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CNN This Morning

Musk, Trump Bromance Ends with Fiery Online Battle; Trump Compares Russia-Ukraine Fight to a Playground Tussle; New Broadway Play Sparks Conversation on State of Media, Democracy. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 06, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Lois Boisson in the semifinals of the French Open. Now, the 22-year-old French outsider shot to stardom almost overnight, taking on two of the world's top ten players on her way to the semis.

[06:00:13]

Gauff will not face the No. 1 seed, Aryna Sabalenka, in the final on Saturday.

OK, that'll do it for me. I'm Rahel Solomon. Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Friday, June 6. And here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: He's an amazing person. He's also a caring person.

ELON MUSK, TESLA CEO: I think -- I think President Trump is a good man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: President Trump and his former first buddy feud online in a war of words. It's a clash of titans, but with real stakes for all of us.

Plus, Russia strikes back as it launches a deadly aerial assault on Ukraine. Is this the promised retaliation for Kyiv's daring drone attack?

And tariff whiplash. High inflation and economic uncertainty. Has that put businesses in a holding pattern on hiring? We're about to get a better picture of the state of the economy.

Six a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at the White House.

Good morning, everybody. I am Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me.

And we are going to start with the big story overnight: Elon Musk and Donald Trump, once two halves of one of the most powerful political alliances in presidential history, now find their relationship basically going nuclear in a very nasty public split.

So, remember these scenes? This was exactly one week ago today. President Trump holding a grand sendoff for Musk, giving him a key to the White House.

Now, the president might be calling a locksmith as the former head of DOGE goes rogue against his Big, Beautiful Bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore.

I'd rather have him criticize me than the bill, because the bill is incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, stay with me, because there's a bit of a roller coaster here.

Within minutes, the president got his wish. Musk hops on social media, his platform X. Things get really personal. Musk goes on this tirade, claiming that without him, Trump would have lost the election, and Republicans would have lost the House, adding, quote, "Such ingratitude."

Then Trump fires back, of course, on his own social media platform, claiming that Musk went crazy over the cuts to electric vehicle incentive cuts.

So, then Musk calls that a lie and then added, "Time to drop the really big bomb. Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!"

We've got to note here that there's no evidence of criminal wrongdoing when it comes to Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. In fact, several names have popped up in those files that do not have any criminal allegations.

Of course, that is not stopping Elon Musk from then going on to share videos of Trump partying with Epstein, complete with the obligatory eyebrow-raising emoji.

The president's biggest political benefactor also posted, "Trump has 3.5 years left as president, but I will be around for 40-plus years."

Woof. OK. Joining me now in the group chat, Isaac Dovere, CNN senior reporter; Rob Bluey, president and executive editor at "The Daily Signal"; and Lulu Garcia-Navarro, CNN contributor and "New York Times" journalist.

Now, we have a few clips of Democrats just with popcorn, basically. We're going to play those in a minute.

Rob, I want to start with you, because I remember once on this show with you and Lulu, you -- you on X just did a post, and it got, like, 17 million views because it was basically nice to Elon.

And I'm bringing this up, because his power and manipulation of that platform means he has amplified these messages far and wide. What do you make of this moment?

ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Well, on the one hand, I'm wondering, is this all an elaborate ruse to get Elon Musk back in the good graces of Democrats?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No.

BLUEY: I know, OK, Lulu dismissed that. So, I will say this.

CORNISH: Three-D chess. No.

BLUEY: You have a -- no, no. You have a large number, yes, of very popular, massive followings on X, individuals who have taken Elon's side in this.

But the elected Republicans in Congress, those who ultimately need to cast the vote for the One Big, Beautiful Bill, are all siding with Trump.

And so, this is probably going to play out over the next couple of days. And I don't know if it can get much nastier than it already is.

CORNISH: Oh, it can, knowing the people involved. Lulu, I'm going to share your favorite headline of the day, because you said I've got to give you the post: "I Hate My X."

