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CNN Live Event/Special

CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five. President Trump to Attend White House Correspondents' Dinner for First Time While in Office; President Trump's Polling Falls as Iran War Continues and Americans Perceive Economic Conditions Worsening; Conservatives Claim Democrats Hoping U.S. Loses Iran War to Boost Their Midterm Election Prospects; Donors to President Trump's New White House Ballroom Allowed to Remain Anonymous; Trump Administration Moves to Reduce Government Scheduling of Marijuana. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired April 25, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:40]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Today, from an unpopular war --

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm not under any pressure.

PHILLIP: -- to an unpopular economy --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully we get back to affordability.

PHILLIP: The president's polls are spiraling ahead of his first appearance in office at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Plus, the new midterm message for Republicans -- the other side is worse.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They are rooting against this president.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: The rest of the do-nothing Democrats are clearly rooting for failure.

PHILLIP: Also, it's controversial, it's expensive. And now the secret contract for Donald Trump's pet project is revealed.

TRUMP: We're building a world class ballroom.

PHILLIP: And a turning point in the infamous war on drugs as the administration makes moves on weed and psychedelics.

Here in studio, Anthony Scaramucci, Gretchen Carlson, Rob Bluey, and Larry Wilmore.

It's the weekend. Join the conversation at a "TABLE FOR FIVE".

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Hi everyone. I'm Abby Phillip.

The last time Donald Trump attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner, he was roasted by Barack Obama. It was an infamous moment that he denies inspired his decision to run for president in the first place.

Well, now, more than a decade later, he's been elected twice and is attending tonight's dinner for the very first time as president. And he's doing it with his political standing with the American people in pretty rough shape. His approval is hitting new lows, reaching Bush and Carter territory. And in fact, a new FOX News poll shows Americans consider Democrats better at the economy than Trump, an issue that he used to own. The unpopular Iraq war is entering its ninth week now, gas prices are still high, and he's just suffered a major redistricting loss in a fight that he started. Virginia voted to approve the Democratic plan to redraw the map, which could give Democrats four new seats.

Now, remember, redistricting mid-decade isn't normally how this is done, but Trump and his team demanded that Texas do it first. And now Democrats are fighting back and following suit in other states.

So how does the president go into tonight's event celebrating the First Amendment, which he has threatened over and over again? I guess we'll have to go to the comedian at the table.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIP: Larry, I mean, is it possible for a Trump under these circumstances to hit real comedy. or is it going to be grievance?

LARRY WILMORE, COMEDIAN AND PODCAST HOST, "BLACK ON THE AIR": Oh, well, I think he's done a lot of comedy already. I mean, Trump actually is very funny when he's not trying to be. So when he's trying to be funny, who knows? But you know, it is amazing that he is going to this White House Correspondents' Dinner and that they're having a mentalist. In my mind, I think Trump thought it was a psychic who could tell him, like, what's going to happen with the war and those type of things.

But, you know, I'll give credit. He's showing up. Theres not going to be any barbs or that type of thing. But it will be interesting to see what he puts out there that's going to be any different than his routine that he's always putting out there about people, because he's always roasting.

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FROMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Can I can I disagree with Larry? I think he thought it was a doctors' convention. And since he is a doctor, he's showing up. What do you think, Larry?

WILMORE: He's a Jesus doctor. He's very different than a regular doctor.

SCARAMUCCI: It could be a Jesus doctor convention.

PHILLIP: But Mooch, look, he also, when Trump is in a kind of down moment, which I think you could look at this moment as potentially one of those. He hasn't gotten a deal yet. His poll numbers are pretty low. The economic numbers are very low. That FOX News poll, I think it's the first time since 2010 the Democrats have outranked Republicans. He tends to blame anybody and everything other than himself. I mean, do you think that will come through?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, listen, I think this is going to be a tough -- it's going to be a tough night for him because he doesn't like the people in the room. And let's face it, most of those people don't like him. So it will be a very tough night. But on the poll numbers, I think he's deeply concerned about the poll numbers.

