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Trump Says Proposed Triumphal Arch Will Double As Military Complex; Trump, Mamdani To Meet In New York City Ahead Of U.N. General Assembly; Houthi Offensive In Saudi Arabia Intensifies As Conflict Widens. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 21, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:25]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, President Trump giving a brand new justification for building his hulking 250-foot triumphal arch across from Arlington National Cemetery. He now says it would also serve as a "top grade military complex" and would be used for drones and snipers, and to store large quantities of sniper ammunition. Now this was never really one of the arguments that he made for the arch and the sudden rationale mirrors the case he made for the White House ballroom well after that project began.

Let's get right to CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein here with the latest. And Betsy, I should just note you're always welcome here. Thank you.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Thank you, John.

It does seem like a new pattern is starting to emerge here -- President Trump shifting his messaging strategy when his construction projects hit legal challenges. And as you mentioned, we saw this when the ballroom began to hit legal roadblocks. The president started to frame it as a national security imperative. And he is now saying the same of his proposed triumphal arch project. Trump now saying that this arch is going to double as a top grade military complex.

I want to read to you from this post to social media over the weekend. He says, "At the strong request of the United States military and for national security purposes, I have agreed to convert the magnificent triumphal arch planned since the Civil War era many years ago at the receptive circle adjoining the Arlington Memorial Bridge into a top grade military complex/triumphal arch to house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones plus snipers on both the roof and plaza areas and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage."

Now this arch is going to sit in a traffic circle directly between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery and a group of veterans have actually sued to stop its construction. They argue that this structure, which the president says is going to be 250 feet tall, is going to block this historic view shed that has historically been a symbolic civil war connection between the North and the South.

And this is the first time that the president has floated any of the military purposes of this arch. It's not been part of any of the designs or concepts that have gone through a pair of federal agencies that oversee architecture and design, and these revised plans have not been reviewed by the public.

Now, one source involved in the effort noted to CNN that the public should be much more concerned if munitions and explosives are potentially being stored in the middle of what is a very busy traffic circle.

It has already cleared one key hurdle as the Federal Aviation Administration said it won't interfere with air traffic, and you may also recall that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said earlier this month that the excavation would be beginning within two weeks. Government lawyers later backtracked. They noted that it would actually be archaeological survey work. No ground broken just yet.

We'll be watching this all very closely, John.

BERMAN: All right. Thank you so much Betsy Klein for sharing that new reporting -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours here, President Trump heads to New York where he will sit down with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ahead of the president's speech to the United Nations General Assembly tomorrow. It will be the third meeting between the two men. The political opposites have developed a surprisingly friendly tone when they meet in person.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino joining us now. Expecting that tone to continue, and do you know what the discussion is going to be about today?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is top of mind here this morning, Sara, whether or not that tone will continue between President Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

[07:35:00]

What's different about this third meeting is that this time Trump is coming into Zohran Mamdani territory, right? They're meeting inside Gracie Mansion, which is the mayoral residence here in Manhattan. So that is certainly a different thing about this meeting. The last two have been held in the Oval Office in the White House. And so it's going to be a very different setting.

Now, you talk about how these two are very politically opposed, right? They are diametrically different. And you might be wondering, why would Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of the city of New York, a blue city, want to meet with President Donald Trump. And he has made it clear over and over that he sees his relationship with Trump as an important tool to advocate for the city of New York and for New Yorkers. And City Hall has told me that today's meeting would be focused on exactly that, New York City and the needs of its residents. Now, I should also tell you that, you know, sources I've been speaking

with tell me that they see these meetings as essentially wins for the mayor. You might remember the last two went surprisingly well. The first one where it was just a lot friendlier than we thought it was going to be and then the second meeting had some real deliverables for the mayor, specifically the fact that there was a Columbia University student who had been detained by federal immigration officers at the time. The mayor spoke about that case to the president, and that student was released shortly after.

