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Trump: "I Don't Think About Americans' Financial Situation" Amid War; Trump Arrives In China For High-Stakes Meeting With Xi Jinping; Sources: CIA Escalates War On Cartels With Deadly Missions In Mexico. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 13, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So breaking just moments ago, big economic news. A key gauge of inflation shooting way up, much more than expected, major jitters about prices heading sharply in the wrong direction.

We have a CNN exclusive this morning. A secret CIA campaign against drug cartels.

And we are standing by to see OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, on the witness stand, as he and Elon Musk face off with the future of AI at stake.

I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan, and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

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BERMAN: All right, breaking this morning. We got new inflation data out just moments ago, and it showed wholesale inflation soared to the highest level in four years, much more than expected, likely signaling more pain ahead for consumers.

And it comes as President Trump just arrived in China, after he raised a lot of eyebrows when asked how he weighs Americans' financial struggles when making decisions about Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: When you're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans' financial situation motivating you to make a deal?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters, when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all. That's the only thing. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I don't think about Americans' financial situation.

With us now is CNN's David Goldman.

And when we talk about the financial situation, at least in terms of inflation, we've got this new data point. Tell me what we're looking at here.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, I can't think of a worse time politically for Trump to say that because, look what we just got. 1.4 percent in one month. That's the amount that businesses are paying more in April than they were in March.

This is the big number, 6 percent. We haven't seen something like this annually since 2022. We don't want to compare anything to 2022.

And when you think about what it means for consumers because, this is what businesses are paying, this number is -- this chart shows you how they are related, right? When business prices go up, consumer prices tend to go up. The blue line is, you. The red line is, businesses. Look how this is leading.

Now, here's the big question. Will this blue number start to go up? We didn't see it as much during tariffs, right?

BERMAN: Yes.

GOLDMAN: But we certainly saw it during COVID. People had a lot more money to spend back then. It's not clear that they'll be able to get people to pay what they are getting charged. They might have to eat some of this. But we're only going to have to wait and see at this point.

BERMAN: Yes, you just don't know where it goes next. But these kind of sharp increases look like the types of things we haven't seen in a long, long time.

GOLDMAN: Yes, that's right. We don't want to get back to here, and that's the concern.

BERMAN: When we're talking about the inflation rate in general. Just give me a sense in that this is the consumer side, where it stands now versus past key moments in the last few years.

GOLDMAN: OK. So, I mean, we are right now, we're seeing about 2.7 percent.

BERMAN: That was -- that was November 2024, right?

GOLDMAN: In November 2024, I'm sorry, we were seeing this just before the war. Look where we are now. 3.8 percent, that was the highest that we saw in three years. Clearly, this is not the right direction that we want to be going. BERMAN: Yes. I mean, and this date here is Election Day 2024. Inflation, clearly a key factor in getting Donald Trump elected. Look how much lower inflation was then, than it is now. And this was in Inauguration Day. So, inflation is actually getting worse from when the President took office.

GOLDMAN: So, here's the thing. This is mostly gas prices. And the President said right after he said, I'm not thinking about finances, that As soon as we get out of the war, this number is going to go right down.

And what have we been talking about rockets and feathers? That's not how this works. These numbers don't just start to come down. If you take a look at what the anticipated numbers are. And I thought I had it, but I didn't. But the big number is that we know that JP Morgan is predicting that $97 oil is going to be with us for the rest of the year, and Trump's own administration says that $3.88 gas is going to be the norm for the rest of the year.

BERMAN: And any of these buttons is like a box of chocolates, we don't know what we're going to get.

GOLDMAN: Yes, you never know.

BERMAN: But let me ask. The expectation. Maybe we've got something here. The war in Iran, do we have a sense of how it is affecting various prices?

[09:05:00]

GOLDMAN: Yes, well, look, I mean, so we have this poll that we had just yesterday. This number is the key thing. Look at this. 77 percent of Americans said that they think that President Trump's policies are increasing their cost of living. Just 8 percent said it's only -- it's decreasing their cost of living. People clearly don't feel good about what's happening. There's a big reason for that.

This chart is the thing that I think sums everything up. People felt lousy about the economy, coming out of inflation. But look at this blue line. This line tells us how much your pay raise is every single year. This is inflation. Look what just happened. Inflation--

BERMAN: Yes, this is what you're making, right? This is inflation. When inflation is higher than what you're making? That's a problem.

