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New Round Of U.S.-Iran Nuclear Talks Have Begun In Rome; 4th Person Charged With Helping Escaped New Orleans Inmates; Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Is Interviewed About Trump Threatens 50 Percent Tariff On The E.U. Starting June 1. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 23, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We've got new details on how they got out, and how police plan to track them down.

And then breaking news, President Trump threatens to slap a 25 percent tariff on Apple, if it does not start building iPhones in the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now. High-stakes nuclear talks between the United States and Iran have begun in Rome, according to an Iranian news agency. The negotiations are taking place amid growing skepticism in Iran about what could come of this.

[08:35:03]

Two Iranian sources telling CNN's Fred Pleitgen, the talks seem unlikely to lead to an agreement with the U.S. insisting Tehran dismantle its uranium enrichment program. And the Iranian foreign minister ahead of these meetings writing on social media, figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science. Zero nuclear weapons equals we do have a deal. Zero -- zero enrichment equals we do not have a deal.

Joining us right now is John Bolton, President Trump's former national security advisor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. It's good to see you, Ambassador. To say that you don't believe what Iran says often or promises Iran makes is an understatement, given your history and the threat against your life. But you see what Iran is saying going on in these talks. And what could they say coming out of these talks to convince you that they're really ready to make a deal?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I don't think there's anything because what we should be looking for is evidence that Iran has made a strategic decision to give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons. We saw that with Muammar Gaddafi in 2003, 2004. There's no evidence that the ayatollahs in Tehran have made that decision. And when they say we don't want nuclear weapons, you know, you can't -- you can't rely on their word. And their conduct over 30 years indicates to the contrary. So I think they have an objective that is inconsistent with American national interest and security. And I don't see any way to bridge that gap.

BOLDUAN: Jim Sciutto, has reported this week that the U.S. has new intel suggesting that Israel is making preps to potentially strike Iranian nuclear facilities. And this is, you know, all the while the Trump administration is having these talks about a potential deal. If Israel strikes, what then happens?

BOLTON: Well, I -- I -- I hope the U.S. assists Israel in striking. The -- the Iranian nuclear program is not just Israel's problem, it's -- it's our problem. It's a proliferation threat to the whole world. And if Israel goes ahead, they -- they could go in heavy. They could go in light. They could do a lot of things.

But -- but the end of the nuclear weapons program, I think, would -- would essentially eliminate this proliferation threat as far as the eye can see. And I think combined with what else has happened to Iran since October 23rd, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, substantial punishment to its terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, I think it would help undermine the regime itself.

And that's really the path to long term stability in the Middle East to have the ayatollahs removed from power.

BOLDUAN: At the same time, there's a lot coming out of the White House I need to ask you about. Just this morning, President Trump is saying and announcing that he is recommending a 50 percent tariff on all goods coming from the E.U. starting June 1st. And what he's citing, Ambassador, is a lack of progress in the trade talks. At the same time, he's also now threatening, again, on social media is threatening Apple with a 25 percent tariff if it does not build iPhones in America. As we know, moving Apple's supply chain to America is not something that can be done in a -- in a hot minute. As this plays out, do you think Trump's trade war has a lasting impact on U.S. relationships, friend and foe?

BOLTON: I think it does. And I think it's almost entirely negative. You know, I remember way back when conservatives and Republicans believed that the market should set prices in terms of sales and production and that sort of thing, not following the edicts of the American president.

And I also and this -- this is a very important point. I've spoken to many business leaders, finance leaders around the country over the past four months since the inauguration. They -- they have believed they hope that -- that -- that the tariffs were just a bargaining tool, just -- just a tool to fix some things. And then everything would go back to normal. I don't know that this is enough for some of those true believers. But for everybody else, I just ask, look at what he's doing.

He believes in these tariffs. This is going to continue as long as he is in office. So my only hope here on the tariff front is swift decision on the constitutional challenge to these so-called reciprocal tariffs, the Liberation Day tariffs. I think business ought to get behind it. Let's move this quickly through the courts and get a decision by the Supreme Court that I think will say resoundingly that the whole episode is unconstitutional.

BOLDUAN: Yes. In the midst of it, he continues to make these announcements and ratcheting it up. President Trump also basically ambushed the president of South Africa in the Oval Office. I know you saw some of that play out and talking about the plight of white farmers in South Africa. President Trump called it a genocide.

