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Iran Says It'll Close Strait Of Hormuz Again If U.S. Naval Blockade Continues; Sources: Officials Hoping To Finalize Deal To End War This Weekend; Trump: "Economy Is Booming," Inflation Spike Is "Fake"; Georgia Swing Voter: "The Economy Is Just Terrible"; Oil plunges, Stocks Surge On Optimism For Iran Peace Deal. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 17, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: It's his eight- installment of the series of cannabis usage and trends there at Sunday night at 8 eastern pacific right here on CNN. You can also watch it the next day streaming on the CNN app. I'm really looking forward to seeing you.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Me too. He really knows his stuff.

BROWN: He does.

BLITZER: So, he's the best medical correspondent period.

BROWN: In the world, undoubtedly.

BLITZER: Totally. All right. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media @wolfblitzer and @pamelabrowncnn.

BROWN: We'll see you back here Monday morning and every weekday morning at 10 eastern. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Phil Mattingly, starts right now.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. and Iran declare the Strait of Hormuz is open for business. Is a bigger peace deal, next. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start with breaking news on the potential end to the war in Iran. Sources familiar with the discussions tell my colleagues that a broader deal to end the war could be finalized as early as this weekend. But at this hour, there's a lot of confusion over what exactly is happening in the region.

The Iranians said this morning that the Strait of Hormuz is completely reopen. President Trump thanked them, but also said the U.S. blockade of the Strait remains in effect. Moments ago, Iranian state media said the regime will close the Strait of Hormuz again if that blockade remains in effect. Here's President Trump's this morning on Truth Social, quote. The naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran, only until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100 percent complete. This process should go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated.

Investors at least seem very, very optimistic. Oil prices are plunging. You see, Brent crude down more than 10 percent, WTI down over 10 percent as well. Stocks, they are surging. The Dow is over 1000 points right now, up to two and a quarter percent.

I want to get straight to Nic Robertson, who is live in Islamabad, Pakistan. And Nic, I'm going to be honest, I don't really know exactly where things are right now. I know things are very fluid. Walk people through what we definitively know.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, it is very fluid. And I think we've heard from both the president and the vice president say that they're not going to negotiate things publicly, but the fluidity of the situation and the language that they're using almost puts the negotiation in the public domain, because you had just an hour or so ago Iran saying, yes, we're opening the Strait of Hormuz. Yes, this is linked to there being a ceasefire in Lebanon, which is something that we want.

So, it seemed the U.S. managed by President Trump's pressure on the Israelis and Lebanese get something the Iranians wanted. The Iranians seem to be offering up something in return for that. The Iranians put some caveats. This would just be the opening would just last the duration of the ceasefire. And they also made some specificity, only commercial vessels, not military. The other specificity that they had to use -- the vessels had to use pre-arranged channels that Iran has designated. Those are the channels on the north of the Strait of Hormuz closer to the Iranian coastline.

Sort of issues, but not, not insurmountable issues. But then it does seem, because the diplomacy kind of burst into open forum when President Trump then put forward his views and saying that the U.S. blockade would remain in place to sort of test Iranian good faith, it appeared. And now we seem to have the push back from the Iranian side. It's not quite clear where this will settle out, but the diplomacy is happening in front of us.

The other bits that aren't happening in front of us. The Pakistani lead negotiators are still in Tehran at the moment. They've been trying to soften the Iranian position on their nuclear ambitions. That's the core U.S. demand. It appears as well that perhaps these Pakistani mediators here with the Iranians have passed on to the U.S. a request for money, sanctions relief, frozen assets, war reparations, $20 billion. Sources telling CNN from the White House that that money has been freed. The request by the Iranians had gone in for cash during the talks last weekend, that was denied by the White House.

So again, all of this sort of comes in the very public eye. And of course, that makes getting concessions really, really tough. And this, the last pieces of the deal. The Iranian, the Pakistani foreign minister a few minutes ago said that the deal was 80 percent done, but this last 20 percent could really be the toughest bit. And it's not clear, Phil, and I think this is really the point of your question. If we're seeing it break down, or if we're seeing it bump along at the moment?

[12:05:00]

MATTINGLY: It's a great way of capturing things from one of the absolute best in the business in the region. Nic Robertson, thank you very much for your great reporting. I'm joined now by a terrific group of reporters, all of whom are good pals and are also really good at what they do.

And I want to dig in on various elements of all this, but I want to start with you, Mario, because one of your reporters, one of our favorites, Kate Sullivan, our former colleague here at CNN just spoke to President Trump. And the way this is moving, any recent comment seems to be the new bar for what the news is. What was she told?

