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Trump Pardons Multiple Supporters for Fraud; Germany Chancellor: No Longer Restrictions on Long-Range Weapons Against Russia; German Chancellor: Israel's Actions 'Can No Longer Be Justified'; Will Apple Bring iPhone Manufacturing to U.S.? Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired May 28, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it inside the plane? Oh, my goodness. That's -- that's insane. Apparently, a pigeon inside the plane.

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RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: How does this happen? Delta says that it appreciates the actions of its staff and customers, and apologizes for the departure delay, and the fright, and the commotion that it caused there.

Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START, meantime. I'm Rahel Solomon, live in New York. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now. I'll see you tomorrow.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Wednesday, May 28. And here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Both my parents are coming home.

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CORNISH: Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley pardoned, the latest in a long list of Trump supporters to receive a get-out-of-free-jail [SIC] card. Are we starting to see a pattern?

Plus, playing with fire. Tough talk from President Trump as Russia escalates its assault on Ukraine. And now the U.S. is weighing sanctions on Russia.

Then, explosive testimony from Diddy's ex-assistant. But can she help prosecutors build a racketeering case?

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: As he said, he's going to India to build plants. I said, that's OK to go to India, but you're not going to sell into here without tariffs.

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CORNISH: Build here or be tariffed, says the president. But is it actually possible for Apple to move its productions to the U.S.?

It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Good morning to New York. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with us.

And we're going to turn to that reality TV couple found guilty of tax crimes and bank fraud, a sheriff convicted of taking bribes, and a Florida nursing home executive who admitted to cheating the IRS. All of them pardoned by President Trump. And that's where we start this morning.

So, take Todd and Julie Chrisley. A jury convicted the former reality TV stars of defrauding banks out of more than $30 million. The president believes they were victims of the Biden Justice Department, and so they're going to be freed soon.

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TRUMP: It's a terrible thing, but it's a great thing, because your parents are going to be free and clean. And I hope we can do it by tomorrow. I don't know them, but give them my regards and wish them.

SAVANNAH CHRISLEY, DAUGHTER OF TODD AND JULIE: Thank you so much.

CHASE CHRISLEY, SON OF TODD AND JULIE: Mr. President.

TRUMP: Yes. How are you?

C. CHRISLEY: I just want to say thank you for bringing my parents back.

TRUMP: Yes, well, they were given a pretty harsh treatment, based on what I'm hearing.

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CORNISH: Their daughter, Savannah, spoke at the RNC last summer and campaigned for the president.

And now another Trump supporter is also getting help. The New York times reports that Elizabeth Fago attended a $1 million a person fundraising dinner last night at Mar-a-Lago. Then a few weeks later, her son got an unconditional pardon.

He's a nursing home executive who pleaded guilty to withholding millions in payroll taxes to buy a yacht and other expensive things.

But the White House claims the Biden administration targeted him. Then there's a Virginia sheriff who was due to report to prison this

week. Scott Jenkins was convicted in March of accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in what prosecutors called a cash for badges scheme.

Now he's been pardoned as President Trump claims he is, quote, "the victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice."

So, we want to talk about what we are seeing here with the group chat. Today we've got Jonathan Allen, senior national politics reporter for NBC -- for NBC news and coauthor of "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House"; and Hyma Moore, former chief of staff to DNC chair Jaime Harrison; and Kristen Soltis Anderson, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist.

OK, group chat. Thank you, guys, for waking up with me.

The reason why we wanted to talk about this is this reporting. First of all, I feel like any time there are pardons, there are a bunch of questions about who got the pardons and why. It never works out for any administration. But what stands out about these?

JONATHAN ALLEN, SENIOR NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, NBC NEWS: I mean, what stands out about these is that there seem to be two routes to a Trump pardon.

One is you can make a colorable argument that Biden went after you politically. Or two, you put a lot of money into electing Donald Trump. And maybe those things combine in some cases to make an even stronger argument. But it seems like there's a pretty clear pattern here.

CORNISH: But when you're in the kind of echo chamber conversation of sort of how people were treated because of their beliefs, right? I feel like that's the ongoing argument from kind of MAGA world that these people were targeted.

