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Trump Threatens Oman as U.S.-Iran 60-Day Agreement Expires; Trump Orders Cuts to South Korea Drills, Cites Ties With Kim Jong-un; Suspect in Tupac Shakur's 1996 Killing Now on Trial; Supreme Court Rebuffs Trump's Longshot Effort to Deny $5.6 Million Payment to E. Jean Carroll. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 17, 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]

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": -- stake as tech giant Meta heads to court for a fierce fight.

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

President Trump threatening a U.S. ally after his 60-day memorandum of understanding with Iran fails to reach a peace deal. The president, in an interview with Fox News, saying the U.S. would bomb the shit out of them if Oman interfered with U.S. efforts in the Strait of Hormuz. Also today, President Trump citing his, "good relationship" with North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, as he scales back joint military exercises with key ally, South Korea.

The president adding in a post, quote, "While somewhat unrelated, I recently asked the president of South Korea if they'd like to join us in the de-nuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, no thanks."

Joining us now, President Trump's former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, who now serves as a Board Member and Partner at Red Cell Venture Capital. Good to see you this afternoon.

When we watch all this unfolding, is this a gift to Kim Jong-un?

MARK ESPER, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: You mean with regard to the president threatening Oman, or with regard to the talks, the suspense of exercises?

HILL: Actually, Secretary, I'm sorry, I'm going to interrupt you for one second, if I could. We're going to go to the president right now, who was addressing his comments earlier about Oman. Let's take a quick listen.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- not right. They weren't happy about it, but they agreed. I asked for $10 billion, and they were very unhappy. But we agreed for a short term there would be $3 billion, and next year it would go up, and the next year it would go up, so they start paying for their protection. When the election was rigged, and I ended up watching for four years and then coming back, I watched Biden rescind that $3 billion for whatever reason. When I called recently the president of South Korea, who I like, I think he's very nice, actually. When I called him, I said, would you like to give us a little hand? We don't need help with Iran, but if you'd like, give us a hand with Iran.

He said, no, thanks. And I said, wait a minute, we have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un, your next-door neighbor, and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? That's strange. No, no, we'd rather not get involved.

I see, well, why are we involved in helping you? So and I want to help them, but, you know, when you ask somebody, would you like to give us a hand, and they say, no, thanks, and then we're guarding them from a country and paying ourselves billions of dollars -- it is costing us billions and billions of dollars to protect not only them, but other countries.

Look at NATO. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars protecting Europe from Russia, hundreds of billions, mostly from Russia, but from other things, too. And then they say, well, they don't want to get involved with getting, you know, guarding the Strait where they get most of their oil. They get 50 percent of their oil, and they don't want to get involved. Why are we doing it?

So all I want is fairness. And South Korea, I get along with them very well, but they were paying $3 billion a year, and then they convinced Biden that I was probably a bad person, and they shouldn't -- and he immediately rescinded that order. So we were getting paid.

We would have been getting paid a lot more, but we can't go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they're not there to help us.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the expiration of the memorandum of understanding, are you any closer today to reaching a final deal to end Iran's nuclear program (inaudible)?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, they want to make a deal, but they're not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary. Look, we're in there for one reason. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. You understand that, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won't have a nuclear weapon. And right now, them building one after what we did previously with the B-2 Bombers, it's going to be a long time (inaudible), but Iran cannot have -- it's very simple, they can't have a nuclear weapon.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, how do you respond to the folks who say that you are prioritizing the interests of adversaries in North Korea over our long-time partners by scaling back these military exercises?

TRUMP: No, I'm making it much safer. You see, I'm actually making it much safer. Kim Jong-un has always treated me with great respect, and we've met on numerous occasions, actually, two primary occasions, spoken and spent time.

I understand him, he understands me. You're doing war games, I get along with him. You know, he didn't like Biden, he didn't like Obama, he didn't like anybody, but I get along with him very well.

Now, what I'm doing is making things safer, just the opposite.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet. You're very disrespectful in front of this young man, OK? Don't you find her disrespectful? He understands. Quiet. Who are you with?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm with CNN.

TRUMP: Fake news.

HOLMES: (Inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

[14:05:00]

TRUMP: You're a loud, you're a loud, boisterous person, you're fake news. Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: You're a fake reporter and you report fake news.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, is there enough the USS Lincoln?

TRUMP: Yeah. That was a CNN fake report. The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time, a good period of time, but over the years we've had them out there much longer. I was at a group meeting and an admiral came up to see me over the weekend and it was at a big group and he happened to be an admiral, retired.

He said, I've been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir. And I know people on the Lincoln, they say it's beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of. And other people went out and they found out to be true. It was fake news reporting from CNN.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, there was a report that a senior intelligence official with the CCP just bought a historical building overlooking the white house. Have you heard about this?

