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Trump's Call to FIFA Sparks Controversy; Oil Prices Fall after OPEC Plus Announcement; Polls on Russia, Ukraine and the U.S.; Trump to Join NATO Summit; Same Contractor to work on Reflecting Pool. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 06, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:31:26]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're standing by for any word on whether Belgium did appeal or what the results were of their appeal after FIFA's stunning decision to clear Team USA's top scorer, Folarin Balogun, to play tonight. "The Athletic" reports the deadline for the appeal was at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. That was 31 minutes ago. A source tells CNN, President Trump personally spoke with the head of FIFA and asked him to review the red card against Balogun. He was thrown out of the last game, given a red card, because he tackled someone, spikes up, on their ankle, right there. That was the call at the time. Thrown out of the game. Was supposed to not be playing tonight. But FIFA changed it. And now they have their star scorer, we think, who's going to take the field tonight after President Trump made that phone call to the head of FIFA.

With us now is Sophia Cai, White House reporter for "Politico."

And, Sophia, you've been reporting -- you've got a really detailed timeline on how this all happened. And it started pretty quickly after the initial red card to Balogun.

SOPHIA CAI, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "POLITICO": That's right. Yes. Remember, Lutnick and Andrew Giuliani, who's the executive director of the White House Task Force, they were both watching the game. In fact, sitting next to Gianni Infantino. So, this is all happening in front of their eyes.

And right after the game, I'm told that Andrew Giuliani alerted President Trump that this red card was given. And the next day, President Trump called Gianni Infantino. Of course, there were other people involved as well. U.S. Soccer officials Wednesday night activated on the plan to appeal, and they submitted their appeal the next day as well. So, there's all forces that kicked off four days of coordinated lobbying, legal maneuvering.

I was also told that Andrew Giuliani and Lutnick offered to have White House lawyers get involved in the effort as well. But that shows you how invested they have been in the team in the World Cup and in these personnel decisions. BERMAN: One of the things that's interesting is, one thing that hasn't

happened is President Trump applauded the decision from FIFA, but he hasn't exactly taken credit for it yet exactly has he? His words to describe what happened have been interesting.

CAI: No, he hasn't. He has thanked FIFA for making what he says is the right decision. That's not taking full credit. And we know that President Trump knows how to take full credit.

And I think the reality is, there are multiple forces at play. There's U.S. Soccer and their legal team who made the actual appeal. And then the decision, FIFA tells me, was made by an independent disciplinary board. Now, that's an 18-member board. We don't know if there was a vote that went on, or how many of the 18 members of this disciplinary board actually made this decision. And we haven't seen a report come out of this disciplinary committee. And they've issued reports for other such rulings.

So, I think this is still going to play out throughout the day today. Remember, the U.S. men's team plays Belgium tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

BERMAN: Oh, I know. I got a circle on my calendar. I've had a circle for a long time.

You know, it just -- it's so interesting also, in light of how hard FIFA and Gianni Infantino specifically have worked to curry favor with President Trump over the long haul, we're talking overt public cloying really and sucking up to President Trump. And, you know, and I'm not trying to -- those words aren't meant to be prejudicial.

[08:35:03]

It's just -- it's the way it's been for the last year.

CAI: You're not exaggerating. No, that's not an exaggeration at all. In fact, their relationship dates back eight years when the U.S. was first awarded the right to host the World Cup. And President Trump was in his first term. He did not know that he would be president again in 2026. But that was when he first met Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office. And over the past two years, since the president has been in office, Gianni Infantino has made himself a regular presence in the Oval, making more visits than any other head of state who has a relationship with President Trump.

