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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Trump Promises Iran War Is "Nearing Completion"; Iran Warns Foes Of "lasting regret" And "Ultimate Surrender"; U.K. To Host Talks On Plan To Reopen Strait of Hormuz; NASA Launches Artemis II Astronauts On Mission Around The Moon; Oil Price Jumps And Markets Slide After Trump Warning To Iran. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 02, 2026 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:00:34]
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Danny Freeman. It is Thursday, April 2, 4:00 a.m. here in New York. Straight ahead on Early Start.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump claimed success on his main objective, preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Godspeed, Artemis II. Let's go.
UNIDENATIFIED MALE: This is a very long journey from the earth to the moon and back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The majority of the Supreme Court is skeptical of the Trump administration's argument in support of limiting birthright citizenship.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a new world. It's the same constitution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREEMAN: A lot of news this morning, but first, we're getting our first reaction from Tehran to U.S. President Donald Trump's address to the American people. Iran's military says its foes will face humiliation, disgrace, lasting regret, and ultimate surrender, according to state media.
President Trump told Americans the war with Iran is nearing completion, but he's still threatening to bomb Iran, including energy sites and oil facilities, if it doesn't agree to a peace deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change. But regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders' death. They're all dead.
The new group is less radical and much more reasonable. Yet if during this period of time, no deal is made, we have our eyes on key targets. If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREEMAN: The president also claimed success on his main objective, preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our objectives are very simple and clear. We are systematically dismantling the regime's ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders. That means eliminating Iran's navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their air force and their missile program at levels never seen before and annihilating their defense industrial base.
We've done all of it. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten. Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran military, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb. I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion.
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FREEMAN: Meanwhile, while President Trump was speaking, new attacks were taking place across Iran and Israel. This video right here shows huge explosions in the Iranian city of Esfahan. You can see bright orange flashes and billowing black smoke as flaming debris falls from the sky. It's not clear, though, what was targeted.
Meanwhile, CNN has geolocated another video from about 20 kilometers to the south of there. Witnesses who posted these pictures on social media say the fire was burning in the direction of a military facility.
Plus, you hear it right there. Those are air raid sirens sent residents running for shelter in the Israeli port city of Haifa on Tuesday. And a CNN crew witnessed large booms in Tel Aviv on Wednesday in what one Israeli official described as the most significant Iranian strike since the first days of the war.
All right, for more on all of this, let's bring in Jasmine El-Gamal. She's founder and CEO of Averos Strategies and former Middle East advisor at the Pentagon. She's also the host of the View From Here podcast. Jasmine, very good to have you here with us this morning. Let's start
with your top line reaction to President Trump's speech last night. A lot was said, but it didn't seem like a ton of new information.
JASMINE EL-GAMAL, FOUNDER AND CEO, AVEROS STRATEGIES: That's right. Well, first of all, good morning and thank you so much for having me.
[04:05:00]
You're right, there wasn't really much news said. But let's start by putting the speech in perspective. Last week, President Trump set a deadline of April 6 for Iran to agree to talks. And so we have to think about this speech or review it in that context.
President Trump is doing what he's been trying to do for the last several weeks, which is one hand, make it clear that he wants negotiations and he knows that the only way this conflict ends is at the negotiating table, but at the same time trying to increase and ratchet up the pressure on Iran to get it to that negotiating table.
Now, of course, the language that he uses to increase that pressure is really aggressive, dehumanizing language. You heard him talk about sending Iran back to the stone age, attacking its oil producing, energy producing infrastructure, oil facilities. And that really plays right into the hands of the Iranian regime's narrative of resistance and resilience against this out of control, imperialist U.S. enemy.
So all in all, I would say that he really missed the mark yesterday because he really failed to do what he wanted to do, which is make the U.S. seem like it was in control of the situation when it's clear that it's not. And the markets have reacted accordingly to that.
FREEMAN: Well, Jasmine, let's impact that a little bit further because to your point, the message did seem at times to be both, don't worry American people, this will be over in a few weeks, but also we should really be prepared for an escalation in those two weeks. So does any of that actually sound like we're close to some sort of deal?
EL-GAMAL: It's impossible to say if we're close to a deal. What I can say is that he's not getting closer. Right? I mean, it's not -- we're not any closer than were last week because he keeps doing the same thing. Again, vacillating between these two positions. We want a deal, but we're also going to bomb you to the Stone Age if you don't give it to us.
That's not the way that you do a negotiation. It's not the way that you bring an adversary to the negotiating table. What the Iranian regime is getting from President Trump's speeches is that he actually is desperate to make a deal.
And they know that if they can just continue to hold on and continue to impose these costs on the U.S. on the Gulf allies, on the global energy markets, then they have a better chance of getting to the negotiating table on their terms. So I would say that we're probably looking at increased escalation
over the next few days. I would look closely at moves over the weekend. You know, we have U.S. military assets in the region now, the 82nd Airborne Division, the, the Marine Expeditionary Unit. You know, I would watch movements on the ground closely to get a sense of what's actually going to happen, rather than put much stock in what the president is saying because he doesn't even seem to know exactly where he wants to go with this.
