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What We Know with Max Foster
Trump Says He's "Not Satisfied" With Iran's New Proposal; Top A.I. Companies Agree To Pentagon Deal For Classified Work; MAHA Movement Questions Trump Administration's Actions; Trump: Announcement On Spirit Airlines "Today Or Tomorrow". Aired 3-4p ET
Aired May 01, 2026 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:27]
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST: President Donald Trump is not satisfied with Iran's latest offer.
I'm Lynda Kinkade in for Max Foster. And this is WHAT WE KNOW.
We start in Washington, where Donald Trump says he's doubtful that he can make a deal with Iran. Iran sent a new proposal to end the Persian Gulf
conflict to the U.S.
Today, Iran's foreign minister has been calling other countries in the region to brief them on the situation. But the U.S. president expressed
disappointment and said he's not satisfied with Tehran's latest offer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They've made strides, but I'm not sure if they ever get there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Kristen Holmes is standing by for more outside the White House.
Good to have you with us.
So, Kristen, what specific changes does Donald Trump want in this latest proposal?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was interesting, Lynda. You know, he often gives us some sense of what it was
in this deal that he doesn't like when they when they have a proposal. He was very, very vague this time. He would not spell out precisely what it
was that he didn't like or what was even in this proposal that they had returned.
Now, of course, we know that one of the big things had been around enriching uranium and the enriched uranium that is already there. President
Trump wants to remove the enriched uranium, and he wants Iran to not have any capabilities to continue to enrich uranium. There has been a back and
forth over timeline, whether or not Iran would agree to 20 years without enriching uranium. Would they agree to five years? But the two sides have
not been able to land on anything.
Now, its interesting because president Trump used kind of the same blustery rhetoric we've heard before, saying at one point that the options for Iran
are either to make a deal or to blast the hell out of them. But at the same time, were seeing him submit this letter to congress, essentially going
through this idea that there's been this ceasefire. It's ongoing. The war or the strikes have ended in Iran, informing Congress of that, that there's
a change in posture while also saying that it could change again, and that they believe that Iran causes a serious threat or poses a serious threat.
So, we're still trying to get the details there of what Iran came back with that was so subpar, so unsatisfactory for President Trump. But we do know
from talking to sources as well as hearing from the president himself, that that enriched uranium remains a sticking point for both sides.
KINKADE: And so, Kristen, given the continued threats by the president, is military action becoming more likely?
HOLMES: It really depends, because we know President Trump does not want to bring back any kind of military action. We know he was briefed on his
options by the Pentagon, by Pentagon officials last night. He had his core team, Pete Hegseth, Dan Caine. We saw Steve Witkoff was there, the vice
president, who are giving him all the options on the table.
And of course, the White House is going to continue saying theyre keeping all options open. But when you talk to these sources who are talking to
President Trump every day, they continue to repeat this idea that President Trump is looking for an off ramp. They want out of this, and they
particularly want out of this as we're heading into that midterm season. They want to be able to talk about the gas prices, to talk about
affordability. Right now, theyre stuck talking about Iran and having people paying an enormous amount of money every time they fill up their tank.
KINKADE: Yeah, exactly. Kristen Holmes for us outside the White House, thanks very much.
As Kristen mentioned, the president didn't say exactly why he's unhappy with Tehran's latest proposal, but he did tell reporters earlier that
Iran's fractured leadership is a major obstacle to any potential peace deal with the United States
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There's tremendous discord. There's tremendous -- they're having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran. The leadership is
very disjointed. It's got two to three groups, maybe four, and its a very disjointed leadership. And with that being said, they all want to make a
deal, but theyre all messed up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson joins us now from Pakistan.
Good to have you with us, Nic.
So, President Trump has said that the hold up in securing a deal, in part, is because the U.S. doesn't know who's in charge in Iran. Are there
factions in Iran that oppose negotiations altogether?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's very hard to tell. The mosaic that was the leadership of Iran was smashed to pieces. And
what's left of it is reconstituting itself. And it does seem to be in something of a state of flux. But that said, I sat down and had a
conversation with an Iranian official today, just a couple of hours actually, before the Iranian proposal dropped. You know, in retrospect, I
think this was kind of to give me an understanding of where the Iranian position was going without saying they were going there.
[15:05:09]
But on the issue of the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, I asked, is he in charge? Is he an authority? Is he being controlled by what we would call
the hardliners? And the official said to me, look, there are a number of different views, whether theyre hardliners or centrists or whatever around
the supreme leader, and they present him their views and he listens to them and takes what was described as logical parts of it and presents that, you
know, a distillation of what all sides are saying.