[10:50:00]

And when I look at him and I hear him speak, the voice is hoarse. He looks very tired. He's tweeting in the middle of the night in a -- you're laughing, Larry, but you see it, right? It's gone, 12:38 boom, boom, boom, 4:00 in the morning. So he's wide awake all night. He's falling asleep at the desk, as he was yesterday.

And so I think he's really worried. I think he's really stressed. And he can pretend otherwise, and we can all pretend he's superhuman and not a human being like the rest of us. But the economy is under threat. Gas prices are way up. He's at war, and he's at war with an enemy that understands him better than he understands them.

PHILLIP: Gretchen, 51 percent of Americans say that Trump's mental sharpness is worse and has gotten worse over the last year.

GRETCHEN CARLSON, CO-FOUNDER, LIFT OUR VOICE: That's why he has joke writers writing his jokes for him tonight. I actually think that there will be some good zingers there, because I do believe that he's going to have somebody who knows how to make fun of people in the right way, right, write the jokes.

The interesting thing is he's not apparently going to be present when they actually give out the awards to the journalists, who many have written critical articles about him. And I think the biggest discussion we should be having about tonight is the First Amendment, because there's been quite a controversy about whether or not journalists should go to this event or not, because he's constantly attacking the very principles of which they work from every single day. And to me, that's the most important thing of all.

What really bothers me is the way he specifically treats female journalists. And I would love if the journalists would all agree to fight back against that. It's almost as if when he demonizes them and calls them "piggy" right to their face, they just move on to the next question. And I would love if they would just all come together and say, we're not going to support that. We're going to were going to say something, or we're not going to allow him to say that to certain people. But we all know why that doesn't happen. ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": He

certainly had his run-ins with journalists. I think also, to your point, yes, they probably don't like each other. But he's also been pretty good for the news business generally. I mean, subscriptions are up at some of these publications. More people are tuning in because there's -- we live in a constant 24/7 news cycle.

And I agree, I do think that reporters should stand together. You know, it was a couple of years ago that under Joe Biden's White House that they revoked the press credentials of 442 reporters, including my colleague Fred Lucas, at "The Daily Signal." And we pleaded with the White House Correspondents Association, other journalists to stand with us, Gretchen. And we couldn't find anybody to do that.

And so I do think it's important from that standpoint of defending the First Amendment, Abby, that we do stand together.

PHILLIP: President Trump is going into this moment when, as we've been talking about, the American people are pretty frustrated by where things are. And let me just play what he said about gas prices and just whether or not people shouldn't care that they're going up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you need more time, does that mean Americans should anticipate spending more on gasoline for the foreseeable future?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: For a little while. And you know what they get for that, you know what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: As he goes into this midterm year of his, is that going to work? Is that argument going to fly?

WILMORE: I don't think so, Abby, because I think there's a bigger macro thing going on here. I think in Trump's first term, Trump 1.0. You know, a lot of people, and I'll talk about independents when I say a lot of people, you know, people that aren't political, they gave Trump the benefit of the doubt of being an amateur, but at least he surrounded himself with who they felt were maybe experts or people who had some gravitas, you know?

But this time it's more like amateur hour that people are sensing. And it's almost like, you know, we're watching some game of, you know, MAGA has got talent, you know, where all the contestants are trying to get to the next round. And where Trump is, he's, you know, everyone is currying favor with him. The American people can sense when someone's really not in charge.

And I think the mood out there is that who is running this place, you know? We have wars that we don't know why it actually started. You know, prices going up, things are reversed in the way that he said he was running for this and he starts doing this. So people are questioning who is really in charge now. There's bigger questions going on, I think, than dissatisfaction with the economy.

SCARAMUCCI: Well, in that interview, he did also say when they asked him about the insider trading and the arrest of the Army ranger, he said that the world is a casino. And that was probably the most truthful thing that he said during that interview. And so, and I'm saying that derisively, because those people need to be prosecuted, particularly the ones that are trading on his tweets.

So to buttress what Larry is saying, in addition to everything he just said, the people know that something very corrupt and very rotten is going on, and they don't like it. And it undermines our capital markets and it underlines the -- undermines the faith in the system.