Now, a couple of things that stand out. President Trump wanted the final draw in December to be held in Washington, D.C., at the Kennedy Center. President Trump got that. FIFA President Gianni Infantino also created and awarded the FIFA Peace Prize at that ceremony to President Trump. And after the Iran -- after President Trump started bombing Iran in February, he told "Politico" that he really didn't care if Iran plays. And FIFA took a very cautious step of going quietly to the Oval and reminding him that all 48 teams had qualified and they should be able to play. And on his travel bans, they haven't explicitly come out to try to change his immigration policy. They've really backdoored it. So, they've taken this really soft approach. And, in your words,

sucked up to President Trump.

BERMAN: I did use those words, but it does seem accurate in terms of how they have behaved over the last year.

Sofia Cai, your reporting on this has been terrific. May not be over yet. We're still waiting to see exactly how this all shakes down. And of course, either way, there's a game tonight, which has a lot of us excited.

Sofia, thank you very much.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, oil prices are falling slightly after OPEC Plus announced that they are increasing production by nearly 200,000 barrels a day. This is the fifth time the world's top oil producers have made such a move since the war with Iran began. A war that sparked the biggest oil supply shock in history, choking off the Strait of Hormuz for months. Traffic through that shipping channel has slowly started to move again, but getting it back to pre- war levels continues to appear a long way off still, which has raised real questions about OPEC's future.

CNN's David Goldman is joining us now with a look at that.

What are you seeing with this?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, you know, when you think about OPEC it's like this massive oil cartel that just has all the power in the world. But, you know, it's been fraying at the edges for quite some time, way before the Iran War.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GOLDMAN: And we saw that in April when the UAE just said, we're out. Nuts to this. We're gone. And now Iraq is thinking about leaving OPEC. And that's the second largest OPEC producer. Basically, the tension has always been between Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer, and all the other countries. And you can see what happened during the war. Iraq lost 75 percent of its oil production. Kuwait lost 75 percent. Saudi Arabia was damaged, too, but not quite as much.

And so now the question is, well, what happens? Because can all of these other countries start producing like crazy again, or is Saudi Arabia going to do what it always does and say, hang on a second, let's make some profit off of this oil.

So, you know, remember, we lost 1.4 billion barrels of oil supply during the war. There's a lot to refill.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GOLDMAN: But as OPEC starts to produce, there's a lot of oil coming out of the Strait. Ninety million barrels have just been sitting there. So, if they're going to start producing, they're contending against all of this.

Look what happens to oil prices if this actually holds true. If OPEC just starts producing, producing, producing. J.P. Morgan, the most conservative estimate that I saw said $60 next year. That's $10 less than where we are now. Capital Economics, you know, good -- we trust them, $50 they said. And if Saudi Arabia says, you know what, nuts to this, we're just going to -- I'll give you what you want. We'll just produce, produce, produce and drive oil to the ground, $40 oil next year is possible according to this Australian group Macquarie Research.

So, we, ironically, could be going from the biggest oil supply shock to the biggest glut. And oil prices could be really comfortable soon.

BOLDUAN: All right. Well, we will continue --

GOLDMAN: Let's hope.

BOLDUAN: We will continue along this roller coaster ride together, which it very clearly seems to be that.

Sara.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. It happens. Sometimes I sneak up.

BOLDUAN: Sara, I thought you over this way. I'm sorry, Sara.

SIDNER: I sneak up behind you.

BOLDUAN: You're so sneaky.

SIDNER: It's what we do here.

All right, breaking this morning, rescue operations underway as we're speaking in Kyiv following Russia's deadly strikes on the Ukrainian capital again.

[08:40:02]

Officials say at least 18 people have been killed in the region. And the attack comes on the eve of President Trump heading to Turkey for a huge meeting of NATO allies this week, taunting the NATO allies. Clearly, the White House says, though, Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy while he is there.

CNN's Harry Enten is joining us now.

All right, we see this attack. We should look at what's happening inside of Russia. How much is Putin being looked upon by his own people --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.

SIDNER: Outside of the war, watching what's going on with that, and who are dissatisfied with the way things are going, especially when it comes to their personal economies?