TRUMP: No, I haven't.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yeah, go ahead. Behind you, behind you, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The British prime minister recently reportedly sent texts to someone impersonating Susie Wiles. Are you concerned about his judgment or state of communications between the two countries?

TRUMP: No, but who, who happened -- what happened? They sent texts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apparently, the prime minister sent texts to somebody impersonating Susie Wiles.

TRUMP: No, I'm sure that -- I'm sure that he had a miscommunication.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: He is a prime minister and I spoke to him. We had a good conversation, a couple of them. We had a good conversation. One of the things he is going to do, I think he's going to open up the North Sea. That'll make -- that'll make U.K. pretty rich. I'll tell you.

If he -- if he opened up the North Sea, now he's got an immigration problem and he has an energy problem. He would have solved one of his problems. That would be a big thing. That would make U.K. rich. If you open up the North Sea, it's one of the great finds anywhere in the world. And if they would open up the North Sea, U.K. would be rich again.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, how (inaudible).

TRUMP: Don't you find them nice? Huh? Nice people, right? He's saying, where do people like this come from? Your son is saying, where do people like this come from? Go ahead. Especially her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People who are opposing the ballroom and challenging it, have they offered any sort of solution or sort of compromise or are they just trying to say -- they are trying to hold it (inaudible)?

TRUMP: So, the people that are opposing the ballroom are people that, in my opinion, are very disloyal to our country. Very, very disloyal to our country. And I think we're doing very well. We're way ahead of schedule. We're under budget. It's going to be the most beautiful ballroom of its kind. You know, when I was in China, we went to the Great Hall of China.

It was as big, beautiful building. And we don't have anything like that. And we have to have that. It's very important. But we also are getting tremendous military protection, drone protection. The building is drone proof. It's missile proof as much as something can be missile proof. It's totally bulletproof. Any bullet, nothing can go through the windows.

We have, you know, all top of the line stuff. It's very safe. And you know, the one thing, it's not for me because I'm going to be here very short period of time when it's finished. If it finishes right on time, on budget, on time, I'll be there for four or five, six months. This is for future presidents. This isn't for me. This is for future presence. And it's a gift. We're making a gift to our country, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a ballroom.

And it's a gift from great patriots of this country from -- as an example, I mean, I'll give you names. I've released some of the names. In fact, I wanted to put them out today, but we got a little busy and this was frankly, being with this group of people was is important to me, but we'll be putting them out, some of the people that contributed.

But this is a gift to the United States of America. No taxpayer money is necessary and you're going to have the finest ballroom anywhere in the world. It's not something I wanted to do, but it's something that's needed.

And again, I'm not going to get to use it very much because by the time it's completed, I'll have four or five months left, three months, who knows, but we're ahead of schedule. It's going to be the best of it in the world of its kind in the world. There'll be nothing like it in the world.

It fits beautifully with the White House. It's gotten fantastic reviews, architectural reviews. People think it's incredible. And when you see it, you'll say, wow, that's really something. And that's what the United States is all about. We have to have that.

But in addition to the ballroom, we're building a great military complex. The people that started the lawsuit, the head person, I believe was fired and she was fired from another event just before that.

[14:10:00]

And she's the one that started, it's a National Trust, but the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Now they say it's a United States. They use the word United, but it's not related to the United States. In fact, the United States doesn't even contribute to it. It has nothing to do with it. It stopped contributing when they realized there were nothing but troublemakers. Years ago, it stopped contributing.

So this isn't like an official United States bureau or United States agency. They stopped contributing to the National Trust and it's called the National Trust. It has this great name, National Trust for Historic Preservation.

There are a bunch of troublemakers that the United States many years ago, long before me, stopped contributing to. The woman that started it was fired. She's no longer there. So this is the remnants of it and the bottom line is they're trying to stop something and there won't be successful. But they're trying to stop something that's almost completed. When you say when they brought a suit, why didn't they bring the suit a year before? Why did they bring the suit in the middle of construction? When $400 million almost is spent on its construction. Why wouldn't they have started the suit a year early? Everybody knew it was going to be built. I mean, it was no secret.

Everybody knew that it was taking place, so they should have done that, but the National Trust is very disloyal to the country because they reveal things, you know, I said the problem with the suit, I told them this, is that we have many military things in this ballroom And ideally they shouldn't be revealed, but now they are revealed. So the world knows about it. That's OK. They shouldn't have done it.

They're very disloyal. But I think we're doing really well. We're way ahead of schedule. And somebody -- and many presidents are going to use it for many years to come. The country will have one of the greatest gifts it's ever received.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last week, you said that you would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz to be a territory of the United States. Could you elaborate?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, I think it's a great idea. Yeah, I mean we control it. We control it with the blockade. We have a blockade. We control it with a blockade. And I like the idea of declaring it a territory.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) do that?

