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Trump Announces Agreement with Iran Complete; Trump Attends White House UFC Event After Iran Agreement; "This Land" Explores America's History Airing Next. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired June 14, 2026 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:01:39]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York.

The breaking news tonight, President Donald Trump says the Strait of Hormuz will open Friday as soon as the United States and Iran sign an agreement to end hostilities after four months of conflict. Now, the strait's opening would mean ships filled with crude oil, would be able to pass through after a months' long standstill for the most part. Oil prices are already falling on the news with futures down about 4 percent to 5 percent tonight. Big implications for what's to come. Pakistan's prime minister says the signing will happen Friday in Switzerland.

We're covering this story from all angles. For the White House perspective, we've got CNN's Julia Benbrook, who's with us along with CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.

And Nic, I just want to start with you. Can you just lay out the significance of this announcement and what still needs to be learned at this point?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I think everyone was expecting some kind of signature this weekend to sign the deal into actuality, into reality. But it was going to be virtual. That didn't materialize. What we got instead was Pakistan's prime minister, the sort of the leader of the mediators here, saying that the agreement had been reached. And immediately all military hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, Lebanon being very significant to this.

And one of the prime reasons to try to get this locked in, if not by electronic signature, than to get all parties to publicly state that they'd agreed to the language, that they'd agreed to move forward, to get to the proper signing that we now know is going to be later in the week on Friday in Switzerland. And this will be a formal signing. But the commitment so important this evening, because Israel had struck at Hezbollah targets close to Beirut, that was because Hezbollah had struck into Israel. Iran had said previously that it would strike back if Israel did that.

Iran appeared to be preparing for just such a military operation. So to get this agreement to forestall the sort of derailing of everything that had been achieved so far, that was a significant part of getting this agreement. Now, the Iranians have come to the table as well and said that they do agree for the signing in Switzerland on Friday.

They do say that this agreement has been reached, but they're also laying out a couple of other things. They're saying, getting into the next phase of talks. And that really means their agreement to this first round. Getting into that requires the United States making good on its commitments to end hostilities, to lift the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. But also, and this is significant, the Iranians are saying something they've said before, that they want to see their frozen assets unfrozen.

Here we're talking about potentially $12 billion. That's a figure that the Iranians have used before. And this of course is a very sensitive issue for President Trump and the White House negotiating team. Not something they want to be seen to be doing. But the Iranians here, this is always going to be one of the difficulties in sort of bringing this agreement to the table, two signatures, in a sort of slightly drawn-out fashion that both sides say we've agreed and then we begin to hear slight changes in position, slight caveats.

[20:05:10]

Of course that's what the mediators have been hoping to do to get everyone to agree. So the signature on Friday, some preparatory talks will take place at a lower level during the week.

JIMENEZ: Julia, what are we hearing from the White House perspective on this?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the main thing is that President Donald Trump says that there is an agreement here, and that this is moving forward. And his comments came shortly after Pakistan, a key mediator in all of this. The prime minister had taken to social media to write, in part, that both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon.

Now, the official signing ceremony is expected to take place on Friday, June 19th, in Switzerland. That is different than what we expected. Trump had said several times that this was going to be signed on Sunday, today, which is also his 80th birthday. It's also flag day. He is soon going to be walking out. We expect that the UFC fights that he is hosting there on the South Lawn. So this was likely a day that he wanted to really tout some good news. And he is able to, as this has been agreed to, but it has not been signed yet.

And there are still a lot of questions on what is in this memorandum of understanding specifically, but it is our understanding that it would kick start that 60-day period for technical negotiations and a Trump administration official has told us that it does include some top line commitments when it comes to Iran's nuclear program. Trump himself has said that when it comes to the highly enriched uranium, that in that 60-day process, those later negotiations, that they'll figure out exactly how they will dispose of that, whether it is in Iran or the United States.

But he says that that will be a part of those next steps. But Vice President J.D. Vance, he has the most recent comments that we've seen, not just on social media, but actually speaking about this. He spoke on FOX News and he outlined some of the core points that he says were considered in this agreement. And the first one includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the lifting of the U.S. blockade there.