[10:10:02]

CARLSON: I just don't think they have any confidence that there's actually a plan. And that's why people keep asking, when is this war going to end as we go into the ninth week. If you look at those disastrous polls, he's underwater with independents, 55 points in the negative. They decided, well, they decide every election, but they specifically decided this last election, and they swung for Trump. If the election were today, he would lose in a landslide.

So -- and it's not just independents feeling the gas prices and the economy and the grocery store. It's every single voter. The question is whether or not he can turn this around fast enough for the midterms, or if he cares enough when the election is not about him.

PHILLIP: Or if he's being told anything close to what you're saying, because here's his, one of his top political strategists, James Blair, talking to Dana Bash earlier this week. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES BLAIR, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: For all the Democrats crowing this morning, if Republicans perform anywhere near on average the way they did in Virginia last night, we not only add seats to the Senate, but we add seats to the House. And we have a historic midterm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: That is impressive spin. And I understand the referendum in Virginia over the redistricting was very close. But that's not the same thing as a midterm election. So do you think that's actually the advice that he's being given right now?

BLUEY: It potentially could be. But I will say, as somebody who lives in Virginia, I was surprised how close that that vote was, and particularly because the Democrats had outspent Republicans, I believe, three to one when it came to commercials and everything else. And so it was impressive, the turnout.

I think that this election, you're right, is going to come down to the independents, but it's also going to come out, come down to turning out the Republican base. And one of the other poll numbers that I think you should be worried about if you're a Republican right now, is that when you look at the war in Iran, I think you only have 70 percent support. We live at a time when Democrat presidents usually get 90 and above, and Republican presidents usually get 90 above issue after issue.

PHILLIP: It's 70 percent support for what?

BLUEY: For his handling of the Iran war. Among Republicans.

PHILLIP: Oh, among Republicans. OK.

BLUEY: This is what I mean. If the base itself isn't excited about the policies that the president is pursuing, and they don't necessarily turn out for the election, those are the things that I think that the Republican Party probably needs to be -

PHILLIP: Yes, Trump, Trump would ask you, what's the number among MAGA?

BLUEY: Exactly.

PHILLIP: He keeps slicing and dicing the electorate even smaller and smaller to get to numbers that he likes to look at.

All right, well, don't miss our coverage of the White House Correspondents' Dinner tonight at 8:00 p.m. right here on CNN and on the CNN app.

Next, Republicans seem to be settling on a midterm message that Democrats would be worse.

Plus, it's his obsession. And now we're learning about the secret contracts for the president's ballroom that shields who is paying for it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:31]

PHILLIP: Welcome back. We learned this week that the centerpiece of the Republican midterm message is pretty simple -- Democrats would be worse. And it seems that they're testing that message by claiming that Democrats or really anyone asking questions about this war are traitors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: But Murphy, along with Schumer and the rest of the do-nothing Democrats, are clearly rooting for failure.

MARK LEVIN, FOX NEWS HOST: They're doing everything they can to sabotage the effort of the president of the United States and our patriotic military.

INGRAHAM: The Democrat Party, they're going to remain invested in Americas failure, because their own political success depends on Iran turning into a disaster.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: They want President Trump to fail.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They are rooting against this president and therefore our country. And it's really despicable to watch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there's a political movement in this country right now built on telling people that America is rotten at its core, and it's not the Republican ideology.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Except for two campaigns and an entire movement, it was actually a Republican stance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: Were just not respected anywhere in the world anymore.

We are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation.

Our country is an embarrassment.

This country has gone to hell.

Sadly, the American dream is dead.

Portland, I don't know how anybody lives there now.

Baltimore is a hellhole.

Chicago is the worst. These places are really bad.

In Washington, D.C., which is a horror show.

We're like a garbage can for the world.

Under Biden, the USA has been turned into a dumping ground to the world.

And today we're like a third world country.

Our country is being destroyed by stupid people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: It's almost impressive the number of ways he's found to trash the United States. And at a time, because, Rob, you were just talking about Republicans and their waning support for this war relative to how they feel about Trump generally. It seems like a risky argument to say that anybody who opposes this war, which is a majority of Americans, just simply hates the country.

BLUEY: Oh, I agree that that messaging will only work with a certain segment of the population. Republicans have to put forward a plan that not only enacts the Trump agenda, which he's outlined effectively in his campaigns for president, by the way. I mean, I think a lot of the ideas do have an appeal to some independent minded voters.

