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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Trump Visits Controversial Migrant Detention Site In Florida; Paramount Settles Trump Lawsuit With $16 Million Payout; Trump Threatens Musk Over His Opposition To Megabill. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired July 02, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These people come in here and they want to go home. And they want to go home so we immediately send them, you know, where it's appropriate. Now, somebody who is a real killer-killer, we don't send them anywhere. We put them in maximum security.
KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: They don't have to -- they don't have to come here. If they self-deport and go home, they can come back legally. We will let them come back legally.
TRUMP: And there is a of self --
NOEM: Yes.
TRUMP: -- deportation.
NOEM: But if you --
TRUMP: People wouldn't believe it actually.
NOEM: -- wait and we bring you to this facility, you don't ever get to come back to America. You don't get the chance to come back and be an American again.
BRIAN ABEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's estimated to cost about $450 million a year to operate, and the first inmates could be inside as early as Wednesday morning.
At the White House, Brian Abel reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MJ LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Raul Reyes is an attorney, a CNN opinion writer, and an immigration analyst, and he joins me now from New York. Raul, good morning to you.
This makeshift --
RAUL REYES, ATTORNEY, CNN OPINION WRITER, IMMIGRATION ANALYST: Good morning.
LEE: Good morning -- makeshift center is heavy on symbolism. President Trump chose this remote airstrip because it is literally surrounded by swamplands filled with alligators and other predators. The message being this is where you could end up if you're here in the U.S. illegally. And by the way, you're not going to be able to escape.
How functional would a facility like this be, or do you see this as more of a symbolic move?
RIAS: At this early stage I would have to say I see this is as more of a symbolic move -- something of political theater just designed to show once again how seriously the administration is taking their crackdown on undocumented people and how seriously they are pursuing their goal of mass deportations.
But that said, in my view they are playing a very dangerous game because this does not seem like a sustainable place to have human beings, right? The -- in fact, the -- for me, the comparisons to Alcatraz are a bit of a misnomer because the real Alcatraz held some of America's most dangerous criminals -- murderers, serial offenders, very violent people who were convicted of their crimes and sent there.
In contrast, we don't really know who is going to be in this so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" facility. We don't know whether they would have had a day in court. We don't even know whether or not they are accused of crimes.
What we do know is that the Trump administration has been increasingly targeting non-citizens in their immigration enforcement efforts and many of these people have not received due process. A CBS news analysis this year found that only eight percent of people booked into detention had any type of violent criminal records.
So we're looking at potentially placing people in this very harsh facility without knowing much about their due process of their civil liberties, or what they did to deserve being there -- and that for me is a very risky proposition.
LEE: Yeah. So you're raising due process as one major concern. As you know, just concerns about the physical conditions at a facility like this -- those concerns are also coming up.
What strikes you as some of the most worrisome issues as you think about just the physical space that we're talking about?
REYES: Exactly. When I look at this facility -- the physical space I see red flags both for -- not only for the detainees but also for the state personnel -- medical support teams -- who will be required to be on site to keep it going.
This is an area of Florida known for hurricanes, tropical storms, floods, suffocating humidity and very high temperatures. So it seems as though that the administration is almost intentionally placing people here intentionally to inflict suffering. But meanwhile, just to -- for perspective the number of people each
year who escape from immigration detention is next to nothing. Earlier this year we had four people escape from a New Jersey detention facility. Three have already been captured. But in general, the number of immigration detainees is small.
So this whole idea that we need to have people in a place surrounded by pythons and alligators just seems so unnecessary. But this is part of the administration's push for mass deportations, and you can't have mass deportations unless you have an increase in the number of people in detention.
So that seems the roadmap the administration is following for now even though the public seems to be turning on his immigration efforts. The latest polling shows that the president's approval rating on immigration is 41 percent, which is a new low for him on this issue.
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LEE: Raul Reyes, thank you for joining us.
REYES: Thank you.
LEE: The parent company of CBS News has agreed to a $16 million payout over what Donald Trump called "election interference." So who gets that money? We'll have that answer after the break.
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[05:40:00]
LEE: The parent company of CBS News, Paramount Global, has agreed to pay $16 million in order to resolve a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump -- what many legal experts said was frivolous and dangerous. Trump claimed a "60 MINUTE" interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris was deliberately edited to benefit her and hurt him.
