Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

NYSE, Nasdaq To Ring Opening Bell From Oval Office For First Time; Red Card Reversal After Trump's Call With FIFA Chief Sparks Controversy; Delta Flight Landing In Chicago Hit By Firework On July Fourth. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 06, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:30:05]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening today a first in the Oval Office. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will hold the first-ever joint opening bell ceremony from there later this morning. The occasion, the launch of so-called Trump accounts, the new federal savings and investment option for children that went live on the Fourth of July. Eligible newborns will receive $1,000 in federal seed money and companies and philanthropists have pledged funding. The Trump administration is touting these accounts as a start of the American dream.

So let's ask the question: Who gets it?

CNN senior business reporter David Goldman joins me now. He was not just born, you are not getting $1,000, and you will not pass go -- but who will? Who will be eligible for this thousand bucks?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, my kids aren't even eligible --

SIDNER: OK.

GOLDMAN: -- which is really a bummer for me because this is something parents really want to know about.

SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: I mean -- so today we have a look at the Trump accounts website, and you can see this $1,000.

SIDNER: Here it is.

GOLDMAN: People are going to want that. How do you get it? Well, you need to be born between the beginning of last year and for now, the end of '28. This may get extended.

You also need to be a U.S. citizen and have that valid Social Security number. This is key because if you're born now, in the hospital, you can just sign up for a Trump account as you're getting your Social Security number. Please do this. This is $1,000 that's just free -- SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: -- to have. This is really, really important stuff.

Now you can invest in this account.

SIDNER: So once you've opened it, it's yours and you can continue to --

GOLDMAN: It's your account.

SIDNER: -- put money in it.

GOLDMAN: Yeah, that's exactly right. Your parents can put -- I mean, if you're a smart kid and you're two years old you can do it too -- probably not. Your parents are going to be doing this. Up to $5,000 tax-free for each year. And you can put them in, you know, basically ETFs like this.

SIDNER: Yeah, yeah.

GOLDMAN: The S&P 500 or something like that.

SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: You cannot take it out until you're 18. This is key because it can be used for college --

SIDNER: College.

GOLDMAN: -- or it can be used to buy a house, or for retirement.

SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: But whatever it is that you do with it, if you take it out otherwise, you're going to get this 10 percent penalty. So just like a 401k or other accounts like that you have to use it for a particular purpose.

Now, why do this?

SIDNER: I knew you were going to -- I knew you were going to go here because business -- he is in the business of business, and I knew you were going to show us just how it could grow. This is fun.

GOLDMAN: I am. I like numbers and this is something that everyone is going to want because $1,000 isn't going to go too far for college.

SIDNER: Right.

GOLDMAN: We know how much that costs. But let's just assume that you get a seven percent average return, which is a lot less than --

SIDNER: It's low than -- these days.

GOLDMAN: Exactly. SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: That $1,000 turns into $3,300. If you have a little bit better return, $5,500, and that's assuming you never put any money in. But if you do, look at this. You can get a quarter-million dollars by the time you are ready to graduate high school. That would go --

SIDNER: That'll pay for college.

GOLDMAN: That would pay for college.

SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: That goes a long way.

So how do I sign up? Well, you've got to fill 4547 -- that IRS form. I wonder why it's called the 4547 form?

SIDNER: Uh-huh.

GOLDMAN: Uh-huh, or you can to trumpaccounts.gov. Parents, please do this. This is free money from the government. It's really important to give people a leg up when they're going to college.

SIDNER: Donald Trump always wants credit for these things. That's why this -- he was the 45th and the 47th president. That's why it's called a Trump account. But it is free money and he gets the credit, and people that want to have a thousand bucks for their kid that was born in 2025 -- they should do it.

GOLDMAN: You got it. That's right.

SIDNER: Why not take it? All right.

GOLDMAN: Take the money.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, David -- appreciate it -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. At this moment the clock is ticking for Belgium to appeal FIFA's stunning -- frankly, stunning decision -- no hyperbole there -- to clear Team USA's top scorer, Folarin Balogun, to play tonight. He received a red card in the last game. And the rule is if you get a red card you're tossed from that game, and you can't play in the next one. That's the rule, except this time.

The Athletic reports the deadline for the appeal is 8:00 a.m., which is 26 minutes from now. So we are waiting to find out what happens.

A source tells CNN that President Trump personally spoke with the head of FIFA and asked him to review the red card against Balogun. And this raises questions about how far the president will use his influence everywhere, including sports -- whether this is the appropriate place to play for him.