Then there is also the issue of housing and infrastructure here in New York City. The mayor has personally pitched Donald Trump on a major federal housing project here in New York that he is hoping will get billions of dollars in federal funding. So for City Hall, for Mayor Mamdani, they see this as a potential win.

And it's happening as President Trump is in town for the United Nations General Assembly. He is scheduled to speak at the U.N. on Tuesday.

So it's certainly an interesting setting in terms of where this meeting is going to take place, Gracie Mansion, ahead of a U.N. week. I should mention that Mayor Mamdani has been hosting mayors from around the world in the last few days and we'll see exactly what topics they tackle. There, of course, so much more going on at the national stage in terms of what they could talk about. But for the mayor, he has often repeated that for him, it always comes back to New York City and the people who live here -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Gloria Pazmino. You'll be watching it all and giving us an update as soon as you get it. Thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right. With us now in person, Andrew Desiderio, senior congressional reporter for Punchbowl News, and remotely, but with us in spirit, Leanne Caldwell, chief Washington correspondent for Puck.

And I want to read a quote that's actually an Axios that I think frames the day but also serves as a way to get into and boast some great reporting that each of you have.

So Axios wrote this morning, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, that "Trump's vincibility is being exposed. Courts restrain him more. GOP candidates criticize him more. The public turns on him more."

Trump's vincibility. It's just such an interesting, provocative phrase there, Andrew, and it gets to a little bit of what you've been reporting.

Chuck Grassley over the weekend, tweeting that diesel prices are killing farmers' income -- a reliable Republican ally of the White House. Diesel prices killing farmers' income.

Susan Collins, you know, maybe not such a Republican ally, but maybe a bellwether, you know, basically arguing with her colleagues behind closed doors. We got to be doing something more about prices and the like. So what are you hearing on this front?

ANDREW DESIDERIO, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Well, look, you are seeing more Republicans not only speak out against the president's policies and call for things like a diesel export ban like we saw from Senator Grassley. That issue is becoming a problem for Ashley Hinson, the Republican candidate in the state of Iowa in that Senate race, for example. Josh Turek, the Democratic candidate, noted that he came out in favor of a diesel export ban months ago. So it's causing real political headaches for Republicans.

But they're also choosing not to appear with, you know, folks like JD Vance. Ashley Hinson did not appear with JD Vance when he was in Iowa a few days ago. She said it was a scheduling conflict. But we know that, you know, in other states, Republicans have declined to campaign with top administration officials and folks like JD Vance, for example, in the state of Maine, like Susan Collins did a couple of months ago.

BERMAN: This is what vincibility smells like a little bit when you start to see Senate candidates shying away from the likes of JD Vance.

And Leigh Ann, I wanted to ask you about some reporting you've had here. I haven't had you on in a few days. You reported that "Internal Democratic polling shows no House incumbent trailing in the midterms, even in gerrymandered seats that Trump won by double digits." And then "Republican spending in deep red districts suggest the party's own numbers may tell a similar story."

That's an incredibly rosy picture for Democrats potentially.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, it is. And as we all know, Democrats are really skeptical of being confident and are really worried about being overconfident. But over the past couple of weeks, Democrats have been increasingly rosy about the midterm outlook.

[07:40:00]

The fact that some of these internal polls in districts, including Shomari Figures in Alabama, which is a Trump plus 14 or 15 district. Where even in Florida, Congressman Soto, who is in a Trump plus 18 district right now because of redistricting and both of those gerrymandering seats, that they say that things are just looking incredibly good.

Now they're not saying that those two Democrats are necessarily going to win those seats because they expect polls to tighten. They expect money to be put into these races, but Democrats are increasingly optimistic. And the DCCC as Andrew's publication -- as Punchbowl reported this morning is going in with money in that Alabama district, which is a sign that there is some confidence that maybe they could pull it out actually.

So the political environment is quite good for Democrats at this stage, but they do caution that it needs to be this good also in early October, mid-October, and then they'll feel much more -- much better about the midterms.

