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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Legal Battle Between Altman and Musk; Trump-Kimmel Feud Reignites After Morbid First Lady Joke; Sources: Trump Unlikely to Accept Iran's Latest Proposal. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 28, 2026 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to Early Start. This is your Business Breakout. Let's start with a check of where the U.S. futures stand ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street. The Dow is up, but the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ starting the day in the red.

Let's check on some of today's business headlines now. Americans got more money back in tax refunds this year, but not as much as the Trump administration had estimated. People who did get refunds received $333 more than last year, a total of $3,275 on average. Some filers took advantage of new deductions for tips, overtime, and car loan interest.

China has blocked Meta's plans to acquire a Chinese-founded A.I. startup for $2 billion. China's state planner demanded on Monday that Meta and Manus end the deal. The move reflecting concerns that Beijing could lose key technology to the U.S. This comes just weeks ahead of President Trump's summit with China's president in Beijing.

And Taylor Swift has filed trademark applications to reportedly protect her voice and likeness from being used in videos and audio created by A.I. Swift's management company is listed as the owner of two audio clips and an image of herself filed in the applications. A trademark attorney suggests it will give the superstar another layer of protection against A.I, but it hasn't been tested yet in court.

The world's richest man is expected to testify this week in his case against the leaders of OpenAI. Elon Musk wants CEO Sam Altman ousted and is demanding a hefty sum in damages. A jury was selected on Monday. CNN's Hadas Gold explains what's at stake in this trial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: If Elon Musk is successful in this trial, then the landscape for A.I. will change dramatically, and especially for the chat GPT maker OpenAI. Because Elon Musk is alleging in this lawsuit that OpenAI and its executives like CEO Sam Altman essentially deceived him when they changed their nonprofit company into having a for-profit subsidiary.

You see, Elon Musk helped co-found OpenAI in 2015. He gave tens of millions of dollars to the nonprofit and was very much involved until 2018 when he left after a power struggle. Now, he is saying that he was deceived that OpenAI did a breach of charitable trust, that they unjustly enriched themselves as a result of his donations. He is seeking some pretty drastic remedies.

Among them, he wants OpenAI to revert back to its entire nonprofit status. That will obviously affect OpenAI's possible IPO that's expected later this year. He wants Sam Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman to lose their positions on the board. And he says that there's something like $130 billion that he is owed that he wants to go back into OpenAI's nonprofit.

OpenAI, for their part, they say that Elon Musk always knew about the potential plan for a for-profit subsidiary, that he was supportive of moves that would help OpenAI be competitive against the likes of Google. And they're saying this is just a case of Elon Musk trying to bring a competitor down a peg because Musk has his own company called xAI.

Now, this case is being held in front of a jury of regular citizens who will then give a decision on an advisory basis to a judge on whether Elon Musk has a case and then the judge will make the ultimate decision on the remedies. But we are expecting to hear from some of the most powerful, biggest names in tech, not only Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, but also Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are all expected to take the stand in this case that takes place over the next few weeks.

Hadas Gold, CNN, Oakland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Hadas, thank you. And we will be back in just a moment. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:35:00]

ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel. Here are some stories we are watching today. U.S. President Donald Trump does not appear open to Iran's latest proposal to end the war. That's according to sources who said President Trump conveyed his views during a Monday meeting with top national security officials. Tehran's proposal includes reopening the Strait without resolving questions on its nuclear program.

Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla are in Washington, D.C. here for a four-day state visit. The king is scheduled to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress later today. The royal couple met with President Trump and the First Lady for tea yesterday and also attended a garden party.

31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president at the White House Correspondence Center. Allen made his first court appearance Monday. He's also facing federal firearms charges. Prosecutors accused the Californian man of running through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton Hotel with a shotgun, a pistol and knives before he was arrested.

The simmering feud between President Trump and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is starting to flare up once again. Just two days before the incident at the White House Correspondence Center, Kimmel opened his show by pretending to be the comedic host of the upcoming event, which is known for taunting attendees in the crowd, including the president. But one joke in particular about the first lady, Melania Trump, is sparking renewed controversy.

