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Sources Say U.S. & Iran Reach Tentative Deal, Trump Yet to Sign Off; Inflation Gauge Hits Its Highest in Nearly Three Years; U.S. Economy's Growth Downgraded in the First Quarter; Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent Holds White House Press Briefing; Trump Administration Launches Plan to Put Trump on Commemorative $250 Bill. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 28, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:40]

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: -- penalty plus tax. So be careful about that.

Now, why is the government doing this? Well, good question, because people don't have savings when they're about to go to college. So let's just say you took the $1,000 and you never touched it again. Now, let's be super conservative and say that you're going to get a seven percent annual growth rate. Now, that's much, much less than we've had over the past few years. You'll get $3,300.

But let's say you actually invested $5,000 a year. Not everyone can do it. You can have $0.25 million by the time that you are ready to go to college. That is a big deal. And the way to sign up for that, trumpaccounts.gov, Form 4547. This is a Trump account through and through. Back to you.

(LAUGH)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": David Goldman, thank you so much for walking us through that.

A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Any moment, the White House will begin a press briefing as U.S. sources tell CNN a tentative deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is on the table.

The big question, though, now, is whether or not President Trump will sign off on the terms.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. We've learned the deal would extend the ceasefire and begin talks about Iran's nuclear program. President Trump has been adamant that Iran has to agree to not pursue a nuclear weapon.

We're joined now by CNN Anchor and CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, Kaitlan Collins, who's live in the Briefing Room. Kaitlan, what more can you share?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Boris, we're waiting to hear from administration officials for the first time since it was first reported by Axios and subsequently confirmed by CNN that there is this tentative deal that seems to be coming out of the diplomatic negotiations that we know have been underway between the United States and Iran and the various mediators here.

And basically, our understanding right now is that this is something that the president has not yet signed off on. And obviously, that would be key to any agreement that the United States and Iran are going to reach. But so far, it looks like it was -- it would essentially compromise their -- consist of this memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran that would lift the blockade right now that is in place, of course, that the president has put in place as Iran has been dictating control over the Strait of Hormuz, not allowing tankers to get through there.

That is what has created so many of the economic conditions and headwinds that the United States has been dealing with and obviously, other various countries, and basically would jump start a 60-day period where then they would get to the big issues here. The two issues that so far have been the main sticking points in any agreement, and that is on what to do about Iran's ambitions to have a nuclear weapon and what to do with the enriched uranium. That is something the president has talked about at multiple times. He's talked about removing it from Iran.

He's talking about countries that could be involved in that. That is still a huge issue. And so, it remains to be seen if any of this actually comes to a full agreement, because we've gotten close before and heard U.S. officials sound very optimistic before only for things to fall apart. But this does seem to indicate that they are making some progress when it comes to these negotiations.

And as they have insisted that diplomacy is taking shape, as the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio put it earlier this week, there could be a deal within days. So we are waiting to hear from the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent himself, on just how real this is, how far along they believe it is. And of course, what exactly it is that the president himself is mulling over, as he has not yet finalized any of this yet.

And also what they've heard from Iran's leaders, the supreme leader there, the key negotiators that they've been dealing with, if they've actually signed off on this, because that's been an issue the president himself has talked about before.

KEILAR: Yeah, because this is a tentative agreement, right? It doesn't actually strike a deal on all of these very tricky, outstanding issues. And as it's unclear where the president and the supreme leader stand on this, Kaitlan, what is the objective in having this out there? Is it a trial balloon? Is there some other reason? What might it be? COLLINS: Well, you've heard the president say that he doesn't want to be in a rush to make a deal. He said the other day, he doesn't care about the midterms, when questioned about the economic consequences of that and what it could have on Republicans who are on the ballot.

In terms of the deal itself, if it does reopen the Strait of Hormuz and people are allowed to use it freely, as they were before this war started in late February, and if that blockade is also lifted, that would be the most immediate change. And obviously, that's what all the futures and markets are going to be watching to see what exactly that looks like. They rise and fall with the typing of a headline these days.

And so that remains to be seen. But still, those two bigger issues would remain based on what we know right now on this 60-day period. And so, that is still a huge question in terms of the ultimate objectives of this war that the president himself has laid out, Brianna, as you've noted many times.

SANCHEZ: Kaitlan Collins for us at the White House. We'll keep an eye on that press Briefing Room and come back to you as we anticipate the treasury secretary. Thank you so much.