I don't know, for -- for you guys. Like, do you get the sense that that is something that the average person hears and believes, or do they raise the questions Jonathan is?

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KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I think that the average voter looks at the pardon process and thinks this is all kind of gross and broken.

I mean, remember on Donald Trump's first day in office, the thing that he did that was perhaps the most outrageous and certainly tested the worst in the polling I was doing was pardoning the January 6th folks.

But that very same day, on his way out of office, Joe Biden had pardoned his whole family.

There have been shameful pardons. I mean, I remember -- I don't want to say how old I was, but I remember there being a lot of consternation about some of the Bill Clinton pardons on his way out of office.

And so, it's not new that the pardon privilege has been kind of abused and something that people think is a little tawdry.

But the other thing that I think is a real shame is, actually, Donald Trump and his first term used the pardon power, I think, to some good effect in some ways. Remember, he ran an ad during the Super Bowl about his pardon of -- here was a grandmother who -- she was put away for marijuana. And now I've let her out as part of his whole First Step Act criminal justice reform effort. But things like this --

CORNISH: It's a very different now. Hyma.

HYMA MOORE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO DNC CHAIR JAIME HARRISON: That's what I was going to say, I think sometimes these pardons have been used to sort of reinforce a narrative that you want to sort of be an umbrella of your administration.

And I don't know what Donald Trump is doing right now with these -- with these current pardons and what's happened over the last couple of months.

It's like you have pardoned people who are -- who have been -- who've been prosecuted for fraud. Seems like a bad narrative, particularly when you are taking a plane from a foreign country; when you have questions about your own ethics and the ethics of your family; the bitcoin stuff.

And so, it just feels like an unforced error for Donald Trump to go this far on these pardons. And I think people are going to care about it at some point, but maybe not right now.

CORNISH: OK, you guys stick around, because this story is not going away. As more and more comes out, we've got a lot to talk about.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, a subtle rebuke from the throne. King Charles stands up for Canada in the face of annexation threats.

Plus, the end of an era. How much will you now have to pay to check a bag on Southwest?

Also, President Trump says Russia is playing with fire, and he's weighing sanctions. But is he going to follow through?

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JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, ABC'S "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": He's playing with fire. Well, that should do it. That should -- Vladimir Putin poisons people and throws them out windows. You think you're going to scare him with the title of a John Cena movie?

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[06:11:58] CORNISH: A lot of talk, but so far, no action from President Trump when it comes to punishing Russia. Vladimir Putin vowed last week to send President Trump a framework for a ceasefire with Ukraine. Trump is still waiting for it. He says Putin is, quote, "playing with fire" and that he's considering new sanctions.

In Russia, they don't sound too worried about those threats.

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MARGARITA SIMONYAN, EDITOR IN CHIEF, RT (through translator): And suddenly, Trump says terrible things. Trump is going back somewhere to the 19th Century. Trump suddenly says, no, we're not going to do this anymore. I am somehow seriously worried about his life and health.

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CORNISH: Pressure is mounting on the Russians to agree to a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Germany's new chancellor declaring there are no longer any restrictions on the use of long-range missiles by Ukraine. The Kremlin calling that position dangerous.

And right now, Ukraine's president is in Berlin to meet with the chancellor. And that's where CNN's Sebastian Shukla is.

Good morning, Sebastian. Thanks for being with us.

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

CORNISH: I wanted to talk about this, because we're seeing European nations feel like they have to step up as the U.S. kind of withdraws or does a lot of finger-wagging about how they protect Europe and get involved in its security.

How has this new chancellor approached things differently?

SHUKLA: Well, Audie, Chancellor Merz has taken a very different line to Chancellor Scholz, who was his predecessor.

And in the 21 days that he has been chancellor, we've seen a big change in the way that Germany, and particularly Merz, is trying to position this country and its support of Ukraine.

The thing to remember in all of this is that Germany has been, for a long time, one of Ukraine's most ardent supporters. It's the second most in terms of overall aid delivered. That could be militarily, humanitarian, and the others. But it's also the second most, after the United States, in terms of military aid total after the U.S.

