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FIFA Under Fire; Prices Rising; Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 31, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

DASHA BURNS, POLITICO: I mean, you saw Hong just do this in your interview, where she goes back to those lines of the economy is rigged against you, challenging the status quo. And he has built his campaign around that.

Now, listen, yes, we have seen this race get nasty. We've seen supporters get nasty. We've seen some comments fly back and forth. My colleague Adam Wren got some leaked audio where El-Sayed called Senator Fetterman an ogre.

I mean, this is not the Midwest nice rhetoric coming from that side, but some voters do want to see a fighter, and that's what he's doing.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Yes.

Thank you all for joining me today.

Thank you for joining INSIDE POLITICS. Please join me on Sunday on "STATE OF THE UNION."

For now, "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A rare Camp David Cabinet meeting, President Trump gathering at the Maryland retreat with members of his administration answering questions about concerns that the war in Iran may be expanding, and that his nominee for attorney general may not get confirmed.

Plus, FIFA doubling down on its controversial plan to partially privatize the World Cup, even as one major group of teams says it will boycott the tournament if FIFA's president doesn't back down.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Plus, despite safety concerns and a lack of science, an FDA panel is supporting easing restrictions on one of the hottest trends in wellness, peptides. We will tell you which drugs are targeted here, why they're so popular, and how soon you might see them.

We're following these major developing stories and many more coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Right now, President Donald Trump is huddling with his Cabinet at the Camp David retreat in Maryland. The meeting comes at high-stakes moment for the U.S. and the Trump presidency.

His cease-fire with Iran has fallen apart, and fighting appears to be expanding in the region. The president, though, is touting what he calls a historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Have an understanding with Israel. Israel is very happy about it. Israel helped us. And they have been very good. They have been very good about it. Most people said that would be a deal that would be undoable.

Now, will it go through its UPS and down? It's a very complex situation over there. The people are very complex and difficult, in many cases wonderful, many cases not so wonderful. But that will be a -- it's a great breakthrough. Nobody's ever thought that would be possible to disarm Hamas.

That shows you how much success we're having with Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: There are still disagreements about that deal, whether Hamas is going to disarm first or whether Israeli troops will leave Gaza first. Trump also mentioned his attorney general pick, Todd Blanche, who's hit a confirmation roadblock after pushback from senators in his own party over the president's anti-weaponization fund.

The president answering questions on a variety of topics, including cyberattacks on Minnesota's water systems, as well as the economy.

Let's get the latest headlines now from the White House with CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes.

So, Kristen, walk us through the big takeaways.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Trump opened up, and clearly he's been told and was actually trying to follow the direction that he needs to be focused on the economy, touting what the administration has done.

It's just a reminder, I mean, Republicans overall, they want to be talking about the economy. They want to be talking about potential achievements of this administration going into November's midterms. But President Trump, of course, with the war in Iran and the fact that he doesn't like to stay on message, he has a lot of other things that he'd rather be talking about, it's been hard for them to pin him down.

But he did open with those remarks. And he did also take aim at Texas Senator John Cornyn, who he believes is holding up confirmation of his now acting attorney general, Todd Blanche. He praised Blanche, and he said that Cornyn was just mad because President Trump had essentially primaried him, and now Cornyn's career, at least as a Senator, is over for the time being. And he admitted he might also do the same thing. Now, one of the

fascinating things that he said, for the first time, we talk about that anti-weaponization fund, he said and admitted that that fund was dead. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Just to be clear, do you agree with the acting attorney general that the anti-weaponization fund is dead? And why not just put that in writing?

TRUMP: Well, it is dead. But I wish it weren't, to be honest with you. I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused. This has nothing to do with Todd. This was me. Horribly abused. And I'd like to see them compensated for the pain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, and it goes to show you that President Trump is clearly driving at least some of these negotiations by trying to keep this fund alive, or he had been, but there is an acknowledgement there that it's over.

Now, on Iran, it was really fascinating to hear kind of just a regurgitation of these talking points. We still don't really know what is next. He signaled more strikes, saying, we're going to hit them so hard, we're going to hit them hard until they can't take it anymore.