So that's the image that the Iranians are projecting. And look, if you look at what they said yesterday, for example, the messages that were coming
from the supreme leader, the speaker of the parliament, the military, the foreign minister, we're all pretty much in alignment. So while there may be
tensions, what Iran is portraying to the world and is probably portraying in the -- to the mediators and for negotiation with the United States is an
image that they are unified. They do know where theyre going, they do know what they want. And that the supreme leader is in charge of it all and
setting the direction. So that -- that's their narrative.
KINKADE: Iranian officials have also, you know, spoke about the lack of trust with the U.S. and have suggested that some U.S. demands are
unrealistic. What exactly do they find unacceptable
ROBERTSON: Yeah, the lack of trust, they say, comes from. And here we had a 47 years of history explained to us about how the trust has been eroded by
the United States since the Islamic revolution, you know, came to power, et cetera, et cetera. But let's fast forward to where we are right now. The
official when we were discussing issues along the lines of trust, said, okay, how do we move forward from here?
Then the answer to the question themselves saying, well, the way to open the door to talks is for simultaneous lifting of the blockade by both Iran
and the U.S. on the strait of Hormuz, but then said, well, well, who do we -- who's going to guarantee to us that the United States doesn't move into
our place and then take control of the Strait of Hormuz?
So if that is how the door has opened on the talks, and if that is part of what Iran is proposing, it does seem that there's going to be some
conditionality on it. But you do get the sense that Iran is ready to go into another state of war. They said they don't want it, but theyre ready
to endure it.
And, you know, when it comes to a blockade, they say, look at the thousands of kilometers, thousands of miles of land borders with multiple countries
that they have indicating that, you know, they can get by and survive. The economy may not be as good. Life may not be as good, but that's part of
their sort of ethos. He was explaining this sort of suffering that for them would be a victory as well.
So the positioning of the blockade to bring about a change in Iran's posture at the talks is something that theyre sort of shrugging off at the
moment. It seems.
KINKADE: Yeah, it certainly seems that way.
Good to have you with us, Nic Robertson from Islamabad, thank you.
Well, the conflict has hit the 60-day mark. And under the U.S. Constitution, the president is legally bound to ask for congressional
approval to continue military action. But the Trump administration continues to maintain that it doesn't need the green light from Capitol
Hill.
Here's what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had to say when pressed about the deadline by a Senate Democrat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire. So
you're not in -- that's our understanding, just so you know.
SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA) Okay, well, I do not believe the statute would support that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, though the Trump administration does appear to be making an effort to comply with Congress, just a short time ago, President Trump sent
a letter to congress about the Iranian war, which CNN has obtained. And in it, he argues, the hostilities, which started in February, quote, "have
terminated".
Well, the Pentagon says the war with Iran has cost the U.S. $25 billion so far. But sources tell us that figure doesn't include repairing U.S. bases
in the Middle East, which could push the real cost closer to $40 billion or $50 billion. A CNN investigation has revealed that the Iranian strikes have
damaged at least 16 sites, making up the majority of American positions in the region.
Tamara Qiblawi reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAMARA QIBLAWI, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER/WRITER (voice- over): Camp Buehring, Kuwait. American soldiers enjoying a karaoke night at one of
the biggest U.S. military hubs in the Gulf.
[15:10:00]
That was then. This is now.
A once bustling American micro city in the desert, nearly empty and heavily damaged after a week's long barrage of Iranian missiles and drones. One of
many U.S. military facilities in the oil rich Arabian Peninsula targeted by Iran even as the U.S. and Israel pummeled the Islamic Republic's large
arsenal.
So what impact have Iran's strikes had on America's footprint in the Middle East? A CNN investigation found evidence of unprecedented destruction. We
can reveal that strikes damaged at least 16 U.S. installations across eight countries. According to our analysis and sourcing, that's the majority of
American military positions in the region, and some of them are virtually unusable now.
A U.S. source familiar with the situation told us that they'd never seen anything like this at American bases, that these were rapid, targeted
strikes using advanced technology. Iran's main targets, multimillion dollar aircraft like this Boeing E-3 sentry, which gave the U.S. a huge amount of
visibility over the Gulf. It's out of production. And in today's money, it's worth nearly half a billion dollars.
Critical communications equipment. Look at these giant golf balls. They're known as radomes, and they protect satellite dishes vital for data
transmission. In this space alone, Iran destroyed all but one of the radomes less than a month into the war.
And crucially, radar systems, highly sophisticated, expensive, difficult to replace and critical to air defense. A second U.S. source, this one a
congressional aide familiar with damage assessments, described these as the most cost effective of the targets.
"Our radar systems," they said, "are our most expensive and our most limited resource in the region."