[06:05:02]

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's a great headline.

CORNISH: It's not subtle, as always, but it is accurate, it seems, for today. Lulu, your reaction?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I have so many thoughts about this. So, you know, I think this is bad for Musk.

I am -- if you look at the history around the world of authoritarians breaking up with their oligarch bubby [SIC] -- buddies, those oligarch buddies don't end up in a good place. They either end up impoverished, imprisoned, or dead.

I'm not saying that that's going to happen to Elon Musk here, but the power is with the government.

You saw Donald Trump immediately say, all right, we're going to take away your, you know, contracts.

CORNISH: Government contracts. Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We're going to, you know, punish you and retaliate. And he has the power to do that. We've seen Donald Trump exercise that power.

So, you know, I actually think this is a losing battle for Elon Musk.

And the other thing I would say is that I think Elon Musk has realized that, when he was given the -- the golden key, it was like being given one of those bad watches when you retire early, when they want you out the door.

Basically, he was taken advantage of. They wanted his money. They wanted his power. And now they're like, you know what, my friend? You've caused a lot of problems. Here's the exit.

And his response is, show me gratitude. Well, you know, money only buys you so much.

CORNISH: OK, Isaac.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: I don't know if we had a couple of tweens in place doing their -- running their Twitter accounts, if it would look much different from this.

I also think that it's sort of a stunning moment when you think about how often in politics we've thought about, like, well, what if a woman was in a position of power? Would they be too emotional? Look at what is going on here. Right?

CORNISH: The girls are fighting.

DOVERE: Yes, well, that was your --

CORNISH: This is your pundit way of saying the girls are fighting.

DOVERE: That was what a --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This is sexist. I like it.

DOVERE: No, I think that that's -- if this were two women fighting, it would be like, oh, this is a catfight. But it's not. It's two powerful people who are having --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Very emotional.

DOVERE: -- a very emotional, childish back and forth.

But what's really going on here is that we don't know what's going to happen with this bill that has major changes to the way government works, whether it's Medicaid and SNAP benefits or what it will do to the debt.

We also, in all of this, what happened to getting to a solution of the Ukraine-Russia conflict? What happened to figuring out what to do about what's happening in Gaza? What -- all these things that we -- we all sit in our seats and watch the stories on TV.

CORNISH: Yes.

DOVERE: And I mean, stories like the soap opera way. It's this.

CORNISH: So, there's going to be a lot of fallout from this, especially given all of the government contracts that Musk does have. Not for his bottom line, but for us who maybe use those goods and services.

You guys stay with me. We've got a lot to talk about today.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, another Sean Combs accuser back on the stand. Why the judge threatened to remove Diddy from the courtroom.

Plus, made in the USA? Why some brands are rushing to change how they advertise their American-made products.

And Russia launches a massive aerial strike on Ukraine. And President Trump's new approach to the war he promised to end on day one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MYERS, NBC'S "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MYERS": Yes, you know how sometimes you're about to break up a fight between two kids, and someone says, Wait, it's only been three years. Let him work it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:13:00]

CORNISH: Russia launched a barrage of deadly ballistic missile and drone attacks against Ukraine overnight. Authorities report severe damage in several regions, including the capital, Kyiv, with rescue workers responding to multiple locations.

President Zelenskyy says almost all of Ukraine was targeted in one of the largest scale attacks of the war. The strike comes just days after Ukraine's devastating drone attacks on Russian military targets.

It's not clear whether this is the promised retaliatory attack that Russian president Vladimir Putin told to President Trump about earlier this week.

Trump, who promised to end the war by -- by Russia on Ukraine on day one of his presidency, at this point appears to be throwing in the towel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other, and they're fighting in a park. And you try and pull them apart. They don't want to be pulled. Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: We're bringing in CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.

Nic, are we looking at the beginning of something? The end of something? Is this part of a larger offensive?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The Russian defense ministry is sort of indicating this is not the end of it, but this was their response for Ukraine's audacious strikes on Russian air bases last week.