[13:05:08]

I do want to again note that we have reporting that intel assessments in the United States have shown that these kind of strikes that we have been doing every evening, or we were doing, are not going to move the needle in terms of Iranians changing their negotiating posture.

But he continued to say they were going to strike. He said he doesn't trust them, and he also said that multiple of his administration officials were talking with Iran, but that he has lost faith in them. One other interesting thing, he downplayed the possible Iranian connection to that Minnesota cyber hack of that critical infrastructure.

That was the first person to do so, since we know that this has been something that they're looking into.

SANCHEZ: Yes, he blamed it on the state's governor. Interesting tactic there from the president.

Kristen Holmes live at the White House, thank you so much -- Erica.

HILL: Boris, thanks.

Let's discuss now with Mark Esper, who, of course, served as defense secretary in the first Trump administration. He's now a board member and partner at Red Cell Venture Capital.

Good to see you.

I want to start, if we could, talking by what we heard from the president initially in this TRUTH Social post about a disarmament agreement with Hamas.

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: There are still a lot of questions, as Kristen was noting, in the air about this.

But when we look at this, it's interesting we have not heard anything from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Israel's ambassador to the U.S. did speak with CNN earlier, said he's supportive of the initial peace plan, but when we came to being asked about some of the specifics here, he had a lot of reserve, I will say, did not directly address -- the question was asked if Israel would agree to pulling its troops back to that so-called yellow line, to allowing in more humanitarian aid and permits,citing the lack of trust that we admittedly see on both sides.

Do you see this disarmament happening?

MARK ESPER, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Yes, look, it's a good question, Erica.

And I think we have to go back in history a little bit and recall that September of last year was when the president put forward the 20-point peace plan for Hamas and Israel, Gaza, basically. And as you might recall, we got through the first two points very successfully. We had a cease-fire, and thank goodness the hostages and the bodies of those who were killed were returned to Israel.

That was good. But then the peace plan stalled at that point in time, because one of the next steps was indeed disarmament, and Hamas refused to disarm. And so here we are now. It's -- this new framework is being pitched as 15 points to implement what was introduced almost a year ago.

And so that's good that this is restarting, but, look, I still think we have the same issues. I don't see Hamas disarming. In fact, a senior Hamas person just came out or came out in the last 24 hours and said, well, it -- that's only heavy weapons, right? It's not personal weapons, which is everything from handguns to machine guns.

So there's that. And, of course, Israel, which now occupies about 60 or over 60 percent of Gaza, has no intention of making any movements until Hamas does disarm and do a number of other things. Of course, there's the political context now, Erica, that we're closer to an Israeli election coming up in October.

We have members of Bibi Netanyahu's right-wing coalition have already come out and said this deal is a nonstarter. So I don't see the Israeli government or Bibi making any movement whatsoever on this in the next few months, regardless of how they feel.

HILL: Do you make anything -- I mean, you mentioned the timing of elections, right?

But do you make anything of the timing here, even from the U.S., from President Trump?

ESPER: You know, the president always likes to tout that he's solved so many wars or brought so much peace, and he's touting this one as an historic achievement.

Again, it's -- it'll be measured by its implementation if we can get through these 15 points or the 18 points that were left from last year. So, look, hope springs eternal. You want to be optimistic, but we know the nature of Hamas, we know the nature of this conflict, and, to me, it's going to be a stretch to see Hamas disarm or Israel make the first move by pack backpedaling out of Gaza any time soon.

HILL: Taking a look at what's happening in Iran, so much talk about an expansion of war at this moment, when the American public's view is increasingly negative.

The president earlier today at that Cabinet meeting touting the length of this war, saying, hey, it's relatively short here, it's only been five months. He compared it to Vietnam and Afghanistan. When this war was launched, the president said it would maybe be four to six weeks.

He also tried to downplay this today, calling it a military operation, saying he doesn't really call it a war. In this moment, what do you see as President Trump's options for an off-ramp?

ESPER: Yes, well, the yardstick it'll be measured against will be the fact that he and members of his Cabinet said four to six weeks, and we are now in month five, maybe heading into month six. And so -- and there is no foreseeable end in sight because there's no clear strategy.

