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Trump & Iran Reach Agreement to Be Signed Friday; Sources: Trump Wanted Iran Deal Before G-7 Meeting; Trump Hosts UFC Fight on White House Lawn. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 15, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:06]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, both the U.S. and Iran say there's an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. Why not open it right away?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE WALTZ, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: The Iranians are incredibly difficult negotiators.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And former President Obama says he's doubtful Trump's agreement will be much different than his. True or just sour grapes?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just getting to enjoy God's green Earth and then have something like this turn so tragic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: A plane full of skydivers crashes right after takeoff, killing everyone on board. We're going to talk about what happened moments before it went down.

And Senator Mitch McConnell hospitalized. What we know about his condition this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too much time spent on screens is not good for anyone. Never mind someone's brain is still developing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: In the U.K., they want to give their kids their childhood back. But will a new social media ban actually work?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our country was built on fighting against -- you know, for independence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UFC fight night at the White House lawn. What could the event's legacy be?

And the Carolina Hurricanes are Stanley Cup champions, capping off the season with a shutout over the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

A diplomatic breakthrough: The U.S. and Iran say they have reached a deal to end the war and to reopen the strait of Hormuz. It will take effect on Friday. We're going to talk about why they're waiting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT (via phone): Sometimes these ceasefires take a little bit of time to take root. People are very good over there at fighting each other.

I'm not going to say that everybody is going to sing kumbaya tomorrow. It's going to take a little bit of time to learn the ways of peace. But I do think we took a major, major step.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. We're going to begin with the commitment from the U.S. and Iran to end the months- long conflict.

But already, there's a bit of a snag. Tehran saying that 60 days of nuclear negotiations will begin once the U.S. meets three commitments.

They want the U.S. to end the naval blockade; end military operations against Iran; and release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAZEM GHARIBABADI, IRAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): This memorandum of understanding was reached, despite our complete distrust of our enemies. We have no trust in the enemy. Our trust lies in our military strength, our diplomatic capabilities, and the support and unity of our own people.

That is why the implementation of this memorandum of understanding is extremely important. We have specific plans in place to monitor the implementation of U.S. commitments under this memorandum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: But a U.S. official is saying that no funds will be released before Iran implements its commitments. So, could this derail things?

I'm going to bring in CNN global affairs commentator and former deputy Pentagon press secretary, Sabrina Singh.

So, Sabrina, good morning. Thank you for being here. SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CORNISH: So, first, I want to just talk about the latest Iran saying, Look, we're not doing anything until money is unfrozen. And then the U.S. disputing that.

Here's the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Mike Waltz, speaking on Sunday. We'll talk on the other side of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTZ: The Iranians are incredibly difficult negotiators, coupled -- coupled with the fact that they're having a very hard time getting guidance from their supreme leader. And they're not always on the same page within their team, between the civilians and military.

So, you know, the team has had their hands full dealing with them. But the president has every intent to get this done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: He sort of nodded to something, I think, that maybe people don't fully appreciate, which is that Iran's regime is pretty much in place, even as though a tier of leadership was killed in these strikes.

So, answer the question that he's raising here of, like, negotiation, the money. What are the complications?

SINGH: The complications here is that Iran is very skilled at negotiating. And this regime, in particular, is more hardline than the previous regime.

[06:05:03]

I mean, they are willing to incur the costs and the military strikes that the U.S. and Israel have conducted over, we've seen, a significant amount of time.

I think what's interesting about this memorandum of understanding, or this new agreement, is it's only there to open the straits. It does not address the thorniest issues, which we know Iran is really going to drag its feet on, which are the nuclear -- its nuclear program and the highly enriched uranium that is still sitting in Iran.

And so, while this agreement basically tries to restore the status to pre-war status, it still doesn't address those nuclear agreements.

And Iran, like -- like Mike Waltz was saying, Iran knows how to play the game to draw the United States out. If we're talking about negotiating, at minimum, within 60 days, that is bringing us up right up to the midterms.

And I think Iran knows that the United States is not going to want to start up kinetic action right before the midterms, right before voting starts in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- CORNISH: Two military questions. One, when we say the strait is

opening, does that mean that they're going to -- Iran just backs down, the U.S. backs down? Are there mines in the strait? Like, are there still dangers there?

SINGH: I think both sides could say today that the strait is open and that they're clearing the mines from the strait.

But the only ones that are going to determine if the strait is open are the shipping companies. Are they willing to allow their ships to start going through the strait and potentially incurring costs if, let's say, a drone is launched from Iran or there's crossfire between the two sides?

So, even though Donald Trump is saying on Friday the strait is open, it is still --

CORNISH: We won't know until ships pass through.

