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Trump Orders New Blockade, Offers Ships 20% Protection Fee; Judge Rips Trump's IRS Lawsuit: It was in 'Bad Faith'. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 14, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: -- on one knee while she was being rescued and asked her to marry him. Some good news out of this situation: She said yes.

[06:00:08]

All right. That is quite the story there. Interesting timing. That does it for us CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brian Abel. CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Homeland security says the ICE officer who fatally shot a man in Maine was, quote, "fearing for public safety." So, what happened in the moments right before the gunfire?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a dead body across the street from my house. And that is a human being.

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CORNISH: And President Trump offers to protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz for a 20 percent fee. How exactly would that work?

And the late Lindsey Graham's sister has been appointed to his seat after his sudden death. Will this be a short- or a long-term visit?

And Senator Mitch McConnell posts a recovery picture. The Internet has questions. Seriously, what's a guy got to do to prove he's alive in the age of A.I.?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: And they have a little capability, but they don't have any capability for us. This is almost a military skirmish.

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CORNISH: So, now it's a skirmish. Here's what it does not look like anymore: a ceasefire.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. So, remember that memorandum of understanding? Feels like ages ago. Last night, the U.S. launched a third night of strikes designed to stop Iran's ability to attack commercial ships.

Later today, the blockade on Iranian ports is back on. Video here showing ports on fire across Southern Iran as both sides declare control over the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump says he wants his cut. Trump said on social media the U.S. will now, quote, "be reimbursed at the rate of 20 percent on all cargo shipped through the strait."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're taking out all of their capability for anything having to do with the strait, with the Hormuz Strait. And I think, in the end, we will end up just controlling the whole thing.

We're protecting a very rich portion of the world. We're spending money. And so, what we've done is we are going to be reimbursed for protection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now, Harrison Mann, former U.S. Army major and former executive director of Defense Intelligence Agency's Middle East Africa Regional Center.

Thank you so much for being here. I'm glad you're here. I'm going to show you the cover of "The New York Post," which under here, it says U.S. will be the "guardian angel" of the waterway.

I usually don't pay my guardian angels. So, how does this work?

HARRISON MANN, FORMER EXECUTIVE OFFICER, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: This is -- this is just new -- new levels of desperation that I didn't -- couldn't -- couldn't have imagined a couple of months ago.

I think we've got to remember that the free protection from the U.S. Navy has not been successful for the past several months. That's why we're in a -- in a new series of -- a cycle of escalation.

Over the past week, the Navy has repeatedly tried to secure transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has still been able to attack ships.

So, the protecting ships part of it we already know won't work.

Is he actually going to charge fees? I doubt it. But he is doing something that's kind of dangerous for his own strategy, which is legitimizing that demand. We've repeatedly said -- Marco Rubio just two weeks ago said nobody can charge a passage through this international waterway.

Trump is now saying, Oh, no, actually, that's fine. We're going to try and do it. CORNISH: Yes. Here's what Araghchi is saying, of Iran. He says the

president's absolutely right. And he tweets this: "Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service. Iran has always been the guardian of the strait and will remain so forever."

And then 20 -- 20 percent is, of course, too much, he says: "We will be fair."

But to your point, in January, nobody was charging to go through the Strait of Hormuz. And now we are in a war about who can charge money to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That's what this war has yielded so far.

MANN: Yes. Yes, we are -- we are so much worse off than we were before Trump started this illegal war. And now I really think it's a kind of a contest between Trump and Tehran about convincing Donald Trump of the reality of the situation, which is control of the strait is now a core interest for the Iranian government.

CORNISH: Yes.

MANN: Because it's, like, the only thing that they think they can still get out of this war. And it's something that Trump really just found out about a couple of months ago.

And I think he's either too -- too proud, too embarrassed to make this concession now. But even while they're having this discussion through -- through combat, unfortunately, Iran benefits each day.

[06:05:04]

CORNISH: Well, can I ask something?

MANN: Yes.

CORNISH: The president has been saying, Look, the U.S. actually has been, more or less, protecting and maintaining passage through the Strait of Hormuz, he said, going back 50 years.

And I went to fact check this, and like, yes, indeed, Carter era on, certainly after the Iraq war, we had ships near the strait, because we were constantly sort of saying to the world, this is a free shipping lane.

So, is it something that the U.S. should be compensated for now, as the president is saying? He's saying, we've always been there. Maybe now we should be able to be up front about the cost of that.

MANN: Yes, I mean, that could have been true in the past. But if anything, now it's the opposite. We've now cost the entire world and the region billions, if not trillions, of dollars by basically breaking the system that guaranteed safe passage.

The main thing that allowed ships to transit through the Strait of Hormuz is that Iran and other regional actors were deterred from disrupting traffic. We ruptured that entire system by attacking Iran in February and removing any incentive they had to -- to restrain themselves.