ENTEN: Yes. Look, leaders, at the end of the day, have to respond to the people in their country. And right now, Vladimir Putin is feeling the heat because it's always about the economy, right? And what you're seeing here is, take a look. OK, Russians who say their economy is getting worse or getting better.

You know, you look back two years ago, look, the majority of Russians said their economy was getting better. That number has collapsed. Now we're just talking about 27 percent. Compare that to the percentage of Russians who say that their economy is getting worse. That was just a third two years ago. That is up significantly like a rocket to 60 percent now, nearly doubling in just the past two years. This war and, of course, all of the sanctions that go with it have had a tremendous impact on Russia's economy. And you can see it here. The people inside of Russia are not liking the way that the economy is going. And for the first time that we've really seen in recent memory the pessimism is sky high.

SIDNER: This is a terrible number for any leader anywhere.

ENTEN: Correct.

SIDNER: That is an awful number. People clearly dissatisfied.

I do want to ask you about what's happening inside of Ukraine and knowing that the president, President Trump, is going to meet with NATO allies. He is on the way to Turkey to do that. How much sway does he have with the Ukrainian public?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, you know, it takes two to tango or three in this case, the U.S., Russia and Ukraine. And you can see the domestic picture here in Russia is not particularly good. Of course what Trump is hoping is that, you know, he can, you know, put his finger on Volodymyr Zelenskyy and, you know, pressure him. But there the domestic picture is very different because, take a look here. Look at -- look at this number. Look at this number. Net approval of U.S. leadership among Ukrainians. Yes, Sara is whistling because this has been a dramatic -- a huge -- a huge shift.

You know, when Joe Biden was president back in 2024, U.S. leadership was on the positive side of the ledger at plus three points. Look at how this number has absolutely fallen through the floor to now negative 72 points. That is a 75-point switcheroo in the wrong direction. So, you know, look, Trump is going to try and pressure Zelenskyy to make a deal in the same way he'll try and pressure Putin to make a deal. But Zelenskyy be like, hey, I'm not going to feel any pressure from my folks if Trump is putting pressure on me because my folks just don't trust U.S. leadership.

SIDNER: Right. And there's a reason for that. Some of the comments that Trump has made. Some of the niceties with Russia and yelling at the president while they are in war has been a real problem for the Ukrainian people.

ENTEN: Yes. SIDNER: I do want to ask you about, you know, this war has been going on now for more than four years. And a lot of people thought, even U.S. intelligence thought that it was going to be Russia taking over within days. The Ukrainians have managed to fight and fight and fight in a way no one thought was possible, including Russia. So, how do Americans feel about the war itself?

ENTEN: They have no confidence in Donald Trump to handle this war. Take a look here. U.S. trust on Trump on the Russia-Ukraine war. Look at this number. Overall it's fallen from 45 percent back when Trump was on the campaign trail to just 32 percent now. And look among Republicans, it was 81 percent two years ago. It is now just 60 percent now. Trump comes in to any negotiations in a weakened state, given the domestic feelings in Russia and Ukraine and the domestic feelings here in the United States as well.

SIDNER: Yes. He said he could end it in a day.

ENTEN: Apparently not.

SIDNER: Clearly, that was not the case. I think a lot of people knew that, but now it is in a scenario where it is an ongoing thing that we don't see the end to yet, and the president's still at the helm saying he can do something about it.

We will see what happens, Harry Enten. But you know what I know?

ENTEN: Huh?

SIDNER: One hundred percent rating for you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Thumbs up for Harry Enten this morning.

John.

BERMAN: Plus or minus a hundred percent.

With us -- with us now is CNN political and global affairs analyst Barak Ravid of "Axios" and CNN military analyst, retired Colonel Cedric Leighton.

And, Barak, I want to start with you here because President Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin on July 4th and once again offered, you know, to get involved and try to figure out a way to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. But how interested is he really right now in this, Barak? What's your reporting on his interest and what he plans to do vis-a-vis that war?