TRUMP: We could total control over the Strait. Now, they can be a nuisance. They can put a mine in the water and people don't like having mines hit their billion-dollar ships, you know, et cetera. But the blockade has been very effective and you know, we're taking out -- now maybe that will stop or maybe it'll open up even further, but we're taking out millions of barrels of oil a week. If you look at the kind of numbers that we're doing, we're doing -- the Strait is open and the oil prices are coming down and they will continue to come down unless we decide to do something far more drastic than we're doing/

Iran is in big trouble. They have 300 percent inflation. The country is a mess and their military is totally defeated.

Thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: So you've just been listening to President Trump in the Oval Office. He was asked a number of different questions there, specifically about what is happening with South Korea. The president saying and I'm quoting him here, that he had reached out to the president of South Korea and said, I don't need help with Iran, but do you want to give us a hand and the president said the response was no, thanks. And then he went on to ask why are we involved in helping you?

To discuss a few more of the threads that we heard from the president, he was talking not just about that situation, but he was asked directly about whether he was prioritizing interests in North Korea. I want to dig into that a little bit with Secretary Mark Esper, who is joining us now.

That was one of my first questions for you as we were beginning this before the president was speaking, we went to him live. A question about whether he was prioritizing the interests of North Korea. His response was, no, I'm making it much safer, talked about his relationship with Kim Jong-un, saying that he understands him. He understands me. I'm making things safer. Is this action actually making things safer?

ESPER: Well, I think if you go back and look at historically, where we've been with regard to the United States partnering with South Korea, we have 28,500 soldiers, sailors and airmen there, is to defend the people of South Korea and importantly, kind of defend the principle of territorial sovereignty. We've been there for decades since the end of the Korean War, of course, and we lead the United Nations Command.

So it's important that we're there to defend that country and the exercises are part of that to maintain deterrence and practice defense. In fact, you know, the Ulchi Freedom Shield is one of two exercises that are conducted each year, one in March, one in August. It's a very successful exercise. It's both the United States and South Korea, but also other nations participate or observe as well. And there are about -- they are about defense, about -- and by extension, about deterrence of North Korea.

[14:15:00]

Now that said, look, I think it's a good idea that we up uptick increase our outreach to North Korea. They're a country now that possesses, as estimated by outside experts, 60 nuclear weapons, which is far more than the 20 or so that they had when President Trump left office in 2021.

So the nuclear tensions are there on the peninsula, that capability. North Korea, of course, has gained experience from fighting in Ukraine, of all places on the side of Russia. And so they present a greater threat in many ways.

So I like that the fact that the administration, the White House wants to reach out, but I don't think the way to start is necessarily to begin by decreasing our deterrence by weakening the these annual exercises. I think we should maintain those. And then eventually, if it becomes part of something else, then that's the case.

HILL: Well, as you noted there when you were saying the importance of outreach, as you just talked about, but saying that North Korea is a greater threat. What message does this, in fact, send not just to North Korea, but to China in this moment? ESPER: Well, that's the other reason why we should be on the Korean

Peninsula, is to deter China. Ultimately, that's the greatest threat we face.

Look, in both cases, the United States' interests are on there. They're on the peninsula as well. It's not just about helping South Korea defend itself. It's about, again, broader interests, U.S. national security, U.S. national interests as well. And again, I think the position there can weaken our stance with regard to not just North Korea, but China as well. It's important that we show a strong hand there, that we're very supportive of our partners.

When you look broadly at China, it's not just about supporting South Korea, but it gets into supporting Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and others. And so, this is this great game that's at hand here. Interestingly, the nexus with Iran is the fact we don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and the president has been spot on about that.

We don't want them, because they end up being a North Korea, which means a middle-tier power of some sorts with a nuclear capability that is constantly threatening its neighbors. That's not what we want out of Iran, but yet that's what we have in North Korea.

HILL: Yeah, it certainly raises some interesting questions. Secretary Mark Esper, appreciate you joining us and appreciate your patience as we took some of those remarks from the president live there.

And I do just want to note one other thing. The president railing at our colleague in the Oval Office there, talking about CNN being fake news with some excellent reporting. That is not at all the case.

Opening statements just wrapping, the first witness is on the stand now in the murder trial of the only man ever charged in Tupac Shakur's 1996 killing. And of course, it's taken nearly 30 years now for that case to finally reach a courtroom after the deadly drive-by shooting that claimed Shakur's life on the Las Vegas Strip.

SANCHEZ: And prosecutors say that this man, Duane "Keffe D" Davis, masterminded Shakur's killing because the then 25-year-old rapper was part of a mob that beat Davis' nephew inside the MGM Grand Casino. The defense argues, though, that the state's facts in the case are questionable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SANFT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR DUANE DAVIS: What facts do they have after 30 years? When you look at the video that happened at the MGM, look wrong (ph). Try to find him in there. Try to find any of the other individuals. Remember, he said there's three individuals in the car with him and Orlando Anderson.