Paramount says, "The settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret." The money will not be paid to Trump directly but allocated to his future presidential library.
So as CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter reports, critics are not happy with the settlement.
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BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Hey there. Yes, journalists at CBS News have been dreading this news for months and now it is finally official. The parent company of CBS has struck a deal with the president essentially paying to make his lawsuit go away. Critics of the settlement deal say that CBS is hurting its reputation by caving to Trump.
The president's lawsuit was always legally dubious with First Amendment attorneys telling CNN that it was "frivolous and ridiculous." But the lawsuit was taken seriously by the owners of CBS because those
owners have been rushing to complete a multibillion-dollar merger between Paramount and Skydance. The merger requires Trump administration approval because CBS owns local stations that are licensed by the government.
And so this is a case of corporate priorities trumping journalistic principles.
Now, this entire legal battle stems from one question and one answer on a "60 MINUTES" interview last fall. The interview was with then- Vice President Kamala Harris. And out of the dozens of questions and answers one particular answer stood out. CBS aired a part of a Harris answer about the war in Gaza on one day and another part of her answer on another day.
This was a weird discrepancy and Trump alleged that CBS was trying to help Harris and hurt him by editing the show in order to help the Democrat. He called this election interference, and he filed a lawsuit in Texas under a pretty unusual consumer protection law.
Again, legal experts said Trump didn't really have a case. But CBS took this seriously in part because of concern that Trump would try to delay its Paramount-Skydance merger.
So settlement talks went on for months. Trump's attorneys reportedly asked for tens of millions of dollars and the deal ultimately ended up somewhere in the middle -- the price tag of $16 million, which is exactly the same amount that Disney's ABC agreed to pay Trump to settle a different lawsuit last December.
Now, notably, Paramount said overnight it is not agreeing to apologize to Trump. And that stands out because "60 MINUTES" correspondents were especially concerned by the prospect of an apology given that the news magazine did nothing wrong. The raw tapes and transcripts from that Harris interview showed that CBS engaged in perfectly normal editing practices. Nevertheless, CBS is paying quite a bit of money in order to resolve Trump's claims.
The company says in a state that "In the future, '60 Minutes' will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired." Now, if CBS had done that last fall when Trump demanded to see the Harris transcript it might have avoided all this legal maneuvering.
Of course, there are many observers who say that Trump is using this as part of his broader battle against the media, trying to bring major media companies to heel.
CBS says that there is no connection between this settlement payout and the ongoing attempts to get that merger approved. But again, there are lots of outside analysts who believe otherwise. Some Democratic lawmakers have even raised questions about whether a settlement payout would amount to a violation of anti-bribery law.
So even those this settlement is now official this may not be the end of the legal questions for Paramount and CBS.
Brian Stelter, CNN.
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LEE: Still ahead meteorologists believe Tuesday will go down as one of the hottest days ever in France as an extreme heat wave continues to grip much of Europe.
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[05:48:38]
LEE: Welcome back. I'm MJ Lee. Here are some of the stories we are watching today.
Jurors in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs will resume deliberations today after reaching a partial verdict. The jury reached a verdict on the counts of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, but they were unable to reach a verdict on the racketeering conspiracy count. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
President Trump's domestic agenda bill has cleared the House Rules Committee and is headed to the full House today. There is still some doubt over whether enough Republicans will get on board to pass it by the president's self-imposed Friday deadline. House Speaker Mike Johnson says a vote is expected no later than Thursday.
And there's some uncertainty surrounding a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza. On Tuesday, Donald Trump said Israel had agreed to terms for a 60-day truce, but an Israeli source now says the proposal is not yet approved. It's also unclear if Hamas would agree to the deal either. The U.S. president is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
And breaking news. Iran's president has approved a law suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. That's according to Iranian state media which said the president ordered Iran's government agencies to implement the law.
[05:50:05]
Last week Iran's Parliament voted to end its relationship with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog -- a response to the U.S. bombing three of its top nuclear enrichment facilities. It also comes after Israel targeted Iranian nuclear sites in a 12-day conflict last month.
