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White House: Trump to Decide on Action in Iran within Two Weeks; Netanyahu on Khamenei: No One Should Have Immunity in Iran; Pro-Israel Groups Use Cyberattacks to Target Iran; Israeli Hospital Extensively Damaged by Iranian Missile; Trump to Decide on Action in Iran Within Two Weeks; Trump's Tariff Pause Expires July 9th with Frew Deals Done So Far; Trump Extends U.S. TikTok Ban Deadline by Another 90 Days; SpaceX Starship Rocket Explodes During Ground Test. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired June 19, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:11]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": No closing bell today. U.S. markets are closed for the Juneteenth holiday. So instead,

let me show you how the Euro bourses finished the day. The worst was in the Xetra Dax. That was in, of course, in Frankfurt, otherwise much betwixt and

between. It was all concerns over what is happening here between Israel and Iran. Oil prices, the whole sort of shebang. So that's the way the markets

are looking, and these are the main events of the day that we are talking about over the next hour.

The White House says President Trump will wait up to two weeks before deciding on whether to bomb Iran.

The conflict spilled to cyberspace. $90 million is stolen from Iran's largest crypto exchange.

And TikTok gets another reprieve from the White House. The President still pushing for a deal.

Tonight, live in London on Thursday. It is June the 19th. I am Richard Quest. In London, as elsewhere, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

Good evening.

We begin tonight with the White House saying President Trump will decide within two weeks whether to take military action against Iran. The Press

Secretary said the President wants to allow more time for diplomacy. Sources have told CNN that Mr. Trump has been warming to the idea of U.S.

military involvement. Meanwhile, Leavitt says she wants -- the President wants to find a peaceful solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The President is always interested in a diplomatic solution to the problems in the global conflicts

in this world. Again, he is a peacemaker in chief. He is the peace through strength president. And so if there is a chance for diplomacy, the

President is always going to grab it. But he is not afraid to use strength as well, I will add.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Well, there we are. Glad she clarified that, Kevin Liptak, who is at the White House, in case there was any doubt. Look, I am not sure -- I

mean, that was -- every -- the world and his wife latched on to I may do I may not do. No one knows what I am going to do. And it seems like we've got

another two weeks.

From your understanding, is there genuine indecision about what to do, or is it just a question of timing?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I wouldn't say indecision, but I would say that there was some concern on the part of the President

that going after Iran directly, that ordering those B-2 bombers to drop a bunker busting bomb on Fordow would drag the U.S. into a conflict of the

type that the President said that he would avoid.

And so now the President seems to be giving himself more time to make this decision. He does say that this will open the window for diplomacy,

essentially allow some breathing room for his foreign envoy, Steve Witkoff, to get back in touch with the Iranians and try to bring them to the

negotiating table and get them to agree to the deal that they had rejected before this Israeli campaign began.

QUEST: The President is extremely good at getting people back to the table and doing a fudge a lot deal, where everybody sort of seems to think that

you've managed to pull it off, but actually they used to call it the pie crust promise, didn't they? Pie crust promise, you pick it up and it falls

apart. I mean, that's -- if we look at the history of the sort of deals that none of them hold water.

LIPTAK: Yes, and I think the question now is, I think the President believes that this Israeli campaign will make the deal that had already

been on the table more attractive to the Iranians.

Remember, their red line was being able to enrich uranium. That's something that the President said would not be allowed. And in fact, it is something

that Karoline Leavitt said earlier today would continue to be a red line. The gamble that he seems to be making here is that as Iran's missile

arsenal becomes degraded due to these strikes, as Iranian citizens sort of continue to be under bombardment from these Israeli warplanes and from

their missiles and from their drones, that somehow this offer will become more attractive. But I don't know that we have seen any evidence on the

part of the Iranians yet to be giving up this idea of enrichment.

And so we know, Steve Witkoff has been in communication with the counterparts. We know that the European Foreign Ministers will be in Geneva

tomorrow to meet with Iranian representatives. They've been briefed on the American deal that had been on the table. But behind the scenes, you know,

I don't know that there is a lot of confidence here at the White House that at least that meeting tomorrow with the Europeans will yield much.

I think it remains to be seen how all of these sides will come back to the table and come back together to get these talks going. And so in that way,

you can see the President using this two-week window, this fortnight to come up with some diplomacy.