So some new economic data out today shows inflation just reached a three-year high of nearly four percent. That's from the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of prices. Higher gas prices caused by the war with Iran is igniting inflation and obviously, straining Americans' finances.

[14:05:00]

KEILAR: It certainly is. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is tracking it all. Vanessa, walk us through these new numbers.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so guys, now we have two inflation reports that show that inflation is tracking close to four percent for consumers. We had CPI, which showed an annual inflation rate of 3.8 percent. And now, we have the same thing for PCE, personal consumption expenditure. The annual rate of inflation for consumers is 3.8 percent, much closer to four percent than the two percent target.

And on a monthly basis, in April, we had inflation rising by 0.4 percent. This makes the job of the Federal Reserve pretty difficult right now, because it's indicating that prices are rising and consumers are feeling the pain. You have Kevin Warsh, the new Head of the Federal Reserve, coming in, leading his first meeting next month.

The president, as we know, wants a cut to interest rates, but this makes it pretty hard to make that case, because if you cut interest rates, ultimately, that fuels consumer spending and pushes inflation higher. On the spending front, we did still see Americans spending up 0.5 percent in April, but that is a drop from what we saw in March, when spending was increased by one percent. We saw folks really just spending on basics in April. So we're talking about utilities, of course, gas, those higher prices there, food and housing. We also did see that consumers were choosing to still spend discretionarily on recreation and restaurants. However, if you put inflation into the mix again, we actually saw spending closer to 0.1 percent. And we also saw in this report that folks were burning through savings, less savings, the lowest savings rate in nearly four years.

Also, we got GDP news. So that's how the economy grew over the first quarter. We get three readings. The first reading indicated that we saw GDP growth by two percent. You can see that's over the course of about a few years right there. But GDP growth initially was two percent. But look at this revision in the second reading, 1.6 percent.

That is because there was actually less consumer spending and less business investment than was originally reported. We saw in this GDP report that consumer spending, although a little bit less, was still pretty robust. And that just really shows, guys, the resiliency of the U.S. consumer amid so much unknown and also amid all of these higher energy costs and gas prices.

We also did see that business investment fell a little bit, but still pretty robust. It's a signal that businesses are still willing to invest, especially on the A.I. front. Now, looking forward, we are going to get a third reading for GDP. We'll see where that ends up.

But analysts we've been speaking to truly believe that the resiliency of both business and consumers will continue, despite the fact that there's been so many pressures because of the war with Iran and these higher gas prices and these higher energy prices that have trickled into everyday life, like these added food costs, et cetera. So worth keeping an eye on this.

The Goldilocks for GDP, the Goldilocks number is between two and three percent. We're just off of that. But listen, we're going to get that third reading to see where the first quarter ended up, a quarter that was very much focused on what was happening with this war with Iran, guys.

SANCHEZ: Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much for walking us through those numbers.

Still to come, more on this looming tentative deal with Iran. And a jury once found Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse. Now, the Justice Department is launching a criminal investigation into the woman who made those allegations. That and much more coming your way on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:10:00]

SANCHEZ: Let's go straight to the White House now and Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent. Let's listen.

SCOTT BESSENT, UNITED STATES TREASURY SECRETARY: Let's start out with Trump Accounts. Trump Accounts, I believe, are the most important benefit for young people since the G.I. Bill. Today, the app is now available on all major platforms, bringing the president's vision directly to American homes.

Nearly six million American children have been signed up for Trump Accounts, which will launch on July 4th. And I would encourage all of you to go to trumpaccount.gov to sign up.

We had a historic tax filing season. We passed the largest tax cuts in American history. The average refund this filing season is nearly $3,300, an 11 percent increase from last year. And importantly, very importantly, 62 million returns, 44 percent claimed at least one of the president's signature tax cuts.

No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, the reduced taxes on Social Security benefits, 85 percent of our seniors paid no taxes, and the auto deductibility on loans for American cars. And to remind everyone, Democrats, every Democrat, voted against those programs.

We've had sustained and resilient GDP growth. Real GDP has risen 2.6 percent over the past four quarters. Atlanta Fed's GDP now predicts 3.8 percent for this quarter, second quarter. The U.S. energy dominance, part of our resilience stems from our energy dominance. Natural gas is down, is my belief, and the Futures market is showing us oil will be lower than pre-conflict levels.

