Return to Transcripts main page
Erin Burnett Outfront
Questions About Trump's Claim Of "Deal", Both Sides Far Apart; "Trump" May Be Removed Soon; SpaceX Takes Off. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired June 12, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:22]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Where's the deal that Trump keeps touting? Tonight, Trump says one thing, Iran is saying another. Tehran is now declaring victory. So, what's going on?
And breaking news in Washington, the Trump name could be removed from the Kennedy Center at any moment. Literally, this is happening live on a Friday, summer night.
And SpaceX taking off. Elon Musk is now a trillionaire after the biggest IPO in history, and it's not even close.
So here's the question: with so many retail investors, Americans, in the SpaceX stock, is it overhyped or not?
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, Iran declaring victory this hour. The foreign minister going on TV tonight to make this declaration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We are the victor of this battlefield. The Islamic Republic of Iran has emerged as a victor. The Iranian people achieved victory. This is not a slogan. This is no exaggeration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That's just sort of propaganda you might expect from the Iranians, but it actually happens to be something a shipping executive I spoke with tonight backs up. The ship stuck in the strait for now a long time. He told me, quote, "Unfortunately, the White House, the U.S. are losers."
This is both Iran and the United States say that they're close to a deal, an agreement to discuss a deal, except for they are clearly not talking about the same deal. And I'm just going to go through a couple of things really quickly to make the point.
First, the Strait of Hormuz, right, it's closed. A US official said that in this initial agreement, the Strait would open. And that sounds good, right? Finally, thank God. Well, Araghchi says it will not reopen unless it is under Iranian management. And unless there are fees to transit the strait, otherwise known as a toll or whatever you'd like to call it, but they're both things that Trump has said in the past are absolutely no-gos.
Okay, so that's the strait. And now what about the thing at the core of all of this, the whole reason that the U.S. went to war in the first place, apparently, which was Iran's nuclear material. A Trump administration official said Iran's nuclear program will be dismantled and that nuclear material will be destroyed and removed.
Araghchi says, well, we'll just keep talking. They will only engage in nuclear talks during a 60-day negotiation period following the signing of this thing, which is a memorandum of understanding, which means they're basically agreeing to nothing on a nuclear deal, so they say.
A senior U.S. official tells CNN that none of Iran's money is to be released until they perform. This is another crucial thing, right? All that frozen money that you heard about. Remember the pallets of cash that Trump criticized Obama for supposedly releasing to Iran?
Iran now says, well, actually, there's money here, $24 billion is going to be released to Iran, half immediately on signing the, quote/unquote, "memorandum".
So the two sides are not on the same page on the most basic details ahead of signing an agreement to talk about a deal. Trump said yesterday there would probably be a signing ceremony in Europe over the weekend, and Vice President JD Vance would be in attendance, right? So they were pumping up the whole event.
But now, Araghchi says the agreement could be signed by both sides remotely in the next few days, which is sure a quick downgrade to DocuSign. And if that doesn't give you pause about what this deal actually is, here's something that is worth thinking about. Some extraordinary new reporting from CNN tonight with two sources telling us that on May 19th, and just put a pin in that date, the US's top general made a secret and rushed visit to U.S. Central Command headquarters in Florida.
Secret and rushed. because there were really important plans on the table that could have been executed right away for the U.S. military to send a significant number of U.S. ground troops into Iran to forcibly seize the highly enriched uranium. Those briefings were so urgent, so sensitive, that General Dan Caine rushed there from a meeting of senior NATO officials that at the time was going on in Brussels.
The U.S. military commanders determined that this operation could result in a significant number of American casualties, even if it was successful. Okay, so now back to the date, I asked you to put a pin in, May 19th. It was on that same day as all of this was happening, Caine's rushing
to CENTCOM for this briefing on a possible mass ground invasion, Trump says this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know how it is to negotiate with a country where you're pleading them badly, they come to the table, they're begging to make a deal, because they're begging to make a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, here's the thing. If Iran was begging for a deal on that day, as Trump, by the way, claims they are again tonight, why would there have been an urgent rush to get America's top general in person to go through a massive ground invasion plan that included an expectation of a significant number of American casualties?
[19:05:01]
It's the sort of conflict that raises questions about the 39 other times that Trump has said Iran was begging for a deal or that a deal was close at hand, including this time.
Alayna Treene is OUTFRONT at the White House tonight.
And, Alayna, so what is the Trump administration saying tonight in light of Araghchi's comments, which obviously we translated there but were made in Farsi to an Iranian audience?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, I've been talking to White House officials, senior Trump administration officials all day about this. And what they have consistently tried to say is that the Iranians are messaging internally for their own audiences. This is something you heard a senior administration official tell me and other reporters earlier today as well. They are arguing that What the U.S. is saying is what needs to be believed here, and that Iran, if they are communicating any sort of differences in that, it's because they need to message internally.