BERMAN: Look, things can change, but in terms of a snapshot of where things are, this tells you a lot, as does the president banning reporters from the White House is, you know, less of the what and more of the why. Why it kind of explains maybe something going on there.

Andrew, you are in town this week because President Trump on his way up here for the U.N. and a lot of international leadership. There's just a lot going on. He arrived today.

You know, what do you think he wants to leave with not necessarily in an international standpoint, but politically that will help him domestically?

DESIDERIO: Well, look, his decision to launch this war in Iran is partially mostly the reason why prices are as high as they are right now and the reason why we're even talking about Democrats possibly winning the Senate, which a year ago, 15 months ago was a five, maybe 10 percent chance of actually happening, given how bad the map is for them. But as Leigh Ann mentioned, the fact that, you know, we have the DCCC spending in districts like that now shows their confidence.

And so we're probably going to see President Trump want to defend himself, defend those decisions that he's made that have led to this unfortunate affordability crisis. in the country, and spike diesel prices, spike gas prices, fertilizer prices in states across the Midwest.

We were talking about Iowa. There are some other really big Senate races, like in Ohio, for example, where tariffs are having a big impact. The Michigan Senate race. Michigan borders Canada, remember? So, you know, stoking tensions with Canada is not a popular thing to do in the state of Michigan. So we're seeing, you know, that effect across the board, especially in the Midwest. And I expect President Trump to want to really defend his moves here with deciding to go to war in Iran.

BERMAN: Both of you have brought up money. The DCCC as Punchbowl was reporting trying to spend in some more districts where they're on offense rather than defense.

But Leigh Ann, the flip side of that is something that you hear from almost every Democrat running around the country, which is there is just a huge financial advantage for the Republican Party and Republican groups --

CALDWELL: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- writ large. You can see it in some districts where there's just so much spending.

To what extent can this money -- and the Republican Party does have this huge financial advantage right now -- how can that mitigate their losses and what are the limits of it?

CALDWELL: It's going to be a real test on how much money matters. The political environment is very good for Democrats. Even the gerrymandered redistrict seats aren't necessarily looking as good for Republicans as they had hoped. But when it comes to the money, Republicans do have that monetary advantage, especially if the president spends the close to billion dollars he says that he has for the midterms. There's still a lot of skepticism that he will actually spend that much. It's been about $140-$150 million so far.

But I've been hearing in reporting from Democratic fundraisers who are extremely frustrated that donors -- Democratic donors, they say, are not necessarily meeting the moment. There's still a lot of Democratic donors who are angry about 2024. They're asking about who the leaders are in the party.

They -- some of them are worried about finding out that the White House -- that the White House finding out that they are giving huge sums of money to Democrats. And so -- and then there's some Democratic donors who are also worried about the rise of Democratic socialists in the party. So there's all this tension happening on the Democratic side when it comes to the money side.

Meanwhile, Republicans, despite the negative political advantage, have a great advantage because Republican donors are still giving and because of the president's war chest, should he decide to spend it all, John.

[07:45:07]

BERMAN: Yeah, you really -- and Andrew is nodding his head up and down. You don't have to scratch --

DESIDERIO: A huge risk.

BERMAN: -- the surface, yeah. I mean, you hear --

DESIDERIO: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- you hear from a lot of Democrats and a lot of Democratic donors also.

Leigh Ann Caldwell, thank you very much. Great to see you, Andrew. Enjoy the hotel prices and the traffic while you're in town.

DESIDERIO: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: All right. An unexpected catch for fishermen in Florida. What did they get? A U.S. military drone. And then a local resident goes to police with an unusual problem, a jar stuck on its head. Also, the resident was a skunk.