GOLDMAN: It ate your pay raise for the past year. That's right.

BERMAN: David Goldman, thank you for riding this breaking news with us this morning. Really appreciate it.

GOLDMAN: Anytime.

BERMAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, gentlemen. President Trump has arrived in China ahead of his much anticipated summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He's looking for a foreign policy win as the war with Iran drags on.

China, rolling out the red carpet for the President when he arrived just last hour. The ceremony featured 300 children dressed in blue and white uniforms who waved American and Chinese flags and chanted, Welcome, welcome, enthusiastically, welcome. This is the first trip by an American president to China since his last visit in 2017 on the agenda, Trade, Tech, Taiwan.

But China is a close partner with Iran, and the war will likely dominate the talks. The President is expected to urge Xi to push Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and agree to a peace deal. He says he's going to have a, quote, Long talk with Xi about Iran. But he also publicly downplayed any need for China's help.

CNN's Kristen Holmes live there this morning in Beijing.

What are you seeing for the latest on the ground right now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, we're not going to see President Trump again until tomorrow here in China. He is going to have another big event full of pomp and circumstances, as what we saw back in 2017. He's going to meet with President Xi. It's going to be the first time they're face-to-face with all of that glory in the Great Hall, red carpet, escorts, lots of different military bands, et cetera. And that's, of course, what President Trump wants, and President Xi knows he wants.

But behind the scenes, there's going to be a lot of wheeling and dealing. And I think what was most notable about what we saw during this arrival was who actually came off the plane. We know that President Trump is traveling with a delegation of roughly a dozen CEOs. That includes Tim Cook, that includes the CEOs of major banks in the U.S., of Meta, of other social groups.

The two people we saw coming off the plane with President Trump were Jensen Huang as well as Elon Musk. These are two tech titans. It gives you an idea of where this meeting or where these meetings and conversations are going to go in terms of business deals.

And we also know that China is hoping that the U.S. is going to ease up on some of its restrictions that it has on Chinese technology. So, we'll see if that happens.

Then, of course, you're going to have all of these CEOs, and we do expect to see some private sector deals, as well as conversations about public purchases that China might make from the U.S., like soybeans or commercial airliners.

But, as you noted, it is unclear just how effective this meeting is going to be, given how large Iran is looming over all of this. We've seen President Trump's strategy before. He's never going to come into a meeting, saying he needs President Xi. He will never come into a negotiation from that talking point. So, what we saw instead was him downplaying the need for President Xi.

But we also know that one of Iran's top negotiators was here in Beijing, ahead of President Trump's meeting, meeting with leaders here.

So, this is obviously going to be a big topic, and it's going to come up, and President Trump might actually need President Xi to step in with their great partner, Iran.

SIDNER: Yes. And with these new economic numbers coming out, the pressure is mounting.

Kristen Holmes, thank you so much. Do appreciate your reporting there for us from Beijing.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Joining us right now is Democratic congressman, Ami Bera of California. He sits on House Foreign Affairs -- House Foreign Affairs Committee and Intelligence Committee as well.

Congressman, thanks for coming in.

Trump in China. What do you want to hear or see out of this visit that would have you deeming it a success?

REP. AMI BERA (D-CA): Yes, I think with the economic numbers that we're seeing, if they can come to some detente in terms of the tariffs, reducing some of the tariff barriers to our exports, but also reducing some of the pressure on U.S. consumers. I think that would be a good thing.

If they can come to some agreement on extending the ceasefire with Iran. Yes, we've worked with the Chinese on the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA under the Obama administration. The Chinese helped reduce the nuclear threat. Yes, that would give President Trump a win. So, that's a place where I've talked to the Chinese ambassador and others, where I think the Chinese could help us find an end to this war.

BOLDUAN: Do you think that the incentive structure is in place for that, China will want to help bring this -- bring an end to this war?

[09:10:00]

BERA: Well, what I would propose is, you know, there's going to have to be a lot of rebuilding in Iran. The Iranians are going to ask for sanctions relief. Yes, that's the initial context of perhaps a deal that could be made, get rid of the 60 percent enriched uranium, reduce some of the sanctions. It'll be Chinese companies, not U.S. companies, that'd go into rebuild Iran. It'll probably be Chinese oil companies that'd go in and rebuild their infrastructure. So, there could be a win-win for the Chinese.

