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USA Advances to Round of 16 Knocking Out Bosnia-Herzegovina; Former Olympic Canoeist Indicted After Arrest at Reflecting Pool; White House-adjacent Parks Temporarily Closed Due to Security Precautions Based on Sensitive Intelligence; Trump's Wealth Surges Since Retaking Office; Economy Adds Far Fewer Jobs, Just 57,000, in June; Scientists Build a Cell From Scratch for the First Time; Massive Makeover Inside MSG for Swift & Kelce's Expected Wedding. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired July 02, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: -- just got steeper, Erica. Belgium in Seattle on Monday in the Round of 16 without Balogun. Seattle has been Belgium's base camp. This entire tourney is sports and emotional roller coaster. This one skipped the brakes.

American fans saw joy, panic, relief and anger. Still euphoria. America's World Cup dreams still very much alive and they are full steam ahead to Seattle.

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": It is very much the journey of a sports fan just wrapped up into this one single match, Coy.

(LAUGH)

HILL: Thank you, my friend.

WIRE: Exactly right.

(LAUGH)

HILL: A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

New details in the FBI's investigation into alleged vandalism of the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. A former Olympian, we're learning, has been indicted by a grand jury after his arrest at the pool. We're now awaiting a news conference on that investigation this hour.

Cashing in, the Mar-a-Lago resort has become an even bigger source of wealth for Donald Trump during his presidency. We'll take a closer look at just how much that property is bringing in.

And a match made in Madison Square Garden. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce tying the knot this weekend. What we know about the nuptials, the rehearsal dinner, and the big gifts the bride and groom have for the rest of the country.

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

The Breaking News this hour, we are just learning that U.S. Attorney, Jeanine Pirro is planning to hold a press conference soon on the alleged destruction of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Just moments ago, CNN learning that a former Olympic canoeist was indicted by a grand jury after his arrest. CNN Crime & Justice Correspondent, Katelyn Polantz joining us now with those breaking details. So Katelyn, what are we learning about these charges?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Erica, I don't have the exact charges yet, but what I do know is that David Hearn, the former Olympic canoeist, who was touching the blue material from the bottom of the Reflecting Pool and was cited by Park Police, he is going to be facing a felony charge in Washington, D.C. Superior Court.

So that's the local court. But the prosecutors who decide on something like that, those are the federal prosecutors. The U.S. Attorney, Jeanine Pirro -- we are expecting Pirro to make some public statements about this at a press conference in about a half an hour.

I reached out to David Hearn's lawyer to ask if they knew what was going on and how this case had escalated from these misdemeanor citations for disobedience in public, for touching this federal property, to a felony charge. And they said that they were still learning about what was happening today. So we're just at the very forefront of understanding that this arrest has turned into a charge.

Now, Erica, to back up a second here, this is not just about what something may have happened on the National Mall area. Erica, this is about the Reflecting Pool that Donald Trump had wanted to renovate, that he sunk $14 million into to resurface the bottom of. He had it drained.

There was an algae problem after that bottom was resurfaced. And then the blue surface on the bottom began peeling up. That was drawing people to the Reflecting Pool to look at it. And then there were more federal officers sent to protect the Reflecting Pool. That's the moment in time where Hearn received this citation. He has said that he was just curious about it. He wasn't trying to vandalize it.

But the president, Donald Trump, he came out there amid this, amid the arrest of David Hearn and said, this was vandalization. And he then called for very aggressive law enforcement and prosecution of anything around the Reflecting Pool. He said, please remember that there is a 10-year prison sentence for the destruction of federal property or even the attempted destruction of such things, which will be fully enforced.

So now, one of the questions is what in this case made the U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, decide that this should be a felony charge rather than a much lesser charge for David Hearn, just choosing not to stick with the citation he received, choosing to take it through a grand jury in Washington, D.C.? What made her do that? And did the president calling for a very aggressive charge here, a felony charge, factor into the prosecutor's consideration of this case against Hearn?

So a lot of politics in play around the Reflecting Pool. A lot still to talk about, given that this is something that people have been very interested in with the algae growth, with bottom pulling off with the renovations, and now the president calling it vandalization. Erica?

HILL: Absolutely. We'll be interested in what we get in terms of answers at that press conference that we're expecting a little bit later. Katelyn, I know you'll stay on top of it as well. Thank you.

We're also monitoring a number of developments in Washington as the city hosts the America 250 celebration. So we've now learned that two parks surrounding the White House have been formally closed to the public, not just for the weekend, but for the month.

