Return to Transcripts main page
Inside Politics
Trump To Mark 80th Birthday With $60M White House Cage Fight; Mayor: 11 People Shot, 1 Killed In Midland, Texas; Newfound Candor From Sen. Cornyn After His Primary Loss; Mrs. Dow Jones' Blueprint To Being A "Future Rich Person". Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired June 12, 2026 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Donald Trump is keenly aware of that, and like, really knows how to inject himself into that to capture that attention in this attention economy, and he's used it with quite a bit of skill. And -- yes it's his birthday, yes he thinks it's cool, but I think it's also a way to command attention.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Hulse, is it strange that the President's about to turn 80 years old?
CARL HULSE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I mean --
MATTINGLY: And, I mean, it's not given the fact that he's the second straight --
HULSE: Well, considering that --
MATTINGLY: -- opportunity in president (ph).
HULSE: -- they keep talking about how old Biden was, right, and keep trying to make that point. Yes, I mean, I think this is probably, in some ways, not going to have the effect that they want to, because it's really going to drive home how old he is. I mean, they're going to be talking a lot about, boy, this guy's turning 80.
So I also think part of this is his control, he wants to control the crowd, he likes to go to sporting events, he doesn't like to get booed. So he gets a crowd there that he is -- that's going to show adulation, old school boxing, that's really Trump.
It does kind of blow my mind a little bit that they've done this out on the White House lawn as somebody who's been in Washington a long time to think that this is actually happening there. But, you know, it's a great metaphor for what's going on in our politics, right? People are just pounding each other, pounding away.
MATTINGLY: Also a great metaphor, it's like sending a man to the moon.
HULSE: It does seem like it was really expensive, though. I've seen that numbers --
MATTINGLY: 60 million, I think it was?
HULSE: That it seems like a lot. I don't know anything about the staging of something like this, but that really does, am I wrong? Doesn't that seem like that --
MATTINGLY: Shelby, can I ask you real quick, just real quick, because I want to play this down because I think it's kind of hilarious about the dynamics of fighting outside. Watch -- just watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA WHITE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, UFC: There's just so many different variables you have to deal with, you know, the weather and, you know, the worst obviously being rain and lightning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WHITE: And then bugs.
So President Trump just opened the Rose Garden two nights ago and he invited me to dinner there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WHITE: The amount of gnats that were flying around. I'm like, holy --
JOE ROGAN, HOST, THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE: Yes, bug strips everywhere. What are you going to do? Like, how are you going to stop the bugs? There's a lot of bugs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: It's like 100 degrees and there are a lot of bugs in D.C.
SHELBY TALCOTT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, SEMAFOR: Joe Rogan doesn't like bugs. I don't like bugs either. There are actually a lot of bugs in D.C., but this is actually a real thing that Joe Rogan has repeatedly brought up. I used to play professional tennis and when you are playing an indoor match versus when you are playing an outdoor match, the outdoor factors play a huge role in how you perform.
And that's, you know, real. And this is coming from somebody who played outdoor, an outdoor sport. UFC is not an outdoor sport. So it does matter.
MATTINGLY: Yes, it'll be interesting to see how it goes. Google Joba Chamberlain, gnats, Cleveland.
HULSE: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Wrong kind of outdoor.
HULSE: Even gnats.
MATTINGLY: Yes.
HULSE: Wrong kind of gnats.
MATTINGLY: Not the gnats we talk about in D.C. The ones that bother everybody. I could talk about this for a long time. We've got a lot more show to do.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:37:29]
MATTINGLY: We're following breaking news on an active shooter situation in Midland, Texas. Right now, officers are in a standoff with the shooter. Officials say 11 people were shot and one died on the scene.
CNN's Ryan Young is following the latest. Ryan, what more do we know right now?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Phil, we're getting more information even as the minutes tick on here. We're told this active shooter situation is now over. We believe this is the standoff with the suspect is over.