CORNISH: Yes, I want to play for you. I know you care about forever wars, right? You were a person who very much is politically animated by the idea of the U.S. being trapped in forever wars and trying to prevent that.

Some senators were asked about the state of the conflict last night on CNN. I want to play for you what they had to say.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Is this a forever war?

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL (R-KS): Not yet. And it's not going to be. I will guarantee you, you know, that this will not be --

COLLINS: How do you guarantee that?

MARSHALL: -- be -- be a forever war. I think that, at some point in time, the bombing has to stop.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): We are in a crisis that he doesn't know how to get out of. He's failed in his negotiations before this war. He signed an MOU that was stunningly incompetent in what they allowed to go on. And now, he is yet again in this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now, based on your answer earlier, I'm going to say you agree with Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey. But talk to me about what Senator Marshall had to say when he said, No, not yet. That's not where we are.

MANN: So, it's definitely a war with no end in sight. And it's a war that the Trump administration has no idea how to end. The -- I don't even want to say this is a glimmer of hope. But the only reason it may not last as long as Iraq and Afghanistan is that there are countdown clocks adding pressure to Trump.

He is depleting, day by day, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which he's expanding to keep the price of oil and gas down.

With the attacks resuming, we're also depleting, day by day, our stores of missile defense interceptors. When those go to zero -- and they could, if we keep fighting, going for another month or two -- it means Iran can hit whatever they want in the region.

CORNISH: Did you say a month or two?

MANN: So, in the -- the one month of intense fighting before the April 7 ceasefire, I think CNN reported 30 percent of America's stockpiles globally were depleted. And they're not getting reconstituted --

CORNISH: Replenished fast enough. MANN: -- very, very quickly. And so, you know, of that 30 percent globally, I don't know how much of that was in the Middle East. Right? We still need stuff in Europe. We still need stuff in -- in Asia.

And so, if we go back to -- to full-fledged war, which I think Trump is still trying to avoid, we could easily get to the point where Iran can really strike the entire region with impunity, even more than it already does.

So, even this, this kind of not quite ceasefire, not quite full -- full-fledged war stage that we're in still builds pressure on Trump every day.

And so, that -- that's the only reason that he probably can't draw this out for years and years.

CORNISH: OK. Harrison, we're, of course, going to have you back, especially if it turns out we're all going to be facing new charges on products from our own country's fees on the Strait of Hormuz.

I really appreciate your time. Thank you.

This morning, we're also going to be talking about an ICE-involved shooting. It left one man dead, this time in Maine. Plenty of questions, very few answers.

Plus, we're going to talk about this. The federal judge accusing the president and attorney general, Todd Blanche, of misusing the courts, issuing a scathing rebuke against the president's IRS settlement. So, the group chat is back to talk about it right after the break.

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[06:13:47]

CORNISH: So, remember when President Trump settled that lawsuit with the IRS? Well, a federal judge just blew it up.

The deal granted Trump and his family tax immunity and a $1.8 billion fund. The judge now calling it a bad faith attempt to manipulate the judicial process.

So, she said in the ruling, quote, "The facts before this court demonstrate that there was never an adverseness between the parties. There was never a case or controversy. There was never a question as to who would prevail."

And the judge isn't just talking. She's dropping the hammer by slapping the lawyers who brought the lawsuit with sanctions and dragging acting attorney general Todd Blanche straight to the ethics board.

Now, this couldn't have come at a worse time for Blanche. He's scheduled for his permanent attorney general confirmation hearing tomorrow. To talk about this in the group chat, Nicholas Wu, congressional

reporter for "Semafor"; Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist; Ashley Davis, former White House official under President George W. Bush.

So, I think when we all first started talking about this settlement, it was because there was supposed to be this fund to reimburse people who felt wronged by the government. We were all up in arms about January 6th rioters being compensated. That went away because of congressional blowback.

[06:15:03]

But this thing didn't. This idea that Trump could never be audited, and his family could never be audited ever again.

Did the questions continue, and this judge just underlined it, or like what was happening in the background?

NICHOLAS WU, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, "SEMAFOR": Well, the questions very much continued. I mean, this is something that Republicans on Capitol Hill, as well as Democrats, have had a lot of questions about.

And as Attorney General [SIC] Todd Blanche, his confirmation process really heats up, there are lawmakers who want to hear what's actually going to happen with this.

This has been a problem for some of them, like Senator Tillis on the Judiciary Committee, who -- who has, you know, potentially a veto power over this confirmation. He's one of those folks who's wanted this to go away.

CORNISH: One of the reasons why I wanted to talk about this is because since that story, we now know more about the president's income in 2025: 1.4 billion in crypto. There's a half a billion in his resorts. There's all kinds of money being made during this term. And anyone who might have questions about them would not be able to get them answered in an audit.