[16:05:09]

It is kind of an extension of these deferments that he has been giving previously during his administration. It is always two weeks, whether its

Ukraine and Russia, whether it is tariffs, this I think in one way could be interpreted as another two-week extension. But the difference in this case

is we will know at the end of it whether he drops a bomb on Fordow or not.

And so I think, there will be a lot to look at over the next two weeks about where the President's thinking is.

QUEST: It is almost as if you had been reading my next script, Kevin Liptak, which you hadn't.

LIPTAK: Oops.

QUEST: But you have -- no, brilliant, grande elegante. You have taken us nicely onto our next item, which is, thank you very much, Kevin.

This question of the two-week pause, the president has a habit of promising decisions within two weeks. Kevin gave us a good summary. Now listen to it

in the President's words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA/MAY 28: I will let you know in about two weeks, within two weeks.

TRUMP/MAY 19: I could answer that question better in two weeks.

TRUMP/MAY 6: And I'll do this at some point over the next two weeks.

TRUMP/MAY 5: I'll announce it over the next two weeks.

TRUMP/APRIL 27: You'll know in about two weeks.

TRUMP/APRIL 3: It will be out in about less than two weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Tim Naftali is CNN presidential historian. We hear the two weeks and we all go for it. And at the end of the two weeks, nothing happens. By and

large, usually. What do you make of it?

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, I see these two-week or three-week or one month intervals as a symptom of the way in which Trump

2.0, that's the second Trump term does foreign policy.

The President sets a high standard, but there is no real policy follow up because there is no real policy process. Ordinarily, presidents, whether of

the left or the right, would have a National Security team putting together a set of options from which they would choose which one they preferred.

That process takes a while. We would be reading about it on media platforms or on CNN, and then the President would make a decision.

But with the Trump administration -- with the current Trump administration, the President sets the ultimate goal first and then when circumstances

arise that do not permit that goal from being achieved, he has to back down and put in place the process that didn't exist before.

So in this case, let me give you an example. He announces that he wants unconditional surrender from Iran. You and I know, Richard, that if you

want to negotiate with an enemy, you don't make your position from the beginning unconditional surrender. Guess what? The President didn't get

what he wanted from the Ayatollah and so he now has to find another way to achieve whatever it is that he is seeking.

QUEST: But this two weeks, during the period, no one really knows what is expected of them or indeed what the jeopardy is at the end. I suppose here,

we know the jeopardy is that he will drop a bomb, but nobody is really sure who is to do what over the next two weeks or is it just arbitrary?

NAFTALI: Well, wait a second, Richard, we don't know. But presumably the Israelis are in contact with the United States, and one would hope that

there are some real contacts between Tehran and Washington.

Here is what I am looking for. The Israeli objective and the U.S. objective are not exactly the same. The United States would probably accept an end to

the Iranian nuclear military nuclear program, but Israel seems to be seeking regime change. Now, these are these are not the same things.

As regards the relationship with the Iranians, I am not sure what kind of diplomacy we could have with them if were really seeking unconditional

surrender, which would basically mean the return either of a monarchy to Iran or some kind of democratic non-clerical system.

QUEST: How much of a box do you think the President is in now?

NAFTALI: I think the president put himself in a box. By the way, this isn't a remarkably -- this is a moving situation, a remarkably interesting moment

in Middle East history.

[16:10:09]

The fact that Israel, with our help, dominates the skies over Iran, has permitted the Israelis to degrade Iran's military capabilities. The fact

that Iran is no longer able to support its proxies and those proxies are deeply wounded and in some cases maybe destroyed -- have been destroyed by

Israel opens the possibility for a pressure strategy against Iran that wasn't really possible before.

Now, the issue for the United States is what do we want? What do we need? And President Trump had an opportunity to engage in an intelligent pressure

campaign against Tehran, which might have moved them to the table, but then he wanted unconditional surrender, which put him in a box. I don't know why

he said what he said, because this is a great opportunity for the United States. Iran has been our enemy since 1979, and it is an enemy that has

never apologized, never paid for the pain that it has caused Americans, let alone our allies, and I don't understand why President Trump isn't taking

advantage of that.

This two-week window, to me, is confusing.

QUEST: I am grateful, sir. I was going to say we will talk in two weeks, but we will talk more before then. I am grateful to you, sir. Thank you.