Now, of course, and I think you make a great point, we've heard 39 times President Donald Trump argue that they are close to a deal just for it to fall apart. But I will say this time does feel different, one, in the conversations that I am having with all of my sources on this, including the intelligence committee, but also with what we are hearing from foreign leaders. You have the Iranian foreign minister saying that they feel like they are closer to a deal than ever before. And I think what we heard from the Pakistani prime minister was really notable as well when he said that he could confirm that a final agreed upon text for the peace deal had been finalized and they are just working now on the aspect of signing it.
But at the same time, I think there's always room until you actually have that signature on a memorandum of understanding. There's always room for this to collapse. One of the key things I think as well, and all of this you heard and
you kind of walked through it, what the administration is arguing is actually in this. They talk about the nuclear program and getting in to get that highly enriched uranium and destroy it, reopening the straight, of course. But I think the monetary compensation part of this really is a major sticking point.
We reported a couple days that that had emerged as a huge issue in these talks because Iran really since the beginning, has been arguing that they need their funds to be unfrozen or at least a portion of them immediately. Now, what we were hearing from administration officials today, Erin, is that that's not going to happen, that Iran is not going to get any sort of money or unfrozen funds and assets until they begin complying with the different things outlined in this. So we'll have to see.
Another big thing to keep in mind for our viewers is that this won't be the end. If this MOU, this memorandum of understanding is signed, it would trigger a 60-day period for these highly technical negotiations that's where a lot of this could still get kind of messy it's the specifics of how they're going to implement this. So we have to keep that in mind as well.
BURNETT: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Alayna, thank you very much with all those details from the White House.
And everyone's here with me.
You know, it is important to just emphasize here, Alex, that we are actually not talking about a deal. We're talking about a memorandum of understanding to discuss -- to negotiate a deal. And that distinction obviously is hugely significant, right? Not just rhetorically.
You've been talking to people involved in the negotiations on multiple sides, right? So you've got a lot of them coming here. What are you learning?
ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So over the last week, the message has sort of coalesced and it's gotten consistent from everybody. So, in speaking to regional mediators, the Iranian back channel and speaking to Pakistanis and also speaking to US officials, it seemed that there was large agreement on most of the aspects of the deal. It was really the sequencing that was the problem, as Alayna just laid out.
BURNETT: Yeah.
PLITSAS: It was the money piece that the Iranians were demanding upfront without any concessions, which the administration was balking at, because otherwise it would have been simply returning the straits to pre-war conditions for money, which essentially would have been looked at as a bribe, which doesn't work.
So the administration wanted more from them upfront before they would release funds, and a senior US official at the Pentagon stressed to me, look, this is absolutely performance-based. This is going to be much bigger and wider in terms of scope than the JCPOA was, and the Iranians are simply not going to get cash for just returning the straits to pre-war conditions.
The White House has made a deliberate decision over the past week not to engage in public discussions about what's in the MOU, given that a large part of this has been face-saving just culturally.
BURNETT: Right. I'm curious, Colonel, when Iraqi calls this a victory for Iran, if you take a step back, the United States comes at you with fear and fury. They do a lot of damage, OK? A lot of damage.
And yet here you are, three and a half months later, you still control the Strait of Hormuz. 70 percent of your missiles are still there. You still have your highly enriched uranium, although some of it's probably very difficult to get to because of bombing.
So you look at this and can say, well, all of this for what? I mean, when you talk about the MOU, memorandum of understanding, there's one thing.
You can kind of -- be vague about a lot of stuff, right? You can be vague about highly enriched uranium. You can be that one guy can say one thing, one can say the other. Who's really going to know? But everybody's going to know about the strait.
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely, Erin. And one of the key things here is that this has to be seen from Araghchi's standpoint, it is a victory from a strategic perspective, because we're not going back, as Alex was mentioning, we're not going back to the status quo ante, we're not going back to the period before the war.
[19:10:01]
We're going into something completely new. And that something that's completely new is actually going to affect way more than just the Strait of Hormuz, because now what we're looking at is the potential for this kind of control, if you will, from other countries of other straits like the Bab-el-Mandeb, so the Houthis could something similar there in the entrance to the Red Sea, or not that they're going to do it necessarily, but pick a place like the Strait of Malacca by Singapore and Indonesia. You could have all these countries trying to exert some kind of control, in essence exacting tolls or service fees or whatever they want to call them, over these areas.
This is diametrically opposed to the U.S. policy, which was that freedom of navigation would be key through all of these areas. So this is going to have impacts on the economy, this is going to have impacts on a lot of different things as well as our ability to posture our forces properly.
BURNETT: I mean, Alex, you can use whatever analogy you want. Pandora's box has been opened, the horses are out of the barn, the genie's out of the bottle, whatever it is, right? You cannot go back.
You know, we talk about -- I remember last summer standing on the Strait of Hormuz when that aspect of the war was happening and saying this is the threat. But they'd never done it. It was a threat. And now it's been done. It can never be undone, right? Things have changed.
PLITSAS: They fundamentally have changed and they've learned progressively over the last year, not only from the 12-day war last summer, but now from this one. So they started out with a nuclear program that they decided not necessarily to pursue a weapon but sort of in the background as a means of strategic deterrence. The 12-day war taught them that their ballistic missiles could serve as an effective strategic deterrent against Israel.
