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The Situation Room

Filing Shows Trump Made Billions in First Year Back in Office; Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) Cancels Votes, Sends Members Home After GOP Rebellion; Nearly 2,000 Dead in Venezuela Quakes One Week After Disaster. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 01, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, more than a billion dollars tied to crypto ventures. We're getting a new look into how much money President Trump made in the first year of his second term and exactly where it's coming from, as concerns grow about possible conflicts of interest.

Plus, Medicare coverage for weight loss drugs. Beginning today, the federal health insurance program will now pay for GLP-1s for millions.

And later, are you ready for it? New details about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding as the countdown to the nuptials is on.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: GOP rebellion. Republican hardliners torpedo House Speaker Johnson's control of his chamber, leaving the future of President Trump's Congressional agenda up in the air.

Plus, sweeping changes to student loans. Starting today, the Department of Education is modifying repayment plans and loan limits. We're going to break down how this will affect you.

And later, do you believe? Tonight, the U.S. will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Stars and Stripes hope to keep their World Cup dreams alive.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

Happening now, major payday, President Trump raking in billions of dollars in his first year back in office. According to his latest annual financial disclosure statement released yesterday, the president netted more than $526 million from sales of cryptocurrency tokens alone.

The nearly 1,000-page report gives us the most extensive look, at least so far, at the growing fortune that the president has amassed since returning to office.

Let's go live right now to our White House Correspondent Alayna Treene. Alayna, what more does this financial disclosure tell us?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, Wolf, when you pore through this disclosure, and it is massive, it's nearly 1,000 pages, what it really shows is that being president has been good for the president, for Trump's bottom line here.

Now, one of the things that's also very notable, just a main takeaway from this, is that Trump is no longer just in the property business. He's also very clearly now in the cryptocurrency business. That is where a majority of his revenues came in the last year, nearly a billion dollars. If you look at just one of these parts of this disclosure, it shows, as you mentioned, Wolf, that the president netted more than $526 million from sales of cryptocurrency tokens tied to World Liberty Financial. That is the firm run in part by the president's own sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Now, one of the things through all of this, and we've heard this from the White House, is they try to argue that the president is not profiting from his presidency, that there is no conflict of interest here. And you could hear Trump say that when he was asked about this by reporters this morning. Listen to what he said.

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REPORTER: To critics who say you're profiting off the presidency, Mr. President.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, you know why I'm profiting because the stock market's going up. Everybody's profiting. If you have a 401(k), how has your 401(k) done? It's been up 85 percent. Thank you, President Trump. So, we're all profiting.

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TREENE: So, as you could hear, they're really trying to shrug off this idea that he is profiting from the presidency.

But a few things to point out here. One, he argues that he never talks to people managing his money. Well, you literally saw his sons behind him on the tarmac when giving those comments to reporters, again, both of them who have been managing, in part, the firm that has given him more than $500 million in cryptocurrency.

Another thing that he claims is that this massive windfall over the last year is due to the success of the stock markets. But, again, when you look at this disclosure, 927 pages, so much of this money is coming from cryptocurrency.

I do want to get into the details of some of the other things, though, that we saw in this, Wolf. One is, of course, his Mar-a-Lago Club, a huge profit earner for the president. That generated $77 million alone in resort-related revenue last year. That's up from $50 million from the year prior.

He also has lended his name, Wolf, to a number of different products which has given him money. One of them was an agreement with Celebration Coins. That paid Trump $635 million.

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There's also stuff about Trump watches, $4.7 million of royalties for that. $208,000 related to a Bible that we know the president has very repeatedly touted, $67,000, more than that for Trump sneakers and fragrances. So, a lot to dig through in this report, Wolf, showing where the president is making his money.

BLITZER: And it's interesting, Alayna, the president is also making his inaugural flight today aboard the new Air Force One. That's the plane that was gifted by Qatar. What can you tell us about this plane?

TREENE: Yes. Look, I think what's been so fascinating about this is there's been so many questions about the fact that this came from Qatar itself.

You heard the president kind of address this this morning as well when he was about to board saying that he had asked for this plane from the Qataris because, one, he said that, you know, the U.S. could never build a plane as nice as this. It was pretty much a remarkable statement. He said he talked to Boeing, and they said the Qataris have the nicest Boeing jets in the world, and that's why he wanted one of these.

I'd remind you that this was gifted from the Qataris last year. It was roughly $400 million. Then the Air Force had to go in, modify a lot of it, make a lot of changes, make sure that the national security, ethical, legal issues with all of this were in line. We've heard the White House brush off a lot of those ethical questions.

One big thing, of course, you notice is something that is gone is that light blue from the Jackie Kennedy era. Now, it's very much the colors very similar to the private plane Trump has flown on the campaign trail that is his own. So, a lot of new features that are being shown today for his inaugural flight on this new luxury jet. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Alayna Trene at the White House for us, Alayna, thank you very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, a House GOP rebellion amid mounting frustrations. House Speaker Mike Johnson has sent members home early this week after some of his fellow Republicans refused to allow him to move forward with votes.