Now, Israel's Prime Minister says no one in Iran should have immunity. It follows his Defense Minister saying that Ayatollah Khamenei cannot, in his

words, continue to exist. Israel Katz had compared Iran's Supreme Leader to Hitler and said he wants to destroy Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISRAEL KATZ, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): I want to say that a dictator like Khamenei, who leads a country like Iran and has

engraved on his flag the annihilation of the state of Israel, this terrible goal of destroying Israel cannot continue to exist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, the comments came after an Israeli hospital was struck by an Iranian missile on Thursday. It was the Soroka Medical Center. It is now

closed to new admissions, you can see there the damage.

Iran says the strike was targeting an Israeli Intelligence and Command Center nearby. The hospital says around 80 people were injured in the

attack. There are no reported deaths.

Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv for us tonight.

So the time now, it is 11:00. It is late. I am just looking at the clock. It is 11:00 at night. What -- what is -- what are you expecting tonight?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Richard, we have seen, of course, over the last week, basically ballistic missile barrages coming from Iran,

almost every single night until this morning. The past three days had proved relatively ineffective in terms of Iran's ballistic missile attacks.

But this morning, we saw quite a heavy barrage from Iran that resulted in at least four missiles getting through Israel's air defenses and actually

striking targets in Israel.

The targets were largely civilian targets, as we saw a residential building on the outskirts of Tel Aviv that I visited this morning, you know,

severely damaged. And also one missile striking Southern Israel's Soroka Hospital in the city of Beersheba.

The question now is, will Iran maintain those capabilities in the days ahead, as we certainly have seen Israel do quite a bit of damage to Iran's

ability to fire off those ballistic missiles over the course of its strikes in recent days.

QUEST: So the thing I am trying to gauge is people on the streets in Israel, people -- you know, the Man on the Tel Aviv Omnibus, as they used

to say, and how much support is there for what is being done against Iran at the moment?

I know that's a broad question. How long is a piece of string? But how long -- how much -- what do the polls show?

DIAMOND: Well, the latest indications are that some 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support Israel's actions in Iran at the moment, and so while that

is certainly not the case as it relates to the way in which Prime Minister Netanyahu has been leading the war in Gaza with a lot of fatigue in the

Israeli public on that front, a desire for a hostage deal, this matter with Iran is quite different altogether.

Now, that being said, Israelis are certainly facing a very different threat level right now from these Iranian ballistic missile attacks. Two dozen

Israelis have been killed over the course of these Iranian attacks in the last week, and should that casualty count continue to rise, you may see

things shift here in the Israeli public.

But for the moment, many Israelis see what the Israeli military has done in Iran as a series of quite stunning successes. But now, we will have to see

whether or not the Prime Minister can actually achieve the goals that he has laid out to eliminate Iran's nuclear program and in particular, should

President Trump decide not to join in on those strikes, as we know, he has been deliberating and now leaving open a longer window for diplomacy. It is

not clear that Israel can accomplish that on its own -- Richard.

[16:15:25]

QUEST: I am grateful to you, sir. Thank you.

Iran is now threatening the offices of Israel's Channel 14 news agency. It told workers to evacuate, accusing the organization of being a propaganda

channel for the Prime Minister.

Life is at a standstill in Tehran amid Israeli strikes. Many shops are closed and roads are almost empty of traffic.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen and Claudia Otto are now in Tehran. They were the first western journalists to enter the country since the conflict with Israel

began. They filed this report from Iran's state broadcaster.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are inside the Iranian state broadcasting company IRIB, which was hit by an Israeli

airstrike a couple of days ago and you can see the damage is absolutely massive. I am standing in the atrium right now, but if you look around,

this whole area has been completely destroyed. All of the offices, all of the technology that they have inside here, the broadcast technology,

everything has been rendered pretty much useless.

All right, so we are going to go inside the building now. They have told us that we need to be very careful because obviously there might still be

unexploded parts of bombs in here or something like that.

What we see here is the actual studio where an Iranian state T.V. anchor was sitting and reading the news when the strike hit. You can see here that

is an anchor desk right there. And of course, when it happened, the anchor was reading the news, and then all of a sudden there was a thud. The studio

went black.

At the beginning, she got up and left, but then later apparently came back and finished the newscast and is now being hailed as a champion of Iranian

media.

Some of the main bulk of the explosion must have been here, because this place is absolutely charred. And if we look back over there, that actually

seems to be the main part of what was the newsroom with a lot of the desks, computers, printers, phones.