SINGH: Exactly.

CORNISH: Last thing militarily, Israel.

SINGH: Yes.

CORNISH: Israel, we're going to talk about in this program, across the political spectrum, unhappy with this deal. And in part because of military reasons.

They say it doesn't address their issues around proxies that Iran backs like Hezbollah. It doesn't even talk about ballistic missiles. That's not even in the conversation around the memorandum of understanding, at least so far.

This is kind of the same criticism that the Obama deal had.

SINGH: I mean, you might not have agreed with the JCPOA, but that was something -- under the Obama administration. But that was something that took almost two years to negotiate.

Now, with Israel, what's interesting about this agreement that this administration has negotiated, Israel is not party to the agreement. And they have said -- I mean, I think as early as this morning, that they might continue to conduct operations in Lebanon.

So, between now and Friday, things could get derailed very quickly.

I think President Trump, he wanted a win on his birthday, which he -- which he got this agreement. And he also wanted to walk into the G-7 with saying, Hey, this war is coming to an end. European partners, now it's time to do your part and help us carry on the strait (ph).

CORNISH: Can we do that if Israel has seized an amount of land that's, like, around the size of New York City.

SINGH: Right. CORNISH: And says it's going to continue its -- its battle against Hezbollah?

SINGH: I think it's going to be very difficult if Israel continues to conduct military operations for -- for Iran to agree to terms with the United States when it's going to say to the United States, this is also an aggressor in this war that also struck our country. You need to pull them back.

And that's why you saw the president sort of react in some of these interviews that he was giving on Sunday, saying, you know, what is Bibi doing? Because he does not want to see this agreement go off the rails.

OK, Sabrina, thank you so much for giving us some of the update there.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump, as Sabrina just said, has been calling out Benjamin Netanyahu. So, we're going to talk about why Trump would be saying that Netanyahu has, quote, "no 'F'-ing judgment' after the Israeli P.M. hit Lebanon right after the announcement of an agreement with Iran.

Plus, one of the deadliest U.S. skydiving plane crashes in decades. We're going to talk about what one witness had to say right before the plane went down.

And will you see ICE at the polling stations for the midterms? The homeland security secretary is not ruling it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARKWAYNE MULLINS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Why would ICE be there? Because only people who should be voting there is American citizens. There shouldn't be any immigration enforcement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:13:18]

CORNISH: It was important for President Trump to have a deal with Iran before traveling to Europe for a summit with G-7 leaders. That's what sources are telling CNN.

The timing is also crucial, because it came on Trump's 80th birthday and his White House UFC fight to celebrate America's 250th anniversary.

So, we're bringing in the group chat to talk more: Sara Fischer, CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter at Axios; Elena Schneider, national political reporter, "NOTUS"; and Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent at "USA Today."

So, to set this up, I want to play the message the administration was sending, not to Iran, not to Israel, but to the American people. Here is J.D. Vance, talking on "FOX News Sunday" in the aftermath of the announcement of this memorandum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE (via phone): My primary message to the American people is, thank you. Because of your patience, I think that we've solved the problem that has plagued this country again for -- for well before I was even born.

But this is just a great thing for the American people. I know that they suffered from high gas prices. The president has certainly been very concerned about that fact. But what we're going to be able to do is drive down the cost of energy, not just now, but for the long term.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Francesca, this seems like the -- specifically, this kind of sentence is the message they had hoped to deliver on this day, of so many things, when the president wanted good news.

FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "USA TODAY": Well, and there's still a long way to go until we see a final deal. They want that to come in the next 60 days.

But the experts, critics, even supporters of the administration who have come out, you know, in the last 24 hours are saying that the devil is, essentially, in the details.

I mean, Iran may have agreed to give the United States the enriched uranium or down blend it. We still don't know what that looks like. We still don't know whether or not they're going to dismantle their nuclear program. The United States says that they will.

[06:15:14]

But again, that all has to be worked out as part of this final agreement. This is just a memorandum of understanding.

CORNISH: And yet, Vance comes out and is, like, thanks for being patient. It's been a tough couple of weeks.

CHAMBERS: Right.

CORNISH: Let's wrap it up. You can feel the hands going like this. (BRUSHES PALMS TOGETHER)

Given all the question marks Francesca just raised, what's the danger of telling everyone this?

ELENA SCHNEIDER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "NOTUS": Well, look, I think that there is a political reality that they are reacting to, which is the pain that voters are feeling every single day when they go fill up their cars, and are looking at high gas prices, and connect that to the ongoing operations and, you know, what's -- what's been happening in Iran.