But Reuters is now reporting, Ambassador, that President showed a screenshot of a Reuters video to make his point. But it was taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And he used that as part of what he presented to the South African president as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans. You've done -- you've talked recently about how this was also a focus of his during his first term. What's going on here, in your view?

[08:40:22]

BOLTON: Well, he was first brought to his attention by Gary Player, the famous golfer, which is when I heard it when I was serving in the White House. And I don't -- I don't profess to be an expert on South Africa. So I asked experts on the staff of the NSC, what's up with this killing of white farmers, displacement, seizure of their lands? And they came back and said, there's nothing. It's just not true. So South Africa has a high crime rate in urban areas and rural areas. It's a big problem, black and white. It's a big problem.

But that it's some sort of government sponsored or popular effort to -- to kill the boar, as -- as the propagandists say, there's just no evidence of it. So one important question here is the films the President showed, the articles that he handed President Ramaphosa. Was any of that run by the American intelligence community or our experts in the State Department, the Defense Department and elsewhere? Did anybody vet that information? Because --

BOLDUAN: Because it should have, right, Ambassador? If you're -- if you're his national security adviser, you would have seen this. Yes.

BOLTON: This isn't even a close question for any other president, but other foreign leaders are now going to have to wonder. God knows what goes into Donald Trump's head if it's not vetted when he's meeting a foreign head of state. It's hard to imagine a more important meeting to make sure the president has the facts right.

So they're going to ask, well, what else is in his head about my country or about other issues that affect us? It's a -- it's a real blow to American credibility. Even leaving aside the theater in the Oval Office with Ramaphosa, with Zelenskyy, with Macron, with Carney. After a while, people would rather go see Xi Jinping than Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: Ambassador John Bolton, thanks for coming in. Sara? SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that's saying something. All right. Thank you so much, Kate.

We turn now to the often volatile world of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin surging to a new record high on Thursday. And it comes as President Trump posted a private dinner at one of his golf clubs for investors who poured some $148 million into his own personal meme coin. The gala raising fury among his critics who say it's some of the clearest evidence yet that he's using the Oval Office to line his own pockets.

Harry Enten joining me now to run the numbers. So just how successful was this drive by Donald Trump to get money? Sorry. I mean, to get dollars.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: To get dollars, to get dollars. I mean, look, if the purpose of this dinner was to drive up the price of the Trump meme coin, consider it mission accomplished. Why? Get this. The price of Trump's meme coin up about 45 percent post private dinner announcement. That, of course, happened back in April.

Tune out. And of course, what's so important to keep in mind was the price of the meme coin had been falling, had been falling. It had previously dropped about 85 percent from its previous peak. And more than that, keep in mind, two Trump organization affiliates hold about 80 percent of the coin supply.

So just them trading, that generates millions in transaction fees along whether or not the price goes up or down. So the bottom line is, yes, I would say this generated a lot of dough, at least to folks who are affiliated with Donald Trump.

SIDNER: Right. And there are a lot of people wondering, how does that help the American people except for just helping one American person? A lot of people also wondering, I mean, doesn't this smell of corruption? What are voters saying?

ENTEN: Yes. What are folks saying about Donald Trump and corruption? Well, Trump's net approval rating on corruption in mid-April, get this, was minus seven points. So he was underwater. Look at where he is now, minus 12 points. So no, voters don't like Donald Trump when it comes to corruption.

Of course, the thing to keep in mind, Sara Sidner, is pre-2024 election, the vast majority or at least the clear majority of voters thought that Donald Trump was corrupt. The last little thing I will note here, though, is then how the heck did he actually win? Well, take a look. His net approval rating on corruption, minus 12 points. Now, Joe Biden's back in 2023 was minus 29 points. So it's not just in the vacuum. You have to compare him to the competition.

And folks may think Donald Trump is corrupt, but they thought his competition was corrupt too.

SIDNER: Right. There was a lot of -- and this all stems sort of back to the Hunter Biden situation that got over and over and over again, got talked about. Really interesting numbers this morning for us, Harry. And thank you coming in on a Friday. Look at you.