[10:20:00]

But they've failed to do so in Congress. This is the debate that's happening right now. They have an opportunity to use a reconciliation bill, which requires a simple majority in the U.S. Senate, and they're squandering that opportunity by simply funding two agencies within the Department of Homeland Security.

The Republican Study Committee put out a bold agenda, which included everything from lowering the cost of housing to reducing the cost of health care, cutting government spending, you can go down the list, popular ideas with the American people. And where have they been the first four months of the year? It's really sad that they're missing this moment.

CARLSON: Well, that's because Trump takes all the air out of the room with all of these other things, from the tariffs to the war to Venezuela. They can't stay on message because they're constantly having to answer to what he's doing.

And I'll take it a step more, Abby, as far as people who are traitors if they even ask questions about the war. Remember, Pete Hegseth last week called journalists pharisees in the Old Testament. They were the enemy of Jesus. So if you have the audacity to even ask a question about this war, then you are going to be labeled a pharisee. And it's deeper than that, actually, because it goes back into the First Amendment. Like, you don't have a right to ask about these questions, or you are deemed the enemy. And that's a very scary situation for Americans to find themselves in.

PHILLIP: There was also this moment this week where, on social media, Republicans took what seemed pretty clearly to be a sarcastic tweet by Chris Murphy where he responded to some news about Iranians -- Iranian shadow fleet allegedly bypassing a U.S. blockade by saying "awesome" with no punctuation. And the response was from Rick Scott, "Chris Murphy is an embarrassment to the Senate. He took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, but he's rooting for enemy terrorists." Eric Daughtry, a MAGA commentator, says, "Murphy refuses to apologize. He's a liar and a traitor. He must be expelled." Laura Loomer, a favorite of President Trump, says "He should be stripped of all his committees for this."

I don't know, to me, this episode is just an example of just how far, I guess, some people on the right feel like they need to go in order to, to frame opposition to the war as being pro-Iran, pro-terrorism.

WILMORE: Yes, non-patriotic. I think MAGA should stand for make amnesia great again, honestly, Abby, because everything that Trump has done to get into power and to attack the other side when it's done on the other side, somehow it's unpatriotic and all these things.

But this is kind of an indictment on the record on what they haven't accomplished. Like, I mean, I agree with you. A lot of the things have not been accomplished that Trump has promised. And his base is probably more upset than anybody. I mean, look at the things Tucker Carlson has said and some of the people that have gone against Trump. That feeling, I think, is kind of making them panic. And that's why you're seeing attacks like that on people, where Trump can tweet anything and it's OK, right? There's always these explanations of all these horrible tweets that he's done, but there's no explanation that that might be a joke or maybe a --

PHILLIP: It's a fair point. I mean, every everything Trump says and tweets that's offensive is a joke.

WILMORE: Right.

PHILLIP: But a sarcastic tweet from Senator Murphy is traitorous.

SCARAMUCCI: If you had an honest moment with any Republican in the House or the Senate that's up for reelection, and you said to them, how has the president helped you? And they were being brutally honest. They were inside the honesty containment. They said, no, he hasn't helped me. He's actually hurting me.

And I will stipulate on your show that he does not even want them to win, and he doesn't care. His attitude is, you know, you Republicans were nothing before I entered the realm, and you're going to be nothing after I leave the realm. And that's his actions. And he's been running the show exactly like that.

To Gretchen's point, all the oxygen is on him. He's not a team player. Nobody can go to him and say, hey, I need your help on this or I need your help on that. Or can we switch policies on this? I've got to get reelected.

Cornyn and Crenshaw voted with him 99 percent of the time, Abby, 99 percent of the time. He wouldn't endorse Cornyn. Crenshaw lost the primary because of the one percent. That's Donald Trump. Republicans listening in, he doesn't care if you win. He's laughing to himself. And when he leaves the stage, he almost wants it to implode, and he wants somebody like Gavin Newsom to be his successor.