You can see how much heat must have been emitted by the impact and by the explosion. The phones that they had here are molten. Here, also, the key is

molten, the screen. And there is actually someone's lunch still at their desk standing here, which probably they would have been wanting to eat

until they had to evacuate the building. You can see there is a spoon here that's also been melted away by this explosion.

All of this is playing very big here in Iran. There is a lot of public anger that the Israelis attacked this site. And certainly the Iranians are

saying that they condemn this and that there is going to be revenge for this.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Now, pro-Israeli hackers are targeting Iran. The security groups warn that Iran has skilled hackers as well. The CEO of Israeli

cybersecurity firm is with me. There he is. He will join me, assuming nobody breaks in and takes us down. But otherwise, we will talk to him

after the break.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:49 ]

QUEST: We shouldn't be surprised. Perhaps, but it is happening nonetheless. The conflict between Israel and Iran now is well and truly into cyberspace.

Pro-Israeli hackers are taking credit and money, actually, after $90 million was stolen from Iran's largest crypto exchange.

On Tuesday, Iranian media reported a cyberattack disrupted the state-owned Bank Sepah, which is used at gas stations across Iran. Iran is also home to

some of the best hackers in the world. Cyber security organizations are telling us businesses to stay on high alert for cyberattacks.

Bezalel Eithan Raviv is the chief executive of the Israeli cybersecurity firm, Lionsgate Network, joins me tonight from Paris.

Right. So the scene is set. Who has the better hackers? Who can do the most damage, and who can take down the most systems? On a one for one basis, who

is the stronger, do you think?

BEZALEL EITHAN RAVIV, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, LIONSGATE NETWORK: Well, touche for the pro-Israeli.

QUEST: All right, but so they managed to get the get the crypto from the exchange or at least we believe they did, how did they do it?

RAVIV: Well, basically they convinced the exchange, which is the official of the Iranian regime, that the exchange is to send the funds without any

kind of pain from any system. No code was hacked, no malicious platform was broken. Basically, the exchange believed that the request to send the funds

out of 81, give or take million U.S. dollars was with full consent of any breaks in associates' keys within the platform. So essentially that was a

very brilliant maneuver. And therefore the funds were sent without any kind of pain from the exchange part.

QUEST: And what about the reverse, the ability, for example, I understand that in Israel, people are receiving text messages warning them that their

bunkers may not be safe and all sorts of things. So this is really ramping up, isn't it? It is difficult to see which way it goes because the

disinformation and the ability to compromise important I.T. systems makes it very, very awkward.

RAVIV: True. And we want to consider all from the very genesis, how we store assets, right? This is an incredible active warfare and the rules

have changed forever. With money, we used to store it in a way that we all agreed is comfortable and secured. Now, we are seeing something that is

incredibly innovative, where the actual custodian are believed that the action to release the funds came from within the actual exchange.

In fact, the associate, I would say, sparrow organization burnt all the funds. Basically, they've sent the funds to black hole crypto wallets, and

the funds were actually burnt. The code was burnt and there is no way to recover these funds and none on the pro-Israeli side who did this can

benefit financially from this.

So this is a very strong statement that actually comes from this specific entity.

QUEST: What's fascinating, I think, is that the very -- you know, we had always been told, shoving a piece of gold or some money under the mattress

was not safe and everybody -- every kid and his brother loves crypto, but what we are learning is this whole crypto at a time of cyber warfare is

absolutely perilously risky.

[16:25:01]

RAVIV: So is fiat money. U.S. dollars, euros, rand, everything is accessible when the right code is implemented. You can shut down a whole

bank, which is exactly what the Iranian regime did after they shot missiles on innocent civilians in Israel. They basically dismantled the bank

operation and the exchange because they realized that this has taken one step forward without them noticing.

QUEST: I am curious, are you one of those people that believes you should have gold hidden under the bed?

RAVIV: I think you should have your own garden and plant your own food and live off of it. That's my actual personal belief. But how many people are

going to do that, right? They need to train themselves in actions and art that is no longer available to many in this generation.

So they tend to go with what they believe is trustworthy, and this is the end game, really. Do you trust the system that stores your funds? A lot of

people believe so, but then they have a problem with the bank or with their exchange, and then they realize they are in 2025, unlike 25 years ago, they

are completely on their own.

So people are shifting. Consciousness is moving in different ways this year. I feel it very strongly. Yes.