ENTEN: To hang out with you, Sara Sidner --

SIDNER: Being a responsible adult.

ENTEN: -- I would do so.

SIDNER: Oh, that's nice. No corruption here.

ENTEN: No. Just love.

BERMAN: Just love.

All right. Breaking overnight, a woman has been arrested and charged with helping the inmates who escaped from a Louisiana jail last week. She's now the fourth person to be arrested in this escape plot. State police say the woman sent cash through a cell phone app to one of the 10 escapees. Five inmates have been captured. Five others are still very much on the run. We've got new details about a facial recognition technology that police are using to try to find the escapees.

[08:45:11]

With us now, CNN's Clare Duffy. What can you tell us about how this all works?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, so what's interesting is these facial recognition cameras are actually not operated by law enforcement. They are run by a nonprofit called Project NOLA that has 5,000 cameras in New Orleans, 200 of them are built with this facial recognition technology.

And I spoke with Bryan Lagarde. He's the executive director of Project NOLA. And he said that he wouldn't tell me what A.I. model the company is using for this facial recognition. But he did say that essentially what happens is they take photos that come from law enforcement beyond the lookout alerts, so mug shots, crime scene surveillance images, they plug those into the system.

And then when their cameras spot that person on the street, an alert gets automatically sent to law enforcement. That is exactly what happened on Friday when they caught the first of these inmates in the French Quarter. It's because he was spotted on one of those facial recognition cameras. And he also told me that the inmate who was arrested on Tuesday was located with the help of their facial recognition cameras.

BERMAN: These are private cameras in a way. Are there any concerns about the use of this technology?

DUFFY: Yes, so there have been for years concerns about the use of facial recognition by police, you know, there's concerns about individual privacy. There are also we've seen a number of false arrests in other cities where there was an incorrect facial recognition match. And in particular, that could potentially have an outsized impact on people of color. Because research has shown that facial recognition is worse at correctly identifying people of color than, for example, a white man.

Now, Project NOLA also, as you said, operates outside of law enforcement. It is this nonprofit. And so I think that also may heighten concerns because it's not necessarily subject to the same accountability as the local police force would be.

But I will say that Bryan Lagarde told me that this is a community endeavor. The Project NOLA places its cameras on private businesses, on schools, on churches that allow it to do so. He said this has been a community endeavor from the very beginning. If we ever violate public trust, the camera network comes down instantly and effortlessly by the community that built it. Because these private property owners could just take the cameras down at any time, he said.

But this is something that lots of cities are increasingly going to have to deal with these questions.

BERMAN: It's a compelling discussion, to be sure. All right, Clare Duffy, thank you very much for that reporting. Sara?

SIDNER: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

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SIDNER: The lovers, the dreamers, and me. Heart melting right now. It was a graduation ceremony unlike any other for graduates of the class of 2025 at the University of Maryland that is because you just saw why, Kermit the Frog delivered their commencement speech. Amongst a sea of red and black capes and gowns, the beloved Green Muppet reminded us all to dream big and be yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERMIT THE FROG: Stay connected to your dreams. No matter how big. No matter how impossible they seem. The truth is, dreams are how we figure out where we want to go. And life is how we get there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Oh, Kermit's message clearly hit home for students who grew up watching him. You've got to see the reaction. Some were crying. And he even received a standing ovation. And why was he there? Like, why University of Maryland? Because Muppets creator Jim Hansen graduated from the University of Maryland. He really struck a nerve. And we just love us some Kermit. I got to speak with him. It was so cool.

All right, coming up, a dramatic day, to say the least, in the Sean Combs sex trafficking trial. From burglarized homes to unwrapped Christmas gifts and even a Porsche set on fire. We will have the very latest details after rapper Kid Cudi took the stand giving explosive testimony.

[08:49:10]

And right now, let's take a look at the market. Or maybe we shouldn't because look at what's happening here. All in the red, it is dropping fast, perhaps a reaction to President Donald Trump's new tariffs announcement this morning hitting the E.U. and potentially Apple. Those stories ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news this morning. President Trump just threatened to hit the European Union with a 50 percent tariff on all imported goods. He says negotiations are not making any progress. You can see stock futures turning sharply lower, really, the minute he made that threat. He's also threatening Apple, saying if it does not move production and manufacturing of its iPhones to the U.S., that the company, just that one company, will be hit by a 25 percent tariff.