And now in this portion of the conflict, they've learned that low-cost drones and projectiles could hold the straits at risk without actually having to mine them. So they hadn't done it before, but the traditional plans for mining the straits went out the window. And so even now, if it's rhetoric versus reality and they don't actually control the straits, they say that they control it. We don't recognize that it's kind of a face-saving measure. At any point in the future, if they still retain drones or missile capabilities, they could theoretically do this again any time that they wanted to provide the regime is still in power.
BURNETT: Israel doesn't like this, okay? They don't like the deal. They wanted to get rid of the regime. They wanted to finish the job, and they got Trump on board.
And now, the two roads are diverging. But the question is, who's going to call the shots there? Israel has a lot of cards it can play if it doesn't want this deal to go through.
For example, continuing to escalate in Lebanon. There are a lot of things that they can do. So who's really going to end up calling the shots?
LEIGHTON: Well, it's one of those things where we'll have to see, Erin, because if President Trump has his way, he will be calling the shots, and he's actually publicly said that he is. However, every time he says something like that, the opposite seems to happen.
And you've got someone like Prime Minister Netanyahu who says, Okay, we hear what you're saying, and he gets yelled at by Trump or somebody else, but he still goes ahead because he's looking at this from a survivability standpoint. He wants to make sure that northern Israel is not going to be attacked anymore by Hezbollah from Lebanon or by the Houthis from Israel itself, by the Houthis from Yemen.
So he's going to look at this as a way of do I need to do something on my own, which Israel has done in the past, or is it something where I can live with this at least for a time, not to anger the Americans?
BURNETT: Alex, is the United States going to be able to do a deal? I ask this from a very specific point, which is that the people who have involved, whether it be Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff, they've gone into the meetings. They do not have the knowledge or the capability to do the detailed work required for a deal on specific nuclear points, right? Experts do that. This administration has not wanted to work with those experts up to
this point. But how do you do a real deal with Iran that can be enforced in any way that's on specific, granular nuclear details without those people involved?
PLITSAS: So the Iranians actually complained about that out front because they're used to what they call the Rob Malley detailed technical process in Geneva. And they were told by regional mediators and others that type of negotiation for this administration is out the window. The president values people that he trusts and he wants a strategic framework in place and then he'll sort of get down to the details.
What we're looking at here looks very similar to Gaza. So let's not forget we had the phase one deal in Gaza that pushed a lot of the difficult issues over into phase two that still it's overdue now and we haven't finished that. We're looking at an MOU for phase one, that memorandum of understanding that will largely get to an agreement high level of nuclear issues.
You need to get rid of that highly enriched uranium. There'll be an overall ban on enrichment for a certain period of time. But what the details that look like are not going to be clear and that's what's going to get worked out in the 60 days.
BURNETT: Right. And that's what's crucial, because, by the way, the JCPOA, which is the prior deal, right, also had pauses on that enforcement next. All these issues, right, for a period of time, that was the whole point.
All right, thank you both very much. I appreciate it.
And next, breaking news, we'll show you some live pictures here of what's going on this very hot Friday in Washington, Kennedy Center, where Trump's name could be removed from the building any moment. They've got all the scaffolding up. Bizarre to be watching something like this on live TV.
Plus, some of the largest protests yet against Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and their planned resort.
[19:15:00]
Could all of this actually bring down the elected prime minister of a sovereign country? It's incredible what's happening there.
And fight night at the White House. Donnie O'Sullivan with fans tonight. Some excited. Not everyone, though. He's ready for Trump's spectacle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOJE ROGAN, PODCAST HOST: Another forecast (EXPLETIVE DELETED) --
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: So what's going to happen on Trump's birthday? Paul Rieckhoff and Rina Shaw are here to brawl. Wow. We're really pushing the words here on a Friday. Come on out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:02]
BURNETT: Breaking news, these are live pictures of the Kennedy Center in Washington and we're watching it because people could walk in there any second because a judge has just ruled that crews have to comply with the ruling that requires the removal of Donald Trump's name, which you can see there from the building tonight by midnight.
Now, that's despite the last minute bid from Trump's DOJ to block the move.
Betsy Klein is live at the Kennedy Center.
Okay, so Betsy, this could literally happen any second, right? Because they've just got now with this ruling, they've got to finish by midnight.
BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, Erin, there has been so much back and forth in this legal battle, but the bottom line is that they have a little over 4 hours to take the Donald Trump and from the sign behind me down.
In short, back on May 29th, a federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center's planned closure for a renovation, and he also said that it was illegal when the board voted to change the name to the Trump Kennedy Center without authorization from Congress. He gave them 14 days to remove that signage and also to change the website, to get rid of Trump references in email signatures on promotional materials, et cetera. That deadline is 11:59 p.m. tonight.