They're -- they're claiming that they hit all their targets. That goes against, of course, what the Ukrainians are saying. They are describing it as one of the biggest attacks so far, 450 different missiles, drones, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles fired into Ukraine.

But the Ukrainian officials are saying that they were able to take down 406 of those. So, they took down most of them. So, again, that flies in the face of what Russia is saying.

But look, even though this was one of the biggest rounds of strikes, and even though the Russians are saying this was in response, Russia did almost the same thing last weekend, and it did almost the same thing the weekend before.

We're in a period now where Russia can launch huge numbers of strikes in one night, and this is the direction they seem to be moving in.

[06:15:07]

And a much greater use of these huge drones. We're not talking about tiny little, you know, commercial drones that drop small munitions on the battlefield. We're talking about massive drones, much bigger than me, packed with explosives, flying through the sky and impacting Kyiv and other cities.

CORNISH: I want to play something for you that the German chancellor actually said to President Trump during their meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday. It's good context for Trump sort of saying let them fight it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRIEDRICH MERZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: America is, again, in a very strong position to do something on this war and ending this war. So, let's talk about what we can do jointly.

I told the president before we came in that he is the key person in the world who can really do that now, by putting pressure on Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: So, he's saying it plainly there, what Ukraine's president is also saying. He's raised the idea that tougher sanctions could be on the way.

What's your sense of how the White House is talking about this, and whether we can see more intervention of any kind going forward?

ROBERTSON: Well, Audie, I kind of saw a real dichotomy yesterday. And what the German chancellor Merz said there and what he also said when President Trump talked about all the battlefield -- you know, the bodies on the battlefield being blown apart. Merz really kind of jumped in at that moment and said, yes, these are troops on the battlefield. Ukraine are the good guys. They only hit military targets. Russia hit civilians.

And even on that, President Trump seemed to equivocate, as if, you know, somehow Russia isn't the bad guy in this.

The dichotomy here is, while Trump was saying that, at NATO headquarters in Europe, Defense Secretary Hegseth, the U.S. ambassador to NATO were both pushing them, were both pushing this very significant message that Russia is a huge danger, that NATO needs to spend so much more on defense spending so that it can be ahead of Russia that's building up its weapons and armaments.

So -- so who's right? President Trump's officials who are saying that Russia is a big danger, or President Trump who's playing it down?

He seems to be the only one, amongst other NATO leaders and even in his own administration, who seems to think somehow, Russia is a good guy compared to Ukraine.

CORNISH: That's CNN's Nic Robertson in London. Thank you.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, it's early, but "Good Night and Good Luck." The new Broadway play taking center stage, sparking fresh conversations about the state of media and our democracy.

Plus, we've got our eyes peeled for that May jobs report. What it could reveal about the state of the economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:14]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDWARD R. MURROW, FORMER NEWSCASTER: We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine. And remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend the causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: This feeling of fear, walking on eggshells. This is what I want to talk about today in "Off Script," OK? Because we're trying to have open debate in this country. And we are actually in this moment where there are a lot of concerns about that.

CNN is airing the first ever live Broadway play, "Good Night and Good Luck." Actor George Clooney plays legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow.

And this is when Murrow took on Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the red scare: that time when Americans were accused of being communist sympathizers or doing things they didn't do, often without evidence.

And some of that feels familiar in this time when universities, law firms -- yes, even newsrooms -- have been targeted very -- in very specific ways by the White House. Right? Maybe through executive orders, through funding or defunding threats, and lawsuits.

So, what resonance could a story like this, could this play have now?

Well, joining me now to discuss: Sara Fischer, media correspondent at Axios.

I'm bringing you on, because I feel like you are always good at talking about the medium and the message. And "Good Night and Good Luck" is about both. It's about the role of television and television news, and it's also about its message, about, as you said, not dissent, but criticism in that role.