[14:05:00]

The U.S. Secret Service says this extra layer of security is necessary due to sensitive intelligence. The temporary closure spanned both the Ellipse and Lafayette Park, and they run through the end of the month through July 31st. All of this coming as we're also learning about new security challenges in the run-up to the July 4th festivities planned for this weekend.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House. So in terms of those preparations, Kristen, what are these newer concerns?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's always going to be concerns around any event of this magnitude, particularly you're talking about being out on The Mall in an open exposure. I'll take you back just a week ago when President Trump spoke on The Mall for the 250 launch of the State Fair. It was a very high-security event.

They had the motorcade go all the way up to the stage, almost no room between him getting out of the motorcade and being in a safe room attached to the stage backstage. There was 20 feet of bulletproof glass from almost every angle, and any angle that wasn't secured by bulletproof glass was blocked from aerial vision by giant media tents.

That is how they are securing these various events, and this is expected to be an even bigger event. Of course, we have to look at what we have seen just over the past few months. We saw what happened at the UFC fight, these plans that Kash Patel announced had been foiled by the FBI to use drones and snipers to go after the president and people around him.

We saw what happened at The Hilton for the White House Correspondents' Dinner. A man went through the mags (ph) and was stopped by Secret Service intending to harm President Trump and other cabinet members. So there is a heightened level of security around all of these events, but what I was told was that the plans leading up to the fourth is that there just had been some confusion and movement on what exactly was going to happen on the National Mall and when it was going to happen, when he was going to give these remarks, how long these remarks were going to be. Are they going to be shifting later? Are they going to be shifting earlier? All of this has led to a lot of confusion. Now I am told that even amid confusion, Secret Service has its plans and its backup plans. It is always better for them to have a set agenda and a set routine in place in order to actually build out that security plan.

But of course, we know everyone is taking this seriously. There's going to be National Park Police. There's going to be National Guard all on site. So it's going to be a very secure situation in downtown D.C.

HILL: All right, Kristen, appreciate it. Thank you. We've also been talking today about this eye-popping payday that President Trump saw in his first year back in office. We know now that he made billions of dollars in 2025, much of that coming from crypto-related deals. Today, though, there's also renewed scrutiny about just how lucrative his Florida resorts have become. Last year, the president raking in more than $77 million from Mar-a-Lago. That's a marked increase, 50 percent from the year before.

As for the president's Doral golf course, during his first term, he was taking in about $75 million there. As you can see, last year, $122 million.

Joining us now, Marc Short, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence. He's now the Board Chairman for Advancing American Freedom. Marc, nice to see you, as always.

When we look at these numbers, and specifically when we talk about crypto, right, so the president netted more than $526 million from sales of these crypto tokens. Those are tied to a firm that's managed by his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. He's also, as president, been a vocal supporter of the crypto industry. Does that concern you at all?

MARC SHORT, BOARD CHAIRMAN, ADVANCING AMERICAN FREEDOM: Erica, I think that the president has enormous support, in part, because he's been so successful. I think one of the things that captured America's imagination in 2016 was his promise to go drain the swamp. I think that for a lot of people, they felt like he was running against the Clinton machine, and then the deep state came after him with the prosecutions.

I think this is troubling for a lot of his supporters, because they don't begrudge him making money. They think that that's part of his story. But I think the notion that you were -- I can't tell you how many rallies I went to in 2016, and the biggest applause line was always drain the swamp. And that's what I think American voters wanted Donald Trump to do.

And now it appears, you know, the swamp is so inviting that he's bathing in it with the sheiks in the Middle East with what's happening with his crypto investments.

HILL: Sorry, let me finish your question.

SHORT: No. I just think that that's going to, I think, create a lot of consternation for a lot of his followers. And I think it's going to continue to have problems for other Republicans, because presumably when Democrats take control of at least one chamber in November, they'll launch investigations and Republicans are going to have to explain why it was wrong for the Bidens and OK for Trump.

And now, you've seen the Wall Street Journal's editorialize, the New York Post, the Free Press, all of the conservative publications have all criticized that this is graft.

HILL: Some of them in really scathing terms, right?

SHORT: Yeah.

HILL: You even have Megyn Kelly saying this is grifty. The family looks grifty and I don't like the way that looks. I mean, her comments actually sometimes do get to the president. But do you think there is anything that will change the current course, if you will, for President Trump?

[14:10:00]

SHORT: I don't know that it is. I think he's less worried about it, but I think there's going to be, again, a lot of Republicans after the midterms who are going to have to explain this. Again, I'm not in any way excusing what happened to Bidens. I think it was one of the things that helped propel the president back into the White House. But to be consistent, Republicans should be able to criticize this as well.