Again, President Trump's in a bind here. He doesn't know how to get out of this war that he started. He's seeing really dramatic poll numbers in terms of dissatisfaction from the American electorate. And then we've seen the economic numbers that came out today, which are disastrous.

BOLDUAN: And before -- kind of on that point, before leaving for the trip, you had that statement from President Trump to reporters that we played at the kind of the beginning of this hour, where he said that -- he was asked, and said that he's not taking Americans' financial situations or troubles into account to motivate him to end the war.

What do you take from that?

BERA: I take from that a president that is totally disconnected from what's happening with the American public. I did events in my district all last week. And people are stressed, they're angry, but they're scared because, they are having a hard time making their ends meet, whether it's buying groceries, paying their utility bills, paying their mortgage or rent, putting gas in the car. This is a president that's disconnected.

We will have War Powers Resolutions come up on the floor in the House and Senate probably this week. This is a chance for Republicans to step up and say, OK, enough of this, let's end this. If they don't, they will see that quote from President Trump, run over and over and over again in their district. So, tie it to an unpopular president, or, Let's end this war, and let's bring prices down.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about one aspect of this that has really started to come out, which is how this comes to an end, and that in part, has been negotiated or tried to be negotiated by Pakistan.

Lindsey Graham, the Senator from South Carolina, is not happy in learning the CBS reporting that Pakistan is, on one hand, according to the CBS report, acting as a peace broker between the United States and Iran, but on the other hand, the reporting is, allowing Iranian military aircraft to park in its airfields, potentially shielding it from American airstrikes.

Let me play what Lindsey Graham said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I don't trust Pakistan, as far as I can throw them. If they actually do have Iranian aircraft parked in Pakistan bases, to protect Iranian military assets, that tells me we should be looking maybe for somebody else to mediate. No wonder this damn thing is going nowhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What do you think of that? Have you been briefed on that? Do you think Pakistan is a bad peace broker?

BERA: I mean, I wouldn't trust Pakistan. I don't usually agree with Lindsey Graham, but you know, in this case, I might have some level of agreement with him. Certainly, they're also sharing information with the Chinese because of their relationship. That said, we've got to have negotiations. What I would urge President Trump to do is he's got to bring our NATO allies into this conversation, he's got to bring our Asian allies into this conversation because, they will be part of a long-term peace deal. And again, this go-it-alone attitude that President Trump has is dangerous, not only for the United States, but it's dangerous for this world.

BOLDUAN: Let me also ask you. I just saw that there's new reporting from The New York Times about the extent of the damage that the U.S. -- that the U.S. has done to Iran's military capabilities.

Here's the reporting. The Trump administration's public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities.

The New York Times also reporting that the evidence is that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites that it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz.

Have you been briefed on this?

BERA: I can't go into classified information. But I would say, Iran still has the Strait of Hormuz closed. So, read The New York Times.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Much more to come on that, for sure.

Sara.

SIDNER: The doctor who was treating patients on the Hantavirus-hit cruise ship is now in quarantine himself, after testing positive for the virus. What he told CNN about confusion over testing.

And a CNN exclusive. This morning, sources telling CNN, the CIA is ramping up its secret war on Mexican cartels. The new details and what happened there.

And wild dashcam video. Look at this moment, where a plane, look at that, clips the top of a car during an emergency landing in Arizona.

[09:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: All right, we have some new exclusive reporting for you this morning. Sources are telling CNN that the CIA may have facilitated a deadly explosion inside of Mexico that killed a member of a powerful Sinaloa Cartel. CNN is also learning that this is part of a bigger campaign that's part of an expanded and secret CIA campaign within Mexico, to try to dismantle cartel networks by taking out mid-level operators.

CNN's Zach Cohen is joining me now.

How is the CIA responding to all this? Although we know that it doesn't often have a lot to say.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Sara.

[09:20:00]

First, I want to start with the video though, that was taken on March 28th. You'll see, this is one of the busiest highways in Mexico. It's right outside Mexico City. You obviously can see that explosion in the righthand side of the frame there. That killed two people inside the vehicle.

We're now told by multiple sources that this was a targeted assassination that was facilitated by CIA operations officers, and it's part of an expanded campaign to go after drug cartels inside Mexico, that's spearheaded by a secretive and elite branch within the CIA, called the Ground Branch.

And now, the person in the vehicle was an alleged member of the Sinaloa Cartel, which is one of the cartels President Donald Trump has designated as a Foreign Terrorist group. Obviously, this individual was on the CIA's radar as well as the radar of Mexican authorities.