CARLSON: And the irony is that none of the Republicans have been able to find a spine except for Thom Tillis, who is retiring, to stand up and actually speak from conviction of what they're saying in private. And you would think that they would, for their own salvation when it comes to the midterms, maybe they will before it's too late.

SCARAMUCCI: And Gretchen, if they did do that, they would have to fold, because look at what happened with the Federal Reserve chairman on Friday. OK, they dropped the case on Jerome Powell because they knew that Kevin Warsh wasn't going to go forward because Tillis held his ground.

[14:25:04]

CARLSON: Yes. SCARAMUCCI: And so if five or six Republicans got together, they

could sort of conform the behavior of what's going on in the White House.

PHILLIP: Yes, it's such a rare example of, and I think Tillis deserves a lot of credit for outlining his line in the sand. But there were several other Republicans in that committee for Kevin Warsh who made it clear they thought that bringing charges against Jerome Powell was a line that Trump shouldn't cross. And because of that, the White House ultimately backed down. So it's a rare but important moment.

Next for us, who is donating to build Donald Trump's infamous ballroom while the president wants to keep it all a secret and skirt the rules? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:12]

PHILLIP: This has got to be the most America has heard about a ballroom since "Beauty and the Beast." The president just can't stop talking about this $400 million pet project.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: We're building a world class ballroom.

We're going to be adding a magnificent ballroom. I believe it's going to be the most beautiful ballroom.

We're going to have the finest ballroom, I believe, anywhere in the world.

You're going to have the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world, and you're going to love it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: "The Washington Post" did an analysis showing that he's mentioned the ballroom a third of all the days of this year, talking about it as much as his policy moves. And now we're learning about the secret ballroom contract for donors between the White House, the National Park Service, and the Trust for the National Mall. That agreement allows donors to remain anonymous, and it also exempts the White House from key conflict of interest safeguards, and limits scrutiny by Congress. It's almost comical how Trump --

WILMORE: Almost

PHILLIP: Almost, how much --

WILMORE: Oh, come on. Almost.

PHILLIP: I mean, look it would be funny if there weren't a giant hole in the ground that is being held up by the courts, and also that it's basically now a secret slush fund. Nobody has any say. Nobody has any ability to see who these donors are. Why do they want to remain anonymous if they're doing something for the country?

CARLSON: Kickbacks, because, you know, you won't be able to say, well, you gave $1 million to the ballroom and so now you get this government, you know, kickback. That's one of the reasons.

The thing is, though, for congressional oversight, I mean, Trump pretty much does what he wants anyway, including going to war without congressional approval. So I'm not really sure why they would feel the need to be anonymous for that purpose only.

My main concern about all of this is Trump's not even going to ever be in this ballroom unless he comes back as a former president, because it's not even going to be done when he's still in office to talk about it.

PHILLIP: He thinks it's going to be done. He wants it to be done.

WILMORE: Yes, all the removing of the gold is going to take so much time, Abby, so much time.

And you know, he's the president of the United States. We're at war. You can't be talking about ballrooms. Could you imagine after Pearl Harbor, if FDR said a day which will live in infamy, also a day where new carpet was put into the Lincoln Bedroom. Well, thank you, FDR, for giving us that update.

It's so it's so inappropriate on so many levels when you have -- and I really shouldn't be making a joke about this, but when American soldiers can be dying right now and you're focusing on these types of things, it's very insulting. Just, it's just beneath the office.

PHILLIP: Anthony, before you jump in, it seems -- you're in the business world, so you know how these folks think. We know that there are probably going to be tons of American corporations, especially if you've got business before the White House who are putting money into this thing. It seems to me that even if their intentions are pure, they don't want to risk down the road when Democrats are busy taking the gold out of the ballroom questions being asked about whether this was a quid pro quo.

SCARAMUCCI: Well, Jamie Dimon, who is probably one of the most respected CEOs in the United States, head of JPMorgan, said I can't give to the ballroom. I don't want the aftermath of it to be some type of investigation of me or the bank that I'm a fiduciary of.