But the Trump administration had made a last-ditch legal effort asking a federal appeals court to step in and freeze that ruling. That appeals court says that they are not going to do so. They have scheduled a hearing going forward, and this could go all the way to the Supreme Court. But for now, that deadline holds -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Betsy, thank you very much.
And we're going to talk about that in just a moment. But now the UFC, quote, we're F. That's what podcaster Joe Rogan, who is not just a UFC fan but also a former UFC commentator, is saying about this Sunday's fights at the White House. He is saying he would never do the event there or, frankly, anywhere outside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGAN: If I was running the UFC -- I would never run the UFC. But if I was running the UFC, I would have never wanted to do it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. ROGAN: I would have said, we can't do it. They have to be in a controlled environment. We can't have a world championship fight. We can't have someone win or lose because they're outside and it's muggy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
ROGAN: That doesn't make any sense to me.
It's going to affect the grappling. It's going to be like hot oil wrestling.
Everyone's going to be sweaty as (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another forecast (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And Rogan is far from alone. As our own Harry Enten told us last night, 16 percent of Americans are in favor of the UFC fights at the White House, and only one in three Republicans support them.
Donie O'Sullivan's OUTFRONT at the Lincoln Memorial.
Tony, you've been talking to a lot of UFC fans who are there, right? People who are excited about this. What are they telling you?
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Erin. Yeah, I mean, Joe Rogan was right. It's it is sweaty out here and I will just say you know normally UFC have the fight happen inside which, of course, inside venues in like arenas as Rogan mentioned it is going to be outside on Sunday night.
And just to illustrate some of the risks of that as we're here at the Lincoln Memorial right now. You see these big signs coming up on the screen telling fans to potentially seek shelter because thunderstorms could be coming on the way in here and that is also a big concern for Sunday night those storms happen.
Why are we at the Lincoln Memorial, you might ask? I've been asking myself. This is a very surreal event that is happening here. Under the watchful eyes of President Lincoln tonight is a press conference, a UFC press conference.
For people not familiar with UFC, press conferences are a little bit different at the UFC. They're sort of part of the show. So what we're going to see here in about an hour time is people, all the fighters lined up along with Dana White, who runs the UFC.
They'll be taking questions from journalists who cover the UFC, but oftentimes at these press conferences, things get a bit rowdy. The fighters talk smack, and sometimes it even gets confrontational.
We did speak to some fans who've gathered outside the Lincoln Memorial here, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) O'SULLIVAN: What do you think some people who are saying it's not right to do a cage fight at the White House?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, I just think they've never watched UFC before. It's the greatest sport easily, and I think that to have something like this on one weekend, it's amazing, and it definitely celebrates the 250th birthday of our country. It's great. I'm stoked.
O'SULLIVAN: Are you pumped for the UFC?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. We're here to see Pereira destroy Gane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's here to make history, baby. You know what it is. My man, he got the flu, but it's okay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having it here in the nation's capital for everyone to see, it's like we're really home here, we're doing it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: All right. So a lot of people are a lot of people very excited. I will say pretty apolitical crowd here. Everybody just seems to want to talk about UFC.
We've heard some boos and jeers over the last few minutes. People very excited. I will say pretty apolitical crowd here. Everybody just seems to want to talk about UFC. We've heard some boos and jeers over the last few minutes. We're thinking maybe some fighters have shown up.
[19:25:02]
But as I say, Erin, I've been in a lot of surreal situations in this job. This is definitely one at the Lincoln Memorial tonight at UFC.
You know, it's great. It's an incongruity that is interesting to observe. By the way, it's also looking rather biblical where you are. And I think seek shelter may be the operative term because it looks pretty menacing behind you. So there's that.
OK, Tony, thank you very much.
Paul Rieckhoff and Rina Shah are here with me on set.
OK, a lot to talk about. Paul, can I just start with you because I know you're a fan of UFC and martial arts, so you know this as a consumer and a fan, OK? But I don't know that anybody wants to watch some dudes do hot oil wrestling. Just going to say, but --
PAUL RIECKHOFF, HOST OF THE INDEPENDENT AMERICANS PODCAST: Some people who do.
BURNETT: There's some people who do. OK, maybe not in the White House, but the vast majority of Americans do not think that this should happen there. And you're with them even though you love the UFC.
RIECKHOFF: Yeah, I mean, I remember UFC one in the military. I trained in mixed martial arts. My kids now train in jujitsu and I'm a fan of the sport.
But this is really kind of the commercialization and almost bastardization of the White House in a way that feels maybe like the Roman gladiator games. It just doesn't feel appropriate. I've been to the White House for a lot of events. I've been there mostly for military events where they honor veterans and they're solemn and they're respectful.
The idea that people are going to get their nose busted open and bleeding on the octagon in front of this doesn't sit well, and it's just so profit-driven. I think it's important to It's going to be on Paramount behind a pay wall. It's not on broadcast television, so you have to pay to even see it. It doesn't feel like it's for the people.
