Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

"Trump Accounts" Savings App For Children Goes Live; DOJ Launches Criminal Probe Into Trump Accuser E. Jean Carroll; Inside A Ukrainian Long-Range Drone Unit Hitting Russia. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 28, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: So if you have a kid who was born between the -- you know, January 1, 2025 and -- well, this expires in '28. We'll see if that, you know, gets renewed.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, good point -- yeah.

GOLDMAN: We'll see. But if you have a kid who was born then, is a U.S. citizen -- and you need that valid Social Security number -- you can get a Trump account for your kid.

Now what this does is it's a tax-deductible contribution. You can make up to $5,000 a year. We're going to come back to that number because that's really, really important.

But basically, it's like a 401k for your child because you can put it in a broad-based stock fund, an ETF -- that kind of thing. You can actually make a decent amount of money for your child by the time that they turn 18. You can't withdraw it until they turn 18. That's very important too. So you can invest but you can't touch that money.

So this is basically supposed to be either a retirement account for your child because you cannot withdraw it until your retirement age or you get that 10 percent penalty plus taxes. But you can take it out for college or a home purchase.

Now, how are you possibly going to do this? Well, what happens is you put $1,000 and the government puts $1,000 in for you. But if you make nothing -- you just say I'm going to keep it there -- let's be conservative and say there's a seven percent average return on that. You're going to come out with $3,300 for your kid. And if you want to be aggressive about it and invest $5,000 a year -- not everyone can do that --

BOLDUAN: Right.

GOLDMAN: -- but if you do it, your kid, assuming a 10 percent average, that's actually less than we've had over the past years --

BOLDUAN: OK.

GOLDMAN: -- you get a quarter-million dollars for your kid when they come out of their sort of lockup period and they're ready to go to college. That's better than what I had going in. That's better than most people.

That's why this is a really, really important program for people to sign up. So you might be wondering how do I do that? Well, you fill out form 4547. Why is it 4547? OK, we get it.

BOLDUAN: I was going to -- it's hard to remember. Oh wait, no. I get it.

GOLDMAN: Oh, yes. I remember now.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: Yes. This is a Trump account --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: -- through and through. But if you fill this out on trumpaccounts.gov you -- and you have an eligible child, you can do that, again, starting July 4.

BOLDUAN: Very important information.

GOLDMAN: It is.

BOLDUAN: And it goes live today.

Thanks so much, David. I really appreciate it. A lot for a lot of people to be thinking about -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a CNN exclusive this morning. Multiple sources tell us the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the writer who accused President Trump of sexual assault.

Separate juries awarded Carroll more than $88 million, finding the president liable for sexually abusing her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s and then defaming her in 2019 when he denied the assault repeatedly.

Now we are told the Justice Department is looking into whether Carroll committed perjury when she testified that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit. It was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman's nonprofit had paid some legal fees and expenses.

Joining us now is CNN political analyst Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times, and Ron Brownstein with Bloomberg. Gentlemen, it's great to see you.

We talked about the legal implications surrounding this. Zolan, I just want to start a little bit on the politics here with noting that all these lawsuits, investigations, what some people call a retribution campaign -- it's not the economy, which is what voters say they are most concerned about.

So when something like this pops up how much does the White House think it helps? ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT,

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, for one, I think it's just worth emphasizing again that this is incredibly unusual. It's not activity you would usually see out of a Justice Department that, you know, has long been known as -- had a norm of being independent of the White House.

And it does firm concerns, including from some Justice Department officials themselves of the president's control over this agency as well. This is and does -- would appear to be the retribution tour just kicked into another level here.

Now for the politics, as you said. I mean, I can recall when chief of staff Susie Wiles was quoted I believe in the Vanity Fair piece saying that the retribution tour would be temporary and that there would then be a shift to traveling the country and focusing more of the White House's messaging on the kitchen table issues that were the concern of Americans throughout the country.

We have seen that there is rising economic anxiety and frustration, particularly as the war in Iran has gone on. The White House has continued to say that they're going to go out and talk about the domestic agenda and reach voters where they are.

This doesn't align with that, right? You can group these actions with the retribution tour. With also President Trump's comments of disregarding the finances of Americans when it comes to negotiations with Iran. Saying yesterday that he also doesn't really care about the midterms as well, saying that in the context of Iran cannot wait him out.