QUEST: I am grateful to you, sir. Thank you. Fascinating discussion and point of view. I'm grateful. Thank you.

As we continue tonight on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, Iran has struck one of Israel's top medical facilities. We've already told you dozens of injuries

have been reported. We will be there to report on the damage and an assessment in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Hello, I am Richard Quest. Together, we will have a lot more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

Time is running out for President Trump to reach his trade deals before the 90-day reprieve expires and it was dramatic when the SpaceX rocket exploded

during a ground test. The company is calling it a major anomaly. Everyone says it is a big fire.

Before that, on CNN, the news because here, the news always comes first.

[16:30:10]

The White House says President Trump will decide whether to launch a U.S. strike on Iran within the next two weeks. It's been nearly a week since

Israel launched its own strikes against Iran, and now the U.S. president says he wants to allow diplomatic efforts to proceed before he takes a

final decision.

Hurricane Eric has slammed into Mexico's Pacific Coast as a dangerous category three storm. It's made landfall on Thursday east of Acapulco. Eric

should weaken as it hits steep mountains and dissipates by Friday.

TikTok has been given more time to sell its U.S. operations to a non- Chinese owner. U.S. president says he'll wait to enforce the law that would ban the app on national security grounds. Mr. Trump's decision is good news

for TikTok's 170 million American users.

Israel says dozens of people have been injured in the Iranian airstrike, which included an attack on one of the country's top medical facilities.

CNN's Nic Robertson has been assessing the damage at the hospital, which is in southern Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The Soroka Medical Center, that's where we're at. Just look around me. Sanjiv has got a wide

angle lens on here. You can just see, looking here, the damage to this building.

And Sanjiv, if you can just pan up there to the higher floors, the medical center director here told me it was a fifth floor direct impact on the

cancer and urology ward. He said very fortunately the 25 patients, bedbound patients, that they'd had there until yesterday had been taken to the

basement for their safety. That had been a precautionary measure.

This direct impact on the hospital, he said, has caused extensive damage. 40 casualties here, most of them with light injuries from broken glass.

Most people taking shelter inside the hospital. But to give you a sense of this place, the children's ward is over in that direction. There is a

maternity ward in this hospital. I've seen pregnant ladies outside the hospital having to leave with other patients already today.

This is the biggest medical facility in the south of Israel. It serves a million people. I can hear water raining down. It looks like the fire crews

are still up there above us. So just dousing, they're dousing the building. We know that the fire crews, I just saw them going back inside the building

there. The recovery mission, the search mission for people who might be injured or trapped inside the hospital, that is over.

But now there's a complete mechanical, structural assessment going on here. And as I was saying, 1200 beds in this hospital. The community it serves

both Arab and Jewish. There are a million people in the community here that use this hospital on a regular basis. The fire guys up here are telling us

we've just got to move back a bit, so we're going to stay and keep talking to you. We're just going to move back a bit here.

You get a sense of the destruction. Look at all this twisted debris around here. Fire trucks backed up as far as you can see. This has really raised

the temperature on this conflict. The politicians have been coming here, have been talking very clearly. This was an intentional strike on the

hospital by Iran. And the prime minister very clearly calling for an uptick in strikes on Iran.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Beersheba, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: And still to come tonight, Donald Trump resets the clock for TikTok, extending the deadline for the Chinese owned app to sell its operations, in

a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:36:36]

QUEST: Leaders from Iran and Europe are set to hold talks on Friday in Geneva. Iran's foreign minister to meet his counterparts from France,

Germany and the U.K. The Iranian state is reporting that the E.U. foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, will also be there. Tehran says the meeting

comes at the request of the European countries. One European diplomat says it's happening in consultation with the Trump administration.

Clarissa Ward is with me tonight from.

Good evening, Clarissa, in Tel Aviv. The Europeans trying to find out for the best intentions, but a role for them here. But it doesn't seem like

there is one.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not immediately clear what that role would be. And certainly one can say from the Israeli

perspective that there is very little interest in aggressively pursuing diplomacy.

I've been talking to some other actors in the region, though, particularly in the Gulf, Richard, where there is a kind of flurry to try to get people

back to the negotiating table to see if some kind of a deal can be hammered out. This news from President Trump's press secretary that, effectively,

the president has given himself a two-week window to make this decision, has kind of given some more space potentially for those diplomatic efforts.