With us now CNN political analyst Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times, and Jackie Kucinich, the Washington bureau chief for The Boston Globe.

I apologize how into this story I am, but I'm watching seven to eight hours of soccer every day, so this has become my profession. I'm a huge fan.

And obviously, the political implications here are just -- are just enormous. I can't tell you the ripple effects all around the world this morning about this, Zolan.

[07:35:00]

Do you think it's the kind of thing -- did the president anticipate, do you think, what the aftershocks would be?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Uh, I'm not sure if the president --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- anticipated it. I'm also not sure if the president would, you know, consider -- have that be a factor --

BERMAN: Right.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- of the actions or would care necessarily.

Um, we have seen now various nations issuing statements sharply criticizing the process for this. The decision here that includes the U.S.' opponent in Belgium. That includes Norway as well.

Um, look, there's a couple of things here. I mean, I'm getting responses from folks who are fans of U.S. soccer that are -- that were -- acknowledged that this was a widely criticized call, a widely criticized red card, and are excited about the return of one of their star players.

But at the same time you have to acknowledge just as a journalist in this -- someone observing the news -- that it is extraordinary to have the president weigh in this directly to the FIFA head while this review was still ongoing.

I also think it's worthy context to note that this comes after a year -- really more than a year that the FIFA head was really making strides to improve his relationship with President Trump in what -- as the World Cup neared. That includes taking out an apartment in Trump Tower. That includes awarding him a peace prize as well.

My colleague Tarek, in international, has done really great work looking just at the relationship of these two leaders as President Trump has taken this transactional approach across the globe with foreign leaders. The FIFA head -- the head of the sports association recognized that and also looked for that.

BERMAN: We're talking, like, overt, out in the open, cloying and sucking up. I mean, like, zero subtlety to everything he was doing there, including the awarding of this one-time FIFA peace prize. Jackie, again, the blowback here is immense this morning, but knowing

this White House and knowing this president -- and we're going to hear from him in a little bit. He's ringing the opening bell on Wall Street. I imagine he'll be like yeah, sure -- I got what I wanted here.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE (via Webex by Cisco): I mean, absolutely. He's someone who hasn't really shied away even in the past from, you know, putting his -- trying to put his weight into American sports. But now where he's taking it international, clearly -- I mean, he is someone who likes to throw his weight around and likes to talk about it and brag about it.

We'll see what he says as he is ringing the opening bell from the Oval Office. That in and of itself is kind of a wild thing to say.

But the implications here are vast, however it's not exactly that FIFA is the most chaste, non-scandal prone --

BERMAN: Right.

KUCINICH: -- organization in the world either. So there's -- this very rightly can be the Roman empire that's living in your head, John, right now but I don't think this story is over.

BERMAN: No. And again, we'll talk about the sporting side of it a little bit later in the broadcast. I mean, is every world leader going to call FIFA now every time there's a call they don't like to see if they can get it reversed? This really does open the door to that type of thing.

Jackie, in Michigan there is a story that might rival this, almost, which is that Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the Democratic race for Senate there. There was a really highly-contested three-way primary there to replace Gary Peters. That leaves Abdul El-Sayed, who is considered the candidate of the left -- progressive left -- Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- and Haley Stevens, more in the center here.

Talk to me about the significance of the departure and where this leaves Democrats nationally.

KUCINICH: I mean, this really -- she was trying to carve out a lane between those two as the sort of -- between the progressive and the establishment candidate, and that lane never really materialized despite heavyweights like Elizabeth Warren endorsing her.

Now, going forward, you do have another one of these establishment versus insurgent left candidate clash and you're seeing -- and it's going to get nasty here in the -- in the last, you know, couple of weeks of this race assuredly just because of the threat faced by -- posed by Mike Rogers. This is a very purple seat. He's someone that is a known entity in that state. And it's just going to get more and more expensive as we go on.

BERMAN: Yeah.

Quick last words, Zolan, on this?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Absolutely. I mean, look, you had a candidate here who tried to play to the middle -- tried to get moderates and progressives. And she was outpaced on the advertising side when it came to gaining those moderate voters. And then on the progressive side, once again, Israel and what the candidates' position will be when it comes to American support for Israeli military continues to resonate in the Democratic primaries.

BERMAN: The middle is an awkward place to be it seems right now.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Particularly in a primary.

BERMAN: Great to see both of you. Thank you both so much for playing. And, you know, whatever happens, go USA tonight -- Kate.