MARIO PARKER, NATIONAL POLITICS TEAM LEADER, BLOOMBERG: Yes. It's moving pretty quickly, but Kate Sullivan, our great colleague at Bloomberg spoke to the president just a few moments ago. He told her that Iran had agreed to suspend its nuclear program indefinitely. Obviously, there's some ambiguity there, just given what we saw last summer with the raids there as well, with the B2 bombers, et cetera.

But he also said that he's not sure who will lead the delegation if there are going to be talks in Islamabad over the weekend. And he said, when Kate asked him whether or not he would go, he said, I may, which was also quite telling as well.

MATTINGLY: So, Alayna, you had -- I was joking before. You've had like, 16 great stories today, but there was one story in particular that really caught my eye, which, it says $20 billion for nuclear material has been floated, not decided. Nic references reporting, and I will quote from it. One proposal includes unfreezing assets in exchange for Iran turning over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Iran has asked for major sanctions relief on freezing of assets north of the 20 billion figure. The sources said the discussions are ongoing, haven't been resolved. This is like the crux of everything. Strait is the linchpin, I think, from an economic perspective, but this is the crux of the deal that every president has been going after for decades and decades. What's your latest sense of things?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, those were the two biggest sticking points, I think, throughout these entire negotiations. And as you mentioned, the Strait, one of them, but I think for now, seems more likely to be resolved. It's this idea of how long will Iran actually commit to suspending their enrichment of uranium? And then also the idea of going in to retrieve the enrich having the U.S., or perhaps another country, you know, some sort of mediator, going in to retrieve the uranium that they already have.

Now, I will say, from all of the conversations I've been having today with Trump administration officials, White House officials, they are very optimistic that a deal could potentially be finalized as early as this weekend. What I'm told is that really what we are watching play out. Nic was describing it in Tehran with the Pakistanis, mainly the Field Marshal, Asim Munir, who has been really the lead person talking with top Trump administration officials and the Iranians.

How that goes today. If they can successfully get the Iranians to agree to a certain number of things that we know they are really pushing for it, these are two of the biggest ones, then they believe they could get there.

Now, of course, we've heard these discussions of potential second round of talks. I think actually, at this point, what the Trump administration is hoping for again, this is all, you know, best case scenario. I should say. This is not something that is a done deal, but they're hoping that, actually, if they, you know, these top officials, Witkoff, Kushner, perhaps J.D. Vance, go to Pakistan. There would be more of a formality, that it would be signing a potential document, finalizing a couple last minute things, but that really the big discussions are happening in Tehran today.

It's also been so fascinating to me, it's almost frustrating, because I am trying to report this out seeing the president posting repeatedly nonstop, you know, 11 plus truths today. I'm told that's really he has been getting constant updates from the Pakistanis who are in Tehran, and then he's posting about on Truth Social.

The thing I would tell our viewers and remind them is that this is his interpretation of it, and this is one side of the agreement. The Iranian obviously have a different one. And so, there are still, you know, gaps that need to be closed, but they are in a much more confident position than they have been in recent days.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. I mean to quote the president from a couple of weeks ago when talking about the Strait of Hormuz. I think he said something along the lines like, it takes two to tango or paraphrasing at some level. It was some -- similar type of vibe

TREENE: Something like that, yes, he does it --

MATTINGLY: And that is the case both of the Strait of Hormuz, and it is the case in general with what's going on here. And Alex, to that point. I want to put some sound from his event in Las Vegas yesterday, as it relates to the war. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly. We can do whatever we want, and it should be, it should be ending pretty soon. It was perfect. We had to do a little journey down to Iran, and I didn't want to do that, but we had to, because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon. Can't let them have a nuclear weapon. And, you know, we just hit 50,000 on the Dow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Alex, it's the first part of that statement, which I think is really important. We've heard this kind of vibe from the administration for days now, it's over. We're almost there. Everything is going great. Clearly, there is movement in some direction right now. What's your sense of how much this is? They just want this to be the case, versus OK, this -- there may be an actual huge geopolitically significant deal in a matter of days.

[12:10:00]

ALEX GANGITANO, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, POLITICO: Right. Even before the news this morning, as we saw, the president was very optimistic that things were moving in the right direction and moving quickly. We heard from him on his way out from the White House yesterday, saying this, you know, new regime that they call in Iran, that they are easier to work with, that we're getting along well.

And then he said yesterday also that if things go well, he wants to also go to Pakistan, or maybe he would go to Pakistan. I think that's going to be the barometer of their confidence here. If we see a plane shuffle out to the Middle East with the president on it. That's him fully closing this deal. If they don't think they're at 100 percent, they're not sending him there.