[07:35:00]

All of these comments point to really a fissure between the priorities of President Trump and the priorities of the overall Republican Party --

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, OPINION COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG : Yeah.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- that is trying to address the concerns of their voters as they look forward to November.

BERMAN: So Ron, it's an interesting segue into a different story, which on its face seems very different but may have similarities, which is The Washington Post reports just moments ago an exclusive. Now I should note CNN has not confirmed this, but the Post reports that there are people inside the Trump administration trying to mint a $250 bill with President Trump's face on it.

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

BERMAN: And again, the connection here, I will note, is this isn't the economy.

BROWNSTEIN: No, no. There is -- I think the connection is even stronger than that. First, can I just say one thing about the use of the Justice Department in this way? It is astonishing to me how silent the business community and leaders in other sectors of society has been about this. I cannot imagine that Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or leaders on Wall Street really want to live in a world where it is now routine for the president's political -- perceived political adversaries to find themselves constantly under investigation by the Justice Department. And their silence on this is just not only cowardly --

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: -- but I think kind of self-destructive.

The point I think to the connection though, John, I think is even more profound than you said. What is the core Democratic argument for 2026? The core Democratic argument is that you elected Donald Trump to solve your cost of living problems and all he has done is make them worse through his tariffs, his war and gas prices, his cuts in health care while enriching himself, his family, and his allies.

And he keeps providing bullet points for the Democratic argument that he is more focused on himself, on his grievances, and on his desires. Tearing down the East Wing. Setting up this weaponization fund. Prosecuting his political enemies. Putting his name on buildings.

All of this basically reinforces the Democratic argument that Trump is simply not focused on the principal task that most Americans elected him to focus on, which was improving their cost of living.

BERMAN: And in the midst of all of this I can hear Democrats cringing in their seats when former first lady Jill Biden does an interview when she is sort of looking backwards at the last campaign and says this about her husband's performance in the 2024 presidential debate -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RITA BRAVER, FORMER CBS NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, "CBS SUNDAY MORNING": Were you horrified as you saw it unfold?

JILL BIDEN, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I wasn't horrified; I was frightened because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since -- never.

BRAVER: Or since.

BIDEN: Yes, or since.

BRAVER: You've never seen him like that?

BIDEN: Never, no.

BRAVER: What happened?

BIDEN: I don't know what happened. I mean, when I -- as I watched it, I thought oh my God, he's having a stroke, and it scared me to death. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, we've got 20 seconds left for each of here. Zolan, you first.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Well, for one, it just keeps the attention on the past when voters have questions about the future of the Democratic Party. Two, it's going to frustrate some voters. I can remember being on the campaign trail talking to members of the Democratic base who were saying well, wait -- like, the rhetoric of the White House is not matching our concerns about Biden's age.

BROWNSTEIN: Um-hum.

KANNO-YOUNGS: And they had those concerns long --

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- before the debate.

BERMAN: Ron?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, Joe Biden has shaped the future of the Democratic Party in this way. I mean, he really kind of crystalized this desire for generational change in the party, and I think that's going to be an extremely powerful force as we've seen already in '26 and certainly in the '28 presidential primaries.

BERMAN: Ron Brownstein, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, I want to see both of your faces on $350 bills soon. Great to see both of you this morning. Thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, let's turn to this. As the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republican of Congo continues to grow the Trump administration says that it is now focused on keeping the disease out of the United States in a new way.

The administration now says that it is making plans to send Americans who may have been exposed to the virus to health facilities in Kenya -- not bringing them back to the U.S. Officials say the state of the art facility, as they describe it, is designed for Americans who need to get quickly out of the DRC and into quarantine without the risks of a lengthy transport back to the U.S.

But one infectious disease expert calls that plan "insane," warning that "it will have awful consequences," as the expert says.

And the U.S., has long -- as you probably remember, has long had a network of specialized hospitals that are equipped -- that are highly equipped to handle -- highly equipped with all sorts of health equipment and special medical equipment and special units in order to handle Americans exposed to viruses like Ebola and much more.

[07:40:00]

A New York health official says now that U.S. travelers returning from an Ebola-affected region of Africa will soon be able to fly into JFK airport for screening. Until now passengers were being directed to land in only Atlanta, Houston or at Dulles Airport.