We are now joined by CNN's Arlette Saenz. So, what's going on here? Why is this happening, Arlette?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the second week in a row, the House chamber is basically in a paralysis, offering another blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has really struggled at times to corral his very fractious GOP majority.

This whole fight centers around the Save America Act, that federal elections overhaul bill that President Trump has tried to prioritize. There were roughly a dozen hardliners in the House who wanted to see this attached to the annual defense policy bill, a must-pass piece of legislation. But that is something that House Speaker Mike Johnson was not willing to get on board with just yet.

And so that effectively derailed their ability to move forward to business, like this defense policy bill. And now the House speaker has decided to send his members home, meaning they won't be back until mid-July for votes once again.

Now, yesterday, the House speaker said that there are some members in his caucus who he believes are making irrational decisions, and we spoke to a number of GOP lawmakers who were frustrated about this standoff. Take a listen.

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REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): I think we have squandered away an opportunity to do something great for the 4th of July, right? Pass some NDAA, do some great things, and we have squandered this opportunity away again. I think one day we're going to come back and look at this moment in time in the history of our country and say, why did we squander it away?

REP. LISA MCCLAIN (R-MI): You know, I understand we want to get the Save America Act through. I really, really, really do. It's critical. I mean, it's an 80/20 issue. The problem is I understand what they're trying to do. They're trying to influence the Senate to move. I don't know if the strategy's going to work, though.

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SAENZ: And Congress is really running out a lot of time heading into the midterm elections. They'll come back in mid-July. They have that August recess. Lawmakers will be campaigning in the fall, really giving them a very limited window of time to pass some of the president's legislative priorities. But right now, they are in this standoff, and there's really no end in sight.

BROWN: All right. Arlette Saenz, thanks so much for bringing us the latest on that front. Wolf?

BLITZER: Still ahead, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday handed President Trump a major loss on birthright citizenship. But today, it ain't over. Now, the push shifts to Congress.

BROWN: And anger is growing in Venezuela. Families say they're being left to dig through earthquake rubble on their own. We'll go live to Venezuela with the very latest on the rescue efforts.

You're in The Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

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BLITZER: Happening now, time is running out to try to find survivors amid the rubble left by powerful earthquakes in Venezuela. It's been a week since the disaster struck with a death toll now approaching 2,000, 2,000 deaths. Desperation is also setting in with many who are forced to dig loved ones out of the debris by hand as the government faces mounting criticism over its response to the crisis.

Let's go live right now to Mary Trini Mina. She's in Caracas for us. What's the latest, Mary, on the search and rescue efforts, at least this morning?

MARY TRINI MENA, JOURNALIST: Good morning, Wolf. We're -- I'm standing nearby a building that collapsed in Caracas in the area of Los Palos Grandes here. The rescue -- the search and rescue operations has been ongoing since last Wednesday when the two earthquakes struck. And, basically, the workers are doing their best to try to find some more people alive. They haven't stopped.

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They have been working 24 hours even though there's been rain and many obstacles for them to continue their jobs.

Families and relatives, of course, are keeping an eye on all these works that rescuers from 30 countries are doing. Right now this is a collective effort. Many countries bringing equipment, dogs, specialized materials in order to try to reach more people. But as the hours and days go by, of course there's a little bit of a desperation among the families that are waiting to know about their relatives.

Injured have been taken to hospitals but those hospitals are now overwhelmed by the amount of people and also there's a large numbers of people disappeared.

BLITZER: Among the missing Mary, there are, we're now told, some Venezuelans who were actually deported by the U.S. just a week ago and they were in a hotel. What more do we know about their fate and the efforts to try to find them?

MENA: Yes. We've been talking to some of the relative and even one survivor of this deportation flight that came to Venezuela last week. The protocol says that every deportee coming from the U.S., they landed from Miami on midday, and then the earthquake has struck. They were taken to a hotel nearby the airport in La Guaira State, which is the area most devastated, and suddenly the hotel they were staying in collapsed.

There were more than 100 people, mostly men, and some of them are stuck in the building. Families are saying that they hope some of them are alive, but they are receiving -- they are not receiving enough support by the rescue team. They say they come by, but they are not allowed to do some groundwork, really groundwork. Some people that were able to leave the premises, they are safe and saying it was a horrible day for them.

BLITZER: Those pictures of the destruction are terrible, terrible.

All right, Mary Trini Mena, thank you very much for that report.

And to our viewers, for more information about how you can actually help Venezuela earthquake victims, go to cnn.com/impact.

BROWN: All right, coming up here in The Situation Room, Wolf, President Trump goes back to the Supreme Court and comes away empty- handed. The justices will not hear his appeal in the E. Jean Carroll case, leaving a $5 million verdict in place. What's next after the ruling?

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BROWN: Happening now, President Trump is looking to Congress now to end birthright citizenship. This is in response to the Supreme Court's ruling against President Trump's initial attempt to end birthright citizenship, striking down his executive order.

President Trump posted this to social media, quote, we can easily make it up in Congress through legislation with the support of the president that has now been determined during this process. No long and unwieldy constitutional amendment is necessary.