[07:40:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So let's turn to this. A frightening moment in the air during Fourth of July fireworks in Chicago. A Delta Airlines jet from Atlanta was landing at Midway Airport Saturday when the pilot reported that the plane -- he thought it had been hit by a firework.

Here's the pilot describing what happened to air traffic control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PILOT: Tower, we just had a firework hit our plane. We're just hoping it was just a mortar that went off underneath but definitely felt a big bang.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The pilot was able to land safely but air traffic controllers said that there had actually been multiple reports of the same.

And joining us right now is CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo. It's great to see you, Mary.

What do you make of this? I mean, that seemed -- I literally said on Saturday, "You know, someday I'd really love to see the fireworks, like, from a plane flying over to see it below" -- and then I saw these reports.

What are the rules around fireworks and flights?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (via Webex by Cisco): Well, that's a, you know, very interesting question because the rules concerning professional fireworks -- you know, the commercial ones that you see at fireworks displays -- they're actually managed by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- the federal bureau of A -- you know, ATF -- as opposed to the FAA. And the FAA doesn't actually have rules that say no fireworks within x number of miles of the airport.

But for a professional fireworks display they have to get a permit if it's anywhere near the airport. It can't be in the landing paths or any of the -- you know, the area around the airport. And it's called the "Special Activity Airspace" and they have to file a notice to airmen and all those sorts of things.

But here it was clearly a consumer firework. And that's different and, you know, I'm always surprised that we don't hear more of this, but consumer fireworks -- the ones you buy at the local store -- can only go up about 200, maybe 300 feet tall, and they're limited to 130 milligrams of flash powder.

So ordinarily they simply can't get close enough to aircraft unless they're right in the landing or takeoff pattern, and that is banned by FAA regulations. You cannot shoot things into any of the landing paths of aircraft. So if they catch them, they will be cited and fined by the FAA.

And while the FAA doesn't keep track of these statistics there have been instances where pilots have been night flying by the flash of fireworks and at least one crash reported in the media due to that.

BOLDUAN: Hmm, that's pretty wild. And a great point that you -- when you say you don't hear more -- it happens more often. But I guess thank goodness we do not.

But then, Mary, there's also this seaplane I have to ask you about --

SCHIAVO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- that made this hard landing in the East River. The impact caused part of the wing to snap. There's various angles of various videos of it. Passengers and the pilot are said to be alright and taken off. But this is also the second hard landing like this in the East River in just the last month.

I mean, what do you see in the videos that are out there?

SCHIAVO: Oh, well, you know, as a pilot, I mean, that -- this -- so that plane, a Kodiak 100, is a pretty hot and a very new plane. I mean, it is -- it's like a $3 million airplane and being less than a year old when I see that my first instinct is, you know, I hope everyone's OK, and they were.

But, you know, this plane is a tough plane. It's been used in firefighting. It's, you know, a praised Alaska bush plane, et cetera. But when you train to be a seaplane pilot you only have to have your regular license and then get a seaplane certificate on top of that.

The most important thing you're trained in is to read your water. And if you're a newer seaplane pilot what you're looking for is glass water -- really smooth, et cetera. Because we've learned about wave action over the years and waves can multiply. And the boat waves -- when you're mixing airplanes and boats you have to worry about that. And what the footage looks like is, of course, when coming into land

they hit a swell or a wave. It could be from the boats; it could be from wave action. So even though you don't see whitecaps there can be tremendous waves or swells in the water and hitting water is like hitting cement. It's dense, it's heavy, and it can break up this plane. And like you said, this was a nice, new, spiffy plane so --

But thank heavens all the people were fine thanks to the boaters who came to their rescue just like on Miracle on the Hudson. The boaters got there and put lines on the plane, pulled them taut, and kept the plane from sinking in that case. So good for the boaters.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, because there you go -- we'll take -- we'll take that as well. But my goodness, you're right. When you think about hitting water it's like hitting cement. Yeah, still need to be careful.

It's great to see you, Mary. Thank you so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: Such a scary scene watching --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- that plane go down. Yikes.

All right. This morning dangerous heat and severe storms are again descending on millions of Americans as they return to work from a stormy holiday weekend. Sixty-one million people are under a flood risk at the moments. Parts of the northeast face a growing threat of dangerous flash flooding, which could impact travel plans.

[07:45:00]

Let's go to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam. I saw the warning come into my phone this morning here in New York. But look, we've been going through ups and downs of this July Fourth weekend and now here we are again having to worry about flooding.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. If our heat wasn't enough this weekend, the storms kind threw all of our fireworks plans into question.