[08:45:06]

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: So, I think there's been a -- I don't know if a shift -- maybe a shift is too strong of a word, but there's been a slow movement in Trump's thinking about the Russia-Ukraine war over the last, let's say, two-three months. I think it's been affected by a lot of success the Ukrainians had in the battlefield, especially when it comes to long-range attacks inside Russian territory, especially against oil -- Russian oil facilities, which caused an energy crisis in Russia. And I think that Trump is slowly moving away from the alleged understandings he had with President Putin in their summit in Alaska last year. He's slowly abandoning those understandings and moving towards developing a new policy which is based on the fact that Ukraine, at the moment, seems to have the upper hand in the war. I think a lot of people around Trump think so. And I think he's moving in that direction.

BERMAN: How did they get that upper hand, Colonel? And what is the upper limit to how much Ukraine can push their success?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, John, the way they got their upper hand was really by innovating. And we started to see it really at the beginning of the war, when the Ukrainians started to use drones, and they used them very effectively. The Russians caught up with them for part of that innovation cycle and then the Ukrainians have basically pulled ahead once again after a few fits and starts when it comes to drone warfare. They've also created their own missiles, their own long-range missiles, where they weren't allowed to use U.S. missiles, even during the Biden administration, for long range attacks. And they've developed their own missiles, that Flamingo missile in particular, that will allow them to go ahead and hit targets as far afield as Siberia.

So, they're very innovative. They've, in essence, killed off the Black Sea fleet, the Russian Black Sea fleet. They've done a lot of other things to really limit the supplies of the Russian forces on the front lines.

Now, the limits of Ukraine are based on, you know, their population, their ability to withstand the types of attacks that we saw last night and a couple nights ago. So, these are the kinds of things that could limit their effectiveness, but they have basically fought this war to a kind of a draw, not only on the front line, but also in terms of the kinds of weapons systems that they can use and employ effectively.

BERMAN: Shifting gears and really shifting the map here a little bit, Barak, I want to talk about the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is planning some kind of a visit to the U.S. soon-ish, whether it's this week, next week, the week after, I guess is still up in the air. But it comes at a very interesting time for him, both politically and domestic terms in Israel, internationally in terms of the war he still wants to wage against Iran, and in terms of his relationship with President Trump. You've got some great work over the last few days where President Trump telling you, you know, that Netanyahu, according to the president, knows who's boss. I mean what does he want out of this meeting?

RAVID: So, I think Netanyahu is very nervous about his -- the state of his relationship with President Trump. And more than the state of the relationship, the state of the perception of their relationship. And what was interesting is that Netanyahu gave an interview yesterday to Fox News to try and say how much his relationship with President Trump is good. And I guess he wasn't satisfied with this interview because this morning he gave another interview to "Fox and Friends" to say more or less the same thing, which to me at least signals that he still feels that he needs to get to President Trump in every way he can. One of those ways is through, you know, going on TV and hoping that the president watches.

Netanyahu will come to Washington sometime in July I think according to what I hear. He needs this joint photo op with President Trump for his domestic politics. Israel goes to elections in less than four months. He needs to show in Israel that he still has good relationship with Trump.

And this is a risk because when you go into the Oval Office with President Trump and the cameras come in and the reporters come in and the questions and answers start, you never know where you're going -- what you're going to get. And I think Netanyahu definitely doesn't want to have a Zelenskyy moment in the Oval Office.

[08:50:01]

BERMAN: Maybe if he had a soccer federation at his disposal he'd have something to offer the president this morning.

Barak Ravid, Colonel Cedric Leighton, always great to see both of you. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, John.

The Reflecting Pool in D.C. had peeled material and rampant green algae just days after that multimillion-dollar renovation. The Trump administration saying the company behind those repairs, though, did a fantastic job. So, the government is calling them in again. Well explain.

And now robots playing soccer. What? OK, but are they any good at it? The answer is no.