It includes commitments on Iran's nuclear program. He says that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and they will not pursue a nuclear weapon. And then that compliance would be central to implementation, that the United States is going to want to verify that Iran is making good on each of their steps here. Now, when it comes to the signing, Vance says that he plans to be there, but that the president himself could be there -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Julia Benbrook, Nic Robertson, appreciate the reporting.

I want to bring in now CNN national security analyst and director of the Counterterrorism Project at the Atlantic Council, Alex Plitsas.

So, Alex, what are you hearing from your sources in the region on this agreement tonight and whether there is real optimism about the process moving forward?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, there's certainly optimism. So I've spoken to the Pakistanis. I've spoken to the Qataris as well. And, you know, between the Pakistani led process and the Qataris coming in and over the last 17 hours pushing to get this over the line, it really was regional mediators who helped to deliver this in the end.

You know, I spoke to senior White House officials, as well as Pentagon and State Department yesterday, as well as the Iranian backchannel. And this has really been building for the last couple of weeks in the sense that most of the substance of this agreement, according to all parties I spoke to, had largely been agreed to and it was really the sequencing that was the problem. And as was just articulated, it was really the Iranians demanding cash up front because they've got a liquidity problem and they wanted that $12 billion released, largely without giving anything up.

And that was a nonstarter for the U.S. so one of the senior Pentagon officials yesterday stressed to me and repeated that this is a conditions based agreement and that the Iranians will not be given anything until they show good faith towards actually executing some of their responsibilities, though we haven't seen the actual text of the agreement yet.

JIMENEZ: And you know, what you point out might be a preview of, again, some of the work that needs to be done in terms of the details, because Iran's deputy foreign minister is saying that the 60-day period of negotiations would start only once the U.S. releases billions in frozen funds. And, you know, that next stage will be about Iran's nuclear program. Some of the more serious and longer standing issues that were at the heart of this war to begin with, including what to do with the stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

But a senior U.S. official, as you said, had previously said any funds would be conditional to Iran complying with the framework. So how do you -- how central is this to actually being able to move forward to some of those larger issues, sort of the freeing up of those funds, as you were just talking about?

PLITSAS: So I think there's a bit of word games being played and face- saving, quite frankly, on both sides. I was also told the White House made a deliberate effort not to engage in public discussions about the MOU and engage in public negotiation over the last week or so because it had found it to be sort of unhelpful leading up to this.

[20:10:01]

But the White House understood that if the details were going to be left on the backend, there absolutely needed to be agreement, at least at a high level, that were going to dispose or dilute the highly enriched uranium, and there's going to be a ban on enrichment for a certain period of time. The details of which to be worked out in phase two, so that at least, if there is an agreement to release some sort of funding to lift some sanctions, that they would be getting something substantive even at a high level, though, the details of that would be pushed to the back end of this, which, quite frankly, is very similar in structure to how they dealt with the Gaza peace deal, where there was a phase one and most of the difficult details were pushed to phase two.

And that still hasn't come to fruition. So we'll see. But 60 days from now takes us to less than 100 days before the midterm elections and puts everything in a very precarious position from a political perspective.

JIMENEZ: A lot of pressures from a bunch of different sides here. And it's something the Iranians are obviously cognizant of, as this has played out, and part of keeping the leverage in the Strait of Hormuz is in some ways seeing how much the United States could withstand. You know, you talked about sort of what would happen in the 60-day negotiation period, if that's what we get to beyond the signing.

That obviously would be where some of those tougher nuclear negotiations would be. When you look at something like the JCPOA, it took years to finally get to some place where people agreed to move forward. As you point out, the Gaza proceedings are still sort of being worked out. How much can realistically get done over the course of 60 days to the point where all parties can feel confident in a longstanding peace?

PLITSAS: So it took about 18 months and 175 pages to get to the JCPOA. It was not a quick process. In this case, you know, the conditions are different in the sense that there's been active conflict and a threat to return to it. And the Iranians, although they're still outwardly facing, you know, still menacing in their words, they did take a pretty good beating. So if they're calling this a victory, it's a redefinition of a pyrrhic victory without a doubt.