Would they even send Vice President Vance? You know, that's up to him if he wants to be part of trying to close it to 90 percent instead of 100 percent. But the way the president's rhetoric has been for the past 20 hours or so has been very confident that this is ending soon. Of course, we've heard soon. We've heard two weeks for a long time now, but it does seem like a shift in the way that he's talking about this.

MATTINGLY: It's a really great point. We got a lot more to get to. Thank you, guys. Stick around. When we come back, can President Trump's tax tour in the Sun Belt reset Republican fears about the midterms. And later, tension at the Supreme Court. Why Justice Sotomayor is apologizing to Justice Kavanaugh? Well, Justice Thomas turns up the temperature. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: News of progress of any sort to end the war, Iran will elate. Many Republicans eager to see the president shift his focus to affordability ahead of the midterms. He did that yesterday, highlighting his no tax on tips, no tax on overtime policies from the one big, beautiful bill in Las Vegas. But in a city where gas is around $5 a gallon, his description of the economy may not have totally landed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The economy is booming. Our economy is booming. You know, you don't read about it. You don't see it so much because of what's going on in Iran. Don't forget, we're having some fake inflation because of the fuel. The energy prices, which everybody said was going to 250, we're talking about that, Scott. They said 250, $300. I mean, today what was it, it finished at $89 or $90.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Alex, his point is not off base that like, I don't understand oil prices right now. I haven't for a very long time, even today and this morning, the Strait of Hormuz is still not open, as far as I'm aware of, despite the pronouncements. And so, not as bad as it could have been. And yet, if you go back to February 27, and you look at where gas prices were, where oil prices were. This is a very different moment.

I just want to jump off of what we were just talking about in the last block, which is, how much of that -- how much of Republicans saying, for the love of God, can we please talk about something else is driving this negotiation right now. What do you think?

GANGITANO: Right. I think when every question to voters over the last month has been, how do you feel about oil prices going into the mid- terms, its things are way too high. Inflation is way too high, and they were feeling that pressure for sure. Obviously, we know that this president watches the stock market very closely, but they also watch these oil prices very closely.

We're in an election year. It's pivotal for Republicans to be able to try to talk about affordability issues. This president has already veered away from talking about the cost of housing. There's a housing bill that he hasn't been pushing through the -- through Congress.

And meanwhile, he is going into Iran. So, voters want to see some kind of answers here. Yes, this is something, as you mentioned, the oil prices looked much different in February. So, you know, was this a situation of their own making, sure. But at the same time, if he can bring it down, he can at least have something that Republicans can go on the campaign trail and say, look, oil prices are back down.

And he said a week or so last night in his speech to Vegas -- in Las Vegas, which I thought was interesting. They're putting an actual timeline on this. Of course, today we did see some progress. As of this morning, he must have known that. But at the same time, it's a tough narrative to tell Americans, you have only a week of struggling through this. When is that really going to be the case?

MATTINGLY: Alayna, I think that's kind of my big question. It's been my question for administration officials who have repeatedly made the point since the first week of the war. Short term pain, the long-term outcome will be worth it, both on your energy prices and geopolitical stability, but also gas prices will come down very, very quickly.

Again, we're in week seven, eight at this point in time. Take a look at gas prices, national $4.08 in Nevada, where the president went yesterday, $4 today -- $4.95, the Arizona visit $4.63 right now. Gas prices were at like three on February 27, right? What's your sense of the White House, believing their own message that, like, this is going to change really, really fast as soon as we get this done. TREENE: I mean, they are, like, trying to manifest as much as possible. I mean, I'll actually put it this way. His entire midterm strategy, because really, that's what a lot of this gas price, what he's doing in Nevada and in Arizona today is mid-term strategy. I mean, they were supposed to -- I remember them telling me that once it hit January, he was going once a week to a domestic city, traveling. He's obviously doing that today -- yesterday and today but hasn't been doing that because of this war. It has totally scrambled their mid- term messaging.

I actually called a lot of people yesterday on the phone. I was talking to my old Hill sources, different campaign operatives about this, and they essentially said, too, Republicans are also hoping this war is ended quickly and decisively. But at the same time, one of them told me, I can't -- we can't change the playbook at this point.

[12:20:00]

We were planning to run on affordability, on a good economy, on good gas prices, and essentially, if we try to throw that out, like we're going to be screwed. So, they really are relying on this idea that things will get better, or at least that messaging they continue to give publicly, which is that it's at least better than it maybe was back in the prior administration. Now, will people buy that? I don't know, but it's definitely, I mean, this war has definitely damaged Republicans. And if they can improve and end it quickly, and see these things improve, that could change things. But it's definitely looking grim.

