nothing is final until you hear from the President himself on this.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we're still waiting an update from the White House. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for that reporting.

We're also following some developing news about the Trump administration's effort to compensate Americans who it says were wrongly targeted by the federal government. A judge today temporarily halted work on the President's anti-weaponization fund. The order blocks the Trump administration from putting money into or moving money out of a nearly $1.8 billion account being set up by the DOJ with taxpayer dollars. In addition, the administration is not allowed to consider any submitted claims while legal challenges play out.

KEILAR: This pause is only for two weeks, as the judge set a hearing for June 12 for arguments on whether she should make it even longer. Let's bring in CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. He's a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. He's a former federal -- former federal and state prosecutor. I said two former, I said a former, former -- a former, former.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Just one former. \

KEILAR: So, I guess -- okay, so walk us through the judge's decision here.

HONIG: So, this is a hold. It is only a hold, but it's really important. Because what the judge has said is, I want to hear legal arguments on this. I want to get into the merits of it.

[15:05:00]

We're not going to rush like crazy, but we're going to take two weeks, but we're going to take two weeks. We're going to brief the case, and both parties are going to come in on two weeks from today, June 12. And I'll rule then, or I'll rule shortly thereafter.

But in the meantime, government, DOJ, do nothing. Do not advance the ball. Do not start choosing the committee members. And most importantly, I don't want to see a dime go out the door. And it's a pretty dry order when you look at it. But there is a detectable bit of distrust in there, if you look at it. If you look at the footnotes, essentially, the judge is saying, between the lines, I don't trust this administration. I don't trust you to plow ahead with this while it's pending. And so, just so we're all on the same page here, like a parent to a child, nothing happens until I say so.

SANCHEZ: Beyond this case, the fund is being challenged by a number of individuals and entities, including nearly three dozen former federal judges appointed by Presidents of both parties. What are these retired jurists arguing in their lawsuit?

HONIG: There are a whole bunch of lawsuits, right? There's another lawsuit by two of the police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. There's a lawsuit by a prosecutor who prosecuted January 6 cases. There's interest groups that have brought cases.

Generally speaking, the legal attacks are, first of all, that this fund does not comply with the Administrative Procedures Act. It was not done correctly. There was no public notice and comment. Second of all, that the funding was not properly authorized by Congress. And third of all, that there's no actual case here.

This, remember, started when Donald Trump essentially sued his own IRS. And this is a settlement that came out of it. The problem they're all going to have is standing. You don't get to any of those issues unless you can show you have standing, meaning you have a dog in this fight. You are somebody who stands to be wrong. And just being a taxpayer, just being offended by this, even just being a member of Congress, that doesn't get you standing. You have to show some direct injury that you stand to sustain. And I think they're all going to have a difficult time with that.

KEILAR: Really interesting point. So, the pause is temporary. It's a hearing on June 12. Do you see a scenario where the courts actually make this a permanent pause?

HONIG: I do. I mean, if the courts find that somebody has standing, I'll give you a theory that I think is the best theory for standing. One of the plaintiffs, in fact, in this case where the pause came out of, which is in Maryland, essentially says, I was one of the January 6th prosecutors. And this weaponization fund is accusing me of weaponizing government, is disparaging me and my work, and saying I essentially committed wrongdoing as a prosecutor. I think that person has an interesting claim for standing that a lot of the others don't have.

So, if they can overcome the standing hurdle, then I think the rest of the arguments are actually well-grounded. This is not a real lawsuit. This is -- right? This is Trump v. his own administration, which immediately settled. So, I do think there are legal problems with it, but you do have -- the procedure matters, you have to clear the procedure first.

SANCHEZ: It also was settled before a judge in Florida who had expressed skepticism over this ...

HONIG: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... lawsuit, Trump's original lawsuit, could weigh in on whether or not it was a legit effort by the administration. I do wonder if these lawsuits struggle with standing. Is the only recourse to stop this unprecedented effort and what lawmakers on both sides have called a slush fund for the President's allies, action by Congress?

HONIG: By far, the more efficient, efficacious way to do this is for Congress to take action. We've seen a groundswell, mutual, bipartisan groundswell against this. It's so much easier. It's so much cleaner for Congress to take action, to cut off the funding, to make clear, just politically, right? I mean, there's been some suggestion that perhaps Todd Blanche, if he's ever nominated, may have a problem here, right? He got yelled at, Ted Cruz confirmed this, by the Republican Senate caucus last week.

So, the courts are not always the solution to every problem that we have, every political problem. Sometimes there are technical barriers. And sometimes the best solution to a problem has to come from Congress. So yes, I think you're exactly right. I think that's why a lot of -- expect when they come back, expect a lot of people to -- expect Manu to be chasing people around, asking them, what are you going to do about this.

KEILAR: We'll see if they rise to the occasion.