I think the real risk point, though, going forward, not necessarily is the details, although it seems that they've agreed at a high level, it's actually the flashpoint, I think, between Israel and Lebanon, as we saw earlier today. And, you know, the U.S. had initially sought to have that excluded from the agreement for this reason.

We saw Hezbollah launch projectiles or at least drones into northern Israel today. And then Israel responded, or the IDF, by striking the Beirut suburbs. The individual that they actually killed today is somebody that I personally met with while he was in jail in Baghdad back in 2010, when I was in country 2010, 2011, his name was Ali Musa Daqduq, one of the members of Hezbollah that was sent by Iran into Iraq to help prop up the Iraqi Shia militias to fight the United States.

He was personally responsible for five U.S. soldiers that had been put inside of an SUV and were killed execution style in the back of a car. This guy was one of the worst, you know, criminals that was out there. As soon as the Iraqis let him go in 2012, he returned to the battlefield, back to Hezbollah. So absolutely no love lost and some justice done for the United States today and the individual that was killed.

But as we saw, it got the Iranians ready to respond. And the last piece I'll touch on that, the Iranians have always denied that they have these proxy forces in the region, and yet they've sought to include Lebanon and specifically Israel is going after Hezbollah there. So they still want to retain the ability to use these militias as an exertion of foreign power going out of this agreement. And that is going to be problematic, I think, in the long run for the U.S. and for Israel.

So we will see where that lands in the agreement. And we still haven't seen anything on caps on ballistic missiles. Unclear where that lands. But finally, the Pentagon official I spoke to yesterday also stressed that this agreement will be much broader in scope than the JCPOA in terms of the issues addressed. So I'll go back to what I said before. I think the devil is in the details, and until we see that text released, it's unclear whether or not we can call this a good or a bad agreement at this point.

JIMENEZ: And for those listening, I mean, just in the factors that were laid out in a few minutes of discussion on this, while it is an achievement to have an agreement, and at least in the sense that two sides or multiple sides are saying the same thing, a lot more details will be worked out to see if this is actually a significant threshold that will hold. We will see.

Alex Plitsas, appreciate the analysis and reporting as always.

PLITSAS: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right. Meanwhile, an Israeli source says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking an urgent meeting with President Trump after this agreement between the U.S. and Iran is signed. We'll have much more next in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:18:55]

JIMENEZ: We're back following the latest breaking news with the United States and Iran saying they've reached a new agreement that will ultimately include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

I want to bring in former State Department Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller, who joins us now. He's also a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Aaron, now that this agreement has been announced, what comes next as we wait until the announced Friday signing?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: I'm looking for the text, Omar, frankly.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

MILLER: You know, it was the Hollywood mogul Sam Goldwyn who said that an oral agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on. And I'm hoping the memorandum of understanding doesn't become a memorandum of misunderstanding. The fact that they haven't released the text to me is worrisome. And the Iranians are already adding conditions. The deputy foreign minister is talking about the 60-day period won't begin until billions of dollars of assets are returned, the naval blockade is eased, and the United States renounces its military intentions and deployments with respect to Iran.

I think it will get done because the alternative is worse for both sides.

[20:20:01]

At the same time, I think we're facing a huge, huge mountain to climb in order to turn this war of choice into something that would be productive, and to advance the national interest of the United States. And I think Iran thinks it's won. And frankly, it's not delusional. It's got its hands all over the straits. They've weaponized geography. They can close them any time they want. And for whatever reason, a few drones, a few intimidating messages to insurance companies, they can constrain and restrict traffic.

So I think this is, as I mentioned to somebody, this is going to be a series of root canals and migraine headaches for the Americans lucky enough to be able to do the negotiating. And they have to do it, by the way, directly. No more intermediary cell phones, none of that. It's going to work. It's got to be direct and continuous and with experts.