But I can tell you what it hasn't done, and that is to deter or slow down the Israelis, who are very much intent on carrying out these strikes and

achieving their strategic objectives, though, I think it's important to add, Richard, that we don't know exactly what the metric is for mission

accomplished from Israel's perspective at least.

Is it to completely destroy the nuclear program? Is it to set it back three or four years? Is it regime change? This sort of remains an open question,

Richard.

QUEST: I guess it could also be defined as being whatever they can get away with in a sense. And with that in mind, they now have a two-week period

where, what, they continue to do to bomb as they have been? They continue the attacks to denigrate and to denude the Iranian capabilities? It's

difficult to know what happens over the next two weeks.

WARD: I think it's very difficult to know what happens over the next two weeks. I would say, you know, there's a couple of scenarios here. One

scenario is that President Trump is throwing out that two weeks to sort of distract people and then might go ahead and intervene and take some action

much sooner. So that's one scenario that would obviously be for the Israelis and their perspective, the best case scenario.

Another scenario is that the U.S. allows diplomacy to play out. Israel continues its attacks on Iran. But then the crucial question is, what do

they do about Fordow? Right? This is really the centerpiece of Iran's nuclear enrichment program. It's deep under this mountain hence the need

for the bunker buster bombs. But there is kind of an open question as to whether Israel could attempt some kind of very brazen commando raid and

actually send boots on the ground, so to speak, and try to destroy it on the ground and then pull out.

We have no idea if something that audacious is being planned. And I think that the Israeli government has deliberately and the military has

deliberately been somewhat kind of coy or circumspect about that issue.

But make no mistake about it, Richard, the Israelis very much had hoped and perhaps still are hoping to see President Trump intervene more forcefully.

[16:40:09]

They've been very cautious about saying that publicly. They don't want to be seen as trying to strong arm the president, but privately they had been

optimistic and they had been looking at a sort of 24 to 48-hour window. Their fear, of course, is that the longer this draws out, the longer the

Iranians have to kind of try to get their ducks in a row and that the momentum of these initial strikes with the shock value that came with them

starts to be lost.

So it's going to be very interesting to see what happens. And this one, unlike many other news stories I've covered, it's really impossible to

prognosticate what is coming next, Richard.

QUEST: We know you'd watch it for us. And I'm grateful. Thank you.

Now the clock is ticking for more than 100 countries to reach various trade deals with the United States. You'll remember President Trump put a 90-day

pause on his reciprocal tariffs. That will come to an end on July 9th. So far, there's only been agreements with the U.K. and China. Mr. Trump and

other G7 leaders hoped to make progress this weekend -- this week in Canada. But of course, the president left early to focus on Israel and

Iran. His Treasury secretary is already suggesting that July 9th is not a hard deadline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: There are 18 important trading partners. We are working toward deals on those, and it is highly likely

that those countries that are negotiating or trading blocs, as in the case of the E.U., who are negotiating in good faith, we will roll the date

forward to continue good faith negotiations. If someone is not negotiating, then we will not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Phil Mattingly is in Washington. That seemed sort of rather clear cut, but I'm guessing it's anything but.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF U.S. DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think, Richard, and you've watched this process, kind of the uncertainty will

continue until morale improves has more or less been the kind of ethos of the last several months. The secretaries, the way he stated that, as you

noted, it was quite, quite clear and I think market participants, lawmakers, policymakers, everyone saw it and said, OK, well, this is how

this is all going to work.

It has not been repeated by the president. Other trade advisers have not been that clear cut about the potential of an extension. In fact, President

Trump has made clear several times that the deadline is probably the deadline and he may just unilaterally impose rates that he feels like

imposing. I think that's a huge part of the difficulty right now for foreign trading partners.

QUEST: But you can cobble together a deal. I mean, that's not the difficult bit in a sense. You can always put something together if all you want is a

fig leaf. Getting a real deal that's going to hold water and survive the test of trade, that they can't do in 90 days.

MATTINGLY: It's an excellent point. Usually trade agreements take anywhere between two and four years, kind of the ones that you and I are used to

covering over the course of the last decade or two. This was never going to be that. But I think what you're saying is a really critical element here,

which is the administration still wants something tangible, something concrete that both sides of the relationship can hammer out, make official,

and will be durable over time.