MATTINGLY: You know, Mario, and we were -- all the White House together during the Biden administration. Like, the echoes of, like our -- this one popular policy in our cornerstone legislative agenda, victory is going to be the thing that changes everything. We just need to sell it better, and we get a lot of that right now. And I think what's interesting, particularly in the midst of this conflict, is where voters actually are.

And I want to play some stuff from a focus group, Biden to Trump voters. 2020 Biden voters, Trump voters in 2024, and their view on things right now. Take a listen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DAWN, GEORGIA SWING VOTER: Everything is higher on. It's not going down like you said. Cost of living, of everything, food, oil, housing, healthcare, you name it.

ERIN, GEORGIA SWING VOTER: The war definitely the most concerning right now, and then also inflation and the tariffs as well.

JACQUELINE, GEORGIA SWING VOTER: I approve with him. I just think that his -- the economy is just terrible and that's a big priority for me.

COREY, GEORGIA SWING VOTER: He made promises that he hadn't kept to America in reference to the economy and everything he blamed Biden for. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Yeah. I want to context Mario, none of these voters said they wish they would have voted for Vice President Harris. Six of the seven said they disapprove of Trump right now. And if you're rolling into a midterm election, that's a problem for Republicans.

PARKER: Yes, absolutely. I was speaking to some Republican strategists just this morning, as crude oil prices were coming off and gasoline prices futures were coming off. And I was saying, do you feel good? I mean, this looks like some progress here with Iran, et cetera. And they were saying, well.

To Alayna's point, this will be a great reprieve. This will be a great start. This would maybe stem some of the bleeding, but there's so much work to be done, just given just the deep disdain the voters have for this economy right now.

President Trump's approval ratings are in 30 percent range, somewhere around there. He's upside down on the economy as well, which is why, large part -- why voters sent him back to the White House because they had these (inaudible) views of how the pre-COVID economy was under his stewardship. And they did blame Biden for his economic handling, and now, they just continue to be in so much pain.

You see the White House, to Alayna's point, manifesting that gasoline prices will come down. Using to your point, Phil, some of the semblances of the Biden message, which is like, it's not as bad as you feel, which wasn't quite successful for Biden --

MATTINGLY: Wasn't quite?

PARKER: At all, at all. Yeah. And so, Republican strategists say what they need to see, they saw this week. You see the president on the road. You see the president speaking about April 15, the one big, beautiful bill and some of the tax refunds there. Hopefully, if this ceasefire with Iran holes and gasoline prices continue to fall, that maybe that gives them a chance. They're still just very pessimistic about the House. The House they feel like is gone as of right now. The Senate is 50-50, which is also a bad thing right now, but it's all about economic concerns for voters.

MATTINGLY: It's a great point. Also, maybe fewer fights with the pope. Up next. We're following breaking news in the Middle East, where the situation regarding the Strait of Hormuz seems to be changing by the minute. We'll explain. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: We're following the breaking news on the war in Iran. Iran says the Strait of Hormuz is reopen. The government there is also threatening, however, to close it again if the U.S. maintains its blockade, which the president has said, the U.S. is maintaining. Now, investors optimistic that things are headed in the right direction. Oil prices down more than 10 percent this morning, both Brent crude and WTI crude.

CNN's Richard Quest joins me right now. And Richard, I'm thrilled to talk to you about this, because, in part, I want to start with -- you're laughing. I really -- I genuinely have -- we can -- this is our nerd space that we can hang out in.

The statement that was just released by Maersk, I think, is really important to capture the reality underneath the markets, and then we can go back to markets. But the statement saying, we have noted the announcement, the safety of our crew, vessels and customers cargo remains our priority. That's really important to understand here. People can say whatever they want, but if Maersk is not comfortable with safety, they're not going to send anything through. Is that fair?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: I'm not. You've had the CEO of Maersk on customer (Ph) business, and last night I had the CEO of Hapag-Lloyd on the show, and they both say the same thing. Yet we are ready to move the ships. Hapag-Lloyd got a dozen ships stuck at the top of the upper Gulf, but we're not going to do so until it's safe.

And who is going to give that guarantee, if you will, of safety? Well, if the Iranians say, we won't fire any missiles, that's pretty good, and that's certainly the best you might get. But then you've got the blockade at the southern end of the Gulf, and the U.S. is saying, you know, we're not going to let you out the other side. So that's another problem, which could exacerbate.

I think, in this -- the Red Sea is a good example. Since we're geeking (ph) along, the Red Sea has not reopened...