JIMENEZ: You know, prior to today, one of the methods that was sort of discussed in terms of getting to this agreement was getting -- having essentially a virtual signing and the thinking there being that, well, the longer you wait, the more opportunity there is to sort of throw a wrench in what would be a signing. And then what ends up being announced now is what seems like that exact scenario where you have an announcement today, but then a signing wouldn't happen until Friday. Does that concern you at all?

MILLER: What concerns me is the possibility that the vice president of the United States, or frankly, any senior American official is going to sit in Geneva and shake the hand maybe of Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the lead negotiator, a man who, among others, was responsible for the oppression and repression of the Iranian public. I mean, this from an administration -- again, I voted for R's and D's and worked for R's and D's. It's an analysis, not a partisan comment.

This administration, this president said help is on the way. And yes, help is on the way all right. We're going to end up empowering and strengthening the very regime that the administration has sought to undermine. Frankly, I'd be happy with a virtual signing rather than a senior American official sitting down with Ghalibaf and pretending that, you know, let's break open the champagne. I think it's a serious set of contradictions and anomalies here, Omar.

JIMENEZ: And it's not just the United States and Iran here. I mean, you look at what's going on between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both sides have talked about an end to hostilities, again, including in Lebanon. But Israel isn't a part of this deal, at least as it's been announced to this point. To your point, we haven't seen any specific text here, but it may be related to an Israeli source told CNN that Prime Minister Netanyahu is seeking an urgent meeting with President Trump after the G7.

I wonder, do you expect to see any stopping in the hostilities there between Israel and Hezbollah? And can the U.S. do anything about it?

MILLER: Well, the president has extraordinary leverage over this Israeli prime minister. October's elections, Donald Trump needs to campaign actively for Netanyahu. If he doesn't, the prime minister's vulnerabilities are going to increase exponentially. So he has leverage. But Netanyahu is in a box. He's been hammered by the opposition and by his own party for caving to the United States.

The northern residents of Israel want the war against Hezbollah to continue. So he really is in a box trying to navigate between his own politics and his fear of losing Trump's support. No wonder he wants a meeting.

JIMENEZ: You know, the backdrop to all of this is that this week, President Trump will be heading to the G7 Summit. European leaders have also been urgently calling for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen, to get oil start flowing again, no matter how long that process actually takes. But we've already heard from at least the French president that this is going to be one of the major topics of discussion.

How do you think this is going to play out at the G7 this week? And how does President Trump weigh the input of his European allies? MILLER: You know, I have to say, I don't think there's an

international crisis that I can think of in which three countries, the U.S., Iran and Israel held the entire international global economy hostage. Where are the Russians? They're nowhere to be seen. What about the Chinese? Nowhere to be seen. What about the Europeans? Nowhere to be seen. I mean, if, in fact, the Europeans could play a role, a composite role in strait security, demining, a capacity we don't have or we don't have enough of, I think that would be important whether President Trump is prepared to --

[20:25:04]

JIMENEZ: And Aaron David Miller, just want to jump in really quickly just to explain what we're seeing on camera right now. This is President Trump walking out of the White House alongside Dana White, who leads the UFC, as they are getting ready to go take their seats, to watch what is expected to be this UFC fight night happening at the White House on President Trump's birthday. This event has been obviously widely promoted and publicized, a very significant event, the first of its kind to happen here at the White House.

For those that have been in D.C., in or around it, or have seen images of the White House as of late, the facade of what's known as sort of the claw, the lights for the octagon tower really over the White House, at the very least, much larger than the White House itself. And this has been part of a sort of UFC centered fest that we have seen happen over the course of this weekend, not just the White House, but at the Ellipse as well.

So, Aaron David Miller, sorry to interrupt, but just wanted to explain a little bit of what our viewers were seeing there. You were saying just a little bit about, and again these are pictures as we're expecting that event to get going any minute now. You were saying just about with, you can't really think of another conflict in which three countries have held the global economy hostage in a way that Iran, Israel and the United States have.