HILL: Right. And we should also point out when it comes to the Bidens, right, there was evidence that Hunter Biden leveraged his name, right, to pursue lucrative foreign deals, which was untoward, but not necessarily illegal. There was never evidence that House Republicans presented that found that Joe Biden, right, had profited from his son's businesses or from his position.

I think it's important we have to start with the facts right here where we're at. When you talk about how concerning these recent financial disclosures could be for President Trump in terms of what he had promised in terms of draining the swamp, how difficult is it going to be, to your point, for Republicans as they're running in the midterms and perhaps beyond, because they will have to answer.

SHORT: They will. I mean, to be to be there with the Bidens, Hunter was paid for his foreign policy expertise by the Chinese and others. I think we have a lot of questions what his expertise was. But Erica, I think that, again, in this case, not only is it the relationships with, in some cases, some of our adversaries or those who have harbored terrorists in the Middle East, but at the expense of a lot of Americans who invested in his companies.

The way he works is that he gets a fee on the transaction. So there's been people who have lost 90 to 95 percent of their investment --

HILL: Yeah.

SHORT: -- while he's continued to prosper. I think that's going to create a lot of challenge for a lot of his followers.

HILL: How do you feel about the White House's response in this moment?

SHORT: Well, I think that they want to move past it, of course, and I think the president is going to blow it off. But, again --

HILL: Which he has. I mean, he has, right? When he was asked about it.

(CROSSTALK)

SHORT: I think he will continue to. But, again, I think it's going to be a challenge for other people on the ballot to be able to say, well, you know, why were you critical of one and not the other? And I think there has to be consistency on our side.

HILL: All right. We'll be watching to see if they're -- what the message may be moving forward.

SHORT: Thanks, Erica.

HILL: It's a long day. Marc, good to see you, as always. Thank you.

Still to come here, a disappointing Jobs Report. What the data signals now about the economy. Plus, it's being described as America's royal wedding. The new details we have for you today about Taylor Swift's massive celebration set to kick off in just a matter of hours, we think, at Madison Square Garden.

Plus, the largest fleet of the world's tallest ships now making their way to New York Harbor for America's 250th birthday celebration. And we are going to take you live aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle, one of the tallest ships. It's going to be leading the parade. That's straight ahead on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:20]

HILL: The new jobs data is not wowing economists today who describe this as steady, but not strong. Some 50,000 jobs were added in June. That's actually a significant slowdown in hiring from the 129,000 that were reported in May. The number of people without a job, though, actually held steady. So unemployment ticking down to 4.2 percent.

CNN Business Senior Reporter, David Goldman digging into this latest Jobs Report for us. So, David, what do -- I mean, walk us through some more of these numbers here and what they actually tell us about the state of the job market.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Erica, there's always the numbers behind the headline, right? The headline number, as you said, 57,000 new jobs. That is definitely less than economists were expecting. And I think that one of the things that we're looking at is this unemployment rate, too, as you mentioned. That went down for the wrong reasons, right? This is people leaving the labor force saying, forget it, I don't want to even look anymore. I'm not finding anything.

So what's going on here? What's causing this? Well, there's a few things. The first thing that I want to focus on is health care, because this has supported the U.S. economy for a long time. Remember, there's a lot of aging people in this economy. And we need folks like nurses to take care of them. But this is only half of what we normally get.

We've been getting about 38,000 of these jobs per month over the last 12 months. So 22,000 is a significant slowdown. That is something that we need to watch.

Also, leisure. This one is mind boggling. How did we lose 61,000 leisure and hospitality jobs in the month of June when we have the World Cup going on? I think, and there are a number of economists who are smarter than me who think that this might change as we get those revisions in the future months, because this is kind of defying logic and defying what we can see with our own eyes.

Speaking of those revisions, we lost 74,000 jobs that we thought we had created over April and May. That means that the economy, the labor economy, is doing worse than we thought it was. Now, this is just one month of data. This is not a trend. We need to wait and see what happens. So I'll leave you with just a little bit of good news.

The wage growth, this is your paycheck, on average grew 3.5 percent over the course of the last year. That is up from what we've been seeing in the past that was 3.4 percent. We're still, though, lower than inflation, but we expect this number is going to start to come down as gas prices come down.

[14:20:00]

So having any kind of positive wage growth is going to help us fight that inflation, Erica.

HILL: Yeah, need a little bit more of it, right, so that we're not in the negative. David, always good to see you. Thanks.