[05:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": Of course, our First Lady Melania is here. Look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: On Monday, the first lady posted on X that Kimmel's monologue deepens the political sickness within America. And over on Truth Social, President Trump called for Disney and ABC to fire Kimmel over the joke, describing it as a despicable call to violence.

Just a short while ago, during the latest episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," the late night hosts addressed the controversy head on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMMEL: It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination. And they know that. And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: The shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend, it unfolded on live television. Journalists who were attending the gala, myself included, were right there at the scene gathering information from the ballroom and delivering it to viewers in real time. Despite that, conspiracy theories are thriving online.

They started in just moments after the shooting happened, including posts suggesting that the whole thing was staged. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just because Trump and his filth have lied to you about everything, every day for 11 years, that's no reason for you to get cynical and think that was staged.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As soon as gunshots were heard at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night, conspiracy theories started spreading online. Posts like this one, with no evidence, claiming it was staged. A Fox News clip of the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also went viral.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, U.S. PRESS SECRETARY: It will be funny, it will be entertaining. There will be some shots fired tonight in the room. So, everyone should tune in. It's going to be really great. I'm looking forward to hearing it.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): This was to be President Trump's first time addressing the Correspondents' Dinner. Traditionally, at the event, presidents poke fun at themselves and at the press. These jokes and jabs are clearly what Leavitt was referring to when she said shots fired.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I didn't want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we're planning at the White House. We need the ballroom. That's why secret service, that's why the military are demanding it.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): This statement from Trump, along with a bunch of posts online, had some people speculating that the whole thing had been a setup to justify the building of Trump's controversial ballroom on the White House complex. There is zero evidence to support this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just admit you staged it in Butler.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Saturday's attack came on the heels of renewed skepticism among some former Trump supporters about the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, I have obtained a copy of this so-called manifesto. It says administration officials are targets prioritized from highest ranking to lowest.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Marjorie Taylor Greene took to social media Sunday writing, I want to know why the Trump admin released Cole Allen's manifesto immediately, but they still keep a tight lid on Thomas Crooks. The FBI, under both Biden and Trump, has repeatedly said Crooks has acted alone and has released information about Crooks, including his online search history. On Monday, Press Secretary Leavitt was asked about the widespread misinformation.

LEAVITT: It's very important to us that we get the truth and the facts about this case and any case out there as quickly as possible to dispel some of that crazy nonsense that you do see running rampant online.

O'SULLIVAN: And we see this all the time now, particularly here in the United States, with virtually every major breaking news story, whereas journalists and law enforcement and authorities try to gather the facts before that information can get out, we have people jumping to conclusions online, some of them with hundreds of thousands or sometimes even millions of followers. It is just part of the modern- day information ecosystem and a reason to always be careful on what you read online. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ABEL: Donie O'Sullivan, thank you. Next, the latest on the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran. And Tehran's new proposal to end it. We'll discuss with an expert from the region.

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[05:45:00]

ABEL: Now, back to the U.S. war with Iran. A source tells CNN that President Donald Trump does not appear open to accept Iran's latest proposal to end the conflict. That plan would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but would leave Iran's nuclear program as a topic for later discussions and negotiations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Iran's new proposal is, quote, "better than what we thought they were going to submit." But he describes the nuclear program as, quote, "the core issue here."

Joining me now from Cairo to discuss this moment in the conflict, H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. H.A., thank you for your time and expertise. So, you have Rubio saying the offer basically was better than expected. So, is it possible the U.S. expected too little of Iran here if it's not good enough to get back to negotiations, or is this another moment of Iran dangling a carrot, hoping to knock the U.S. off its red line?

[05:50:00]

H.A. HELLYER, SENIOR ASSOCIATE FELLOW, RUSI AND ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE AND SECURITY STUDIES: Thank you very much, Brian, for having me. Always good to be on the program. So, I think that they were expecting something a bit more substantive from Iran. I would say that at multiple points during this war, Washington has expected Iran to behave in a way that, frankly, would not have surprised anybody who actually was an expert on Iran, even in Washington, D.C. Washington didn't expect, for example, the Strait of Hormuz to be closed.