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[08:55:09]

SIDNER: On our radar for you this morning, a four-month old baby is doing all right this morning after deputies in San Antonio rescued the child from a burning hot car that was locked. Body camera video showing deputies breaking a window -- you can -- you can hear the alarm going off -- to try and save that child. The sheriff's office says a juvenile was arrested in connection with the case. Leaving babies in hot cars is deadly so often. Thank God they got to that child.

All right ,now, drone video shows thick clouds of smoke over West Virginia after a warehouse caught fire yesterday. Governor Patrick Morrisey declared a state of emergency for Wood County as state agencies were directed to provide resources to aid response efforts and address any potential environmental impacts. You can see all that thick, black smoke. The cause of this fire under investigation this morning.

All right, rescuers have pulled a parrot alive from the rubble of a building destroyed by those devastating earthquakes in Venezuela. That happened nearly two weeks ago. And this little guy survived without anything in there. The parrot survived nine days before being rescued. You can see workers giving it some water there. His feathers ruffled and covered in dust, but alive. Amazing.

All right, humanoid robots crowned a new soccer champion this weekend. The winning team leader says the ultimate goal is winning the FIFA World Cup in 2050. No thank you. Robocup, as they've called it, 2026, is the world's largest robotics and artificial intelligence competition. More than 3,000 competitors from 45 countries took part. Organizers say that more than 70 percent of the teams use platforms developed by a China-based company. The two teams that made it to the finals were from two different Chinese universities. I'd rather watch it with humans. I'm sorry, robots, you're not it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: They're making advancements. Just going to need to advance a little bit more. That's what we know today.

There is new reporting today about how the same company that won the no bid contract to fix the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool the first time for President Trump will now be back on the job to apparently fix up the pool from all of the problems that have popped up since then. Here's the interior secretary on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG BURGUM, INTERIOR SECRETARY: We'll use the same company because they did a fantastic job. I mean even with this damage of a -- the gash that we're talking about, you're talking about, again, this is a -- the size of eight football fields. It is eight acres. And we're talking about like 0.001 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The Reflecting Pool is still plagued by an algae infestation that it's had for years. Also, the peeling in the pool's lining, which the president still continues to blame that on vandals, though he has not offered evidence of it.

Let's get over to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, who's tracking this one.

So, you have all this, and now what, Sunlen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's very clear, Kate, that the interior secretary really wanted to send the message this weekend in advance of the repairs happening again that -- that in their eyes that this is happening because of the alleged vandalism and no other reason. And we really saw that full-throated defense of the company that originally did the repairs, the painting, the sealing at the bottom. This is a company, Atlantic Industrial Coatings. They won that $13.1 no bid contract from the government. They went ahead, and as you know, we've seen this pool plagued by problems. The peeling, chipping bottom, the algae that was managed by another company. But we saw the interior secretary really keep in line with focusing the blame on what they call the vandals that slashed, they say, a part of the Reflecting Pool. Here's more of what the interior secretary said yesterday.

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DOUB BURGUM, INTERIOR SECRETARY: This is like a strong material, and it's the size of eight football fields. And the only way you can end up with actual slices in one spot and not the other is that someone physically cut it. And so, the -- but the pool itself, it's not leaking. It was leaking 45,000 gallons a day. It's finally been fixed by President Trump. And the American flag blue is working perfectly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: So, you see him there, of course, trying to portray this project as a success except for these small, little fixes that need to be repaired. But notably, Kate, we still don't have an exact timeline for when everything is going to happen. We know that the pool will be drained now after the holiday. We've asked the Interior Department when that actually will happen as far as the timeline going forward and the expectations when that will be done.

We heard, for the first time, notably this weekend from the interior secretary that he said the pool may not need to be entirely drained, it may just need to be partially drained. So, we have asked those questions and certainly we'll bring you those answers when we get them.

BOLDUAN: All right. And here we go with the next chapter in this one. Thank you so much, Sunlen. I appreciate it.

[09:00:06]

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.