QIBLAWI: For U.S. allies in the region, there's a dilemma. In some ways, Iran's show of force makes the US's presence in the region even more
necessary to Gulf security. But there's a new reality here, which is that U.S. military installations previously seen as formidable fortresses have
turned into sitting targets. As a Saudi source told me, the war has shown Saudi Arabia that the U.S.'s longest standing Arab ally, that the alliance
with the U.S. cannot be exclusive, and it is not, in their words, impregnable.
QIBLAWI (voice-over): To get a sense of just how vulnerable U.S. facilities have become, have a look at this. It's the war room at Qatar's Al-Udeid Air
Base. The theater command and control hub for U.S. air power across 21 nations struck not just once, but twice and according to a U.S. source,
causing significant damage.
The base had been largely evacuated at this point, and no casualties were reported.
Iran's visibility over its targets has never been clearer. In 2024, according to "The Financial Times," Tehran secretly acquired a Chinese
satellite known as the TEE-01B, a massive upgrade from its satellites. That means that Tehran went from looking at images of this quality to this.
This is the first time America has fought an adversary with satellites that capture high res imagery, almost as detailed as its own.
As the scale of the damage comes into focus, many will wonder whether America's presence, once a protective shield in the Middle East, has turned
into its Achilles heel.
Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, responding to CNN's findings, a Pentagon official said. The Defense Department does not discuss damage assessments, but U.S. forces
remain fully operational with the same readiness and combat effectiveness. CNN also understands from its sources that the vast majority of U.S. troops
evacuated their positions in the Middle East, with many working from the relative safety of hotels and apartments in the Arabian Peninsula.
Well, the U.S. Department of Defense has a new deal with seven major tech companies to work on secret data. The agreement uses their artificial
intelligence tools in the Pentagon's classified networks. The companies include Google, Amazon and Nvidia. Not on the list, Anthropic, which the
Trump administration has blacklisted over the company's insistence that the Pentagon use certain safety guardrails for A.I. use in warfare.
Our Hadas Gold joins us now for the latest.
Great to have you with us.
So, one company refusing to join this partnership due to ethical reasons. Why have the others agreed?
HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's not that Anthropic has refused to join, it's that they've been labeled as a supply chain risk by
the Pentagon because of the previous disagreement with the Pentagon over their existing contract. Because Anthropic's Claude was the first and at
some point, the only model that was able to be used on the Pentagon's classified system. But then when the Pentagon wanted to adjust, wanted to
adjust that contract, Anthropic wanted some guardrails around things like A.I.'s use in mass surveillance of American citizens. And A.I.'s use in --
and A.I. being used in autonomous weapons.
The Pentagon then slapped that supply chain risk designation on Anthropic, effectively a blacklist on it, saying that it's a dangerous company.
Anybody who does work with the military cannot work with Anthropic's products. They are battling that out in court.
So the Pentagon had to find some something else to replace that. They had struck a deal with OpenAI previously to get their A.I. models on the
Pentagon classified system. And now they're announcing the seven -- the seven companies in total. These include SpaceX, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft,
Amazon and a smaller A.I. company called Reflection.
But I want to point out there's a bit of a cognitive dissonance happening in the Trump administration, because on the one hand, you have the Pentagon
saying that Anthropic is a supply chain risk. We can't work with them. They're dangerous because of these guardrails. Theyre trying to argue that
they cant have a company trying to dictate how they should use a tool, especially in a time of war.
But then when you look elsewhere in the Trump administration, for example, at the White House, you see that they have been having meetings with
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. He recently met with the White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the White House publicly calling these meetings
productive. The Anthropic was just at the White House this week for a cybersecurity and A.I. meeting, and now, "Axios" is even reporting that the
White House is developing guidance that would allow agencies to continue working with Anthropic models and get around the supply chain risk
designation.
So what is it? Is Anthropic so dangerous that it's a supply chain risk and nobody should work with them? Or is it actually okay to be working with
them? And I'm sure that will be brought up in court.
And part of the reason for this is just Anthropic has one of the better models that are out there. It's very valuable. It's shown to be very
advanced. And so, obviously, there are different agencies that want to be able to use this model, because if it's going to be used potentially by
anybody else out there, you want to have the best possible tools available to you.
What's also not clear about these new contracts with these other seven, with these seven A.I. companies is whether there are these sort of
guardrails, like Anthropic wanted around mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. All we know is that the Pentagon has said that they have agreed to
allow their A.I. model uses for all lawful purposes. There's a lot of sort of gray area and disagreement about what that means, whether that included
those guidelines that Anthropic wanted or not. And we have seen some resistance from some of the employees that these companies. Google, there
was several employees signed an open letter to its executives asking them to not sign this deal. One of them even went public on X saying, calling it
shameful.