HONIG: Oh, I'm going to bet on it.

KEILAR: They so often do.

HONIG: Yes.

KEILAR: All right, Elie, thank you so much.

HONIG: Thanks, guys.

KEILAR: Really appreciate it.

Still to come, one of the men stuck in that flooded cave in Laos has been rescued. We're going to hear from him, along with some new details on the efforts to get the remaining known survivors out.

Plus, former Attorney General Pam Bondi defending how the Epstein files were handled under her leadership. Key moments from her interview today on Capitol Hill.

SANCHEZ: And later, a big setback for the Blue Origin space program after it puts on a light show, unlike almost any other in the space coast of Florida. The rocket exploding during a ground test. That and much more coming your way next.

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[15:13:58]

KEILAR: We're following breaking news in Laos, where rescue operations for survivors trapped in a flooded cave are still hours away from restarting after they were paused for the night. Earlier, we saw this miraculous moment when the very first survivor made his way to the surface after a dangerous rescue mission that had him navigating pitch black conditions and frigid, murky water with a rescue diver. Here's what he had to say in the middle of that ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Foreign language).

MUED RESCUED FROM CAVE (through interpreter): My name is Mued.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Foreign language).

MUED: I'm alright. I'm still strong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through interpreter): Okay. We'll move on to the next chamber.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Right now, at least four other people are spending their 10th night in that cave, unable to make the difficult journey from deep underground. CNN's Will Ripley is the only international reporter who has been reporting from the scene. He and his interpreter were on CNN earlier with Wolf Blitzer as they spoke with one of the divers involved in the rescue. This was their conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They will -- well, so Kocha (ph) is on the line right now with one of the Thai rescue divers.

[15:15:03]

He's actually on speakerphone right now. So, I'm going to let Kocha (ph) translate what he just told us.

KOCHA: Sure, okay. Okay, let me translate that. He just said (foreign language), he just said that today's -- today's extraction activities will suspend for tonight. They will resume again at 9 A.M. The reason is that all the divers and rescuers are very, very tired. So, the guys that he retrieved today has some problem with his hands and foot because it's been in the water and damped area for a long time, and he has some problem at his stomach. Let me ask the name who asked the first one who left the ...

RIPLEY: Yes. Yes, let's find out his identity.

KOCHA: (Foreign language) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language) ...

KOCHA: (Foreign language) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language) ...

RIPLEY: We're seeing real time what we normally would do on tape but this is that miracle right here, translation power.

KOCHA: Okay. Yes, his name is Mued.

RIPLEY: Mued?

KOCHA: Mued, uh-huh.

RIPLEY: Okay, and what do we know about Mued? Is he -- is he a father, is he married? Do we have any details about him?

KOCHA: (Foreign language) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language) ...

KOCHA: Okay. He's a son, he is single and he is with his parents.

RIPLEY: Okay, the -- the call has just dropped, so I'm trying to redial the IFB (ph) line now.

KOCHA: (Foreign language) ...

RIPLEY: But -- so if -- if you -- I can't hear you, Wolf. But if you can still see and hear me, I'm just trying to call. Can we ask him about the other four, what is their condition and what -- what is the timeline for getting them out? Is it going to happen when there's daylight?

KOCHA: (Foreign language) ...

RIPLEY: (INAUDIBLE) not working.

KOCHA: (Foreign language) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language) ...

RIPLEY: Okay, I'm back. I think (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... (foreign language) ...

KOCHA: Yes, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language) ...

KOCHA: (Foreign language), okay, four of them started to have some illnesses already. Some of them have, like, stomach issues. Some of them have -- have skin issues, and also the skin -- the skin at their hands and their feet have some problem because they've been in a damp area for a very long time. And some of them have intestines issues because they didn't have -- like, they didn't go to toilet for a very long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Will Ripley, thank you for that.

A Blue Origin rocket explodes during a vital ground test. So, how much of a setback is this for the race to the moon? A former astronaut joins the conversation after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:46]

SANCHEZ: Breaking news, a federal judge just blocked the Kennedy Center from temporarily closing for a year's long renovation and said that the center's board violated the law when it added President Trump's name to the venue. U.S. District Judge Casey Cooper, an Obama appointee, says the law establishing the center, quote, makes crystal clear that the center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the board's unilateral say-so.

Cooper goes on to write, quote, "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name and only Congress can change it." As for the renovations, Cooper said that they could move forward, but a closure can only happen after its board fully considered the impact the move would have on its requirement to maintain some programming at all times. We'll stay on top of this story and bring you the latest as we get it.

We're also following the fallout today after that fiery setback for the space company Blue Origin lit up the skies over Florida last night during a launch pad test in Cape Canaveral, its New Glenn rocket burst. Thankfully, the company's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos said that no one was hurt, adding that it was a, quote, "very rough day."