MILLER: Yes. And I don't see other players. Well, of course, that's partly as a consequence of adverse U.S.-Chinese interests in this particular problem. And same goes for the Russians. The Europeans were never consulted. I'm sure if they were consulted, they would have said no, this is a crazy idea. The question is whether they can be mobilized in order to do something with respect to the Straits of Hormuz.

Something has to be done in order to reaffirm the international unfettered character waterway here. And I don't know what the Iranian demands are going to be with respect to the straits. I mean, they talk about tolls. They now, I think, have a new phrase, navigation fees. But we should --

JIMENEZ: And Aaron David Miller, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to jump in just again. Your analysis is great as always. Just dealing with some live pictures here. We want to listen in quickly to see how this fight night is getting started at the White House. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Welcome to UFC Freedom 250. Here is the president of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump.

DANA WHITE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, UFC: Happy birthday.

(CHEERS)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Here to honor America by singing the national anthem, please welcome three-time Grammy Award-winning artist, Zac Brown Band, accompanied by the Armed Forces Joint Chorus.

(ZAC BROWN BAND PERFORMING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM)

[20:30:25]

JIMENEZ: And you are seeing the flyover that came as part of the singing of the national anthem as President Trump's UFC Fight Night officially kicks off at the White House. You saw the president standing alongside UFC head Dana White.

Now this is an event, the first of its kind that's happened at the White House on President Trump's birthday as you see him walking with Dana White there, some from the outside, a lot of some have viewed this as a very controversial type of event. Cost about $60 million in production costs. But from the people that our teams have spoken to on the ground there, either for the event itself or for the surrounding fight fest, the festival, excuse me, people seem to just be focusing on the UFC itself, at the very least, reluctant to talk politics with our reporters, but also seeming to focus on just the fight aspect of this and the unique nature of all of this.

I want to bring in Ron Brownstein as well, who has been watching along with me, where, Ron, just a little bit of that dynamic I was talking about, where there's this contrast to what you're seeing on screen, a lot of excitement obviously there at the White House, but also in some of the surrounding area, with some who might be looking at this from the outside in, saying, well, hey, there's plenty of other things to focus on, why do this?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Yes. I mean, you know, look, there's probably a good deal of overlap between the audience for UFC and the president's political coalition. And there's no doubt that in 2024 he was very successful at using cultural associations to connect with irregular voters and turn them out, especially younger men across racial lines, who I assume are the prime audience here.

I mean, the complication for him is that since 2024, when this was a very positive association for him, he's faced a growing sense in the electorate, including among many of his own voters, that he's not sufficiently focused on what they sent him there to do, above all, which was deal with their cost of living problem, and that he's more focused on his own priorities, ranging from tearing down the East Wing to throwing himself a big birthday party, to putting his name on the, you know, the Kennedy Center.

So I look at this as something of a more kind of two edged sword than it was for him in '24, when it was mostly a positive and help him to expand his coalition. I think this just -- this still has elements of that, but it also underlines another storyline that I think has proved very damaging to him as the second term has unfolded.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, we've had reporters out, you know, sort of in the crowd. There's two things sort of going on that festival that's happening outside of the White House grounds, but nearby at the Ellipse. And then, of course, right here itself on the South Lawn of the White House, which is where the octagon is actually set up.

You know, one of the interesting things that Donie O'Sullivan and Sara Sidner noted was that in the crowd, they saw very few MAGA hats. And I'm talking about the festival outside the grounds. I don't believe they've been able to get a good look at who's actually here specifically, but that the people that came by the thousands, again, not a lot of MAGA hats in the crowd, didn't seem to quite be overtly political in nature.

Is this one of those things that is just kind of a flashpoint and ends up not really being a big deal? Or do you see this as actually having some long standing power that can -- that could hurt him in a way that we'll see translate politically?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I wrote a book about the history of the relationship between Hollywood and politics, and my sense, looking over that history of the association of presidents with cultural figures is that it works by osmosis. You know, that the positive value for a president is seeming part of the same world that voters live in, and that that extends beyond the kind of the usual parameters of political debate.