Hey, if you look closely on this live cam, I can almost see you there, Sara -- Hudson Yards. It's a gloomy start to your Monday morning. A lot of people trying to exit the city, maybe leaving the East Coast. Maybe you're celebrating the Fourth of July in D.C. with me. Well, it's going to be tough.

We've got a lot of storms to talk about this morning, and the heavy rain threat is going to bring the potential of flash flooding in a large population area with several major airports, including JFK and into LaGuardia as well.

You can see the moderate risk. This is the highlighted area in red. That's a level three of four from the weather prediction center. That means heavy rain -- excessive rain could lead to flash flooding and local rises in rivers and streams, OK? So we also have a slight risk that extends into the Delmarva Peninsula

westward towards the western portions of Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh.

So here's the current setup. This is the radar right now. And I just wanted you to see how ongoing the rain is. It's not particularly heavy but what could form later this afternoon, and this morning could cause some problems. Like I said, we already have flash flooding warnings that are popping up. This is into southern sections of Maryland.

But we have the watches as Sara just mentioned. Over 60 million Americans under a flood watch. This includes Philadelphia, Baltimore, into New York City, Washington, D.C, for instance.

So let's take you forward into the future. A stationary front is responsible for this rainfall. It could back build. So that means more rain training over the same locations for several hours at a time. The weather prediction center talking about three inch per hour rainfall rates. This could easily total upwards of five to six inches in some of those areas.

But we all know -- hey, New York City, right in the middle of that, so heads up -- Sara.

SIDNER: Dude Von Dudenstein, I gotta say this sucks. We have been through it. It was so hot.

VAN DAM: Yeah.

SIDNER: I know. You were -- you were in the storms in D.C. This is like --

VAN DAM: I was.

SIDNER: -- really serious. People need to pay attention. But goodness, can we get a break, please? All right, I'll stop complaining -- John -- maybe.

BERMAN: No. No, we can't get a break and no, you won't stop complaining.

All right. The reflecting pool has been plagued by green algae and peeling lining. The company tapped to fix it, the same company that handled the first round of renovations.

And new details about what happened inside the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, including who caught the bouquet. It was not me.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:52:32]

BOLDUAN: Today's matches, tonight's games just became so much more than they already were. The U.S. Men's team plays in its biggest World Cup game ever while the entire soccer world is still picking their jaws up off the floor after that unprecedented red card ban was overturned.

CNN's Patrick Snell joining us right now. What are you hearing about this now, Patrick?

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Hi there, Kate. Yeah, this was a huge story when it broke on Sunday over the weekend here.

Now we're learning that Belgium's Football Federation has been given the right to appeal against FIFA's decision to suspend the one-game ban handed to the USA's Folarin Balogun. This is according to The New York Times. CNN has reached out to both FIFA and the Belgian FA for comment. Now the Belgians have until the top of this hour to appeal that decision.

It comes after a source familiar with the matter telling CNN Sunday that Trump spoke with FIFA president Gianni Infantino this week after Balogun's red card against Bosnia Herzegovina in the Round of 32 and asked the FIFA leader to review the call. CNN has reached out to FIFA for comment on that as well.

Let's hear now from Belgium's head coach on one hot topic of controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDI GARCIA, BELGIUM HEAD COACH (through translator): I didn't realize that at FIFA headquarters, July 5, was the equivalent of April 1 in Europe. The Belgian Football association isn't defending itself; it's defending football in general -- the integrity and ethics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNELL: Hmm, ouch.

England, my country, with an outstanding win to eliminate co-host Mexico as the iconic Azteca. There we go. The Three Lions devastating counterpunch. Jude Bellingham scoring the first of his two goals in two first half minutes -- a great header. And then he follows that up 98 seconds later with another one.

Julian Quinones pulling one back for El Tricolor just before the break. A frenetic match. Each team also scoring a penalty. The English played with 10 men for well over half an hour as well after sending off 3-2 England, the final score.

Erling Haaland continues to do amazing things in his first-ever World Cup. Here's his first goal as Norway proving too good for Brazil. The five-time world champs beaten 2-1 in New Jersey on Sunday. A great header and then just for good measure, how about that? The Man City man with a wonderful finish in the very last minute of play. Norway through to the last eight for the first time ever.

[07:55:05]

Today's "What A Shot" is brought to us by Arkay, the now iconic Norwegian row usually led by their skipper Martin Odegaard. This time orchestrated by -- there he is. The main man, Erling Haaland.

The Norwegian play England in the quarterfinals Saturday in Miami.

Back to you.