GOLDMAN: That's right.

HILL: It's definitely not a cool summer for Taylor Swift, bit more of a love story if you will. Fans buzzing with excitement about her big day and we are live at Madison Square Garden with new details for you this hour about what's happening inside that giant round, really not very attractive, building. But inside, it's going to be gorgeous. We're pretty sure.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:25:14] HILL: Taking a look now at some of the other headlines we're following for you this hour. The World Health Organization today announcing that the Hantavirus outbreak, which was linked to that luxury cruise liner earlier this year, is now over. Three people, of course, aboard the M.V. Hondius died, nearly a dozen others fell ill with the viral disease.

This was, of course, back in May. The WHO's director-general confirming there have been no new cases reported since May 25th. The last person under quarantine from contact tracing actually tested negative and has now been cleared to return home.

New data shows Americans may be living longer than ever. The CDC reporting death rates have fallen to the lowest rate in more than a century. A record low death rate suggests record high life expectancy. The top causes of death, by the way, in the U.S. in 2025, heart disease and cancer.

And scientists at the University of Minnesota say they have built a cell from scratch for the very first time. The team of biologists claim they created a synthetic cell that can feed, grow and replicate just like a natural cell. They said they built it using non-living chemical components. They named it 'SpudCell,' a play on the Russian satellite Sputnik that launched the space age in the 1950s.

So right now, important to note this is just a prototype, but the scientists hope that it could usher in an era of made-to-order organisms, designing them for specific jobs and programming them to do things that living cells are not able to do.

Well, here's something that no one thought you could ever do, have a fabulous wedding at Madison Square Garden. I mean, people have tied the knot there before, but let's be honest, it's not exactly what you turn to when you're thinking dream wedding unless, of course, you're Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, who we're pretty sure there's big transformation happening in that very building right now for their wedding.

Sources say the rehearsal dinner for the couple will be held there in just a few hours. The actual ceremony and the big party afterwards, that is slated for tomorrow evening. All week, there has been a whole lot of activity at MSG, large crates, as you can see here, being delivered to the venue.

All of this fueling questions about just what the couple actually does have in store for the big day. CNN's Brynn Gingras is live outside MSG.

You have been watching these developments throughout the week, my friend. What more do we know today about the big plans?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yeah, Erica, so we are now on 7th Avenue, about a half a block from where a giant tent has been constructed, and that is to give the guests who eventually arrive for these two big events tonight and tomorrow some privacy, a little shield from the paparazzi. So we've been seeing little things pop up where we know we're getting closer to these big events.

Another one of them, you can probably see maybe behind me, there are barricades. These have been set up all along 7th and 8th Avenue and also along 31st and 33rd Streets. If you're not a New Yorker, well, let me tell you, those are the streets that are forming a perimeter around Madison Square Garden. There is just a ton of security that is in place, additional cops we've been seeing walk around.

I mean, again, these are all little Easter eggs that we know things are about to go down. But we also know from our own sourcing that the rehearsal dinner is scheduled for tonight. Guests are going to arrive here at Madison Square Garden about for a 6 o'clock rehearsal dinner, and that is going to be attended by about 100 people, we're told by sources, inside the theater section of Madison Square Garden.

And then tomorrow is the big event. We're told that it's going to begin with a cocktail hour, then go into the wedding ceremony, which is expected to take place on the floor of the arena, and then the dancing and celebration will continue until the morning hours of July 4th. So quite the celebration.

And listen, I got to tell you, we have been seeing Swifties all around this area --

(LAUGH)

GINGRAS: -- trying to get a glimpse of anything they can possibly see related to this event. I want you to quickly just hear from one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I heard that it was going to be here, I was like trying to put in my mind, how? How is she going to decorate that? A stadium? Like a basketball rink? Like, I didn't know. I'm picking up my sister from town, she's coming into town, and we -- she's a Taylor Swift fan, and we're going to come down here and see what's up.

But if it's going to be all, you know, private and they're not going to let us through, and it's hot outside, I think I'll watch from TV.

(LAUGH)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Yeah, you know, what we've been hearing, Erica, is that the Madison Square Garden arena has been transformed into a garden party. So we cannot wait to see those pictures. And other Swifties telling me, you know what, they don't care what chaos this has caused over the July 4th heatwave weekend, they are just happy that their princess met her Prince Charming. Erica?

(LAUGH)

HILL: It is very sweet. And I do love, too, that as a couple, they are donating $26 million to a number of charities, both in New York City and in a number of other areas around the country that I know are near and dear to them. So that is a lovely message --