And so what's happening is people are giving to the ballroom. They want Trump off their back from a regulatory perspective or, you know, they've been told, hey, get Trump off your back. Seven, eight executives lined up behind his family members at the inauguration, many of which were against him, and Trump won. They have capitulated totally. But what they don't want is they don't want that investigation you're describing, Abby, from the democrat that replaces Trump. PHILLIP: Yes. I should -- let me just read real quick. This is a

White House statement in response to "The Washington Post's" exclusive reporting that about this agreement. It says, not to answer the question or anything, but "President Trump is working 24/7 to make America great again, including his historic beautification of the White House at no taxpayer expense." Why won't they answer the question about why these donors are secret?

BLUEY: I will answer that in just a moment, but I will say I'm glad it is not at any taxpayer expense. And I think hopefully we can all agree that we're better off if they're not expending the tax dollars on this project versus other uses of what that money could be spent on.

I would like to see those contracts disclosed. I'm somebody from all the way back to the George W. Bush administration where we're having debates about pork barrel projects and earmarks, and you had people like Barack Obama and Tom --

PHILLIP: Old days.

BLUEY: Yes, but Abby, Abby, it's so critically important that the American people have access to this information. And so I don't like it one bit. I think it flies against what Donald Trump and others in his administration have tried to say, that they're the most transparent administration and they're very accessible to the news media in terms of asking questions.

[10:35:08]

We should know what corporations and other entities are giving to the ballroom so we can do exactly what all of you are talking about and determine whether or not there's any kickbacks or quid pro quos.

PHILLIP: Let me play, this is Trump, just to give you a sense of how often this comes up. He took several detours during this event on health care affordability. Remember, the event is on health care. And this is what he talked about several times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: I'll go off subject for a minute, but it's -- I think it's very interesting. If you look outside, so we had flooring outside. We had slate, and it was coming to pieces. We're putting magnificent new granite. It's called charcoal. It's a black granite against the white, beautiful white walls.

The other thing that were doing that's taking place right now is the Lincoln Memorial has a beautiful reflecting pond, or lake. They call it a pool, lake, and pond. Over the years, as a developer, I've probably built more than 100 swimming pools in different buildings I built, and I have some really good pool builders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILMORE: I'm sorry, Abby, is he selling the White House? (LAUGHTER)

PHILLIP: The developer?

WILMORE: Yes. What is that? I put in a new roof here, too, just so you know, the old one --

PHILLIP: He didn't even talk about the 250 foot triumphal arch, OK. Trump seems to be -- it's almost like he wanted to get back into the White House because he really wanted to be, like, the chair of the historical association or the National Park Service to determine all the renovations.

SCARAMUCCI: I see it so differently. When I look at him doing that, I think he's already bored of the war. He's told people when he when he spins the phone at night that he's already bored of the war, whatever happens, happens. And he's very distracted. And I think that's what he does when he's got a tremendous amount of stress on him.

CARLSON: That's a good point.

PHILLIP: Well, we'll let you know, Larry, if he decides to flip the White House.

WILMORE: Yes. Now is the time to flip it before that go goes.

SCARAMUCCI: I want to get the Zillow estimate.

WILMORE: Yes, it will be on Zillow. That's great.

PHILLIP: Next for us, marijuana to psychedelics, the Trump administration is loosening restrictions on drug research. So where is America in this infamous war on drugs now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD NIXON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: That was 55 years ago when Richard Nixon launched the so- called war on drugs. Fast forward to today, and that war looks a whole lot different. While the Trump administration continues to use foreign drugs as a reason for its actions against the cartels, in the past week, the president has reclassified state licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Advocates have long argued that weed shouldn't be in the same category as a drug like heroin. He also loosened restrictions into research of psychedelics for medical purposes at the urging of podcaster Joe Rogan.

But not everyone is happy about this. Tom Cotton says, "Marijuana today is much more potent than just 10 or 20 years ago, leading to an increased psychosis, antisocial behavior, fatal car crashes. Arkansas -- Arkansans don't want more dangerous drugs obtained more easily. A change to marijuana's drug classification is the step in the wrong direction." But it is just where the country is headed.

CARLSON: I mean, I think Donald Trump's doing this because it's maybe popular with voters. If he cares about the other people running for election in the midterms. But I think it's very popular.

PHILLIP: Of kind of all stripes, Republicans, Democrats, independents.