BOLDUAN: I -- I mean, I think everyone has become a Norway fan with this, like, performance in the rowing. I mean, I -- it was so good.

SNELL: I agree.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Patrick.

SNELL: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: I also am just stuck on Patrick gets to say "controversy," which I obviously love.

BERMAN: Your word is surrounded -- world is surrounded by controversy.

You are like America's most famous Belgian-American. Are your loyalties split for tonight's games?

BOLDUAN: I just don't know what to do. No. Obviously, I'm like Elmo. Go, team USA because I don't want people to be mad at me.

BERMAN: That's the right choice.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

BERMAN: Go enjoy some frite. That's --

All right. Mount Etna, Europe's largest active volcano, is active in Sicily. Thick clouds of smoke and ash prompted flight cancellations. I always get excited when I get to ash cloud. There have been nine straight days there of volcanic activity.

All right. Finland hosted the annual World Wife Carrying Championship this weekend. Contestants carry their wives or partners, I imagine, through a rigorous obstacle course. The 29th Annual Wife Carrying Championship had contestants participating from 12 countries, including some newlyweds putting their new marriage to the test.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're -- actually, we got married three days ago, so --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- it seemed like the ideal place to celebrate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The winner was a 61-year-old Finnish man and his wife. This is their ninth time taking first place in the contest.

And I've actually covered one of these --

SIDNER: Of course.

BERMAN: -- in the United States, in Maine. And you'll notice the style there -- the way they carry them -- which is why we will not be demonstrating it here --

SIDNER: What are you talking about?

BERMAN: -- a CNN NEWS CENTRAL at CNN.

SIDNER: Oh, did I not tell you? I signed up. Kate is already going to pick you up. She is a Pilates master.

BOLDUAN: Big controversy.

BERMAN: A controversy. We're close. We're not that close, Sara.

SIDNER: True story.

All right, new details. Speaking of close, none of us got invited but, you know, we're getting some new details that are emerging this morning about what happened inside Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's star-studded wedding celebration at Madison Square Garden on Friday from celebrity guests, including Jason Sudeikis, Dakota Johnson, Karlie Kloss, Ed Sheeran, to wedding gifts and emotional vows. I thought they said no gifts?

Anyway, here is how Donna Kelce, Travis' mom, described the big day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA KELCE, TRAVIS KELCE'S MOTHER: I really can't say a heck of a lot except it was magical, man, magical.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Oh.

We also know who caught Swift's bouquet. It wasn't John Berman -- what? Ashley Smith, NFL player engagement manager and the sister of Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Trey Smith, posted this photo of herself and the bouquet to Instagram. So now we know.

Joining us now to discuss all of this wedding-related events, Oliva Levin. She is the author of the book "The Story of Us: How the Taylor Swift Fandom Changed Our Life."

OK, so we -- shockingly, there's not pictures that have been, like, you know, meted out. Like, people did not dish and spill. That's pretty incredible. Do you have any information about, like, what it looked like exactly inside?

OLIVIA LEVIN, CREATOR, @SWIFTIESFORETERNITY, TAYLOR SWIFT EXPERT, AUTHOR, "THE STORY OF US: HOW THE TAYLOR SWIFT FANDOM CHANGED OUR LIFE" (via Webex by Cisco): No, I don't. But yeah, I think that's part of the reason why they chose Madison Square Garden, right? Nothing has leaked from the inside. So I'm so happy that they were able to get the privacy that they deserve. And I'm really excited for -- you know, I really hope that we do get a look inside that wedding because I'm sure it was nothing short of spectacular.

SIDNER: I mean, you can't imagine the way that Taylor is with her fans that she's not going to at some point release some gorgeous photos of what went down inside there. But you had so many different people taking part. But I loved who married them.

Describe who married them and who performed for the couple.

LEVIN: Yes. So it was iconic. I mean, Stevie Nicks and Paul McCartney performed, and we had Adam Sandler officiating the wedding. And one thing about Taylor -- she always does the unexpected. So am I ever surprised by things she does, sometimes. But one of her greatest strengths is that she does things that people never really fully understand until she brilliantly executes it.

So I thought she did -- I mean, I'm sure it was spectacular inside. Did I think that she would transform MSG into this fairytale secret garden of a wedding? Absolutely. Did I predict Adam Sandler officiating the wedding? Absolutely not, but I think it was a nice touch.

SIDNER: I mean, it had to be hilarious. I cannot wait. I hope there's some video that we get to see.

I do want to just quickly ask you if you were going to pick one place where you think they might honeymoon, where would that be?