There were a lot of people, it seems, in the administration who thought that the regime could be decapitated in a Venezuela-type kind of situation. None of these things were likely. No expert in D.C. would have taken it seriously, but the administration still seemed to run with it.

So, yes, I think their expectations weren't met this time around. I don't know if that's something that you can say is unusual, because, again, Washington has had rather peculiar expectations. In this particular situation, they were hoping to have movement on the nuclear file, and it seems that Iran focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the state of conflict, but basically kicking the nuclear file down the road. And that wasn't something that Washington was willing to accept.

ABEL: So, H.A., are you suggesting that the administration is not listening to experts, or that the administration no longer has experts on Iran? HELLYER: Not so much the latter. They do have experts on Iran. I'm not sure that they're listening to experts on Iran, because within the -- even within the administration itself, within the State Department, within the CIA, I'm not talking about political appointees, necessarily, but just people who have, you know, dedicated many years of their lives in order to research the Iranian regime, it would have been very clear that the idea that Iran would try to close the Strait would be a very likely scenario.

It wouldn't have been something that took anybody by surprise. It also wouldn't have taken anybody by surprise, the idea that if you took out the top tier of the Iranian leadership, that the next tier would simply take over. It's not Venezuela. It wasn't going to be Venezuela. Nobody should have expected it to be Venezuela. Taking out and assassinating the supreme leader wasn't going to bring down the regime.

So, in that regard, I think there is still some expertise in Washington, more broadly in the policy environment more generally, and even within the government itself. But certainly, the leadership and the Trump administration at a leadership level is simply not listening to experts. It's become a much more centralized kind of policy environment, centered around very, very few people.

ABEL: H.A., is there a scenario you can see where the Strait goes back to resembling anything like it was before this conflict and Iran capitulates on its nuclear program to the point of an agreement stronger than the one struck during the Obama administration? Does the U.S. have that kind of leverage even or the possibility of gaining it?

HELLYER: So, when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, it's partly about, of course, the United States and its ability to engage with Iran, but it's also about the Gulf as well, right? The Arab Gulf states are very unwilling, and I think there's consensus on this, to suggest any scenario or allow any scenario to unfold where the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. It's not simply about Washington and Tehran.

And Iran has tried suggesting in different ways that it could have some sort of joint control over the Strait, particularly via Oman, which is, of course, the country that's directly opposite at the Strait. Oman has already said it's not interested, and I think that the Gulf Arab states more generally would reject this. So, it's not simply about the U.S. and Iran in this particular case.

When it comes to the nuclear firepower, part of the issue is that the American administration so far seems to think that if they pound Iran, they threaten Iran, they do like shock and awe campaign on Iran, that they will simply capitulate if the shock and awe is as awesome as it can be. And that simply isn't the way that this regime works. This regime would basically go down fighting, then be seen to capitulate.

So, I think that we have a way to go. I think that Washington has to realize what sort of regime that they're dealing with, and the regime has to see that its best chance for survival is going to be finding some sort of off-ramp. We haven't got there yet. And we also have the Israelis that would be very, very keen to restart the war in a very violent fashion. And they are, of course, partially responsible for convincing the White House to start this war in the first place.

[05:55:00]

So, there are lots of variables that are at play here. But I think that the most important thing that we can point out is that both the Americans and the Iranians do not want to go back to war. It's simply that they haven't figured out what they prefer instead.

ABEL: All right. H.A. Hellyer, thank you for your time and expertise, sir. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ABEL: A Delta flight from Atlanta to Portland had an unexpected arrival Friday day. Baby Brielle Renee Blair was born mid-flight after her mom actually unexpectedly put into labor. Luckily, there were two paramedics on board and they quickly volunteer, improvising by borrowing blankets from other passengers and a shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord. The flight landed shortly afterwards with an extra passenger on board, and both mother and baby Brielle are reportedly doing well, quite the delivery story to tell for that baby when she grows up.

Where were you born? On a plane, no big deal.

Thank you for joining us here on "Early Start", I'm Brian Abel in Washington, CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish, starts right now.

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