But Google, for its part, said that it's proud to work with the Pentagon and obviously moved forward -- Lynda.
KINKADE: All right. Hadas Gold for us. Our thanks to you.
Well, still to come, will the third time be the charms? We're going to take a look at President Trump's latest choice for the surgeon general.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:20:50]
KINKADE: U.S. President Donald Trump has made a new choice for the role of surgeon general. On Thursday, he pulled the nomination of Dr. Casey Means,
and in her place, the president picked Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and a Fox News contributor. Means
had been a popular pick with many in the Make America Health Again movement, but faced opposition in Congress.
This comes as some in the MAHA movement say they feel, quote, "disgusted and betrayed" by the Trump administration.
CNN's Meena Duerson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWD: People versus poison! People versus poison!
VANI HARI, "FOOD BABE", ACTIVIST: You cannot tell Americans to eat real food while protecting the cancer-causing chemicals sprayed on it.
(CHEERS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to fight, fight, fight!
MEENA DUERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So we're at the people versus poison rally in Washington, D.C., where a group of some of the biggest names in
MAHA have gathered together to protest against big companies that they say are poisoning Americans with chemicals.
DUERSON (voice-over): A year and a half after the Make America Healthy Again movement helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency, it's facing a
big test.
HARI: Let's be honest, we wouldn't be here right now if President Trump didn't sign that executive order.
DUERSON (voice-over): MAHA's coalition of health and wellness influencers, vaccine skeptics and environmentalists united under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
as a champion of their causes, as an environmental lawyer, he helped win a landmark settlement against the makers of the weed-killer Roundup, arguing
its chemical glyphosate caused his clients cancer, a claim the company denied.
But this week, the Trump administration supported the current manufacturer of Roundup, Bayer, in a Supreme Court case over whether Americans can sue
for alleged harms from chemical exposure. And in February, Trump signed an executive order protecting glyphosate as crucial to the national security
and defense.
DUERSON: How did you feel when you saw that executive order?
ZEN HONEYCUTT, FOUNDER, MOMS ACROSS AMERICA: I was disgusted, I was literally sick to my stomach.
DUERSON: A lot of the speakers here are people who were very active in helping RFK, Jr. campaign for President Trump. There's a lot of
conversation here about whether those promises are actually being followed through on.
What is your sense of the movement?
ALEX CLARK, HOST, "CULTURE APOTHECARY" PODCAST: I'm saying we are on the brink of falling apart. I'm like in red rover right now. Okay, I am diehard
conservative, and I got this group of MAHA moms and I'm trying to keep us together.
HONEYCUTT: There were millions of Democratic and independent moms in particular that voted Republican because they believed Trump, that he was
going to do something about pesticides in the food.
ALEXANDRA MUNOZ, PH.D., TOXICOLOGIST: MAHA is feeling betrayed and completely dissatisfied with what the administration has done.
DUERSON (voice-over): The momentum of the MAHA movement has given many of its leading voices unprecedented access to a presidential administration.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: In just 15 months, HHS has delivered historic wins.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The American people --
DUERSON (voice-over): And theyre not ready to give up that proximity to power, even as the pesticide issue threatens to overshadow their other
gains.
HONEYCUTT: I don't regret any of the boost or, you know, the power that is has been had because there's a lot of amazing things that have been done.
DUERSON: How could they do this stuff at the same time as listening to what's so important to so many women and moms like you?
HARI: I don't think they understood what they did. They kicked the hornet's nest, and now I think theyre starting to realize it.
DUERSON (voice-over): As the midterms loom this fall, the pressure to please MAHA voters is on.
CLARK: A lot of these moms held their nose and voted for Trump in 2024. And they're not sure that theyre willing to vote red in the midterms again.
It's very important for the -- for the GOP to recognize that MAHA voters are not loyal to a certain political party. MAHA voters are a coalition
that's up for grabs.
HARI: It makes us actually -- women with children, especially -- sit at home instead of going to the ballot.
MUNOZ: MAHA is looking for any representatives that are willing to stand up against corporations and put their foot down.
DUERSON (voice-over): And Democrats are recognizing there's power in embracing MAHA messaging.
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): This has got to be a movement that grows, does not divide, but multiplies.
REP. CHELLIE PINGREE (D-ME): Well, I've spent a lot of time telling my Democratic colleagues, I know this issue isn't on the top of your list, but
pay attention to it.
DUERSON: Is this an opportunity to kind of get some of those voters back?
PINGREE: Absolutely.
ROSIE HOFFMAN, INDEPENDENT VOTER: If anybody is supporting the things that I align with and that and the health and wellness space, and they probably
have my vote.