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[07:50:05]

BERMAN: All right. You can see -- this is a live look at oil prices and they're down. They're down a tick this morning. Brent crude back near $100 a barrel, but this is still the most expensive September on record for gas prices in several states. Michigan, Indiana, Illinois -- they all saw major spikes in prices last week. Michigan went up 61 cents a gallon. Those same states saw diesel prices increase by more than 50 cents, which is a lot.

Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan for the very latest on this, and diesel is a record.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, definitely a record there. I mean, the good news, though, is that, as you mentioned, oil prices are retreating despite the latest fighting in the Middle East and in Russia.

So Brent, the world benchmark, it's down about 2 1/2 percent today to $101 a barrel. Not cheap, obviously, but this is the fourth straight day in a row where Brent is down, and it has declined pretty significantly from $110 a barrel --

BERMAN: Yeah.

EGAN: -- about 10 days ago.

There's a little bit less fear in the market about the flow of energy out of the Middle East. JPMorgan says that oil is surprising -- is flowing surprisingly strong out of the Middle East, and there's some hope that the East-West Pipeline could at least partially reopen soon.

But yes, the bad news, of course, is fuel prices -- $4.48 a gallon is the new national average, up by 16 cents in just the past week, exactly $1.50 more expensive than when the war started. And when you look across the country, this is not just a problem in those expensive blue states. In fact, some states -- some red states are seeing 30, 40 percent increases just from a year ago.

Look at Tennessee, Mississippi, Oklahoma. And what really stands out here is some of the states facing the biggest increases over the past year are key states in the upcoming midterms. Forty-eight percent for Iowa, 55 percent for Michigan, 53 percent for Wisconsin. That is really painful, especially for people who have long commutes there. Many of them are not making 50 percent more, but they're paying that much more at the gas pump.

And then you mentioned diesel, right? So over the weekend, diesel crossed over $6.50 a gallon for the first time ever. A fresh record high, dramatically more expensive than before the war started. And look, most people don't put diesel in their car, but really all of us are paying for diesel in one way or another because this is the fuel that powers the trucks and trains and boats that are shipping goods across the country.

And this diesel spike -- it has been truly historic. So far this year, diesel has skyrocketed 83 percent. That is by far --

BERMAN: Wow!

EGAN: -- the biggest annual increase since AAA started tracking -- 83 percent. The next closest is 2021 when diesel surged almost 40 percent after COVID was over.

Now the other thing to keep in mind is that over the weekend there were more attacks by Ukrainian drones in Russia, including one that hit a major Russian oil refinery. And so that's just going to potentially put even more pressure on diesel, adding to, again, what has already been a historic year.

BERMAN: That's an unbelievable chart there.

EGAN: It is.

BERMAN: This year, just a completely different animal than anything we've ever seen before.

EGAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Matt Egan, thank you very much.

EGAN: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: It was really stark and telling.

And happening now in the Middle East, a dramatic offensive by the Iran-backed Houthis has the region even more on edge? Saudi Arabia says the Yemen based group targeted Mecca over the weekend. The Houthis also claiming missile and drone attacks on sensitive sites in Riyadh. There's been a flurry of Houthi activity in recent weeks, including their capture of strategically important island in the Red Sea and coastal areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Sources are telling CNN that as of now, neither the U.S. nor Saudi Arabia has a clear plan to beat back this group.

With me now, CNN senior military analyst, retired Adm. James Stavridis. Thank you so much for being here.

I want to talk to you about something that just came out in The New York Times this morning. They are reporting that the war looked as though it might expand again after a plea from the Saudi Crown Prince, where President Trump, according to the Times, was preparing to strike the Houthis in Yemen, but then, and as they put it, "pull back or at least delay striking Houthi targets, which came as commanders had approved target lists, troops were loading bombs onto U.S. warplanes selected for the missions and the wave of attacks was just about to begin."

The president ended up stopping it. He's gone back and forth.