Officials in the DRC say there are now more than 1,000 suspected cases of Ebola and 246 suspected deaths -- John.

BERMAN: All right. U.S. oil prices ticking up this morning after the United States carried out new strikes on Iran, which seem to push back hopes that there will be a quick end to the war. As this conflict drags on the U.S. stockpile of emergency oil is disappearing quickly.

Let's get to CNN's Matt Egan for the latest on this. Good morning, sir.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well John, back-to-back major wars have really put a dent in America's stockpile of emergency oil.

Recall that in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, then-candidate Trump -- he really blasted the Biden administration for aggressively draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ahead of those midterms. Flash forward four years later. The now-President Trump is draining the SPR at an even faster clip ahead of these midterms because of another war -- the war with Iran.

So in the most recent week that we have data for alone, the SPR was drained by almost 10 million barrels. That is the most on record, surpassing anything that the Biden administration did, at least on a weekly basis. And that lowered the SPR to the lowest level since July of 2024. In fact, it's quickly approaching the lowest level since the early 1980s back when the U.S. economy was much smaller and consumed much less energy.

Now this is exactly what the SPR is there for, right? It's kind of like an airbag that's designed to cushion consumers and businesses from even higher gasoline, jet fuel, diesel prices, right? The SPR -- it is still the world's largest emergency oil stockpile. It can hold more than 700 million barrels of crude in dozens of salt caverns along the Gulf Coast.

And, you know, presidents of both parties -- they've deployed it during break the glass moments like wars, like hurricanes. Now, the Biden administration really drained the SPR aggressively, right? It plunged during the Biden era.

But the fact that it's going down even faster this spring really underscores the magnitude of this energy crisis, right? The fact that the Strait of Hormuz has been closed for months now -- that has derailed more than 1.2 billion barrels of crude.

BERMAN: Wow.

EGAN: It's just stunning.

Some context: This is enough to meet world demand for 12 days, but that's what's been lost during this crisis. And what's notable is that oil from the SPR -- it's not just going to U.S. refineries; it's also getting shipped overseas to other countries that are hurt even more.

So look, bottom line, if not for the SPR, prices would be even higher.

But John, this is not a limitless pit, right? Eventually you've got to replace what you've taken out. And in the long run that could end up lifting prices and demand higher, even after this crisis is over.

BERMAN: It really just does show the scope of the challenges given how prices are even with the depletion of this size.

Matt Egan, great to see you.

EGAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: The breaking news this morning. U.S. Central Command confirms just a few minutes ago that Iran launched a ballistic missile toward Kuwait, describing in a social media post this as well, which is a critical piece to this whole thing. CENTCOM is calling that an "egregious ceasefire violation" by Iran. Kuwaiti forces intercepted the missile.

U.S. officials say that attack came hours after Iran had posed a clear threat by launching attack drones near the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM says U.S. forces intercepted those drones, prevented another, then attacked and prevented another drone from launching from a site in Bandar Abbas.

There's also new CNN exclusive reporting out today that Iran is regaining access to its vast stockpile of missiles despite the president's claims that those arsenals have been destroyed. Weapons experts are analyzing new satellite images, and they believe the missile stockpiles have been virtually untouched.

Joining us now is CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger of The New York Times. David, thank you for being here.

Just seeing the -- as we've been talking about this fragile ceasefire they call all of the actions defensive actions, not offensive actions --

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE AND NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES, AUTHOR, "NEW COLD WARS": Right.

BOLDUAN: -- and saying that the ceasefire has been holding.

But now, seeing this from CENTCOM this morning -- an egregious ceasefire violation -- how in question do you think this is?

SANGER: Well, first of all, when the United States does these strikes, they're defensive because they see something that's massing --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum. SANGER: -- that might turn into an attack on American forces but is a threat. But when the Iranians respond, it's a ceasefire violation. And, of course, the exact reverse when you hear the Iranians talk about it.

So what do we have here? First of all, we have something of a stalemate, which is kind of where the Iranians wanted this to go. Get the president, right?