[15:25:04]
CLARK: This is do or die. This is sink or swim. This is the Titanic is going down. Hundreds of thousands of free votes that fell out of thin air
in 2024 have vanished.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, it could be a crucial 24 hours for Spirit Airlines. The low cost carrier could be going out of business, giving President Donald Trump
a decision to make.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: Well, back to our top story now. Iran's foreign minister is working the phones today, speaking with diplomats around the region about
efforts to end the war with the U.S. and Israel. Iran is now offering a revised proposal, but based on U.S. President Donald Trump's response, it
may be dead on arrival.
Mr. Trump says he's not satisfied with Iran's offer without giving any details, and he's casting doubt on whether Iran's leaders will ever come
around to a negotiated settlement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of him and finish him forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are
the options.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: What we don't know is how many options does President Trump have with Iran? Well, joining me now is Trita Parsi from the Quincy Institute
for Responsible Statecraft and author of "Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy".
Good to have you with us.
TRITA PARSI, AUTHOR, "LOSING AN ENEMY": Thank you.
KINKADE: So Trump is now doubtful that an Iran deal can even happen. What would actually need to change to break this deadlock?
PARSI: A deal is still very much possible, but a few things need to change in order for that to be possible. First of all, both sides need to stop
putting forward maximalist positions.
[15:30:00]
At this point, it's clear that Trump still is insisting on maximalist positions. He said that he wants this blockade to essentially cause them to
cry uncle and capitulate. That is not going to happen.
But there's also other things that need to be happening. One is that Trump needs to really get more disciplined about the diplomacy. He should turn
off his Truth Social or any other social media for a while, because a lot of the comments he's making is actually undermining not only the diplomacy,
but his own position.
Both sides need a victory -- a narrative of victory to get out of this, but they have to be careful not to put forward a narrative of victory that is
humiliating to the other side, because that negates the other side's narrative of victory. And Trump has not proven himself to be particularly
good at that.
KINKADE: Trita, you have also argued that Israeli and U.S. actions have given Tehran all the incentives they need to continue to pursue nuclear
weapons. With that regard, has this war backfired?
PARSI: Well, first of all, they weren't pursuing nuclear weapons before, according to the U.S. intelligence, and according to the IAEA. But there is
a significant risk that if this doesn't end up well with the negotiation, with some real sanctions relief and some real nuclear compromises, that the
Iranians will be massively incentivized to go for a nuclear weapon. They have now twice been attacked in the midst of negotiations by two nuclear
weapon states. So if they had incentives before, those incentives have been dramatically fortified by this experience. Now, whether they can do it,
whether the U.S. can stop them, those are different questions.
But before all of this, they actually were not pursuing nuclear weapons. And that's very important to understand.
KINKADE: And with Donald Trump weighing military options, how close are we, do you think, to another round of military strikes?
PARSI: There is a risk that Trump will go down that path. But every time he has escalated militarily or through this blockade, it actually has
backfired. The blockade really, in my view, has backfired on Trump because having walked out of having managed to get the ceasefire, a lot of the
pressure was off of Trump that oil prices would have come down. But because he put a blockade on that blockade, he actually took more oil off of the
market, pushed back oil prices. So they are actually higher now than they were during the time of the war.
So I think if he continues to think that there is an escalatory path out of this conflict, then not only will he undermine his own position, but we may
once again end up in a military confrontation.
KINKADE: You've also argued in the past, Trita, that Iran's strategy is to raise the cost rather than seek outright victory. Is that what we're seeing
play out here?
PARSI: I think in some ways, precisely what I mentioned earlier on -- their ability to raise the cost on Trump during the cease fire was actually very
limited. And in some ways, Trump was in a stronger position during the ceasefire until he started imposing the blockade. The blockade ended up
becoming a greater cost to the U.S. than it did to the Iranians.
Now, the Iranians were trying to raise the cost for the U.S. during the war in order to stop the war. Now, we're in a different scenario, and the
scenario is to try to find some sort of an exit that is acceptable to all sides, and that brings this conflict to a complete end, not just to a
partial end, but a complete end.
Trump, paradoxically, is actually the right president to strike such a grand bargain with Iran. Other presidents in the past have not been willing
to put the type of political capital into it to get that done. But at the same time, Trump is undermining his own diplomacy with a lot a lot of
tactical errors.
KINKADE: Hmm. Interesting. Trita Parsi, great to have your perspective and analysis. Thanks so much.
PARSI: Thank you.
KINKADE: Well, it is the final moment of trade on Wall Street. And stocks are mixed. The Nasdaq is up. And after Apple announced strong results,
those positive earnings have Apple surging more than 4 percent.
And this is our Business Breakout.