And they want to take a victory lap as soon as possible to point out, say, OK, this is now going to change. We can -- we can see that this is going to change.

The challenge for them is, is it actually going to change? Because even if they are able to work out some sort of deal here; the ceasefire holds; they start negotiating on this, getting those supply chains, getting that gas to, you know, through the Strait of Hormuz is not going to happen right away.

And experts have said time and again that -- that -- that gas prices are going to take a little while to come back.

CORNISH: Yes. People are looking right now, as you're speaking, at the journey that gas prices will have to take from that peak.

SCHNEIDER: And it's a long climb back down that peak.

CORNISH: And it's -- it's a long climb.

The thing is, also, once you say something like that, you kind of start a clock. Like, oh, OK, things are going to get better? When?

And when you're looking at disapproval ratings that have moved significantly, when you're looking at questions of specifically how have you handled the economy, for example. And seeing independents, 82 percent disapprove.

It feels as though it's a bit of a risk to keep saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's happening, it's happening.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. You have a five-month time clock until the midterms. So, that's the horizon that they're working with. And I think most experts will argue that the supply chain issues are interesting, because there's a lag time between, obviously, when ships can get there or not.

CORNISH: But can you speak it into existence? Like, if you just say it's -- it's getting better, will it get better?

FISCHER: You cannot. You cannot. But so, let's say after the 60 days the strait does open. Then you have three months. And that should be enough time, actually, for us to start seeing an impact on oil.

And we did see overnight that some of the crude oil prices have gone down on the index. But if there is any delay at that, there's not a lot of wiggle room.

And so that's where they run into some problems. If oil prices are still, in some places, above five or anywhere in the top, you know, top half of the $4 range, you're going to have a lot of problems leading up to the midterms.

CORNISH: Trump has been so bummed about the way Europe has kind of stayed out of this whole thing. He's going to be meeting with G-7 leaders when they made their various announcements today. I could read them all, but they basically all say they welcome the agreement over there. It seems like they agreed on what they would be saying. So, Francesca, just heading into today, what is the goal for Trump,

who's been kind of dismissive of this group of people? Is he going to say to them, you guys weren't helpful, but it would be helpful if you'd get some ships through.

CHAMBERS: I mean, they welcome their help with demining efforts that would help get the Strait of Hormuz fully reopen.

But I did want to just touch on one other thing that you were saying about the vice president for a minute, because he was called by Lindsey Graham, the architect of this agreement, and that was really --

CORNISH: He must have been surprised to hear.

CHAMBERS: Well, that was -- but it was a very interesting comment, because he was really put -- Lindsey Graham, close ally of the administration, really putting this at the vice president's feet at this point.

And so, it's not just the comments that he's making publicly, the vice president. It's these other comments coming from allies of the Trump administration putting this, if it doesn't work out, at the vice president's feet.

Last week, I actually talked to the vice president about the Iraq War, and he told me that he doesn't think it's going to become a quagmire, that we're not even going to be talking about this a year from now.

So, the one that -- the statement that you laid out isn't the only mile marker that he's putting forward here.

CORNISH: Yes. But can I translate your statement? Lindsey Graham, the hawk, who's been cheering this on the whole time, is trying to put the actual deal at the feet of J.D. Vance, who's not been cheering this on the whole time, so that if it goes sideways, everyone can say somehow Vance was behind a bad deal?

CHAMBERS: Well, I'm saying that Lindsey Graham is -- in calling him the architect of this negotiation, this deal that's coming forward -- and the vice president was very, very involved -- is putting the onus on him. If this doesn't work out. I'm not --

CORNISH: So, yes. So, if it goes bad, everyone can be like, It was Vance.

CHAMBERS: And he's saying that time will tell. I'm saying that politically, it becomes a risk for the vice president --

CORNISH: OK.

CHAMBERS: -- at that point, when you have allies of the administration saying he was the architect.

CORNISH: Interesting. OK. We're going to talk more about this as we learn more about this memorandum this week. And then after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, did you know that the

U.K. is the latest country to ban kids under the age of 16 from all social media? We'll find out whether these bans actually work.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA WHITE, HEAD OF THE UFC: I can't afford it. There's no (EXPLETIVE DELETED) way we can do this again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:20:02]

CORNISH: The head of the UFC, Dana White, says he won't be doing the White House fight night again, despite it being what he called an overwhelming success.

In the meantime, good morning, very early morning to Seattle, which is hosting a World Cup match today. Belgium and Egypt face off at 3 p.m. Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the people who said there shouldn't be a cage fight at the White House, what do you say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might be right, but since it's here, we're going to be here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't agree with everything Donald Trump has -- has been doing this term, but I'm here, and I'm enjoying the moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, UFC fight on the White House lawn. Whether you agreed with it or not, it happened. It was real.