Like the NBA finals at least is on, you know, a broadcast network. They had 20 --
BURNETT: No, or you put something like this on PBS. I mean, I'm just saying if you're doing the big concert --
(CROSSTALK)
RIECKHOFF: They have a big Veterans Day concert on the mall. They put it on PBS and it's out there for everybody and it feels like it's for everybody.
BURNETT: Yeah.
RIECKHOFF: This doesn't feel like it's for everybody. I would also underscore the UFC has been with Donald Trump on this entire ride.
BURNETT: Yeah.
RIECKHOFF: It's become like a corporate hype machine for him. So it has a real opportunity to be almost a propaganda event for him. And in direct contrast to when he got booed at MSG the other night, the Knicks game, that's not going to happen.
There's going to be a military audience. It's going to be a lot of people who are there because they have to be or they want to be, and it's going to be a very favorable scene for him. But it also might be a thunderstorm and lightning, and this might end up, you know, worse than the Iran war for Trump --
RINA SHAH, FORMER SENIOR GOP CONGRESSIONAL AIDE: Some pizza grease --
BURNETT: You know, mixing it up out there.
SHAH: So, so many thoughts because this is Washington, D.C. and not Las Vegas. So the pay per view feel definitely makes me -- it gives me the ick. I'm sorry, I just can't believe our president is choosing to do this on his birthday. You know, you would think that a leader would do charitable acts for his birthday.
Instead, he's like 60 million. Let's spend it so that we can see a barbaric act, the one that I like to fly down to Miami for. Now look, going down to Miami for a UFC fight is definitely a vibe, as
some of us millennials like to say. I'm not one to push on that and say that this entertainment isn't good, but really the taxpayer dollars is the problem here, and --
BURNETT: Well, it's the people's house and there's a solemnity to it.
SHAH: Well, it's clear that he doesn't think it's at people's house, so $60 million people are saying OK, UFC is picking up the production cost. That's not enough for me. There is so much more that comes with security and other things in D.C.
And D.C. speaking up itself is going to pick up 10 to 12 million in terms of just security plus added costs. So I'm just -- I'm looking at this and I'm thinking it's summertime kids are out of school. We have a horrible economy right now. American families are struggling. And I genuinely feel that this money could have been better spent on feeding hungry American families or taking sports into communities.
And all that comes to mind is WBD. And that's not Warner Bros. Discovery. That's wasteful, barbaric destruction -- desecration, excuse me, wasteful, barbaric desecration of the people's house.
RIECKHOFF: And the White House feels for sale. This is not going to charity. It'd be different if this was a fundraiser for charity. This is really the selling of the White House for a corporate interest.
BURNETT: So can I just say -- just ask Lindsay what she was saying.
Lindsay, you were saying what about the Kennedy Center? Oh, a truck. OK, because I thought for a second that Lindsay said Trump just pulled up at the Kennedy Center. And I was thinking this is taking a very interesting turn. A truck just pulled up and there it is. OK, in the shot.
Now, the reason we're watching this, OK, Paul, he cared a lot about his name going on this, right? He cares about things like this. He cares a lot about this, whether it's this or the arch or the Mount Rushmore images, all of those things.
So his name's on there and then they have to take it down by midnight. They have four hours to do it. And now the truck, literally the ruling came and the truck pulled up.
RIECKHOFF: Yeah, and there's going to be some celebrating going on. It's going to feel like New York City after the next one for a lot of people here because it's very deeply un-American to put your name on stuff when you're alive as a president.
I mean, we've never seen this before. It feels authoritarian. It feels like what they do in North Korea.
And this is another thing he's done that's deeply unpopular because it's about him. I think that's another reason they don't like the UFC event, because it feels like he thinks he's Caesar and he's watching the games in front of him, and it's on his birthday. This connection between him and our government is really deeply, deeply offensive to a lot of people.
[19:30:02]
It's the same thing with the arch and knocking down the White House, but he's keeping --- you know, driving forward on it.
The day he's gone, and his name comes off the walls on a lot of things, there are a lot of people in this country celebrate of all political backgrounds because it doesn't sit well with people of all different --
SHAH: Well, all his supporters will say this is a Donald Trump he's always been. He's always been image obsessed. He's always Trump water, Trump University, whatever it was, it was always Trump putting self at the forefront for his animal and his name, right?
And with this UFC fight, it's about he's doing a commemorative coin about the 250th and Dana White gets to sign it. And my gosh, does it ever end?
But the hard part about all this and what I need people to understand who are good Republicans, I need them to. meet me on this. I need them to say this is different. This isn't just a creep towards authoritarian, totalitarian stuff. This is him grifting on the taxpayer dime. This is our taxpayer money leading to him profiting.
And that's the hard part about all this. It's different if all this happened in Mar-a-Lago. It's different if he's a private citizen or done after his presidency. But this is happening on our dime in our time. And that is my problem with it.
BURNETT: Well, his wealth increase has been exponential --
RIECKHOFF: Yeah.
BURNETT: -- as has that of his children.
RIECKHOFF: Uh-huh.
BURNETT: You know, two of whom are directly involved with the company eponymously named.