Well, Donald Trump says he will raise tariffs on European autos next week. The U.S. president says the European Union is not complying with the trade
deal, although he didn't specify how. If Mr. Trump goes ahead with his threat, the tariffs on some cars could go up from 15 percent to 25.
The former Fed chair, Janet Yellen, says there are signs of a bubble in the artificial intelligence sector. Companies such as the sneaker makers
Allbirds are rebranding as A.I. companies, despite having no expertise in the field. Yellen told CNN's Erin Burnett that has echoes of a similar
bubble we saw during the dot-com crash.
President Trump says there will be an announcement on Spirit Airlines future today or tomorrow. "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that the low
cost carrier is preparing to cease operations as soon as this weekend. Mr. Trump has previously said that he would consider a U.S. government takeover
for the airline.
[15:35:04]
Well, joining me now to talk about this is our very own Richard Quest.
Great to see you as always.
So just how close are we to a potential collapse of this airline? Or do you see President Trump using a taxpayer funded takeover.
QUEST: The reality is that $500 million would be, at best, a stop gap measure. And the way most people view it, throwing good money after bad.
Now, that's nothing to say that the 15,000 jobs shouldn't and couldn't be saved. But the reality of Spirit is that its model is flawed. It can't make
profits. It hasn't made money since 2019. And as a low cost carrier at the moment, its just pulling down everybody else's yields and margins.
So the smart choices seem to be that the government probably wont throw good money after bad. And you get to a point where the there's a reason
airlines don't telegraph when theyre going to shut down because people stop booking. And even the story in "The Journal" and now in "The New York
Times" that says it's planning to stop flying. That will be enough, in a sense, to be the kiss of death, because I'm guessing nobody's going to book
a ticket with Spirit while there is this cloud over it.
KINKADE: Yeah, exactly. We have heard Richard from critics saying that Spirit's collapse is a reflection of the broader pressure on the airline
industry. Do you agree or is this more of a company specific problem?
QUEST: It's both. Spirit has been in a poor position for many years. A federal judge refused to allow it to merge with JetBlue. It's been in
bankruptcy protection twice. So a lot of Spirit's issues are spirits own.
Now, having said that, the whole industry is facing a doubling of fuel costs. It has got infrastructure costs left, right and center. And so
nobody is -- I mean, nobody is doing very well at the moment. And everybody has had to put 20, 30, 40 percent on ticket prices. That will take a toll.
Hence, you had United Airlines suggesting a merger with American. Americans saying no.
Ultimately, the majority of the industry is well-funded, well-capitalized, and still making good money. It is the outliers like Spirit that and that
basically will go to the wall. And some will either then have to merge with, for example, JetBlue is being spoken of as the next airline, not to
go out of business, but to be consolidated with another.
KINKADE: Well, you may have the breaking news on this story next hour. If we do get an update, we will. Well be tuning in. Richard Quest with "QUEST
MEANS BUSINESS" at the top of the hour. Thanks very much.
QUEST: Thank you.
KINKADE: Well, still to come, the state of Ohio was once a crucial battleground in any national election. But President Trump changed that.
Well take you there to meet people who are trying to make it competitive once again.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:41:16]
KINKADE: Welcome back. They used to say how Ohio goes, the nation goes when it comes to presidential elections, though over the past decade, President
Trump has turned the historically purple state ruby red.
But as CNN John King found out in our latest installment of "All Over the Map", the tide might be turning heading into this year's midterms.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: I love you Ohio. We'll never let you down, I swear, I promise.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For days --
KING: Theyre all heading off to vote.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, yeah.
KING (voice-over): Nine hundred miles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. That's much better.
KING: Red Sox might need a backup catcher.
KING (voice-over): And one giant question. Is Donald Trump's MAGA coalition cracking?
Entering Ohio, the Mahoning Valley -- gritty, blue collar union, reliably Democratic for decades. No more.
KING: People like this. Places like this are part of how Trump has changed America. Ohio changed from a competitive purple state to a Trump red state
because of the magic of his coalition here. But as we head into the midterms, the jobs he promised are not here. The revival in American
manufacturing, he promised, is not here.
KING (voice-over): Chris Anderson is the Mahoning County Democratic chairman. His midterm bet -- enough Trump voters will be part of electing
Ohio's first Democratic governor in 15 years, and part of flipping a critical senate seat from red to blue.
CHRIS ANDERSON, MAHONING COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN: They got conned by a con man.
KING: You're the Democrats. So you're supposed to say that. What do you see that tells you that things are different?
ANDERSON: I mean, drive around Mahoning County for, you know, for eight years, there were Trump signs on every corner. There were flags. You
couldn't go to a grocery store without seeing those red MAGA hats. I challenge you to find one.