And today, that's what we're going to start to hear from -- from the chancellor with President Zelenskyy: about the potential delivery of these lethal long-range weapons called the Taurus missiles, which will trump anything else that is able and has been deployed and delivered by the U.S. and the Brits in terms of being able to strike targets deep into Russia. So, it's -- this is a -- this is an important meeting, Audie, and a

very, very significant one when it comes to Germany's positioning, both within NATO and for its support of Ukraine.

CORNISH: And to be clear, it's not just any missile system, right? I mean, it is considered a -- possibly the best in the world.

SHUKLA: Yes. That's right. It's -- it's a Swedish, German-developed missile system. It's known as Taurus. And it's able to reach targets deep, deep, deep inside Russia.

We're talking about being able to launch these things, to be able to hit the Russian capital or other strategic targets, perhaps further South, that -- that famous bridge that bridges the illegally annexed peninsula of Crimea to the Russian mainland. It's known as the Kerch Bridge. It's come under attack various times by Ukrainians' naval forces.

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So, we're talking about extending this fight, that to take it more to the Russian mainland, which is something that President Zelenskyy has said he's wanted to do for quite some time: to bring the war home to Russians.

If they agree, this will be a pretty major and significant step towards it.

But -- but -- I caveat the "but" here -- it's not agreed yet. There are various difficulties here in Germany about the proposal to get that signed off, that Merz is fighting within his own party and coalition, too -- Audie.

CORNISH: Sebastian, I want to ask you about one more thing, because the German chancellor isn't just talking about this geopolitical issue. He's also criticizing Israel and its military operations in Gaza.

For a minute, let's just listen to the former chancellor, Olaf Scholz's, position on Israel. And now we can get a sense of how Merz is changing course.

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OLAF SCHOLZ, FORMER GERMAN CHANCELLOR: My country stands by the people of Israel. From day one, our message has been clear. Israel has the right to defend itself against the terror of Hamas.

FRIEDRICH MERZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): What the Israeli army is now doing in the Gaza Strip, frankly, I no longer understand what the objective is. To inflict such suffering also on the civilian population, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified on the grounds of a fight against Hamas terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: Sebastian, you've also been writing about this at CNN. How significant is this shift?

SHUKLA: Yes, it's very significant is the short answer to that. And it marks a departure from the long-standing tradition, which goes back to the Second World War, and that persecution by the Nazi regime against the Jewish people here.

And it's -- it's a -- it's a theory. It's a feeling that's known as "staatsraison" here in Germany, which is that -- and it started under the premiership of Angela Merkel.

It's that Germany has a right and will always defend Israel to the hilt, ultimately. And it will -- it will never question the defense and support of Israel.

Merz has said, in the last two days, he's turned that on its head completely, almost. And it's made people think here in Germany, oh, the chancellor is taking a different line here. He's -- he seems to be saying that Israel has crossed some red lines, even for its closest partners in the world. And Germany is included in that.

And so, it's -- it's -- it marks a real shift here. And it's -- it's starting to build up the picture of the Merz chancellorship in Germany, in that he's looking for this country to become less of a backseat player in all of this and lead from the front -- lead from the front on so many issues.

We've -- we've spoken about Ukraine already this morning, and now we seem to be talking about Israel. That is a broad spectrum when it comes to international relations.

And I'll just throw it forward just a little bit more, if you'll allow me to.

CORNISH: Yes.

SHUKLA: We're expecting the German chancellor to be in D.C. in the next few days, few weeks to meet with President Trump, which will be another a bellwether meeting where he has to be able to put forward his idea and vision for Germany.

Particularly important at this time, where the president is saying that, look, we want to reform NATO in a way. We want spending to increase. And also, we're taking a step back on Europe's security.

Merz is clearly saying in all of this, OK, fine. If you're going to do that, me and Germany, we're going to try and find a way to lead from the front.

CORNISH: That's CNN's Sebastian Shukla in Berlin. Thank you.

And still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the president threatens to withhold federal funding from the state of California over just one athlete at one sporting event. Will Governor Newsom fall in line with the administration? Plus, Apple facing a steep potential tariff. So, will the company

start making iPhones in the U.S. to avoid it?

A live look at my hometown of Boston. Coming up, I'll talk to a student from Harvard who has a simple message for the Trump administration: "Come at me, bro."

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The army of millions and millions of human beings, screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America.