SCARAMUCCI: I see it as a banking issue. I see that this is a proliferation of these businesses in states that allow for the legalization of marijuana. But in many states, you can't interstate traffic the money if you're in an illegal state. And so this clears the whole banking issue. And it's very profitable for the banks. And I think they got a lot of pressure from the lobbyists to clear this up.

And by the way, we all know this has been in paralysis in Washington for a decade. So --

BLUEY: For some good reasons, though.

SCARAMUCCI: How did he break that logjam?

BLUEY: Because the FDA had concerns about how potent, as you read the quote from Senator Cotton, how potent the drug is compared to what it was like in the 1960s and 70s. And so I think that removing it from a medical situation to a political one, yes, maybe to appeal to some voters. But at the same time, I think ultimately, as a father myself, I mean, it's morally wrong to use drugs. I think what were concerned about as conservatives who don't like this decision is that, yes, this applies to medical marijuana, but I think we can all admit that it's just a step closer to making recreational marijuana --

PHILLIP: I think we all know that people have these medical marijuana cards and they're just running around with it just to allow them to buy marijuana.

SCARAMUCCI: Larry, you've got your on?

WILMORE: I get contacted all the time. You walk down New York, you get a contact high coming out of a grocery store.

[10:45:00]

PHILLIP: For sure. I mean, I do, I mean, to your point, like, I think Tom Cotton's concern about the safety of widespread marijuana use is very legitimate. But it may be a separate issue from what category is it in? I mean, even as dangerous as it might be, let's say it's dangerous, should it really be classified like heroin? Should it really be classified like cocaine?

WILMORE: I mean, the thing about marijuana has had a different history than other drugs because it was demonized in the 30s as not so much a gateway to harder drugs, but a gateway to a negro lifestyle. I mean, that's the way it was presented, hanging out with these ne'er- do-wells. And it always had this weird like, you know, quote-unquote "black mark."

But, you know, I'm a big Beatles fan. And looking back at Paul McCartney getting arrested in Japan and saying, you know, I'm in the privacy of my own home. What can I just smoke, you know? And it's so true the things that he was saying about marijuana. It's, you know, for most people, it's an issue of being able to do what they want to do with their own freedom.

And to give Trump a little credit, I think he's mostly libertarian on these type of issues if you take away the politics. And I think we're getting closer as a country, this is one of the few bipartisan areas where were getting closer, I think, is just, you know, there's some things that, who cares?

PHILLIP: Well, yes, and to Mooch's point, look, I think the money aspect, he understands that. He's like, well, people are making money. Why are why is the federal government getting in the way? I think that appeals to him more than some kind of moral appeal about marijuana.

SCARAMUCCI: Can he get it done though, Abby? That's the question. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that because this was in a ten- year stalemate in Washington.

PHILLIP: How could he get it? I mean, he just tells his people to get it done.

CARLSON: But I'll echo what you said.

SCARAMUCCI: That part of it's impressive.

BENSON: I don't agree with it from that point of view. It's hard.

PHILLIP: All right, next for us, the panel's unpopular opinions, what they are not afraid to say out loud.

First, though, a quick programing note. It has been supersized under Trump, but long before he entered the Oval Office, presidential authority has steadily stretched beyond the limits envisioned by the founders. "The Imperial Presidency, a Fareed Zakaria Special," airs Sunday at 8:00 p.m. on CNN, and the next day on the CNN app.

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[10:51:52]

PHILLIP: We're back, and it's time for your unpopular opinions. Rob, you're up first.

BLUEY: Well, Abby, I know everybody loves the NFL, and this is draft weekend. It's been going on since Thursday. But the NFL has forced the city of Pittsburgh to close schools for three days, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week, because there are so many people coming into the city of Pittsburgh that they didn't think the kids could get to school. And quite frankly, really, does $1 billion business like the NFL really need to have this disruption on kids' education?

PHILLIP: I feel like that says more about Pittsburgh than anything else.

BLUEY: And I'm a Steelers fan, so.

PHILLIP: Gretchen.

CARLSON: All right, I travel a lot on airplanes, but no matter how many times I've been on a plane, I'm still a white knuckler fire, unfortunately. I want the window shades open, people. Do you hear me? When I'm sitting in there? I don't want to be in a missile, OK? Especially when there's turbulence, I want there to be a rule that you have to open your window when the seatbelt sign is on.