Is the president -- was he pushing his luck with this one? And is the judge basically calling B.S.?

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I think he was pushing his luck, but I also think that he's -- fully expects, just like last time when he lost in 2020, that the IRS was going to go after he and his family, which they did. I mean, you can say it was politicized or not. I think that that will happen.

CORNISH: Yes, he very much does. That's what's the point of the settlement.

DAVIS: Exactly.

CORNISH: To say, IRS, you have wronged me. And this is our settlement.

And the judge is, like, if you're negotiating with your own IRS, that's not much of a negotiation. DAVIS: Right. It's still -- yes. And I think that -- that the judge --

I mean, obviously they'll probably appeal it.

But I also think with Blanche, it's not only this issue, which is going to be a big issue, but he also has all the Epstein stuff that's going to come up.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You know, the American people are not huge fans of the IRS or any of their auditors, so they sympathize with him. And that's the smart move that he made on this.

The bad move that he made is that he's made more money in the first year of his presidency than anybody ever in the history of the presidency.

And even regular folks at home who were looking at -- down the barrel of four months before a midterm can say, this looks a little shady. I can't have a ten-year exemption from the IRS. Why should anybody else, even the president? So, that's the bad move.

CORNISH: As you mentioned, Todd Blanche is going to be getting a lot of questions. Back in May, when people were asking him about this, here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I've got a positive predisposition towards Blanche.

But if there's even a whiff of a -- of a lack of independence, then that could influence my vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And apologies. That's Senator Thom Tillis. He's a Republican from North Carolina. You mentioned him earlier.

Here's Todd Blanche talking in May.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The president has -- has -- has outside counsel, and there are counsel at the Department of Justice, not me. And there was negotiations. And this was what was -- what -- part of those negotiations included a discussion around the, you know, any pending audits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, there's this weird thing where the president's former personal attorney is telling the public that, no, he has other new personal attorneys, and they're the ones who worked out this deal. We don't know each other. We're not friends. I don't know her. And I'm sure it's fine.

What does this do to Blanche's nomination? I mean, you said there are people with questions, but does -- is there a vote problem? Especially when one Republican has passed away and another is not voting, because they're in the hospital?

WU: The margin is pretty hard for them, especially on the Judiciary Committee, where because of the way things are, you know, they'll fill the seat that Lindsey Graham left pretty soon. As soon as today.

CORNISH: Yes, which we're going to talk about.

WU: Right. But, you know, on the committee, Senator Tillis still effectively exercises veto power because of their margin. So, he's a key person to watch on where he eventually lands on Blanche.

CORNISH: But this judge is doing it right at the kind of worst time for Blanche. I mean, judges, they're not political, but like, basically, this thing that might have been in the background.

DAVIS: This thing -- yes.

CORNISH: And then he would have had to answer for Epstein.

DAVIS: I would say there's going to be other things.

CORNISH: Yes, no, for sure. And people might say that. I think the question is how voters feel about it.

DAVIS: I think Blanche has been spending a lot of time with Thom Tillis. Everyone understands that he is the vote, and so --

CORNISH: And we'll find out if that dating has worked?

DAVIS: Yes. And, from what I understand, he does think that Blanche is a good guy. We'll see if it works.

ROCHA: For everybody at home, you should know that this senator we keep talking about and putting up there is not up for reelection. There's no ramifications that you can put on him. He's not going to serve anymore. He's not running for reelection. That's why he has this liberty to do whatever he wants.

CORNISH: OK, you guys, after the break, we're going to talk more about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, because he's got a confirmation hearing. As we said, Epstein survivors have something to say about it.

And months after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, why investigators say they can finally move forward.

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[06:24:21]

CORNISH: It's now 23 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup.

Federal prosecutors finally turning over key evidence in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two U.S. citizens shot fatally by federal agents during protests in Minnesota that happened earlier this year. Evidence was withheld for months.

Officials say they've now received hard drives, including statements and body cam footage. Attorneys for Renee Good say this is a step towards accountability.

And a group of Epstein survivors released a video. They're calling on senators to reject the nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Todd Blanche had a duty to protect us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Instead, he protected the people --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- who committed crimes against us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The survivors say he mishandled the release of the Epstein files, revealing personal information of the victims involved. Senate Judiciary Democrats will invite a survivor to testify against Blanche.

Blanche's confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

And a multi-state legal challenge could delay one of the biggest media mergers in history. A group of 12 state attorneys general has sued to block Paramount's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The states are arguing that the deal would hurt competition. Paramount is saying it's going to fight the lawsuit.

And Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN.

Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, a deadly encounter with ICE officers, this time in Maine. And this morning, local officials are demanding answers from the federal government.

Plus, that's two deadly ICE shootings in a week. A key voting bloc could have something to say about this.

In the meantime, good morning to viewers in the Windy City. A live look at the Chicago skyline.

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