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CORNISH: OK? So, is it really? This is a question we've been asking over and over again, and this is what we're going to dig into today on this morning's off-script conversation.

Because it's coming as President Trump is putting pressure on Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, to bring iPhone manufacturing to the U.S., warning that if it doesn't happen, the company will face a tariff of at least 25 percent.

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TRUMP: They build their plant here, there's no tariff, so they're going to be building plants here. But I had an understanding with Tim that he wouldn't be doing this. He said he's going to India to build plants. I said, that's OK to go to India, but you're not going to sell into here without tariffs.

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CORNISH: But making the iPhone or any other gadget in the U.S., it's not so easy, according to a new article on CNN THIS MORNING.

Joining us now is CNN business tech writer Lisa Eadicicco. Lisa, thanks for bringing your writing to us. Good morning.

LISA EADICICCO, CNN BUSINESS TECH WRITER: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

CORNISH: So, I feel like there is this Dave Chappelle joke where he talks about how he doesn't want an iPhone to cost $9,000, so he doesn't care that it's not made in the U.S.

But at this point, because people have started looking into it, do we know why it's so hard to make this technology here?

EADICICCO: Yes, absolutely. So, it comes down to a few things. But the biggest factor here is that we just don't have the workforce with the right skills in the U.S. to build iPhones and other similar products at scale.

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Now, this is not the first time this has come up. Apple CEO Tim Cook has talked about this in the past, about how the skills that the workforce in China and India, the skills over there are a bit different than the manufacturing skills here.

And speaking at a "Fortune" magazine conference in 2017, he kind of described it as this intersection of computer science, advanced robotics, and craftsmanship.

So, in order to bring iPhone manufacturing to the United States, Apple would either have to build up that workforce or try to automate things more in the production process, which would probably be the more likely option.

CORNISH: One of the things Jonathan just said on the panel here is, like, why would any company kind of change everything for a president who might be in office for just another three years? Can you talk about that calculus for any of these tech firms?

EADICICCO: Absolutely. It's a really tough position that Apple is in for that exact reason.

The Trump administration has been pushing Apple to bring its iPhone manufacturing to the U.S. But to do that, it would have to upend its entire production system.

And Apple is really good at this. It spent decades really building out its supply chain and its network of suppliers and its manufacturing processes.

So, to upend that and bring that to the United States for what might not have to be a long-term bet, would not be would likely not be the right move for Apple, and possibly not the right move for consumers either, because it could potentially lead to price hikes.

CORNISH: I want to talk about something, though, because back in 2018, during Trump's first term, he actually took credit for bringing Foxconn and their factory to Wisconsin. They're a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. And here's how he talked about it back then.

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TRUMP: Moments ago, we broke ground on a plant that will provide jobs for much more than 13,000 Wisconsin workers.

America is open for business, more than it has ever been open for business. Between our low taxes, our cutting of regulations -- and we're not finished with the regulations. And we'll have regulation. But it's sensible regulation. You'll be able to get things approved quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: So, a lot of this rhetoric is the same. But we -- you were digging in to, like, what actually happened. And I think they were supposed to employ 13,000 people.

As of December of last year, they had employed just over 1,000 people. Is this a Foxconn problem or is this a sign of, like, how this kind of plays out?

EADICICCO: I think it kind of speaks to the broader issue here, is that the United States just doesn't have the workforce with those skills at scale.

And building that takes a lot more than just opening up a new facility or a new factory. There's very specific, specialized training that has to be involved.

So, I think it speaks to that larger issue. And also, the fact that manufacturing jobs in the United States just aren't as big as they used to be. There's lots of other types of jobs that are more in demand.

So, I think that what happened with Foxconn kind of speaks to this broader issue, that just because you build it doesn't necessarily mean that they will come.

CORNISH: Lisa Eadicicco, with a good film reference there. Tech editor for CNN Business. Thank you so much for waking up with us.

EADICICCO: Thank you.

CORNISH: All right. Next on CNN THIS MORNING, a big day of testimony in the Sean Combs trial. It came from a former assistant who alleges she was kidnaped by the hip-hop star. Plus, what happened when SpaceX tried another test of its mega rocket. Things didn't go as planned.

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