KING (voice-over): It's true. These are hard to find. Now, maybe a clue, but hardly enough to answer the -- is MAGA cracking question.
This is local 1112, United Autoworkers, Lordstown, Ohio, ground zero in the local debate about trusting Trump. General Motors made cars here for five
decades, thousands of good union jobs. But the Lordstown plant closed in 2019 despite a first term Trump promise it would stay open.
Foxconn built this new factory on the G.M. site, but its workforce is nonunion, and the factory is mostly idle now as the company decides what's
next. Nearby, another new factory sold as Lordstown's new hope, Ultium Cells, a joint E.V. battery venture between General Motors and South
Korea's L.G. Electronics.
KING: How many guys are working in that factory now?
BOB SWAUGER, OHIO VOTER: Right now, all of production is shut down, 1,460 of us, I think there were all laid off in January 5th, officially.
KING: And you don't know until when?
SWAUGER: Don't know until when.
KING (voice-over): Bob Swauger leads the campaign committee at Local 1112. Everyone here remembers when Trump told them not to sell their homes, and
later when he said new jobs would replace the GM jobs. The union endorsed Kamala Harris, but a big chunk of its voters voted Trump. And then the UAW
endorsed Trump's tariffs.
SWAUGER: They were hopeful that they were going to bring more jobs back to the United States.
KING: Has that happened?
SWAUGER: Not that I'm aware of.
KING (voice-over): Manufacturing employment is up a bit of late, but down 80,000 jobs overall since Trump returned to the White House. American auto
manufacturing, down 25,000 jobs in Trump's second term.
KING: Do you believe in 2026, the Democrats can actually win statewide for the Senate and win statewide for governor in Ohio?
SWAUGER: Yes.
[15:45:03]
KING (voice-over): Mark Skonieczny served overseas in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, was drawn to the Tea Party and then Trump after leaving the
Army.
MARK SKONIECZNY, OHIO VOTER: I let myself, I don't want to say get radicalized or anything, but I was very right-wing.
KING (voice-over): Skonieczny had a change of heart in 2020, calls himself an independent and is backing Democrats this year because he now views
Trump and MAGA as dangerous to democracy.
SKONIECZNY: I've talked to a lot of people whose views are changing, even in my own family. So I am hopeful that that is starting to fracture.
KING (voice-over): Yet Skonieczny concedes many Trump supporter friends will not budge.
SKONIECZNY: And it's a lot harder than I thought.
KING (voice-over): Most of Ohio is rural, and rural America is Trump country. But rural also means you drive a lot, high gas prices hurt. Farms
dot the rolling hills of Albany and southeast Ohio. This one is unique.
KING: The chickens are your supervisors?
BILL KRUSLING, OHIO VOTER: Yes.
KING (voice-over): Four hundred or so sheep on 100 grassy acres. Lambing season, these sheep are pregnant, 200 to 250 more little lambs do any day
now.
KRUSLING: Stay, stay, stay.
KING (voice-over): Bill Krusling doesn't need much diesel or any fertilizer, so he's shielded from the Iran war cost spikes hitting many
other farmers. He does OK, but is saddled by huge medical debts. His biggest complaints about Washington are corruption and deficit spending.
KING: Trump promised to change the health care system, and he hasn't. He promised to reduce the debt, and he hasn't.
KRUSLING: Well, it takes time. He had four years, but he was new to Washington. I don't blame Trump, I blame the Congress.
KING: Where am I riding?
KRUSLING: Right here.
KING: I'm going to take the dog seat?
KRUSLING: Yes. She's coming no matter what.
KING (voice-over): Krusling says no politician understands this life, and he's mad at both parties for not solving problems. But he will vote
Republican in November because he's conservative and because he loves Trump, for the very reason so many people can't stand Trump.
KING: He seems to like the fights.
KRUSLING: Oh, he loves a fight. He loves a fight. And that's great. That's why I voted for him. This world's got way too many pearl clutchers. It's
like, come on, people, give me a break.
KING (voice-over): Back on the road heading south, Portsmouth is in Scioto County, along the Ohio River across from Kentucky. Trump won 74 percent
here last time.
Dale King was already wavering on Trump. The Iran war, the last straw. King opened his Portsmouth gym 16 years ago, after returning home from two tours
in Iraq.
DALE KING, OHIO VOTER: It's crazy because that's, like, 20 years ago.
J. KING (voice-over): His office is full of military mementos, and showing it to a visitor stirs emotion.
D. KING: Like, it's weird -- I don't know, 20 years and then we're dealing with Iran. So it's like, what the fuck is -- it's just a -- it's a unique
timing thing.