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. I mean, if you think about why this play is hitting such a chord right now, is because we are in this moment where the White House is going after the A.P., PBS, NPR.

The FCC has issued investigations into Comcast, Paramount, which is the parent of CBS News.

And I think the question that a lot of newsrooms are grappling with right now is to what extent do you defend your journalism when you face these types of attacks that could impact your funding, impact your ability to merge or buy other companies?

I don't think that media companies have felt this level of pressure in a very long time, probably not since the Nixon or McCarthy eras.

And so going back and feeling that reflection of how they handled it then helps inform the ways that we should be thinking about the role we play, how we should be thinking about ethics today.

CORNISH: You know, I want to play a little bit of George Clooney, of course, who, you know, famously brought this to the movies and, all these years later, has brought it back to Broadway. Here he is, talking about kind of some of the themes we're discussing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR/DIRECTOR: What's fun about the play is, although McCarthyism was bad, it wasn't anywhere near as pervasive as it is right now, the kind of fear that you see kind of stretching through law firms and universities.

[06:25:09]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You think it's worse now than in McCarthy's time?

CLOONEY: I do think it is worse now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, there's ways he's saying that it's worse now. And I want to get your take on that. Really?

FISCHER: So, the McCarthyism era was focused on finding commies. That was one specific thing.

In this era, it's really focused on going after anyone who pushes back against government, who questions power. Whether you're a university, and you're trying to protect foreign students; whether you're a media organization, and you're asking critical questions of the government. A law firm that's defending groups that might not align with the policies of the administration.

It is more pervasive, Audie, and it is a little bit broader.

And then the other thing I'd say that's different is we're in the digital era now. It's so much easier to bully and taunt people 24/7, especially because we do have people in power who are very good at using social media, who might even own their social media networks.

In the McCarthy era, there were three broadcast networks, maybe a handful of newspapers that people listened to and read. In this era, it is so much easier to target journalism, because the institution of journalism is disaggregated. It's financially weaker, and it's just a much more convenient target.

CORNISH: One more thing. This is also notable just as a Broadway business moment. Tonys are coming up, and it's the first time this has happened, having a live show. It was always thought, like, this could cannibalize audiences.

What trends are we seeing in the entertainment community that would even bring us to this moment?

FISCHER: There's a huge marriage between Broadway and television right now. If you think about it, how many shows have been brought to streamers? You think about Hamilton coming to Disney and giving a huge boom to Disney+ subscribers.

Also thinking about iconic plays that are being turned into movies. Look at NBC's success with "Wicked."

We've seen a lot of TV networks take, you know, recorded versions of live shows. I think about FOX doing "Rent" in 2019, for example. It is there --

CORNISH: So that wasn't just a pandemic thing?

FISCHER: No, but it is very, very prominent now, post-pandemic, because I think a lot of people crave live experiences, coming out of the pandemic.

For so long, we were cooped up in our homes, and now we want to spend time and see things in real life. And so, the fact that CNN is broadcasting this live, it just speaks to the success, the boom of Broadway, post-pandemic.

Now, Audie, I will caution and say most Broadway shows are still not profitable.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: So, this marriage --

CORNISH: Like, more than the majority. Yes.

FISCHER: Exactly. So, this marriage between television, streaming, and Broadway could be an opportunity for Broadway to finally start to diversify its business model, maybe get some more shows to start being profitable.

CORNISH: OK. Sara Fischer, as always, thank you for being here. I appreciate you.

You can watch George Clooney's "Good Night and Good Luck," as we said, live on CNN in a first-of-its-kind broadcast. So, that's going to be happening Saturday night at 7 right here on CNN. And of course, streaming on CNN.com.

Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the end of a beautiful bromance. Is Elon Musk's empire about to get DOGE'd by Donald Trump?

Plus, the White House allegedly using a lie detector test as a weapon to intimidate.

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