We are more resilient to energy price fluctuations due to President Trump's energy dominance and deregulatory agenda. The United States is now the world's largest energy exporter. The United States has never exported so much energy or produced so much energy.

Main Street prosperity, the average 401(k) is up almost $30,000 since President Trump's inauguration. President TrumpRx has already saved Americans over $600 million. I'm sure all of you will want to report on that.

And the unemployment rate remains low at 4.3 percent. So with that, I'm happy to ask some questions. I will mention that three weeks ago, I got an honorary degree from the University of South Carolina. So, if you really want to get a question, you can call me Dr. Bessent.

(LAUGH)

BESSENT: So --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: . Dr. Bessent?

(LAUGH)

BESSENT: Yeah.

(LAUGH)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Secretary Bessent, I want to start with these Trump Accounts. You know, there's a lot of people, a lot of working- class Americans that maybe don't have the financial expertise when it comes to stock markets and investing in general. In what ways do you -- are you guys simplifying this for all those Americans, so that it's not just for one class of people, but all Americans can have it?

BESSENT: Well, that's a great question because 38 percent of Americans have no exposure to equities. They don't share in the great innovation, the machine that is the American economy or the great capital markets, which drives our prosperity.

So if your child is born during President Trump's administration, Treasury puts in $1,000 as a seed investment. We've also created six learning pods. So you can go online to the app that went up today and learn.

And I think that this is going to be -- I've been a big proponent of financial literacy, and I think this is going to be one of the greatest real-time financial literacy education in history. Because it won't be, oh, there's a street in New York called Wall Street. This is what -- I don't really understand what happens there. American families are going to be able to look on their phone every day and see. And you know, I think it's going to drive people to try to understand what they've got here.

I think we're going to create a generation of shareholders. So --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dr. Bessent?

BESSENT: Ed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I guess, first, well, we're starting to see this disruption of the oil supply and food staple moves affect economic data. You know, first, is there a deal on the table for a 60-day ceasefire to continue that? And then second, how fast could inflation then recede or retreat, or is inflation sticky because the PCE was at a three-year high?

BESSENT: Well, first of all, PCE today, month-over-month, was 0.2, which was -- you know, we're looking at decimal points, but the estimate was 0.3, so one month doesn't a trend make. And what we've seen is, actually, oil prices are down about 10 percent in May.

There are almost 2,000 ships waiting to come out of the Gulf. And I think the oil market is going to be very well-supplied on the other side of this, and that we could see prices come down very quickly. We saw the UAE leave OPEC.

[14:15:00]

So I would expect, on the other side of this, that gasoline prices will follow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there an agreement on the table?

BESSENT: Sorry?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there an agreement with Iran on the table? BESSENT: The teams have been going back and forth. And President Trump has made it very clear. He talked about it at the cabinet meeting, that he has several red lines. And Iran has to turn over their highly enriched uranium. They cannot pursue a nuclear weapon. And the Strait of Hormuz, back to your question on energy, has to free transit, navigation of the seas has to be free and open as it was before.

So, he's not going to take a bad deal. He's going to make a great deal for the American people.

(CROSSTALK)

BESSENT: So -- I -- yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. Bessent?

BESSENT: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long until we see your signature next to President Trump's face on a $250 bill?

BESSENT: Well, again, as Treasury Secretary, I have two mandates for U.S. currency. At present, no living person can be on U.S. currency, and the currency must stay "In God We Trust." So, right now, there is proposed legislation in front of the House, in front of the Senate, to change the first requirement so that a living person, Donald J. Trump, could be on the $250 bill. So, it's all in the hands of the -- it's all up on Capitol Hill.

So at Treasury, we prepare things in advance, so we have prepared in advance that if the legislation is passed, but we will stick to the law.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And something that came up yesterday, also at the Cabinet meeting, President Trump said, Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up. Are you guys back there in the West Wing making plans for a new war with Oman?

BESSENT: Again, I think the president wanted to punctuate freedom of navigation in the Strait. I had a call with the Omani ambassador this morning, and he assured me that there were no plans for tolling the Strait. As he said, our countries have had 200 years of good relations. He wants to have another 200 more.

And I told him that this was a non-starter, and he did not want to risk either the Omani individuals or Omani financial institutions getting sanctioned.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Is it in the U.S. interest to waive some sanctions on Iran or to unfreeze some of their assets before Iran has made concrete promises about getting rid of their nuclear program?