Guys are trying to navigate their own healing journey, and now it's like, OK, we -- it's scratching that scab again.
J. KING (voice-over): King voted for Trump in 2016, again in 2024. But he's voting for Democrats in 2026 because he believes the country needs to send
Trump a midterm message.
D. KING: I am pro-military. And I am -- I am -- we have a strong need to protect this country. I know there are threats, and I know there are
enemies that want to see the downfall of this country. But you can't be flippant about war. You cannot.
J. KING (voice-over): Conversations with friends here, and fellow veterans across the country, convince him big change is coming.
D. KING: The shines kind of coming off the Trump presidency, really kind of see through the true core of who he is versus what he campaigned on.
J. KING (voice-over): John King, CNN, Portsmouth, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, still to come, it's the run for the roses, but the favorite is in a bad spot. We'll have a preview of this weekend's Kentucky derby
when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:52:04]
KINKADE: Welcome back.
It's known as the fastest two minutes in sports. The Kentucky Derby is all set for this Saturday, and 20 horses are in the running. That is the most
that is allowed to actually run in this race. Now this is the 152nd time that the derby has been run every year since 1875.
Now, let's settle up with our Andy Scholes. It is the place to be.
Andy, good to have you with us.
So, you know, it's the place where there's big hats, even bigger bets, and the weather looks perfect
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS COORRESPONDENT: Yeah. You know, it's a little chilly here today, Lynda, and a little windy. But other than that, I mean,
you couldn't ask for a better place to be right now than the Kentucky Oaks, which is today. Kentucky Oaks is on Friday. That's why I'm wearing pink
because everyone wears pink for breast cancer awareness.
And the Kentucky Oaks has become such a big deal. It's actually going to be on national television in prime time for the very first time this year, for
the 150th running of the oaks.
Now, when it comes to the derby on Saturday, 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby, your favorite is Renegade, but some bad news for Renegade because he
drew post number one and no horse has won on the rail since 1986, so were going to have to see if renegade can break that losing streak from post
number one.
Now, if you're looking for someone to root for a fun story, this year is the Mott family. So Bill Mott won last year with the horse Sovereignty.
He's back in it again this year with Chief Wallabee, who's one of the favorites. But his son is actually also in the race, Riley Mott, making his
training debut, and he's got two horses in the field, Albus and Incredibolt.
So we've got our first father versus son match-up in the Kentucky Derby since 1964. I got the chance to speak with both of them, and while you know
theyre rooting for each other a little bit, both of them want to win this race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL MOTT, TRAINER, CHIEF WALLABEE: I want to beat him. That's my job. And, you know, my goal is to do the best we can with the horse that we train.
And, you know, I'd love to see his horses run well. If -- look, if I can't win, I hope he does.
RILEY MOTT, TRAINER MAKING DEBUT WITH 2 HORSES: We're both the ultimate competitors, as is everybody in this industry. So, you know, I want what's
best for him. But I want to beat him, that's for sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yeah. And Riley also joked with me, he'd love to get the Mott family trifecta in the derby, but he did say he wants his two horses to
finish first and second, and then his dad can take third.
Now, when it comes to Churchill Downs and the Oaks and the Derby, you know, it's really the place to be in the entire world when it comes to people
watching, because as you can see, everyone's dressed up, everyone's got fancy hats on or fascinators.
And I was here yesterday, Thursday of the derby, which has now been known as Thurby, Thursday at the derby. It's known as Thurby. Its become a big
event as well, and I walked around to find out what peoples strategy was when it came to headwear
[15:55:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I always buy the fascinator first. I got told that like the big theme this year was like bright colors, and I was like, you
know what? I want to look pretty much like a traffic cone.
And you know what? Coming in, I pretty -- I pretty much did.
SCHOLES: You were successful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I bought some foam and made the flower and I bought this hat and decided, the bigger, the better.
SCHOLES: Are you ever going to touch it again after this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Probably not. One and done.
SCHOLES: One and done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One and done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is just on a headband. I probably should have pinned it, but honestly, once you start drinking, it's kind of a sobriety
test, whether or not your hat's going to stay on or not. And it's doing good so far. Check in with me in about an hour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Lynda, I did not find her an hour later, so I wonder how she fared. But it is a little breezy here once again today. So I've seen a lot
of the women having to hold on to those fascinators, because you certainly don't want that coming off while you're here enjoying the races.
KINKADE: Exactly. I'm surprised you couldn't find her in those bright colors. She is a beacon.
Good to see you, Andy Scholes, World Sport. Appreciate it.
SCHOLES: All right.
KINKADE: And if you're having a bet tomorrow, all the best.
I'm Lynda Kinkade. That is what we know. Stay with CNN.
Much more news in just a moment
END
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