RIECKHOFF: Uh-huh.
BURNETT: The other of whom, has mass amounts of money that have been invested in her husband's fund from countries doing deals with the U.S.
RIECKHOFF: Corruption is really unpopular, and it's deeply un-American when it comes to our politics, and I think it's stacking up. I mean, we saw this in Hungary. You know, what ultimately brought down Orban was the corruption and the upset about the corruption and feeling like he was doing well and everybody else was suffering.
And now, it's going to feel like that when people are struggling with gas prices and he's putting his name on things and his kids are profiting. It feels really, really deeply un-American.
SHAH: He's saying he doesn't care, though. He's saying he doesn't care. And that's why John Cornyn, the senator, is saying he's going to have an awful two years because he's behaving in a manner that he doesn't care.
BURNETT: Right. Well --
RIECKHOFF: Well, at least we have the World Cup to bring us together tonight. The U.S. is playing. That'll be unifying.
SHAH: Ready for it. And hopefully, he'll stay away from that.
(LAUGHTER)
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both.
And next, 105 days into the war with Iran, the Secretary of Defense is doing this for the cameras, posting it.
And the world -- those things like made a phone. Okay, and the world's first trillionaire, more than 4,000 new millionaires, SpaceX stock with a record day, history-making. Harry Enten here to tell us something we don't know.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:41]
BURNETT: Breaking news, it was a historic day on Wall Street. SpaceX shares closed at $161.11. That's about a 20 percent increase from where the stock opened today, which is pretty incredible. I mean, IPOs can do that, but this isn't just any old IPO. It's a rocket company and A.I. company. It had the biggest stock market debut ever, 556 million shares to investors.
OK, so that puts the value of SpaceX because you know you multiply the two together. The price times shares outstanding at $2 trillion, which makes it the sixth largest publicly traded company just in a day boom and Elon Musk becomes the first trillionaire in history. Now, it also turned 4,400 SpaceX employees into millionaires, which is also a stunning development to consider.
Dan Ives is OUTFRONT now, tech stocks and A.I. analyst.
So this is right in the crosshairs of your world. Dan, okay, I think it was Saudi Aramco that had set the record before, and that was a big record. They trounced anything before it. Now you come out with something that's essentially multiples of the number two IPO in history. It is an IPO so huge, it redefines the definition of the word record when it comes to a new stock offering.
DAN IVES, TECH STOCKS AND A.I. ANALYST: Yeah, Aaron, this is a watershed event. I mean, not just for SpaceX in the markets, but for Musk. I mean, of course, being first trillionaire. And look, it speaks to what we've talked about so much on the show, the fourth industrial revolution that we're seeing across A.I., SpaceX clearly a derivative of that. And at the end of the day, investors are betting on Musk when they're betting on SpaceX.
BURNETT: I mean, it is -- you know, it is an incredible thing. And you think of all these individuals who became millionaires. You think of the fact that there were more regular people, just individual investors, so-called retail investors, able to participate in this compared to any other IPO.
But I want to just get to Warren Buffett. He had famously warned that hyped IPOs especially are rarely good investments. And I mentioned that in the context, Dan, of Morningstar, which is of course an investment rating firm. They're warning investors to not get into SpaceX right now, saying that the company is significantly overvalued. You know that there is a real fear out there that sure it comes out with this big thing, but it is a giant bubble and any individual who gets in it is going to get burned. What do you say?
IVES: Look, what we say -- I mean, we continue to be just such strong believers in the A.I. revolution. I still think we're called third inning, one out in terms of the A.I. revolution. SpaceX is going to be a core part of that. And I think when you look at just valuation, look, they're going to have to execute. You're going to have to talk about data centers in space division. That's what they're ultimately going to have to do to prove that valuation.
But I think the problem is that when you look at companies like this or Nvidia or Microsoft and any of the other tech comments and just put them on a spreadsheet, I think you miss, I think some of the transformational growth stocks that we've seen over the last 20 years and betting against Musk has been historically wrong bet. And that goes back to Tesla. So I think that's why you're seeing these dynamics.
BURNETT: So in that, you talk about believing in A.I. and SpaceX's role in that. There are two other IPOs coming soon in AI, OpenAI and Anthropic. So they're getting ready to go public as well, so people could try to participate in those.
Now, tech and A.I. stocks are what is driving the whole market.
[19:40:01]
The top eight comprise almost half of the value of the entire S&P 500. That makes some people very scared, but to others, it makes the case for how they are the future.
But what do you think of those IPOs in the context of some people saying, sure, A.I. is the future, but A.I. companies are utilities. They are not going to be high flyers. So both things can be true. That's the future, but it isn't going to be this powering the market to high after high. Would you be trying to get in on OpenAI and Anthropic?
IVES: Look, I'd say OpenAI and Anthropic, the best that ever happened to them was the SpaceX IPO today. So I think that sends a huge signal, positive green light in terms of putting the sort of foot on the pedal because of the reception that you saw today. Look, and it's my view, to your point, it's the derivatives of A.I. It starts off with big tech, but then it's about for every dollar spent on CapEx, $8, $10 multiply across the rest of tech, and I think that's where OpenAI and Anthropic sit.