BESSENT: Again, I'm not going to preview the deal, but I would think that things would go very slowly in terms of that. So we'll see.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just to follow up on that, because it's our understanding that the U.S. has committed to discussing the matter of sanctions relief during this negotiation period. So just to be clear, is sanctions relief for Iran on the table?

BESSENT: Again, it is a multifaceted agreement and nothing is going to be on the table until we see the Strait of Hormuz open and the Iranians agree that they have to turn over the highly-enriched uranium and that they can't have a nuclear program.

And to be clear here, that this administration, President Trump has done something that no other administration is able to do. We have gotten the Iranians to talk about their nuclear program and to perhaps commit to not having one. That has never happened before.

It had been off the table. So I think when you look at the results of the kinetic action of our economic pressure, it has worked to bring them to the table and have a discussion on this.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Secretary, I just want to follow up. You said that the teams have been going back and forth, but can you confirm whether or not a tentative agreement has been reached in these negotiations with Iran?

BESSENT: Again, everything depends on what the President wants to do. And President Trump is not going to make a bad deal for the American people, for the U.S. And he was very clear at the cabinet meeting on, yesterday, what he wants.

(CROSSTALK)

CARA CASTRONUOVA, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, LINDELL TV: Cara from Lindell TV. I'm sorry, did I steal his question? Because I'm not that person.

BESSENT: No, it's you.

CASTRONUOVA: OK, thank you so much.

(LAUGH)

CASTRONUOVA: Thank you for taking my question, Cara from Lindell TV. I really wanted to get your thoughts on digital currency. A lot of our viewers are increasingly worried that digital currency could one day be used to track people's spending or limit personal freedom. What's your philosophy on that? And what safeguards is the treasury and this administration putting in place to make sure new digital payment systems protect Americans' privacy and freedoms in the future? [14:20:00]

BESSENT: Well, so this administration has been very clear. There will be no Central Bank digital currency, which I think would be the first step toward tracking, so we have taken that off the table. We've passed Stable Coin legislation bipartisan and the CLARITY Act is now up on the Hill. I think it has bipartisan support and the most important thing we can do is to make digital assets come into the United States, make the U.S. the home, our regulation our best practices, what will ensure good standards for these.

When you look at digital assets, all the nonsense that happens, all the things you read about, that's because it's the Wild Wild West offshore. So we got to bring it on shore. So I would encourage the House and the Senate to get CLARITY done.

(CROSSTALK)

BESSENT: Jack (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people talking about the IRS settlement and which has been rolled over now into this Weaponization Fund over at DOJ. Wanted to get your comments on the decision process, as much as you can tell, how that settlement came to be, how it was rolled over to DOJ, and then the process for those funds now as it's played out.

BESSENT: Good. So thank you for the question. This is going to be the only question I'll take on this matter today. So there's ongoing litigation. So it'd be inappropriate for me to comment. President Trump is a great American who has endured more than 10 years of non- stop harassment and weaponization from federal and state government actors.

A bad actor at the IRS leaked more than 400,000 tax returns including the Trump family, all the employees, and that's how we got here now. No American should be targeted for political reasons and every citizen deserves fair treatment and full protection of the law. The Department of Justice represented Treasury and the IRS in this matter, and I'm going to have to refer any questions to Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche. So --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump has said that we can expect interest rates to come down very quickly a number of times before (ph) last week. But the market at the moment does -- probably does not expect any rate cuts this year. You know, JPMorgan said this, Morgan Stanley and so on. So who is right? The president or the market?

BESSENT: Well, I think, again, I believe that we will get through this challenging period now. They are on higher prices. On the other side of this, I've said publicly that I think we'll be back to substantial disinflation. But most importantly, I think we've got the Warsh Fed now. It's a new day at the Fed. The Treasury Secretary and the Fed Chair have lunch or breakfast every week. I had my first breakfast with Chair Warsh this morning, and I believe that he will do the right thing to balance inflation and growth.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Secretary Bessent. I think you were calling on me.

BESSENT: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I'd like to ask you, if you can provide a little more detail on what you're doing to shut down Iran's airlines and also on sanctions relief, senior administration official briefed reporters over the weekend that sanctions relief will be commensurate with nuclear concessions. But at some point, if the enriched uranium is given up, should we expect (inaudible) of cash to be flown to Iran? Can you describe how that looks?