So I think there is a -- there was clearly a benefit in '24 for Trump, and there is still a benefit for him in seeming to be part of this world that matters a lot more than conventional political debates. The part of the audience that he's trying to reach. The problem he's got is that, you know, for those voters came to him largely because they thought he was going to solve their economic problems.

And you can look at the polling, it's overwhelmingly clear that they do not feel that he has solved those problems. And as I said, many, many Americans feel that he is more focused on himself, his kind of -- his grudges, his kind of grandiosity, and, you know, his kind of greed in the way that he is benefiting from this second term.

[20:35:10]

So I think of this as something that, you know, it's going back to a play that worked for him very well in '24. But I think it's just much more complicated connotations now that he's dealing with all of this domestic discontent over the economy.

JIMENEZ: You know, after this, as we understand, he's expected to -- the president is expected to go to France for the G7 Summit that's happening this place this week. And it comes as we hear this announcement of this Iran agreement, this memorandum of understanding.

How important is this week for the president to maybe blunt any political consequences that might come from this UFC Fight Night?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, blunt is a good word, right? Because I think it's more about blunting the political consequences of months of higher gas prices, which has put his approval rating down even below where it was into, you know, kind of unimaginable territory in our modern polarized environment where he's like in the mid, sometimes the mid-30s or the high 30s. Anything that serves to bring down gas prices will benefit the president.

I mean, he should recover at least a few points if this -- over at least the next 60 days brings down gas prices. But you know, the main thing that it appears this memorandum is accomplishing is to defuse a threat that didn't exist before the war started. Right? I mean, the main thing he's doing is getting the Strait of Hormuz reopened, at least in the intermediate term. And that was not something that was a problem before he went to war.

It's, you know, it's going to be very hard for him, I think, you know, based on what we see so far to convert the majority of Americans who think that the cost of this war -- the benefits of this war, have not justified the cost or to end up with an agreement that he can plausibly argue is stronger than the one from Barack Obama that he tore up. Don't forget that, you know, the president and Marco Rubio, both in 2016, were very loudly complaining that the Obama agreement transferred pallets of cash or planeloads of cash to Iran.

There's the potential that there's going to be a lot more money going into Iran out of this agreement than anything that Obama envisioned in 2016. And that will, you know, inexorably reinforce buttress this Iranian regime in a way that Trump and his allies specifically complained about in 2016. So, you know, if you're in a hole and you stop digging, that's good. And if gas prices go down, that will help the president, at least somewhat. But he is going to need more out of this 60-day negotiation, I think, to reverse the verdict of most Americans that this was fundamentally a strategic mistake.

JIMENEZ: You know, when you look at this fight or this Fight Night for UFC in particular, you know, you were talking sort of about he's going to have to do so much more, is there a world in which President Trump looks at something like this and says, well, this is a way to at least try and reinvigorate my base that we can do fun things, that we can celebrate, that this is America? Is there a world in which that works, or does that not -- there's just no way that outweighs the pain that people are feeling in their wallets and at the pump?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, you know what I wrote about today on CNN.com, you know, the biggest risk for Republicans in November is not really what happened in 2018 when there was a surge of new voters by something like one in eight voters in 2018 had not voted before. At a moment when there's widespread dissatisfaction with both parties, it's unlikely most experts think that we're going to see anything like that. The risk for them is that, you know, Trump's approval rating among his own voters is down to around -- 2024 voters is now down to around 80 percent among Hispanics who voted for Trump in 2024. According to Pew only two-thirds of them now approved. And so, yes, I mean, I think he is trying to reconnect with his base

on these cultural issues. And I think you will see when he is on the campaign trail more in the fall, he'll be using cultural flashpoints to try to reconnect with those voters, attacking Democrats on issues like immigration or transgender issues or crime. But ultimately, the overriding factor that has diminished his approval rating with his own voters, particularly those irregular voters that we started out talking about, is the sense that he has failed to get their cost of living under control, which is the main thing that they elected him to do.

And there will be some who he can reactivate with these other issues. But I think that is a big rock in the road that even a large share of his 2024 voters do not feel they have the -- they've seen the progress that they expected. Significant number of them believe that his policies have made things worse, not better, tariffs, health care cuts, the war and gas prices.