PHILLIP: Gretchen, oh, my lord, I did not know that people had that opinion.

CARLSON: What?

PHILLIP: You like the windows open?

CARLSON: Yes. I want to see outside.

PHILLIP: I'm horrified.

CARLSON: When the plane is shaking around, I want to be able to see outside.

PHILLIP: I am a windows closed kind of person.

SCARAMUCCI: I think you want my wife --

CARLSON: Then you don't want to sit next to me.

WILMORE: I don't want to see that thing in the wing that William Shatner saw.

PHILLIP: I want to go to sleep. That's what I would like to do. So keep the shades closed.

CARLSON: Sorry, don't sit next to me.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mooch?

SCARAMUCCI: I think this is a super unpopular opinion, but I think the president is going to be funny tonight. I think he's preparing for this. And I think he knows how to be a deadpan comedian. He's not Larry, by the way, who in 2016 --

WILMORE: I think he'll do better than I did.

SCARAMUCCI: -- who 10 years I did years ago ripped up the place. I was there when you ripped the place up. But I do think the president is going to be very funny tonight.

WILMORE: I agree with you.

PHILLIP: Well, speaking of the Correspondents' Dinner, there's going to be a mentalist. So what's your unpopular opinion?

WILMORE: Oh. So should we do this now? OK, so in honor of the mentalist, I would like to do a little thing with cards, Abby. And I'm not going to do a traditional thing where I'm going to have you pick a card and that sort of thing. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to use your imagination, Abby. OK. So I want you to picture all 52 cards in front of you. They're just hanging in space, OK. Now the cards are separated in red cards and black cards. I want you to pick one color, red or black?

PHILLIP: Red.

WILMORE: OK, red. So I want you to imagine all the black cards falling away. OK, so those red cards are the Abby cards. That's what we're going to call them. OK. Now we have the diamonds and the hearts. Which ones do you want to be, the Abby cards, the diamonds or the hearts?

PHILLIP: The diamonds.

WILMORE: The diamonds. So we're going to see the hearts just fall away. OK, so we have 13 diamonds that are -- the possibility to be the one Abby card. I want you to see that one Abby card. Don't tell me what it is yet, but when you have it in your mind, I want you to imagine all the other diamonds just falling away. And one card is there. That is the Abby card. Which diamond made the greatest as the Abby card.

PHILLIP: Do I have to tell you?

WILMORE: Yes.

PHILLIP: OK. Uh, a six.

WILMORE: The six of diamonds.

PHILLIP: Yes, yes.

WILMORE: OK. We haven't prepared this or anything.

PHILLIP: No.

WILMORE: OK. Abby, I want you to see in the deck here, OK, there is one card that I have turned the opposite direction. You can see it is the six of diamonds. Now, Abby --

[10:55:00]

PHILLIP: Larry, what is going on?

WILMORE: Abby, some people say, well, maybe he did some sleight of hand. Maybe the hand is covering the eye. But this is the only card you could have chosen, because I got this card for another deck, and it is truly the Abby card.

CARLSON: Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

PHILLIP: Wow. OK, I am, I am truly impressed, Larry.

CARLSON: Larry.

WILMORE: I just wanted to impress Gretchen.

CARLSON: You did.

PHILLIP: Maybe a little terrified at the same time. Yes. Wow. OK, well, we're in for a good --

SCARAMUCCI: By the way, Gretchen was a little skeptical at the commercial break.

PHILLIP: Yes.

SCARAMUCCI: But you have now overwhelmed her.

PHILLIP: I was skeptical the whole time.

WILMORE: This is for you, Abby. That's for you. You have the Abby card.

PHILLIP: Abby card.

CARLSON: That's so cool. Can I have a card, too?

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIP: All right, everyone. Thank you very much. Thanks for watching "TABLE FOR FIVE".

You can catch me every weeknight at 10:00 p.m. eastern with our Newsnight roundtable, and anytime on your favorite social media, X, Instagram, and on TikTok.

In the meantime, though, CNN's coverage continues right now.

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