But like you said, 11 people shot, one dead so far. Something that we'll have to get clarification on is whether or not the person who is dead was the active shooter. So we'll have to get through that in the next few minutes or so.
But take a listen to sound that we just got into our newsroom of some of those shots that were being fired there in Midland, Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(GUNSHOTS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: So you hear some of the shots there in the distance. You can see officers on scene there. SWAT teams and officers from all around the area converge on this situation. There's also been an active train line. So that's been blocking our view at some points.
This all happened on West Wall Street there in the Midland area. We know that there's plenty of victims at the hospital who are undergoing surgery right now. What's not clear from officials is whether or not the one person dead was that suspected shooter or whether or not it was another person.
And then on top of that, again, we believe 11 people shot in the shooting that happened around 8 o'clock this morning when officers swarmed into this area, including first responders to pull some of those victims out. We also know through the mayor that they're going to set up a reunification zone at the hospital to try to get some of these families back together with their loved ones. But they were warning people over the last hour and a half or so not to go in this area. A lot of people curious about what's going on. They heard those gunshots, and people, of course, peeked outside, and they were hoping that people would stop that.
But once again, Midland, Texas. We're talking about West Wall Street. 11 victims, 1 dead. We now believe the standoff that has been going on for quite some time is over. And we'll have to see who this person who has now been told that is dead, who that person is. Phil?
MATTINGLY: Appreciate the great reporting and hustle, as always, from Ryan Young. Please keep us posted. Know this is a very fast-moving story. Thanks so much.
Well, coming up, the race is over, the filter is gone. Senator John Cornyn is telling us, really, he's telling Carl Hulse, what he really thinks about the President who helped make this his final term in the Senate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:44:18]
MATTINGLY: Political defeat comes with a perk -- candor. That's what we're seeing from four-term Texas Senator John Cornyn in his first extensive interview since his primary loss. Cornyn talked to our good pal Carl Hulse about the President he spent years accommodating only to watch Trump torpedo his political career.
"If he would do that to me, he would do that to anybody. There's never going to be good enough for him, other than 100 percent, you know, slavish adherence to whatever he wants. But obviously that's not what the senator's role is, or is supposed to be, especially in terms of checks and balances."
All right, Hulse, we were joking before the show, but it really has become like a ritual of unburdening by senators who lose, or decide they retire, they immediately go to Carl Hulse to just rip it off and tell everybody how they really feel. I actually just want to start with, like, what was your takeaway from that?
[12:45:12]
HULSE: I think that he -- you know, I've seen a lot of senators lose, and people have different reactions, incumbents. You know, some are fury, some want to hide. John Cornyn wanted to talk. And, you know, I think what he wanted to say was, he thought that the President is setting himself up for real problems, because their polling in that race showed that if he had the President's endorsement, he skates to re-election over James Talarico.
It's said now this is going to be a competitive race in Texas that's going to cost tens of millions of dollars, and he thinks that was not a bad deal for the President. He also says, you know, he then -- you have the 99.3 percent in quotes in my story, because he said that's how much I've sided with the President, right? But the President couldn't forgive him, evidently, for some comments he made in 2023 that maybe Trump's time is over. However, Senator Cornyn also notes there's a lot of other people who've said much worse about him and are still around, and you can look at Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or JD Vance.
So I do think there's a bigger story happening here, right? And that the Senate Republicans, this last-minute jab at them, came from a President who's frustrated that they haven't been doing exactly what he wants. They -- John Thune was unwilling to get rid of the filibuster to pass this vote act that the President keeps demanding.
They had started really revolting over the ballroom money, and I think this was a message like, you know what? If you folks aren't going to do what I want, I'll get people who will, even if it's at the cost of your colleagues. And, I mean, that message has resonated over there, and I do think this is going to be something really to watch going forward.
John Cornyn in that interview said, seven months is going to be a bumpy ride. I think with Senator Cornyn, no one thought he was going to be Senator Cassidy, right when --
MATTINGLY: Yes.