Weather slightly delayed the start as President Trump took his seat ringside alongside UFC CEO Dana White. Officially, the event was held on Flag Day, which just also happened to be Donald Trump's 80th birthday.

[06:25:13]

And at one point, the crowd sang "Happy Birthday."

And after several fights, the night wrapped up just after 1 a.m. With President Trump greeting the new champion in the Octagon. The event was the first of its kind on the White House grounds.

So, we're going to ask, how is it going to be remembered, both for the sport and in U.S. history? Joining me now is Mike Leon. He's the host of the podcast, "Can We

Please Talk?"

Good morning, Mike. How are you?

MIKE LEON, HOST, "CAN WE PLEASE TALK?": Good to see you, Audie. How's everything?

CORNISH: So, as a fight, was it good? Like, is the card, the tournament? I know the Polymarket, Kalshi prediction markets did very well with all of these different bouts. But what was it like just as a fan?

LEON: Yes, just as a fan, you know, working in the combat sports space and overseeing productions.

From a production standpoint, it really was immersive, expansive. I mean, we could talk about you couldn't watch it unless you had a Paramount+ subscription. It wasn't free over the air like on CBS, which I thought the president probably would have done, or at least Dana White would have done.

But you've got to recoup those costs of the 60 million that they spent to -- to do all of this and the Claw and everything that they implemented.

But just from a TV perspective, watching it, the show, the programing that they did. Chris Weidman is a friend of mine who happened to do some of the pre-fight coverage there. It really was a true event outside of a typical arena or some type of setting that houses combat sports.

But there's a bunch of things underlying, in terms of the event with respect to politics. But from a fight night perspective, Audie, it actually was a pretty decent sporting event.

CORNISH: And to your point, Dana White pretty much was, like, I'm not going to do this again just because of the sheer expense.

LEON: Yes.

CORNISH: But I want to get to something which is who was, you know, in the Octagon and who was not.

You had UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland. He was off the card. And he's the reigning champ, right, middleweight champ. And Strickland thinks he knows why. He basically has turned down -- he's been this outspoken, you know, critic of Trump on social media.

He says that he stopped supporting Trump after, quote, "Israel made him bomb Iran the first time." Another thing he's posted, saying that he got a call from UFC saying he, quote, "wasn't cleared" by the White House.

And honestly, he showed up anyway; in an extreme MMA on-brand situation was escorted out by park police. I mean, it actually became like a bit of a thing here.

Help me make sense of this. It's a big UFC night. A big UFC star's getting hauled out with all this security. What's the politics?

LEON: I mean, remember, there's an element of how UFC is also in partnership with the WWE, right? There's a performative element with some of that, for Strickland doing that.

And there's also guys who fought on the card. I don't know if you saw the video, Audie, of the -- the person who said the comments about Michelle Obama in the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, which was disgusting.

There are some things that are, from a performance standpoint, always going to mirror what we kind of see in WWE.

Strickland is right, to a certain extent. There's a reason why he was left off the card. Non-politics perspective wise. There were a few other fights that actually dropped out from this card.

But in terms of the event overall, like I said, it was a pretty solid event. But to make sense of it, Audie, I mean, they get punched in the head; they grapple. Sometimes people say different things, and they have different political leanings. This is what you get in the combat sports space.

I remember working an event where one of our fighters, before the election in '24, wore Trump trunks. And I remember saying to him in the locker room, "Could you not?" Like, again, freedom of speech. You can wear whatever you want, but like, you're going to get more attention doing this.

And he's, like, I'm going to do it anyway. And then he went out there and did it anyway.

So, that's -- if you want me to make sense of it, Audie, that's the way to make sense of it. There is no sense. They get punched in the head for a living.

CORNISH: Does this win over some of the young men that Trump is losing in some of his approval ratings?

LEON: Audie, you and I talked about this last week when I was in studio with you. Trump has always used the combat sports space as this outlet and vehicle to talk to voters, whether it be his stuff that he did in the boxing space years ago, his relationship with Dana White, obviously with the Ellison family, with Paramount. He has always been in the combat sports space, because he thinks it makes him seem relatable, that he loves these sports.

And these are the type of fans. And again, speaking with conservative voters over years in different cities, they've talked about his attendance at these events. And Democrats don't go to these type of things, whereas Trump does.

I told you last week, Ruben Gallego and I've had this conversation about Democrats potentially leaning into, like, boxing events, to the relationships that I have in the combat sports space.

And it's just -- there's voters there that I feel are being left out. And they feel they're being left out of the conversation.

[06:30:00]