Iran's foreign minister has also suggested that the country may rethink its membership with the non-proliferation treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
And much of Europe remains in the midst of an early extreme heat wave with both England and Spain coming off their warmest June ever. In France, meteorologists believe Tuesday will go down as one of the 10 hottest days the country has ever recorded. At least 18 countries in the central and southern parts of the continent remain under heat warnings.
The hot, dry conditions are fueling wildfires across the region. Two people were killed in wildfires in northeastern Spain.
CNN senior international correspondent Melissa Bell joins us now live from Paris. Melissa, just watching you there standing outside, tell us how you and other Parisians have been trying to stay cool.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have been doing what we can, MJ, and it hasn't been simple. This fountain here at the foot of the Eiffel Tower -- which by the way, is closed. It was so hot with it yesterday and today with Paris apologizing to tourists who might have hoped to come and visit it.
It was so hot yesterday -- as you said, one of the hottest ever -- that this fountain by the afternoon was absolutely packed with people just trying to stay cool. And that's something you've seen around Europe. You need to understand that these are not cities that are equipped really to deal with these kinds of temperatures.
And when you look at yesterday, which really saw the heat wave peak in many parts of Western Europe -- here in France and Spain we believe that there will be some colder air coming in to alleviate the situation in the next couple of days. What we saw yesterday was the temperatures hit 114 in one Spanish city and 115 in a Portuguese one. I mean, these are simply temperatures that are unheard of on this continent.
In fact, MJ, this is a continent not only that is getting warmer the fastest in the world but where heating -- climate -- warming, rather, is advancing at twice the speed that it is in the rest of the world.
And so what you are seeing is European cities like Paris having to adapt to conditions that are changing faster than they can adapt to. And that's why you're seeing not just the deaths that you saw yesterday reported in Spain as a result of the wildfires but two deaths here in France now confirmed as a result of the great heat yesterday.
And those wildfires, by the way, even if temperatures start to drop now are threatening to get worse over the course of the summer. The problem with this heat wave is it has come so early in the season, MJ.
LEE: All right, Melissa Bell in Paris. Stay cool and thank you.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk are going at it again. Just ahead, what the tech billionaire said that caused the U.S. president to raise the idea of deporting Musk.
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[05:57:35]
LEE: Elon Musk and Donald Trump are feuding again over Musk's opposition to the president's domestic agenda bill. The richest man in the world says he's concerned about adding trillions of dollars to the U.S. deficit, and President Trump is hitting back.
CNN's Jeremy Roth reports.
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TRUMP: We might have to put DOGE on Elon, you know? You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon, and wouldn't that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.
I think what's going to happen is DOGE is going to look at Musk. I don't think he should be playing that game with me.
JEREMY ROTH, CNN PRODUCER, WRITER, VOICE TALENT, HUMORIST, CNN NEWSOURCE/ARCHITECT, "TAKE A LOOK AT THIS": Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are fighting again -- this time over Trump's signature spending bill which supporters call the "Big, Beautiful Bill."
In a post on this platform X, Musk wrote that every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and supports the bill "will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth."
Musk, who says he is concerned about the bill's dramatic increase to U.S. debt, threatened to start a new political party called the "America Party" if the bill is passed.
Trump, who says the bill will be an economic boost for the country, fired back with a post on his platform Truth Social writing that Musk may "have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa" if Trump turns the Department of Government Efficiency on Musk, who recently led the government's DOGE imitative.
Meanwhile, Democrats who were typically at odds with Musk find themselves agreeing with him on the Trump policy bill.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Hell has frozen over a second time. Elon Musk is right about this. He's got it exactly right. The idea of borrowing $3.5 trillion on the nation's credit card in order to be able to give tax breaks to the likes of Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg is financially nuts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: And a shocker at Wimbledon when American Coco Gauff was ousted in the opening round. The number-two seed lost in straight sets to Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska. Gauff has struggled at Wimbledon in the past where she's never made it out of the fourth round. But she was carrying a good run of form into the tournament. Just last month Gauff won the French Open.
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Gauff's loss, along with defeat for fellow American Jessica Pegula means they've made unwanted history. It's the first time in the Open era that two of the top three women seeds lost in the first round of a major. Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm MJ Lee in Washington,
D.C. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