I'm just curious what you make of this and what kind of strain would it put on U.S. resources if the U.S. does eventually decide to join the Saudis in striking the Houthis in Yemen?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, VICE CHAIRMAN, THE CARLYLE GROUP (via Webex by Cisco): It's the pattern we have seen since the start of the war. It's a kind of a ramp-up, get ready to go. At the beginning of the war, we launched those massive strikes, but then we have threatened to go back again and again and again without pulling the trigger in a very serious way.

[07:55:05]

And I think the Houthi challenge is yet another example of that, Sara. You and I have talked in the past about the Western front. You know, everybody's had the geography lesson and now knows exactly where the Strait of Hormuz is. Now people are getting the new geography lesson of Bab al-Mandab Bab, its impact on the Red Sea, and its impact therefore in the Suez Canal. So this Western Front is quite significant.

And for the president to launch into this alongside the Saudis in a big way -- yeah, that would be a major decision. I don't think he's quite ready to pull the pin on it. Hence the back and forth.

Final thought. It's incredibly hard on the U.S. Navy, in particular, which has to ramp up to the point of execution and then pull back -- but that's what our armed forces are trained to do.

SIDNER: I do want to move to the war in Ukraine because Ukraine managed its largest drone attack that we've ever seen on Moscow and it hit a major oil refinery after President Trump had demanded that Ukraine stop hitting Russian oil targets because, of course, it's adding to the price hikes, particularly in diesel fuel in the United States.

What do you make of this escalation? What does it tell you about capabilities and where we are in in this war?

STAVRIDIS: I have a one-word response for the Ukrainians, which is congratulations. They need to increase these strikes, and doing so is the only way they can put pressure on Vladimir Putin.

They are the victims here. They were invaded by Russia. Human rights violations by the hour in attacks by the Russians on Ukrainian cities. So I think going after the Russian oil structure is a legitimate target set.

And then to your question about capabilities, this was, to my eye, the largest drone strike Ukrainians have put together -- over 1,000 drones, maybe approaching 2,000. That's a big military operation. It's the only way the Ukrainians can go after Russia in an effective way. I support they're doing so.

SIDNER: Admiral James Stavridis, thank you so much.

I do want to lastly ask you about just your take on what you're hearing from the president about his triumphal arch -- this massive arch that he wants to put up. He's suddenly saying, hey, this is all about -- we're also going to add in basically a military complex in there with drones and snipers and ammunition.

Is this necessary? STAVRIDIS: Doesn't feel that way to me. And anybody who knows that geography knows when you come across the Memorial Bridge, Lincoln Memorial is at your back. You come across the bridge, right, that's where the idea is to place this. But guess what? Right in front of you as you come off the Memorial Bridge is Arlington National Cemetery, and behind that is Fort Myers. We've already got a massive military complex right there where you can stage -- and I'm sure they do stage -- drones, snipers, quick response teams.

So the idea of building a huge arch and making it double as some kind of a tactical platform doesn't make any sense to me. What this decision should turn on is aesthetics, architecture, traffic flow, aviation safety -- all those things that experts get to decide. So let's let the system play out and I suspect the decision is going to be not a good place to park a huge memorial. Certainly from a military perspective, I don't see military utility there.

SIDNER: Admiral, it is always good to see you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning a cargo ship slammed into a fishing vessel off the coast of Singapore. Crew members, they saw it coming. You see them there bracing for impact. The fishing vessel later made it safely back to port. The cargo ship did remain at the scene for several hours before continuing on its journey.

A Thai soccer club is apologizing because a pitch roller, which is that machine right there to flatten the grass, it flattened former English player Andros Townsend there. Somehow, Townsend managed to escape without serious injury, thankfully. He later reposted the clip and joked about it on Instagram. That's a pretty good sport. The Thai club now says it is tightening its safety rules. That might be a good idea.

All right, other news. An overtime thriller and a warning for football fans everywhere -- the Kansas City Chiefs, they might be good again.

CNN's Coy Wire standing by. Talk to us about the football yesterday, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: What's up, sunshine? Yes, two things seemed pretty clear after that Sunday night game.