And just into CNN, we have new images showing just how damaged the launch pad is today. The big question, of course, is how this might impact future plans. The U.S. Space Force, Blue Origin, and NASA are trying to figure out what happened that caused what's being described as an anomaly.

Let's talk about that with former NASA astronaut Terry Virts.

Sir, thanks so much for being with us. Just based on what you witnessed last night, what could have caused that anomaly?

TERRY VIRTS, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, it's hard to say. You know, methane or liquid oxygen, there's really volatile chemicals there. If a valve doesn't work, if there's a leak in a tube at the wrong time, this is a test, not an actual launch, just a test, but there -- it was full of fuel. So, it was an amazing explosion. Thankfully, no one was injured. That's the main thing. And we have rocket explosions periodically, and we'll learn about it.

But the -- the explosion looked like a nuclear bomb. I mean, it was a massive thing. I think the only explosion in human history bigger than that for rockets was a Soviet N1, which was a huge rocket back in 1969. But there's a lot of damage to the launch pad.

[15:25:09]

I mean, you can see that visually. A lot of folks on the insider talking about, you know, maybe a year delay or longer.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

VIRTS: And we can talk more, but the Blue Origin rocket, the New Glenn, is very important for both civilian, commercial, and also military applications.

SANCHEZ: Yes, talk to us about that. What is the significance of this specific rocket going up in flames, literally?

VIRTS: Yes. So, you know, it's not a forever problem, but there's another rocket called the Vulcan, the ULA Vulcan, and that has some issues, so that's not able to fly right now. New Glenn was the other big part of the triad, and it's down, obviously, for a while. So, now we're going to be relying on SpaceX and the Falcon 9.

Thankfully, they've been very successful. Falcon 9's launched more than half of the world's launches last year or so, but we don't have any backup, which is not good. And NASA, and our -- our Moon program, and we just announced Moonbase a few days ago, and the Artemis mission, all of those Moon hopes depend on the New Glenn to launch the -- the Jeff Bezos Blue Origin moon lander and also other things. But there's also commercial programs. Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos also has a satellite constellation similar to the Starlink to provide Internet, so that's on hold.

There -- there are also national security missions. New Glenn was certified for national security launches for intelligence and military satellites. Those are on hold, and it was just about to ramp up to regular launch cadence. So, this isn't a permanent problem, but it's going to be a -- a thorn in the side. It's going to cost time and money, at least for the next year, probably.

SANCHEZ: So, talk to us about what that means for NASA's plans. You had Jared Isaacman, the NASA administrator, saying that they're going to soon provide more information on the impacts this is going to have to Artemis and the Moonbase programs. Does that mean that we will not see Artemis III until 2028? VIRTS: Well, I don't know when the launch is going to be. It certainly

won't be moving up ...

SANCHEZ: Right.

VIRTS: ... if anything. There's two moon landers that astronauts will go down to the Moon on. One is made by Blue Origin that launches on this New Glenn rocket, and the other is a SpaceX that launches on the Starship. The Starship has been having some issues. It has been launching, so hopefully that'll get resolved. But the -- the SpaceX lander is also a very large, tall lander that -- that has some technical issues to get past. So, it would have been really nice to have the Blue Origin, which is a little bit simpler, doesn't require as much in-space refueling as the SpaceX one does. It would be really nice to have that Blue Origin lander, not only for astronauts, but it -- like I said, it's also going to bring a lot of the unmanned probes and science instruments down to the Moon for NASA's Moon-based program.

So, the next Artemis mission, this first one went and did a lap around the Moon. The next one, Artemis III, is going to go only to low-Earth orbit, and the crew in the capsule are going to rendezvous, hopefully, with both Blue Origin and SpaceX landers in Earth orbit and check them out. If you go back to Apollo, it's similar to the Apollo 9 mission. But that, you know, this -- this may be delayed. We'll wait and hear from Jared Isaacman and NASA itself. I can't imagine that it's not delayed, just my own personal private observation.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

VIRTS: But it won't be ended forever, you know, but this is definitely going to be a challenge that they're going to have to -- if nothing else, rebuild the launch pad.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes.

VIRTS: So, that's a -- that's significant.

SANCHEZ: We'll keep our fingers crossed that plans aren't delayed too far. And for now, enjoy the light show. Terry Virts, thank you so much.

VIRTS: Thanks for having me. Most importantly, no one was injured, so ...

SANCHEZ: That is ...

VIRTS: ... they'll figure this out and they'll get flying again, hopefully soon.

SANCHEZ: That -- that is a relief, for sure. Thank you, Terry.

So, former Attorney General Pam Bondi getting grilled today by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, what she had to say about the DOJ's handling of the Epstein files under her leadership. Plus, a wave of cancellations at upcoming concerts celebrating

America's 250th anniversary, the reason why several artists, including Bret Michaels, Milly Vanilli, et cetera, are backing out.

You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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