[20:40:04]

And as I said, there is a big component of the electorate that believes he has not sufficiently focused on what they sent him there to do, and is focused instead on his own priorities, his grudges, his grievances, and making more money for him and his allies.

JIMENEZ: And I should note, one of the concerns about this event in particular came around the weather and whether the rain, not so much the rain, but more so lightning and storms would stop this. It does appear that the worst of the weather has passed, as we might have just lost signal there, but we were talking about the perspective of the claw, which is the lighting, the octagon alongside the White House.

This is what it looks like right now. You can see -- you really can't miss the claw sitting on the South Lawn of the White House there. And you can see the size and perspective in terms of that festival that's happening just outside the South Lawn as well.

I want to bring in Sara Sidner, who is at a watch party event where thousands of UFC fans have been gathered.

So, Sara, there have been events held at the White House before, but nothing like this. What are you seeing at the watch party and in the area around there right now?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): It's pretty incredible. You are now seeing tens of thousands of people who have gathered on the Ellipse, which is just a few hundred feet away. I mean, you can see the claw from where we are, but they have set up this huge watch party fan zone. There was all sorts of things to do today. The crowd is as loud as it has been because when they saw the flyover, that really set the tone. People started screaming USA and chanting as they're watching this.

They also recognize when two men, very recognizable, walked out of the White House together. Those two men, President Donald Trump and UFC president and CEO Dana White. Those two men are the reason why this is happening. Their relationship that has gone on for more than 20 years is the entire reason why you're seeing this fight night on the South Lawn. And Dana White, I spoke to him at length on many different issues about the confluence of politics and sport.

And he has said, look, I did stand up for Donald Trump because I believed in him, because he's my friend. That is also the reason why this fight is happening on the South Lawn. That relationship that they have had for so long because Donald Trump believes in the UFC years after it had been banned in 36 states, and after Dana White picked it up with his business partners, he was the first person to open up a place, a venue for the UFC to exist.

So that long relationship, they could not have imagined that on this day that this would end up at the White House. It would be such a spectacle. Now, there are, of course, critics. There are people who do not like this confluence of politics and sports because they feel like the sport has become a MAGA sport, not a sport for everybody. That is not how Dana White sees it. In fact, he is trying to grow this larger and larger, making it worldwide. There are fighters from all over the world. 170 different countries are represented in the UFC.

And what we're watching right now is one of the fighters who I spoke with, which is Steve Garcia. He is from Mexican American family from Albuquerque. And I asked him about what this all means to him, and he talked about how this is a fight. He's not thinking about the White House. He's not thinking about politics. He's thinking about winning, and he's thinking about his life and his family.

He said, look, you know, I come from modest means, and this is the way that I make a living for my family. And I'm hoping to put another notch on my belt as far as a win. And so that's what the fighters are of thinking about. But Dana White and Donald Trump know very well that this can benefit both of them. First of all, through money, because they're selling all kinds of merchandise. The White House certainly with the coins, but also through exposure.

This is going to be seen all over the world in a way that, you know, a lot of people may not see it if they don't subscribe to the channel in which you would get this particular fight. So it's a win-win really for both of them. And of course, there are always going to be critics, people who do not like this sort of thing on the White House. They feel like it degrades it -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Yes, there are a few layers there, including sort of athletic preference to start with. But as you point out, once this gets going for the fighters, this is a UFC match. They will treat it the same way they have done all their other previous matches, trying to beat the other person. And for the folks who are watching and from the folks you've been talking to on the grounds there, they seem to be focused on that. It's only when you sort of zoom back, you sort of look at the implications of what this might mean for the president moving forward.

Sara Sidner, appreciate the reporting there on the ground for us. We're going to continue monitoring this as this gets going on Trump's birthday there at the White House, this UFC Fight Night. But we'll have more coming up. [20:45:05]

We're also following new headlines as well, including tomorrow at noon Eastern Time on CNN All Access, you can tune in at Sara, Donie O'Sullivan and John Berman hold a Q and A on the UFC fight. Ask your questions on CNN.com/SubscriberSeries. More coming up.