The difficulty that I've heard from several diplomats involved in some of these negotiations on a bilateral basis, they don't know exactly what the

president wants. And I think the trade team on the technical level, on the staff level, they've been working very intensively over the course of the

last couple of months. But the reality has always been President Trump is going to look on paper and see what the provisions are, and he will decide

if it's enough.

And what we have learned up to this point based on private conversations I've reported on is no one has gotten to that point yet, at least in

tangible basis, and no one can define what it will actually look like when they do. And that's difficult.

QUEST: Now, I want to take you to another area because you're very familiar with the White House and the way these everything works. Now, earlier this

week, sources told us that the president was actually warming to the idea of a U.S. strike on Iran. His comments in the past show when it comes to

war and conflict, he's in two minds. He had tough words for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his first term.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we can't have mad men out there shooting rockets all over the place. And by the way, rocket man

should have been handled a long time ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: But on the other hand, he often speaks quite bluntly about the horrible cost of war, whether it's Gaza or indeed Iran and Israel, and

particularly Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's a terrible thing. I hate to see it. I hate to see all that death. So much death and destruction, but death primarily. It's what I hate

to see.

[16:45:00]

They're great people, smart people. And those people are getting the hell out of them now. And it's really a shame. It's so stupid. It's so stupid.

It's another one, you know, Russia-Ukraine is so stupid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Phil, can you just help me understand? What is this relationship that Donald Trump has? He absolutely loathes, detest, as indeed one does,

the death and destruction and the carnage of war.

MATTINGLY: Richard, trying to define the president's doctrine on foreign policy has been kind of a fool's errand for every think tank in Washington

for the better part of the last, the last decade. I don't say that in a snarky way. I say that because it's not something you can put in a box in

terms of how he's thinking about things here. It's not something that is tied to historical precedents or legal justifications or necessarily one

ideological viewpoint.

I think you're hitting at a critical point here that matters a lot in this moment, which is the president has long both publicly but also privately,

I'm told, in the first term and throughout the course of the last several months, expressed horror about nuclear war, has been terrified of the

prospect of nuclear war. Part of his issue with the Ukraine-Russia conflict is that Russia is a nuclear armed country.

And that in the kind of behind the scenes here, the opportunity to knock out the potential for a nuclear Iran matters a lot even if he is terrified

almost equally of foreign entanglements.

QUEST: I think you've nailed it there, Phil, because the president says again and again Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. I mean, if there's one

thing that I think we can take that is an absolute he's not going to let Iran have that. There's no equivocation. There's no taco on this, is there?

MATTINGLY: It's the red line. And I think people -- what I've been told is that advisers who are supportive of moving forward or believe that this is

an opportunity that the U.S. can't pass up as it pertains to action make that point repeatedly. You have never wavered on this. This has always been

your red line from 2015 on, you have to follow through here because you said that. He equivocates on so much. He pivots on so much. He is so agile

on policy and positions and ideology, at least based on everyone's experience over the course of the last decade.

But, Richard, to your point on this, he has been concrete.

QUEST: I'm grateful, Phil. Thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you.

Now, President Trump has given ByteDance another 90 days, not two weeks. It's another 90 days to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner. The app is

facing the ban, you're familiar with it, what the law is. This extension will keep it all going for 170 million. TikTok said it was grateful.

Claire is with me, Clare Duffy.

Why -- is there -- does there nobody who wants this? Why another reprieve?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Richard, I mean, talk about Trump equivocating on an issue that was very important to him in his first term.

He was the one who first tried to ban TikTok. And of course, this law was passed with bipartisan support last year because of national security

concerns. It was set to go into effect in January. And yet, Trump has repeatedly delayed the enforcement of this ban.

He says that it's because he wants to make a deal to pass over control of TikTok's U.S. operations to an American owner, but it's not clear, you

know, if that deal is really making progress. We know that back in April, the White House was very close to a deal that would have handed over

control of this app to U.S. owners, and that fell apart because of the tariffs that he imposed on China. So now we see that TikTok has really

become a bargaining chip in these U.S.-China trade talks. And so it's not clear what that is going to mean for a long term deal here.

Now he has another 90 days. That will mean that American users can keep using it until September. But we don't have a good sense of where this deal

stands right now.

QUEST: Do we have a sense of who's interested?

DUFFY: So the deal that they were very close to in April involved American financial firms that were private equity companies, venture capital firms

that would have partnered to create a new company to buy TikTok's U.S. assets. ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, would have retained a

small stake, but one that still would have been legal under this law.