Orlando's in the video because he's getting beat up. Find any of those other individuals on the videos of the MGM. Look for evidence that shows that Keffe D was even in Las Vegas on the night of the fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: CNN Senior Correspondent, Josh Campbell is in Las Vegas. Josh, who is on the stand right now?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: So right now, there is a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, bike police officer who was there that day. We're talking 30 years ago near the Las Vegas Strip. He said he was there on patrol whenever this happened, whenever these shots rang out. This officer, Officer Dale, says that he rode with Shakur to the hospital after the shooting.

And there was this conversation where they're trying to figure out, well, what exactly happened? Law enforcement and Shakur responds, well, we'll take care of it when asked who the actual assailants were. And so, again, they're laying the foundation about what actually occurred that night. We're now three decades after that incident.

Duane Davis now on trial, not for pulling the trigger that night, but for being in the vehicle and being described as the so-called shot caller by authorities whenever this happened. He had previously indicated in statements that he had handed a firearm to his nephew who was in the backseat of a vehicle that pulled along Shakur. That nephew then ultimately fired the shot.

Now, we're getting a true indication here based on opening statements alone about what the strategies will be here by both the prosecution as well as the defense. Interestingly, the prosecution is using a lot of Duane Davis' own words. Now, several years ago, he was interviewed by law enforcement, including the FBI, as part of a separate case.

[14:20:00]

When he was asked about what happened that night with Tupac Shakur, he was actually given immunity to speak about that. He didn't think that those words would ever be used against him, but he did a lot of speaking to the media afterwards. He even wrote a book talking about what actually occurred.

It appears all of that is now coming into play as the authorities try to prosecute him. On the other side, with the defense, what they're doing now is essentially trying to go after the witnesses that the prosecution will be calling upon, go after their credibility, calling some of the police officers essentially corrupt.

And then the final point here is that what's so fascinating is that the defense is essentially saying, look, even if Davis said before that, yes, he was there, he was involved, he knew what was happening, don't believe him. In fact, the defense actually put up on screen a word for the jury to see. I'll apologize to our viewers for the language and to my saintly mother watching. But he said his client is full of bullshit, basically.

He said don't believe what he was saying at the time. He is known to exaggerate. And so that will be interesting to see how that actually lands with this jury. They're saying he wasn't accurate then. He's being truthful now. The prosecutor is obviously saying he's culpable.

This just now getting underway, already very fascinating, guys.

HILL: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Josh, we also hope that your mom doesn't judge you for using such colorful language on T.V.

(LAUGH)

HILL: Yes. We know she raised you better than that. Don't worry.

(LAUGH)

CAMPBELL: She loves your show. She loves your show.

SANCHEZ: Josh Campbell, thanks so much for that report and to his mom as well. Thanks so much.

Still to come, case closed, the Supreme Court rebuffing President Trump's last-ditch effort to deny a multi-million dollar payment to E. Jean Carroll. That story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:25:58]

HILL: The Supreme Court once again rejecting President Trump and his long-running legal battle against E. Jean Carroll. After being denied in June, the president asked the court to reconsider his petition to overturn the $5.6 million judgment awarded to Carroll for sexual abuse and defamation.

I want to bring you now CNN's Kara Scannell, who's been following all of these threads for many years now at this point, my friend. So, is this now the end of the road for the president's attempts to appeal here?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: It essentially is the end of the road, Erica. Donald Trump has now twice gone to the Supreme Court to try to get them to hear an appeal of the jury's verdict, finding that he had sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll. The jury had awarded her $5 million and Trump was ordered by the judge at the time to transfer that money into a court-controlled account and now it's up to $5.6 million because it's been three years of litigation that they've been fighting this.

Now, after the Supreme Court had first denied hearing, so they wouldn't hear this case in June, the money was transferred to E. Jean Carroll. Then there was some internal or intermediary litigation where Trump's team was trying to prevent her from using that money because they wanted to go to the Supreme Court this second time and ask the court if they would reconsider their denial just a month prior.

Well, now we're knowing that the Supreme Court said they're not going to hear this case. The money is Carroll's to spend unrestricted. They do have another appeal pending. They've asked the Supreme Court to take a look at this jury's verdict where they awarded Carroll $83 million after finding that Trump had defamed her.

That one is pending before the Supreme Court to see if they will take that up or not. So, that is the second leg of this, but certainly more litigation to come in Trump's litigation with E. Jean Carroll.

HILL: Yeah, absolutely. Kara, appreciate the update. Thank you.

Still ahead here, we are now hearing from Lindsay Clancy's family for the first time as the defense begins to lay out its case in that triple murder trial and the deaths of her three young children.

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