BESSENT: A couple of things, on the airlines, one thing that we're not going to do is restrict movement for religious reasons. So Iranians who want to make the pilgrimage to Mecca or Medina will be allowed. We will also allow valid humanitarian reasons. But the other thing we can do is that when these airlines fly, they have to be refueled. They sell tickets. They pay landing fees. Anyone who accepts those, we will sanction.

So they should be very clear that the state-owned Iranian Airlines, they are outlaws and cannot do this.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Secretary, since you are the White House briefer today, I know you've been asked this already, but I'm wondering if you can just confirm on the record that there is a tentative deal that has been agreed for a 60-day extension of the ceasefire and then a continuation of nuclear talks?

BESSENT: Again, it's always a mistake to get out ahead of the president. So it is all going to be the president's decision. I think that we can see that the president very clearly stated out -- stated his three -- the open the Strait, highly-enriched uranium, no nuclear program. So --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are those things part of the temporary deal right now, sir?

[14:25:00]

BESSENT: Are those three aspects that you just outlined part of the temporary deal that has been agreed?

BESSENT: There can be no deal without those. Why would there be a deal without those?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks so much for taking the time. President Trump at the cabinet meeting said he thought that reducing fraud would help to balance the budget. You put out the goal of getting the deficit to three percent (inaudible). What's your timeline for achieving that? And how do you think the -- what can you say to make the markets, given where rates are, like kind of process kind of what your plan and agenda is.

BESSENT: The GAO number is not my numbers. I believe that there's about $500 billion a year of fraud. So, could we very quickly get $250 billion of that, the budget deficit is approximately $1.8 trillion, so that would reduce the substantially. If we could get that $500 billion number, you know, I think it would engender confidence. You'd probably also go into a virtuous cycle as the budget deficit narrows, interest rates would go down.

No one reports it. But last year, we actually had a fiscal contraction. Just to remind everyone, we inherited the worst budget deficit in history, in history, when we were not in a recession or not at war, 6.7 percent. We brought that down to about 5.5 or 5.4 percent this year. I think we'd stay on a good trajectory.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Secretary, without an executive order, does the U.S. government have adequate defenses in place to address the risk created by Anthropic's new A.I. models?

BESSENT: We have great collaboration between all of the labs that have the Large Language Models, but between the U.S. government and the labs.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. It's me? OK. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, appreciate it.

First, did you speak with the president before this briefing? Did he show any willingness to this 60-day ceasefire extension?

BESSENT: I haven't seen the president today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just got a follow up. When can Americans, the average American, and can the U.S. economy work for the average American without a deal with Iran?

BESSENT: Again, I believe we've already seen oil prices come down substantially. We are pumping more oil than we've ever seen before. And as I said, these are short-term challenges that we will get over and I think we'll move forward.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Secretary, just a follow up.

BESSENT: No, no. In the white.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Appreciate it. Given how much this upcoming midterm election will hinge on the economy, what did you think about President Trump's comments in the cabinet meeting yesterday, saying he didn't care about the midterms?

BESSENT: So you're calling President Trump a statesman. You're saying that he is taking a statesman-like position, that he has a core belief and he believes that the most important thing is for Iran never to have a nuclear weapon. So I believe both things can be true, that we can do well in the midterms, that we perhaps have the makings of a deal here, and I believe that -- and look, the economy that it is challenging now, but unemployment is still low, tax refunds were high, and consumer spending is still quite high.

So in my private business, over the years, I always looked at what were consumers doing, not what they were saying. And I'm in constant contact with the banks and every income quintile is still doing well.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the $250 bill, Mr. Secretary, you said the legalities are up on Capitol Hill. But I just wonder what your opinion is personally. Do you think it is a good idea for the president to put his face on American currency?

BESSENT: Again, the president doesn't do it. The House and the Senate have to do it.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Secretary Bessent, what are the remaining assurances that President Trump needs to see in order for him to sign off on the agreement with Iran?

BESSENT: I don't think it could be clear.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're following in the footsteps at the podium there of Secretary Rubio and Vice President Vance. There has been quite a lot of talk about their possible presidential ambitions. Does your presence here today indicate that we might see you running in 2028?

(LAUGH)

BESSENT: No, I think it just means they've run out of things on the food chain. So --

(LAUGH)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Secretary Bessent, there has been some back and forth over the last several days, and also with the U.S. attacking Iranian drones yesterday. This morning, CENTCOM put out a statement that Iran had launched its ballistic missile towards Kuwait, calling it --