Obviously, this comes as many countries in the world have been rattled with his trade threats over the last six to eight weeks. One of those countries very much includes Canada. And that is where New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen is this morning. She is leading a bipartisan group of senators on a visit to Canada, I guess, to try to smooth things over. We'll get to Canada in just a minute, but it's all connected to what we're hearing now. Your take on these new threats, a 50 percent tariff on the European Union.

[08:55:01]

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): Well, it's unfortunate that the President is going after our strongest allies, because at a time when we're facing adversaries like China and Russia, when the global situation is so precarious, we need to do everything we can to work together with our allies. It multiplies. One of the biggest advantages the United States has are our allies and partners.

And so to be picking a fight now, seems to me not to be in America's interest, plus the impact that it's going to have on consumers and businesses. What I'm hearing from business in New Hampshire is their very real concern about tariffs and what it means for their cost of doing business, what it means for their ability to get supply, the materials that are part of their supply chain. It's having a huge impact.

BERMAN: What about the targeting of a specific company, which also happened this morning with the President threatening Apple?

SHAHEEN: Well, again, this is something that's going to have a big impact on consumers. Almost everybody in the country has an iPhone. Now, they're not all Apple iPhones, but for those of us who do, those are going to cost more. It's going to have a ripple effect across the economy.

And I don't think that's the best way for us to address the concerns around our trade imbalance and around what we need to do to ensure that America is strong when it comes to trade with the rest of the world. BERMAN: You are in Canada. New Hampshire shares a border with Canada, just a little bit, just at the tip there, at the tippy top of New Hampshire. What are you hearing from people in Canada this morning about how they feel this trade back and forth with the U.S. has gone? You know, Canada stood up to the United States and in a way reset, I think, the environment that a lot of these -- these trade talks have taken place in.

SHAHEEN: Well, New Hampshire has a short border with Canada, but we have the highest percentage of Canadian Americans of any state in the country. Not only do we have family relationships, we have business relationships. Tourism is very much dependent on our Canadian visitors. And we're really here. We're all -- we're delegation from almost all border states, who -- so we understand how important the relationship is with Canada. We're here to meet the new prime minister, members of his cabinet, and to reaffirm the strength of that relationship and our understanding of how important it is and how we want to see it get back on track.

BERMAN: You know, one of the things that the Canadian prime minister said is, I'm paraphrasing here, basically, if we can't make things work with the United States, we will look elsewhere. What would the impact of that be if Canada starts casting its gaze not to the south, but around the world?

SHAHEEN: Well, one of the things that we've seen in New Hampshire in the first quarter of this year is that our exports to Canada are down 52 percent. And so what we don't want to happen is for that to be a long-term issue because Canada is finding markets in other countries. So, again, all of us who are here understand how important this relationship is. We want to reaffirm that. We want to talk about how we can work together to make sure that it continues to improve.

BERMAN: In the United States, Europe, and Canada, last night, there was an event that President Trump attended. It was a crypto event. And this was a private event, not tied to policy, which was to raise money for a meme coin enterprise that is connected to some of his family businesses there. How do you feel about that?

SHAHEEN: I think that's a violation of our ethics laws in the United States. It's -- I don't think any American thinks it's appropriate for the President of the United States to enrich himself and his family because of his office.

BERMAN: Do you hear, or what do you hear among some of your Republican colleagues? I read quotes from Lisa Murkowski, a Republican or Independent from Alaska but also since the alumnus from Wyoming, a Republican who expressed concerns.

SHAHEEN: I think there is bipartisan concern about this. And also it's a distraction at a time when we have so many challenges facing the United States, we want our President focused on those challenges. We don't want this kind of issue to sidetrack. What we need to do to address the very real economic challenges people are facing, the concern about making sure they can get health care, that their grocery prices are lower, that their energy costs are lower. At a time when we have a lot of countries who the President says want to negotiate trade deals, we need to have a focus on that. We need to get those deals done and we need to make sure we lower costs for Americans.

[08:59:59]

BERMAN: Senator Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire joining us this morning from Canada, even further north than New Hampshire. We appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much.

Brand new hour of CNN News Central starts now.