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JIMENEZ: As part of America's 250th anniversary this summer, discover the dramatic story of how a fragile nation on the East Coast expanded across the continent with stories told by the descendants of people like Sacagawea, President James Monroe and Kit Carson, and the CNN Original Series "THIS LAND." Here's a preview.

[20:50:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: In the 1840s, the government talked about manifest destiny. It was the destiny of largely men, but also women in the central part of the United States and the East Coast to go west and create a new life.

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: The American population is just explosively growing. Americans fundamentally come to believe because it is reiterated in their daily conversations. It is in their exchanges with their political leaders that it is, in fact, their God-given right to expand. And California is fertile land. It is rich land. It is sparsely populated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the early 1840s, not many white settlers from the east have made it to California.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Joining us now to discuss is CNN historian Tim Naftali, who you just saw a few seconds ago. So we got him in person.

By weaving together these personal and national stories, you know, "THIS LAND" takes a different approach to retelling American history. And as a historian, why is it important to center these personal narratives?

NAFTALI: Because, Omar, America is all of us. A history that is simply a series of presidents and what they each accomplished or what the most important of them accomplished is it doesn't really tell our story at all. The beauty of this series, and I can say that because I'm only a talking head in it. I didn't design it. And is that it connects you to people whose descendants shape the history that you're being told about.

So it's not just a recitation -- I was going to say dry, but we historians don't do that. But it's not just a recitation of facts. It's images and people's personal stories telling you how this country expands to California, what it was like for the first explorers, Lewis and Clark, the first explorers from the U.S. government who were sent on this mission by Thomas Jefferson and Congress after the United States acquires Louisiana.

What do they find? What are they seeing? Whom do they meet? What role does Sacagawea and do Native Americans play in the story? And then how does this new society not only expand but change? Because it's not just expanding, it's getting different. And at moments in the story, you realize how accident contingency plays a role. Abraham Lincoln considered going to California. He was a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois.

His prospects were not great. He hadn't yet won a seat in Congress. And he and Mary Todd Lincoln knew the leader of the Donner Party, a group of would-be settlers who were on their way to California. He almost -- he and Mary Todd Lincoln almost went with him. Well, as you will learn, the Donner Party is -- it's a tragic story. Half of that party would die of starvation in the Sierra Nevadas. If Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln had died in 1847, how might our history have been different? I can imagine it would have been different. But of course, I can't say how.

JIMENEZ: What do you hope viewers take away from this story?

NAFTALI: First of all, love the images. Enjoy being reminded of the majesty of this country, the rivers, the mountains. And then see how the story of human beings interacts with these images of places that haven't changed in hundreds and thousands of years. We've changed, but a lot of the background, the backdrop, it hasn't changed. And so it is the intermingling of us and this fantastic and beautiful country that is the story of "THIS LAND." And it's our story.

JIMENEZ: Tim Naftali, you know, just before we go, how do you think this methodology will influence the next generation's understanding of this history?

NAFTALI: Well, first of all, and I try to do this in the classroom. The goal is not to tell people what to think, but to introduce them to images and ideas and provoke thinking on their part. So the goal here, and I hope it's the goal this entire year as we commemorate our 250th birthday, is to encourage people to learn more about our past, to start with questions and use the tools that we've got to answer them on their own.

[20:55:05]

So I hope it inspires questions from young people and work on their part.

JIMENEZ: Well, Tim Naftali, just based on the images that we saw, I mean, I think your point of just taking in the imagery of this country and the imagery of the stories, I think is going to be incredibly rich and important for those who tune in. I really appreciate the perspective live but you can also get more of his perspective in the program itself.

Be sure to tune in new episodes of the CNN Original Series "THIS LAND," premieres at the top of the hour, and then tomorrow on the CNN app.

Thank you all for joining me tonight. We covered a lot of ground, including the breaking news. You can read more of that also on the CNN app. As that continues, I'm Omar Jimenez. We'll see you again next weekend. Good night.

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