Joining us now to discuss this and other legal stories we're following is former Federal Prosecutor Berit Berger.

First off, what is your reaction to what the president put out on social media in reaction to this?

BERIT BERGER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes. So, the president's reaction really directly comes from Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence in this case. So, as we know, some of the justices in the birthright citizen case said that this violated the 14th Amendment. That was the grounds on which they said that the executive order could not stand, it was unconstitutional.

Justice Kavanaugh, however, took a slightly different approach and based his decision on the fact that it violated a federal law. This now creates this opening to do exactly as President Trump is now suggesting, to change this federal law, which is much easier than changing the Constitution by means of an amendment.

So, Justice Kavanaugh really signaled that, yes, he found the executive order problematic, however, there was a path forward if this was something that Congress was willing to do.

BROWN: How would that work, though, if Congress did take action with the 14th Amendment still in place, interpreted the way that it has been interpreted for more than a century?

BERGER: Yes. This is certainly by no means a given even if Congress was to enact a different law or to change the existing law. Because exactly as you say, the text of the 14th Amendment, as Justice Roberts clearly said in his majority opinion, is pretty clear that people born on U.S. soil are U.S. citizens.

Justice Roberts really shut down the arguments that the administration had tried to put forward in his majority opinion. However, you do have this sort of loose hanging thread here with Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence that still gives like some slight glimmer of hope here, even though I think it is incredibly unlikely given the text of the 14th Amendment.

BROWN: And Chief Justice Roberts, who authored this, tried to, to make the case that, look, this is just reaffirming something that we've known for, you know, over 100 years, and this is no big deal essentially. But you had several conservative justices dissenting. Did that surprise you at all?

BERGER: Yes and no. I mean, in my reading of the Constitution, I feel like this should have been a unanimous decision shutting down the executive order.

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The text of the 14th Amendment is clear. This also comes from something in common law that existed even before our Constitution, before the 14th Amendment. We also have this federal law, so it's just, you know, brick by brick by brick saying that this is really a foundational principle for our country.

So, it was surprising given the split that it was. However, this has been, you know, a passion project of conservative legal advocates. So, in that sense, you know, they have been pushing on this for a while. For a long time, it was kind of a fringe legal theory, but the fact that the Supreme Court decided to grant cert to it and that you have the decision split the way it is shows that there was at least some on the Court that thought this, you know, one-time fringe argument actually had some legitimacy.

BROWN: And also, you know, you have Trump pushing Congress on this, and also after the ruling, the Justice Department directed all U.S. attorneys to prioritize investigations and prosecutions of so-called birth tourism schemes. What does that look like from a practical standpoint to crack down on this kind of thing? What would the actual charge be?

BERGER: Yes. I mean, these are really difficult cases to prove because the idea is that you would have to show that somebody came to the United States, you know, only to have a baby here to attain citizenship for them through no other means. They're never bought really.

This is something that, you know, unless you are one of these fringe districts that has this political agenda, that is not something that most U.S. attorneys' offices are bringing for the sole purpose that like people come to the United States for a variety of reason. And to show that there was some sort of malintent by somebody's trip to the United States, whatever their birth status was, is really tricky to prove.

So, I don't think we're going to see a big swing in these prosecutions despite what the president is saying and what the DOJ is saying at this point. BROWN: I'm going to turn to another story that we've been following, and that is President Trump's cryptocurrency earnings. The financial disclosures released earlier this week revealed the president collected over a billion dollars tied to cryptocurrency ventures last year.

Now, the White House denies any conflict of interest. The presidents are generally exempt from conflict of interest laws, but the president has been a vocal proponent of the crypto industry. How do you see this from a legal perspective?

BERGER: It's really troubling from a legal perspective. This is something that has now haunted both of his presidencies, both in Trump 1 and now in Trump 2. We've seen positions where his financial interests are really very aligned with public policy that he's making.

And this is a very big departure from what we've seen in presidencies past. When you think back to, you know, somebody like Jimmy Carter, who divested himself from his peanut farm just so that there would be no even image of conflicts of interest, here you have the opposite, the president regularly, routinely making public policy that aligns with his financial interests.

Like you said, he is, to some extent immune from these, or at least he has been based on cases that have been brought and really haven't gone anywhere. But it should be troubling because, you know, we want our leaders to be making policy based on what's good for the American people, not just what's good for them.

BROWN: All right. Berit Berger, thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate it. Wolf?

BERGER: Thank you.

BLITZER: And have you seen these, some of these statements coming from opponents of birthright citizenship, Pamela, who say that pregnant women from around the world should no longer be allowed to come to the United States?

BROWN: Yes, but the -- as it stands with the Supreme Court ruling, they're still allowed to. There's nothing blocking that. But, of course, the president has made this a priority and other conservatives as well, so we'll see what happens, see what Congress says.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens, keywords. All right, thank you.

Just ahead, questions about Iran, new tensions up on Capitol Hill, and another fight over funding for Israel. We're going to be joined by Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He'll join us when we return.

You're in The Situation Room.

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