HULSE: -- who also was defeated because of Trump's lack of endorsement. He was a leadership guy. He was almost the majority leader. But I think in our conversation, he says, you know, I've got some cards to play. I'm going to play them, so.
MATTINGLY: That was a particularly great point. I'll read it, the quote from piece. "As the President told President Zelenskyy when he was in his office a year or so ago, he said, you don't have any cards." Well, we've got some cards to play.
And the we there, I think, is also reflective of he's not alone here. That idea of the President cracking down to send a message can boomerang and whack him right back in the face with Bill Cassidy, with Cornyn, with Thom Tillis, with Mitch McConnell.
When you talk to White House officials, are they cognizant of, hey, the ground's shifting a little bit in the Senate?
TALCOTT: Yes, I've talked to administration officials about this specific race. And when the President decided to endorse Paxton, the argument was, well, you aren't seeing the internal numbers. Like, this is a safe bet. He can win. It doesn't matter. And he's more of a Trump ally.
You saw clearly an aspect of this was the President's frustration with the few times that Cornyn had broken with him. And so there's acknowledgment from Trump administration officials that there are a group of lawmakers who can make things difficult for them, as we talked about earlier. But they still believe in the President's ability to strong arm this group by and large. And their argument essentially is, you know, they'll have their little tantrum and then at some point something bigger will come along that, you know, they'll get frustrated with Democrats and they'll get in line.
CHALIAN: And, by and large, they're probably right. I mean, that he will be able to do it, but not every time. And that is -- that's going to be different.
TALCOTT: And we've seen that recently.
CHALIAN: And we've seen it recently. And, you know, there was that moment in the Oval Office where the President was asked when they were not going to fund the billion-dollar security for the ballroom, have you lost control of the Senate? And he kind of was like, I don't know.
You know, I mean, he has this moment where you could see that that reality was landing with him, that he understood that the ground had shifted. And, you know, Cornyn, yes, I don't know that he'll be a firebrand and want to blow things up. That's not his style.
But I don't think he'll be with the President on everything the President needs if he feels very strongly --
HULSE: Todd Blanche will be a good test --
CHALIAN: Yes.
HULSE: -- coming up here. I think we're seeing John Thune, the majority leader, though, we're seeing a change in the way John Thune is acting towards the President. And he seems, you know, he -- you know, there's some tension there. Thune did not get a heads up on the nomination yesterday of Jay Clayton.
But I -- you know, someone asked Thune this week, it's like, hey, what you're doing, that could make the President angry and maybe get a mean tweet or something. And he goes, well, that may happen. And that's a different attitude from John Thune, I have to say.
TALCOTT: And I do think an aspect of this, it goes back to, again, what we talked about earlier, which is there is recognition from these lawmakers that there is life after Trump. And they have to sort of realize that --
[12:50:06]
MATTINGLY: Every day that passes, they get closer to that moment.
TALCOTT: Exactly.
MATTINGLY: And they will adjust their politicians, if nothing else. It's an awesome interview by Carl. Great work, as always.
Guys, thank you very much.
You may know her as Mrs. Dow Jones. Haley Sacks is on a mission. Create more rich people, beyond just Elon Musk. She joins us with her New York Times bestselling blueprint, "Future Rich Person", next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:55:07]
MATTINGLY: American credit card delinquency is at its highest level in 15 years. A whopping 76 percent of Americans call cost of living issues their biggest economic problem in a recent CNN poll. Americans that are trying to pay the bills, they're weighing -- save or spend.
Our next guest wants to reframe the mindset entirely. Enter Haley Sacks, or, as you may know her, as everyone knows her, Mrs. Dow Jones. Haley is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "Future Rich Person: The New Rules for Building Wealth," Even If You're Stuck, Broke, and That Billionaire Won't Text You Back. It's the latest in the IP Summer Book Club.