We're told by the State of Mexico's Attorney General that the explosion itself was likely caused by a car bomb. But the incident has never really been fully acknowledged, either by the Mexican federal government, nor the Trump administration.

But obviously, we're now told that the CIA was involved in this operation, as well as several others, over recent months, often coordinating with local and regional Mexican partners, rather than the federal Mexican security apparatus. And that is intentional, we're told because, the situation, the political situation, inside Mexico, is so sensitive and tenuous, as well as the relationship between Mexico and the United States, at the moment.

Now, we've heard Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, even recently say that any CIA presence inside Mexico needs to be acknowledged by the U.S. That's not something obviously the U.S. has done so far.

But Trump's focus on the cartels is really the thing that's fueling this expanding CIA activity.

Now, to your question about, how is the CIA responding? We, prior to publishing, we went to the CIA and shared details of our reporting with them. At that time, they declined to comment.

It was only after we published our story that the CIA then released a statement. Chief spokesperson, Liz Lyons, writing in that statement, quote, "This is false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk." Lyons obviously did not elaborate on what exactly was false. But Sara, I have don't tell you, we stand by our reporting anyway.

SIDNER: Zach Cohen, thank you so much. A really interesting story.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Well, high-stakes trial, and that could determine the future of AI, is set to wrap. What OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, though, said about Elon Musk from the stand.

And the multi-millionaire cosmetics mogul giving up his fortune and about to become a priest.

[09:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, breaking just moments ago, a new brutal report on wholesale inflation, way, way worse than expected. You can see, that's the month-to-month increase at 1.4 percent, that was much more than was expected. And annualized basis, it's at 6 percent?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Jesus.

BERMAN: This, after consumer inflation just surged the highest level in three years.

With us now, CNN Chief Data Analyst, Harry Enten.

So, we've been talking about inflation. We've been talking about the President's approval on it, which is not good.

ENTEN: No.

BERMAN: Our new poll shows that people are very unhappy with the economy, with inflation, with this handling of inflation.

On a historical perspective, though, how much don't they like how he's handling inflation?

ENTEN: These are the ugliest numbers I have ever seen on inflation. And it's not just one poll, Johnny Berman. It's many polls.

Just take a look here. Presidents' net approval on inflation, the five worst polls ever for any president, they all belong to Donald John Trump, and they have all occurred in the last month. The CNN poll, one of them 48 -- 48 points below water on the net approval rating. So, what we're talking about here is the worst numbers ever in multiple polls now belong to the President of the United States, Donald Trump. It is a record, simply put, you do not want to have.

BERMAN: The five worst polls ever?

ENTEN: Five worst polls ever.

BERMAN: Joe Biden is not in there? ENTEN: Joe Biden is not in there.

BERMAN: Jimmy Carter is not in there?

ENTEN: Jimmy Carter is not in there.

BERMAN: All Donald Trump?

ENTEN: All Donald Trump. The five worst ever belong to this gentleman on this side of the screen.

BERMAN: All right. So, to what extent are Americans, you know, saying that it's because of Donald Trump that they're seeing these numbers? And how has that sort of changed over time?

ENTEN: Yes, the reason why the inflation numbers are so bad for Donald Trump, in terms of net approval rating, is because they are blaming Donald Trump for the high inflation.

I mean, just look at this and compare it to term number one. Say Trump's effect on the cost of living, now that he has increased it in their communities. We're talking 77 percent of Americans say that Donald Trump has, in fact, increased the cost of living in their community.

Promises made by Donald Trump, in the minds of the American people, are not promises kept by Donald Trump. Because, look back in 2024. Did the Americans believe that he hurt them when it came to the cost of living in term number one. Just 40 percent of Americans said that.

We now have nearly double that, saying that, in fact, when it comes to the cost of living, that Donald Trump's policies have increased it in their communities. No wonder he has the five worst polls on inflation of all time when it comes to net approval rating because, the American people blame the President of the United States for, in fact, the increase in the cost of living.

BERMAN: Now, none of this might matter if people didn't think that prices were a big deal.

ENTEN: Yes, I mean, yesterday, obviously Donald Trump had that little press conference, you know that -- the little huddle going on outside, in which he essentially said, when it came to Iran, you know what, the financial concerns aren't for me, right? It's not something I'm thinking about.

Well, for the American.