FREEMAN: Jasmine, can you talk a little bit about the global energy markets? Because that's, of course, such a big part of this. What is the view from London, our European allies this morning, after the president repeated that line regarding the Strait of Hormuz and moving oil through, basically saying, go to the Strait and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves. The hard part is done. So it should be easy. Is it really that simple to just show courage, as the president said?
EL-GAMAL: Well, it's not really about courage. And obviously, as you can imagine, the U.K., European allies are extremely frustrated that they had no say in this war starting. They have no say in its trajectory, and yet they're being asked by the president to come in and save the day and open the Strait.
Now, on the other hand, they also know that continued closure of the strait or near closure is absolutely unviable for them. This has wreaked havoc in every household, really, across the world. Looking at Asia, looking at Europe, the U.S. no one is unaffected by this.
So what has become really clear, if it wasn't already clear before, is that the fate of the Gulf, the fate of the Strait of Hormuz, it's a global collective responsibility. It affects, it has global consequences.
And so if we are to come to a solution, it will actually require our allies stepping in and helping us to get to that solution. Now, whether they do it using force, whether they do it by trying to negotiate with Iran separately to allow their own ships and tankers to go through the straits, or whether that means just increased diplomatic efforts in order to get Trump to back down and get to that negotiating table, they will have to be involved one way or the other.
[04:10:03]
FREEMAN: Jasmine El-Gamal, thank you as always for providing your expertise on such an important subject, especially after such a big night here in the U.S., the world certainly watching. Appreciate your time this morning.
EL-GAMAL: Thanks for having me.
FREEMAN: All right, to that point, the British Prime Minister says he won't let the U.K. get dragged into the war with Iran. But today he will host a virtual summit with nearly three dozen countries to discuss options for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Now, for weeks, NATO allies have rebuffed the U.S. President's calls
to help regain control of the vital waterway. But he's still urging them to take action. Take a listen.
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TRUMP: The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage. They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it. They can do it easily. We will be helpful. But they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.
So to those countries that can't get fuel, many of which refuse to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, we had to do it ourselves. I have a suggestion. Number one, buy oil from the United States of America. We have plenty. We have so much. And number two, build up some delayed courage. Should have done it before, should have done it with us as we asked. Go to the strait and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves.
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FREEMAN: Also, President Trump is once again threatening to leave NATO, suggesting its members are bad allies for not supporting the war effort and saying the U.S. gets nothing out of the alliance. A reminder though, of course NATO came through for the U.S. after 9/11 and the U.S. became the only member to have ever invoked NATO's mutual defense clause, which declares that attack one is an attack on all.
More on this we have seen as Clare Sebastian, she's following all the latest developments from London. Clare, a consequential evening last night. How are our allies reacting?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Danny, I think they may potentially take heart from the fact that NATO wasn't explicitly mentioned in that speech, although it comes of course, after many mentions, most of them not in a positive light. And Trump's threat, as you say, to potentially withdraw the U.S. from the alliance.
But the lines of communication are open. The Finnish president, who is a known ally of Trump, tweeted or posted on X on Wednesday. I should say that he had spoken to Trump and exchanged ideas on NATO. We know that the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, is expected to visit Trump next week. That was apparently pre-planned and they've been through this of course, before it's not the first episode where we've seen Trump's frustrations with NATO boil over.
Although of course every time he does this and says that the U.S. might withdraw from NATO, it arguably undermines things alliance. So it is a delicate situation for the NATO allies, especially in Europe, because on the one hand, they don't want to be drawn into this war. Many of them have faced pressure to get involved and a number of countries in Europe have openly said that they believe this war to be illegal.
But on the other hand, it is in their interest to try to sort out the effects of this war. In particular, of course, the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Take a listen to the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaking on Wednesday.
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KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This is not our war. We will not be drawn into the conflict that is not in our national interest. And the most effective way we can support the cost of living in Britain is to push for deescalation in the Middle East and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN: So as you said, his foreign minister is convening a summit of 35 countries today to discuss and they've made it very clear that it will be diplomatic and political ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and then military planners will convene after that. Because Starmer said to look at ways of potentially securing the Strait after the hostilities are over.
They are again reiterating that they are not getting involved while this war is ongoing. But perhaps there is some hope that this meeting, this sort of coordination will do something to placate Trump. But equally, I think we see stances in Europe certainly hardening on this. Danny.
FREEMAN: Yes, I mean, you see and you hear the PM there being unequivocal, really. Clare Sebastian in London, thank you so much for that reporting. Appreciate it.
Switching gears now, four astronauts are now headed to the far side of the moon in a historic undertaking that we haven't seen in more than 50 years. Look at that right there. The Artemis II crew is now settling in for a 10-day mission after blasting off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center Wednesday evening. The astronauts now getting some well-deserved sleep before waking up to adjust to their orbit. CNN's Tom Foreman gives us a closer look at the spacecraft.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Once Artemis has launched and passed through low Earth orbit about 100 miles up, all eyes will turn to this, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, or the ICPS.