Haley, thank you so much for being here, for joining us. I'm fascinated by -- I spend a lot of time reporting on the economy, a lot of time reporting on affordability issues, the kind of mindset shift here. Start with kind of big picture, how you were thinking through things as you wrote this book.
HALEY SACKS, AUTHOR, "FUTURE RICH PERSON": You know, I love that question, Phil, because when I started writing this book, I was really thinking about in the canon of finance books, what is missing? And what I really found was all of the advice was so outdated, right?
Like, the American dream is so different now than it was for our parents' generation. It's no longer, you know, stay at a job for 30 years, max out that 401(k). Like, you know, we've inherited a completely different economy, but the rules have not changed. And so, I wrote "Future Rich Person" because we need the new rules for building wealth.
MATTINGLY: There are so many people that I talk to when I'm reporting out in the country that feel like the entire system is broken, right?
SACKS: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Or worse, rigged, intentionally rigged against them. Walk through some of the things they should be thinking about despite that.
SACKS: You know, I think the first thing to know is that your mindset really is everything. And so, what you see with a lot of people is that they have something that we call learned financial helplessness. So it's this idea that the world is already, you know, so far gone.
There's no opportunity. We're on a floating rock. The world is burning, so we might as well, like, use Buy Now, Pay Later to finance our Coachella tickets and focus on faking rich instead of being rich. But there still is so much opportunity to grow wealth, and the people who win are the ones who are going to look for it.
MATTINGLY: The -- like, I love "Future Rich Person" because it seems like an appropriate way to frame, like, this iteration of the American dream. We're looking --
SACKS: Yes.
MATTINGLY: -- at, like, the first generations to be worse off than their parents. One key part of that is owning a home. You write --
SACKS: Yes.
MATTINGLY: -- "We're paying 100 percent more for homes than our parents did. They could have bought two houses for every one we can afford, and honestly, most of us can't even afford one." What will it take for that to feel and reach again?
SACKS: You know, Phil, it's really tough. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Like, you know, cost of living is up 67 percent since 2000. Wages are only up 7 percent. We just got that inflation report, you know, highest in three years, and it does feel really unfair. Meanwhile, we have, like, the world's first trillionaire, and he doesn't even own a home.
So, you know, it is definitely trying times. But one thing that I really encourage people to do is actually look at the numbers instead of thinking through the American dream that we've, like, inherited, that people just think is correct. Because actually in many cities, if you invest your down payment money instead of buying a home and rent instead, you are going to make more than you would to buy and sell a house.
MATTINGLY: To that point, one of the things that you also hear a lot is like generational wealth, sometimes it's framed as a very negative thing when it's --
SACKS: Yes.
MATTINGLY: -- people with a lot of money, people that don't have it or did not have something passed down to them are trying to think, how can I pass something down to my kids? What would your advice be to them?
SACKS: So the first thing with generational wealth is you must put your own oxygen mask on first because you -- they -- you know, you cannot take out loans for retirement. Kids can take out loans for school. So, first of all, make sure that your finances are in order before you prioritize this, because otherwise it creates this generational cycle where, you know, then as you get older, they're going to have to take care of you.
But, you know, one thing I will say, if you're a kid born between 2025 and 2028, make sure that you open that Trump account. I know we're on CNN, but, like, I'm going to say it, Trump account, you've got to do it. It's $1,000 for signing up, but make sure that you actually sign up because it's not automatic and that you invest it.
And then past that, I'm a big fan of a 529 account, which is an account for investing in education, but it's very flexible. And then I also love a custodial brokerage account. I mean, if you put $100 a month in a custodial brokerage for a kid, you get around a 10 percent return and then you stop when they're 18. By the time they're in their 60s, they're going to have over $3 million.
MATTINGLY: It's such great advice. By the way, on Trump accounts, good policy is good policy, man. Like, it makes a lot of sense. Credit to them for doing that.
The book is "Future Rich Person: The New Rules for Building Wealth." It is out now. Haley Sacks, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.
SACKS: Thank you for having me.
MATTINGLY: And thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.