But it's just a start to get the popcorn out moment. And again, betting against a lot of these companies that say betting against the Knicks.
BURNETT: I really hope that that ages well. Thank you, Dan.
I know you'll be rooting for them from Spain, of course, tomorrow. Thanks so much and great to see you.
I want to bring in Harry Enten now to tell us something we don't know.
Harry, Elon Musk.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.
BURNETT: We now know he is the first trillionaire. Of course, on paper, right? Because this whole conversation. But the first trillionaire in history.
Put into context -- I mean, can you even because I can sit there and, you know, you know, to write a trillion dollars, you can't hold your phone vertically. You got to go horizon --
ENTEN: That's the modern day equivalent of putting it into context.
BURNETT: Okay. Can you put it into context?
ENTEN: I'm putting this some more context to, you know, take the next four people, the next four richest men in the entire world and all of their wealth together. And these are familiar page -- you know, faces, right? The two Google dudes, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison. If you combine all of their net worth, it still would not reach Elon Musk. He is richer than the next four combined.
How about in terms of countries? Okay, compare Elon Musk's wealth to country's GDP. Look at this, less than Musk, 170, more than Musk, 21. That means his wealth, he has more wealth than the country GDPs of 170 countries.
My goodness gracious. It's a lot of money, Erin.
BURNETT: It's really actually deeply unsettling. I have to say, I think just in the context, I think it's just -- it's not a good thing.
ENTEN: For a lot of people, it is very unsettling.
BURNETT: Okay, a large inflatable depiction of a shirtless Elon Musk popped up in Times Square. Okay, because there's been people protesting. It doesn't even really look like him, honestly, but there he is.
You have noted a connection between his ballooning wealth and popularity. Now, I know it's hard in a sense because you can't really pull out the stance he took on the election, the role he played, the DOGE hanging out from this. You know, I know it's hard to be scientific, but what have you seen?
ENTEN: Yeah, I could just tell you, it turns out you can have a lot of do re me, but that doesn't necessarily buy you friends in the electorate because what are we talking about? We're talking about comparing Elon Musk popularity back in 2018 right before he got into politics before as well, truly ballooned went crazy. He was at plus 36 points on his net favorability rating. Look where he is now he's at minus 12 points we're talking about a drop of nearly 50 points.
It turns out the wealthier you are, it doesn't necessarily mean that you become more popular -- the more popular you are.
BURNETT: Okay. So why'd you hold those two dollar bills up. Is that the something I don't know?
ENTEN: No, well, it turns out I do -- I do love two dollar bills, that might be something you don't know -- smells fantastic. I just think we're talking about money here and I like wealth.
But I'll tell you something that you don't know. Look at this. How much money could you spend over a century per day -- per day over a century? You could spend $30 million per day and if you had Elon Musk net worth, you would still you would still not reach the amount -- he would still have money left on the table. He would still have a lot of them.
BURNETT: You're making these more and more unsettled. You know, can I tell you something that you probably do know?
ENTEN: Yeah.
BURNETT: You got to wash your hands.
ENTEN: Yeah.
BURNETT: Because there's feces on --
ENTEN: Oh gosh! No, you know, I liked my $2.00 bills and now you've completely ruined it for me. This is what's going on and this is going to be our midst of --
BURNETT: When I learned that how dirty money is.
ENTEN: You know --
BURNETT: That's all right. Put it one of those nail things. You know those nails salon and clean it off.
ENTEN: You know, I guess you told me something that I don't know, Erin Burnett. BURNETT: I thought, yeah, I figured you probably would know that.
ENTEN: Maybe I blocked it out a little.
BURNETT: All right, thank you.
ENTEN: Thank you.
(LAUGHTER)
BURNETT: Next, she served 35 years in the Navy before being fired by Pete Hegseth, without any public explanation, there never was one. Now she is running to flip Nancy Macy's seat. Nancy Lacore is my guest.
And protesters are now gathering for nearly two weeks straight, pressuring a government to stop a massive resort that is linked to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
[19:45:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So they are here to serve us. They are not there to make whatever they want and to sell our land and our greatest access to foreign interests.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And we're watching the Kennedy Center, where Trump's name is poised to come down from the building by midnight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight as America marks its 105th day at war with Iran. This is what's on the Defense Department's Twitter account, or what they call the Department of War. Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary, doing bench presses at Guantanamo Bay in what appears to be a makeshift open air gym. And that's what they posted today. OUTFRONT now, Nancy Lacore, three-star admiral, 35-year Navy veteran
who was fired by Secretary Hegseth last summer. She says she was removed without cause. She's now running as a Democrat trying to flip Nancy Mace's House seat in South Carolina.
And I want to get to that in a moment, Admiral. I just want to start though by asking about this video because obviously it stands out.