[04:15:05]
This is a booster, and its job is to push the Orion stack up into a huge elliptical orbit, the highest point of which will be some 40,000 miles plus away from Earth. Once that job is done, the ICPS will be done, too. It will break away for Orion to practice some maneuvers with, and then it will head back to Earth, where it is expected to burn upon reentry.
That's when our attention will turn back to the Orion stack here. And let me start with the bottom part, the service module. It is an absolute powerhouse. It will supply oxygen and nitrogen and water and so much more to the crew in the crew capsule up top there, including electricity from these great big solar arrays, which can be adjusted so they're always facing the sun at an optimum angle.
Another maneuver you might see at this time would be the rotation of the craft. One of the goals there is to balance out the extreme heat on the sunny side of Orion with the extreme cold on the shady side. The service module will stay with the crew capsule throughout this mission right up until reentry. But I'm going to take it away right now so we can talk a little bit about this extraordinary crew capsule, which has been built for deep space exploration quite unlike anything we've ever seen before. It weighs about 23,000 pounds at liftoff.
And look at the size of this. I'm going to make it life size. Next to me, I'm 6 feet tall. This thing is 11 feet tall, more than 16ft across, and it has the roomiest interior for a NASA craft since the space shuttle. That means the astronauts will have room in there for sleeping and for eating. They have waste facilities, even have some exercise options. And they may appreciate all of that because even though they will be traveling many times the speed of sound, they this is a very long journey, 685,000 miles from the Earth to the moon and back.
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FREEMAN: Just incredible stuff right there. Thanks, Tom. All right, we're keeping an eye on global markets, meanwhile, and the price of oil. That's all following President Donald Trump's speech on the war with Iran. We have the latest numbers and a live report coming up in just a moment.
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FREEMAN: It appears President Donald Trump's address on Iran did little to calm energy markets. Following his speech, the price of oil actually climbed higher. And at this hour you can see here is where Brent crude futures stand soaring. Oil prices are also pushing gas prices once again higher. President Trump said Iran is to blame.
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TRUMP: Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home. This short term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers in neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.
This is yet more proof that Iran can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. And in any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally. It'll just open up naturally. They're going to want to be able to sell oil because that's all they have to try and rebuild. It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down. Stock prices will rapidly go back up.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FREEMAN: CNN's Eleni Giokos is following developments for us from Dubai. That line, I think, hit a lot of folks ears that the price of oil and gas has nothing to do with the conflict.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's just put it this way. Before the speech, we had a very sort of big downturn on oil prices. WTI and Brent crude performing far better. They were hovering around $100 a barrel. There was frankly a lot of hope, excitement that perhaps would get some kind of concrete evidence about how this war is going to wind down and sort of a plan on the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
That changed in extensively during President Trump's speech. And we saw reverse course on oil prices. And in fact, Asian markets started to drop quite dramatically because we know the conflict is going to continue for two to three weeks. We know that President Trump still has the same stance on the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
But I want to just focus on the fact that we are still seeing 20 million barrels of oil that normally passes through the straits basically being choked off. And I think a lot of market participants are looking at that reality. And also important to note that scenarios are now coming to the fore that the strait is probably going to be completely closed off until the end of April.
The other scenario is that perhaps we're going to see a 50 percent resumption of some of the traffic in May and June. And even in that scenario, you're looking at much higher oil prices. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency that has been talking about this being the largest energy and supply shock in the history of markets, had this to say.
He says April will be much worse than March. Even with the modest estimates we have now, the loss of oil in April will be twice the loss of oil in March. And on top of that, you have things like LNG and other refined products that are being impacted, and that's going to feed through into inflation, and that's going to cut economic growth in many countries.
And you're talking about gas prices in the United States. That's already a reality. We're also looking at surcharges being added to a lot of airline tickets around the world as we're starting to see a reduction of jet fuel availability in so many markets.
[04:25:04]
What's also important to note is that a lot of the tankers that had left the Strait of Hormuz prior to the war, they've already reached their destination. They've already delivered those orders. And now the month of April is going to be a far sort of worse supply scenario that we're seeing. Kepler data is talking about around 200 million barrels of oil that have been lost because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by the end of April.
We're looking around 570 million barrels of oil that be taken out of the market. That's why opening up the strait is the only thing, according to the International Energy Agency, that's going to alleviate the crisis that we're in right now.
In the meantime, we're seeing some countries trying to offer some stimulus to small businesses like the likes of Australia, some countries trying to put fuel caps on, like Poland and other Asian economies as well. And then you're seeing, you know, a very important warning from authorities and the International Energy Agency saying, look, don't drive if you don't need to, work from home, don't take flights.
We're talking about demand destruction here, Danny, that is going to have, you know, major reverberations on the global growth outlook around the world. So this isn't just a war that is contained here in the Gulf. This is touching everyone at a global level.
FREEMAN: Yes. And certainly nerve wracking to know and to hear that perspective that April could indeed be worse than March. Eleni Giokos in Dubai, thank you so much as always for your reporting. Really do appreciate it.
All right, coming up, new threats from President Trump and another spike in oil prices, as you just heard, but no clear exit ramp for the war with Iran. We're live in the Middle East with the latest on the conflict. Stay with us.
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