BOLDUAN: Yeah, to be in the --

[07:45:00]

SANGER: Because the president is not doing enough strikes back on Iran to make a difference. And as we've discussed before even 38 days of bombing didn't bring about what he wanted. He's trying to get this agreement -- this one-page memorandum of understanding that he calls a deal. But what is it? It's --

BOLDUAN: That's -- what is the deal? Because it's -- you can't say it's a nuclear deal.

SANGER: It's not.

BOLDUAN: That is going to take a long time to negotiate if that would happen. What kind of deal is this?

SANGER: So it's not a peace deal, it's not a nuclear deal, it's not a missile deal for the reasons you were just discussing, Kate. What it would be would be a way to get the strait open again. Now the strait, of course, was open before the United States and Israel did their attacks on February 28. So it would be an effort to get back to the status quo before the attacks began.

But that doesn't get to any of the American goals in the actual conflict, which were end the nuclear program, limit the missile program, bring about regime change -- just going by what the president said the night that he started all of this. And I know they don't like to be reminded of what those goals are but those are the goals.

If the Iranians can get the U.S. into some kind of a reopening of the straight -- so they're getting their revenue again and the American gas prices come down -- that's in both their interests. But then you're into the exact kind of lengthy negotiation that led to the war to begin with.

BOLDUAN: But -- and then there's also a question of, like, at what point of any negotiation are we at? Because the president -- and you've described this so well, which is kind of the veering nature of his approach --

SANGER: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- and the impact of it. They're very close to a deal. He is in no rush to get a deal. Iran is urgently begging for a deal but now Trump, as he said -- the president said during a cabinet meeting yesterday -- described it as having almost like the utmost patience. They can't outwait me --

SANGER: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- as he said.

So is it clear where they are in the negotiations? I mean, Marco Rubio says, you know, it's almost like their quibbling over one word here and one word there.

SANGER: Well, Secretary Rubio said that but those words that they're quibbling over are actually to fundamental issues. One of them is what do you do with that stockpile of 970 pounds of near-bomb-grade nuclear material?

BOLDUAN: What did you think of that? That part -- it was almost like glossed over a little bit yesterday.

SANGER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: He was asked, like, would you be comfortable with China or Russia taking the nuclear material?

SANGER: And he said no, which surprised me because on the plane back from China, he told us that, you know, this had been a subject of some conversation. Um, so I thought that what that meant was he wants the material in American hands. And I'm sure U.S. intelligence agencies want that because there's a lot to be learned from how they've actually enriched this.

What does it not get to? The other 11 tons of nuclear material that Iran has.

So we just need to relentlessly focus on what was the problem we were trying to solve here, and that's been lost in all of this discussion about a one-page agreement.

There is a reason it took the Obama administration two years to negotiate the accords the president -- that President Trump then abandoned. You may like it, you may not like it, but it was a long, complex process -- and this is going to be too.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, past is prologue --

SANGER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- as we're seeing this appears to be bearing out here.

It's great to see you.

SANGER: Great to be here.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right. CNN goes inside an undercover Ukrainian deep strike unit launching a wave of 200 attack drones into Russia in one night. And there are still tickets for the first U.S. World Cup match, which

is frankly shocking to me, and it could be because these tickets are so incredibly expensive. And now there's a new investigation into ticket prices.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:53:20]

BOLDUAN: New in overnight, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy says that he is preparing a major defense agreement with -- defense agreement with Sweden that would include a new round of fighter jets, all part of Ukraine's larger effort to ramp up airpower in its war against Russia. But it is new drone technology, not fighter jets, that's causing the major damage deep inside Russia right now.

And CNN's Nick Paton Walsh went inside an elite undercover strike unit launching hundreds of long-range drones under the cover of darkness, and he filed this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voiceover): President Trump once said Ukraine had no cards, but now they've built themselves a new deck.

We're now with perhaps Russia's most keenly sought target in the war, a deep strike Ukrainian drone unit launching this night a wave of 200 attack drones into Russia.

WALSH: The issue here is the scale. Potentially 20 drones being launched just from here and three or four other locations around here also involved in tonight's attack. The sheer number overwhelming. It seems much of Russia's air defenses are causing persistent embarrassment to the Kremlin.

WALSH (voiceover): Working fast in silence, knowing an error with the fuel or explosives or launch could kill them all.

WALSH: And they are a key target for the Russian Shahed drones flying overhead, constantly interrupting their work, which is going to go on all night.