I think the question at the end of the day is, will China bless whatever deal they, you know, come to here?

QUEST: That's it. Yes.

DUFFY: That is the key issue. Trump did say earlier this week that he thinks the Chinese president will ultimately approve a deal, but I think

they're going to have to reach some agreements regarding trade in order for that to happen.

QUEST: The quid pro quo. Thank you. I'm grateful for you. Thank you.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, we have a bit more before you and I go our separate ways. A massive explosion at the SpaceX facility. The rocket that failed a

crucial test, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:52:35]

QUEST: Most extraordinary. Just look at the ferocity of that. The explosion at SpaceX Starbase facility in South Texas on Wednesday. The Starship

rocket was undergoing what's known as a static fire test on the ground. SpaceX says all employees are accounted for, and there were no injuries

reported. The cause of the explosion is not clear.

Kristin Fisher joins me now.

Wow. What does one say about that?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE ANALYST: Yes, I mean, there are explosions, and then there's that explosion. Like you said, nobody was

hurt, but it could be felt on the ground up to 30 miles away. Just a massive, massive explosion. And so, you know, the big question now is how

badly damaged was the test pad. This did not happen on the launch pad. It happened on a test pad a few miles away from the launch pad, Richard. So

still trying to figure out how badly that was damaged because you can't fly again until that test pad is testable again.

QUEST: So what were they doing? And what's the significance of this in the greater scheme of things?

FISHER: So they were doing a pretty routine static fire test. That's where they literally hold Starship down. That's the top part of the Starship

rocket, the Starship spacecraft and the super heavy booster. They're holding Starship down to test those raptor engines and make sure they work

before what was supposed to be the 10th test flight just about a week away. And then shortly before they ignited those engines, Richard, that's when

the explosion happened.

QUEST: Is this -- I mean, I'm so ignorant in terms of the great picture of it. So I can't gauge, you'll tell me. You'll help me understand. They seem

to have had a lot of explosions like this or when it's sort of separated or on its way back or on its way up. Is this just the sort of de rigueur

because they're actually pushing such frontiers?

FISHER: I'm afraid this is now a pattern, right?

QUEST: Right.

FISHER: I mean, SpaceX is known for big explosions. This is how they progress. Rapid iterative development. This is what they're known for. One

explosion, totally fine. Two, maybe. This is now the fourth consecutive failure of a Starship spacecraft.

[16:55:06]

That's a problem. That's a pattern. NASA is watching. The Trump administrations watching.

QUEST: But they say --

FISHER: This is the rocket that's needed to beat China back to the moon, Richard.

QUEST: Right. But the opposite side of that coin is the very successful thing that they send up, Dragon, that they send up to the, to the space

station, which has had launch after launch after launch, along with their satellite launching facilities. So are they pushing envelopes that we

should be grateful because from these disasters will come our great scientific innovations?

FISHER: This is still the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built.

QUEST: Right.

FISHER: There's nothing -- no other country or company has anything like this. So I think we do need to cut SpaceX a little bit of slack and that

they're trying to do something that nobody else has ever done.

Another point, Richard, you know, if you look back at the Falcon Nine rocket in its early days, it too suffered some pretty spectacular

explosions. So, you know, again, explosions aren't necessarily a bad thing. It's just when you see them over and over and over, and all of them had

different reasons for the failure.

QUEST: I'm grateful. Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much.

We'll take a "Profitable Moment" after the break. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Very glad you're with us tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment," two weeks, another two weeks. And that seems to be the modus operandi of the president of the United States.

Well, sometimes it's 90 days when it's to do with trade deals as we heard tonight. But there's no sign of any major deals on the horizon, at least

not any that would be successful in terms of long term trade readjustment over many years.

As for the two weeks, whether it's Ukraine, two weeks for Putin to do this, two weeks for Zelenskyy to do that, or Gaza, two weeks for Hamas to do

that, or whatever, time and again, two weeks seems to be the limit. But what we heard tonight from our correspondents, and we were pleased to bring

them to you, is whether there's any strategy behind it.

Is this just two weeks so that the White House can work out how to get out of the box that it's found itself in, that it put itself in with a deadline

that could never be met in the first place?

And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in London. We'll be in Angola on Monday. Luanda, look forward to seeing you then.

Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable. The weather is spectacular over here.

END