[19:50:02]
You know, this is the day we're talking about the possible -- moving towards a deal in the Iran war. And the video was posted with the caption, quote, "America's Secretary of War, all caps, crushed, 44 reps on the bench after a morning run with the troops yesterday in Gitmo," and the word "crushed" was in all caps.
What message, Admiral, does this send to you? NANCY LACORE (D), CANDIDATE FOR U.S. HOUSE IN SC: Well, I think it's just indicative of how Pete Hegseth has run the department since he's gotten in there. He's focused on the wrong things. He's focused on cleaning out all the admirals and generals who in the tons of years of experience they bring to it. He's removing names from promotion lists.
And he spends all his time working out with the troops instead of focusing on the strategy that we need in the Middle East so much.
BURNETT: So Hegseth rhetoric on Iran has been often bombastic and sometimes adolescent. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: This was never meant to be a fair fight. And it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down.
Death and destruction from the sky all day long.
We negotiate with bombs.
You can see when someone's trying to tap, tap, tap on a deal. Instead, they're going to have tap, tap, tap bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Admiral, does this rhetoric and the behavior have an impact on the U.S. military?
LACORE: Well, you know, I think the good thing about our military is when you give them a task and a mission, they focus on the mission. And so I believe that this is going over the heads of those who are actually forward right now, forward deployed in the Middle East. But it just -- it's just not the right message across the board.
You know, the only thing that has been consistent since this war started is inconsistency from this administration. Like, why are we in the war? You pick it. There's half a dozen reasons we've been given. How are we getting out of the war? Depends on the day. Some days it's more strikes, some days it's an agreement.
So the only thing that has happened in this war is we've put Americans service members in harm's way. We've created a lot of anxiety in their families. We're burning up critical munitions, and we've driven up costs for every American. We need to get out of this war.
BURNETT: Your district, as I said, you're running in Nancy Macy's district. She, of course, had, you know, Trump turned on her, so she decided to resign from Congress, and she's running for ran for governor, came in last, Trump endorsed someone else.
But the district that you're running for has been redrawn -- redrawn a few years ago, not in some of the most recent, but a few years ago. It's a reliably more red. Cook Political Report rates your race as solid Republicans.
So how, Admiral, are you going to convince voters that your race isn't a GOP shoe-in?
LACORE: Yeah, well, I think the voters already recognize that. We had really extremely high level of voter turnout for this primary election, 60,000 voters in this district. As a point of comparison, when Joe Cunningham won this district in the 2018 election, 32,000 voters.
So people are ready to make a change. They're ready for something new. And I was pretty proud to be the top vote-getter on both the Democratic and Republican side. So I think it's clear that the voters are ready for a change. They're looking for somebody who will stand up to this administration and respect everybody -- everybody as Americans.
BURNETT: Admiral Lacore, I appreciate your time and thank you very much for being on tonight.
And next, protests and outrage are growing over plans for a massive resort linked to Trump's family. These protests just continue on and on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:08]
BURNETT: Breaking news on a story we've been following closely here on the program. Some of the biggest protests yet are erupting in Albania over a multibillion-dollar luxury resort Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner want to build. Demand's also growing louder for the prime minister of Albania to resign after he dismissed the story as fake news.
Isa Soares is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Albania isn't for sale. That's the message from protesters day after day, showing up by the thousands outside the office of the country's prime minister, Edi Rama. Protesters also calling for his resignation, and Rama so far isn't budging.
Protesters are angry over a planned luxury resort linked to U.S. President Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner that would transform some of Albania's uninhabited coastal land and protected wildlife areas into hotels, apartments and villas.
ARDIT CARMI, PROTESTER: No Albania is going to afford one, 2,000 euros a night. It doesn't make any sense. We also have no idea how this is supposed to benefit us.
SOARES (voice-over): Ivanka Trump says she thinks the project has tremendous potential for Albania podcaster David Senra, the idea originated from genuine love for the area.
IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: Over the course of many years, we developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it, but with a lot of restraint and care because the land is so beautiful that really the architecture has to be fully integrated into it, almost rise from it.
SOARES (voice-over): That's where protesters disagree.
What started as protests to protect the environment have exploded into massive anti-corruption protests, with demonstrators accusing the government of selling the country to the highest bidder.
Protesters also won legislation repealed that fast-tracks projects like these and allows them to bypass environmental protections.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Politicians should be afraid of the masses. They are here to serve us. They are not there to make whatever they want and to sell our land and our greatest assets to foreign interests.
SOARES (voice-over): Prime Minister Rama says the project will go ahead and be a big boost for tourism in the country, and told me protesters are being stirred up by what he calls fake news.
EDI RAMA, ALBANIAN PRIME MINISTER: There is not such a thing like a Trump family Ireland. These are all stories that, of course, get traction, but can't be far from the truth.
SOARES (voice-over): But the reality in Tirana is protests are growing in size and scope, with protesters saying they won't back down until Rama is gone.
A movement that began with preserving flamingos now taking flight into something much broader.
Isa Soares, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And thanks so much to all of you for joining us on this Friday.
"AC360" with Anderson begins now.