[07:55:00]

WALSH (voiceover): Close to here, Russian strikes have just hit Ukrainian civilians. And in Russian Stavropol, these Ukrainian drones hit. The mayor telling Russian there to stay indoors.

In another field another technological leap is at work -- jet boosters used to get drones to their 120 mile an hour speed in just seconds. But their base onscreen is a glimpse of a world order turned on its head.

Dozens of Ukrainian drones roaming inside Russia code coordinates. Targets, AI-powered, pulsing on the screen faster than your eye can read. Russia often seen as the third-largest military power preyed upon by a series of laptops.

VECTOR, DEEP STRIKE COMMANDER, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE OF UKRAINE: It's our biggest advantage and why it's so hard for Russia to destroy this program because it was split up. We don't have any common centers, and we use dozens of places. Also, the software gives us a chance to work with thousands of UAVs.

WALSH (voiceover): The Liutyi drone can take a huge payload over 1,200 miles. There are decoys and the jet-powered drone they say seems to appear like a rocket on Russian radar.

VECTOR: Those are decoys. We sent hundreds of them. Some are empty, some with a payload. The payload is small but it's enough to destroy air defense systems.

WALSH (voiceover): It is dizzying, the speed of evolution, adaptation, ingenuity. Ukraine, two years ago, begging for old American missiles to hit just inside Russian borders. But now it builds itself and launches so many drones, often as deep as Russian Siberia. Even Kremlin loyalists are questioning Putin's end game.

Now the West wants to learn from what Ukraine had to do to survive when it didn't get the help it needed. Each leap advantage lasts just months before the other side catches up. Ukraine is ahead for now but only because it has learned it will likely be on its own when it's not.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Eastern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: A wildfire that destroyed several buildings and burned through more than five acres inside California's Wine Country is now contained. It took firefighters more than five hours to get the blaze in Livermore under control. Officials say propane tanks and welding equipment stored inside a barn triggered multiple explosions. You can see the aftermath there. No injuries reported.

So Duke University -- they blew it in the NCAA Finals but at least they have a new robot that can see and move in any direction. The name of the robot is "Argus", and the deal seems to be they wanted to build something that didn't look like a human or a dog because that can be limiting. So this is what they came up with. It has depth-sensing cameras attached to 20 legs because it does seem that 19 were not enough, and it can climb all over all types of things. So congratulations to them for that for this -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Your love of robots is just --

BERMAN: Well, I -- so it's great for what? Like, is that going to change my life for the next hour?

BOLDUAN: Who knows, J.B.?

BERMAN: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: Maybe -- you're just so shortsighted.

BERMAN: True.

BOLDUAN: It could not -- maybe not today but --

BERMAN: That's true.

BOLDUAN: -- tomorrow.

On that note let's talk about AI because it's changing today and tomorrow as AI continues to move in every aspect of our lives, especially our work. It's also starting to reshape how companies even go about the actual hiring process.

CNN's Lisa Eadicicco has this new reporting and she's here with us. And what are you learning? What's happening here?

LISA EADICICCO, CNN TECH EDITOR: So the big thing that I'm hearing, especially in the software engineering industry, is that it's making -- the impact of AI is making it really difficult for companies to figure out how to test and evaluate candidates and for candidates to prepare for that process because AI has changed the job so much.

Software engineers are now using AI to write code, to come up with tests. They're using it as kind of a partner throughout their day-to- day. But a lot of the tests that a lot of big tech companies have been using for years don't really reflect the way the work has changed. It's kind of like taking the SATs but for coding. It's like a really rigorous standardized test.

And on top of that because AI is evolving so fast, a lot of job requirements are changing really quickly .

On expert I spoke with that helps software engineers get placed at jobs mentions that it's kind of like a movie target that's changing from week to week or month to month. And that makes it really difficult to prepare and for hiring managers to also know what their business needs are going to be. So it really has been a big impact.

And what some companies are doing -- they're starting to focus more on a different part of the process -- BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

EADICICCO: -- which is known as the kind of like system design part of the interview where they're asking bigger picture questions that don't focus as much on the coding itself but how these candidates would solve problems. What types of products they would build and how they would go about building it.

And I do think this is important because even those software engineering is a very specific field, it's almost like the canary in the coal mine, right?