Nobody wants to put boots on the ground, me certainly not. That would -- that could change the dynamic. And yet, at the same point in time, you cannot retreat from the Strait of Hormuz and give that to the Iranians. That would be a major strategic loss. So we are in this situation now, and with no foreseeable end at this point, I hate to say.

Look, I have argued that we should really pursue a strategy of economic strangulation of Iran. That has begun with the president's blockade, which I think is -- which is smart. It should include sanctions, global sanctions. So I think we should internationalize this conflict at this point.

[13:10:14]

And we should shut down every route of entry, whether it's air or ground or sea, by the way, because they have the Caspian Sea to their north, and really, again, economically strangle that country. While most of their revenue comes from oil, it's a pretty well-diversified country, so they get revenue from other sources as well, Erica.

So if you can cut all those off, you deny them the revenue they need to rebuild their military, to build ballistic missiles, to fund their proxies, and to do things like buy 300 to 400 shoulder-fired missiles from the Chinese.

So, to me, that's the strategy going forward. But it takes time, it takes patience, it takes discipline, and it would take some sacrifice by Americans and the global community to suffer through higher energy...

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: Former Secretary Mark Esper...

ESPER: ... period of time.

HILL: ... appreciate you joining us this afternoon. Thank you.

Still ahead here: fact-checking President Trump on inflation. The president talking about the price of eggs and saying everything else is down as well. Is it, though? We will take a look at the actual data.

Plus, a judge set to rule on Live Nation's motion to reverse a jury verdict, which found the company, along with Ticketmaster, operated as a monopoly. We will have the very latest on that.

And the American Red Cross issuing a stark warning when it comes to the nation's blood supply, only the second time it's done this in the organization's history. So what does it mean and how you can help, that's ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:16:01]

HILL: The economy is front and center for most Americans, and we're certainly seeing that in the most recent polling.

And despite President Trump's repeated promises when it comes to inflation, a year-and-a-half into his presidency, inflation is higher, today, inflation up to 3.5 percent -- up 3.5 percent, rather, from when Trump took office to begin his second term.

And while Americans are struggling with rising gas prices because of the war with Iran, the president keeps downplaying the higher prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Now eggs are much lower than they were when we first started. And that's true with everything else. And you will see how true it's going to be after we get rid of the nuclear threat of Iran, which will be very quickly.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So, it's important to note it is true, and you have likely noticed, egg prices are lower, but what about everything else?

CNN Daniel Dale joining us now to fact-check.

Look, people are so frustrated about the cost of living, and that's because eggs may be down, but it certainly doesn't seem like the rest of the stuff at the grocery store is, Daniel.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It's not. This claim that everything else is down to is just absolutely, unequivocally false.

CNN colleague Matt Stiles and I went through the Consumer Price Index data on 332 products or product categories published by the federal government. We found that about five times as many products or categories had increased since President Trump returned to office than had decreased.

Overall, prices are up 4.3 percent since President Trump came back. And going down that giant list, it is striking just how much of a distant outlier eggs are.,Category after category is up, food 4.2 percent, shelter 4.6 percent, energy 13.1 percent, medical services 4.9 percent, apparel 4.5 percent, tuition, school fees, childcare up 3.8 percent.

So it is category after category, product after product that have gone up, rather than going down. Well, how about grocery prices? Eggs are one of them. But five out of the six overarching categories of grocery prices tracked by the Consumer Price Index are also up, including even the category that eggs are part of.

So, overall, grocery prices up 3.4 percent, and then specific categories, meat, poultry, fish, and eggs up 3.6, fruits and veggies up 5.2, nonalcoholic drinks up 5.2, cereals and bakery products up 3.1, other grocery products up 3.

Only one category, dairy and related products, is down, and that is a very slight decrease, 0.1 percent. So the president is absolutely within his rights to boast about the improvement in egg prices, but that was a special case related to an avian flu outbreak in late 2024, early 2025.

So they skyrocketed, then came down back to normal. Meanwhile, just about everything else, with a smattering of exceptions, just kept going up this whole time, still going up today.

HILL: Yes, as most Americans have been saying and experiencing, of course, firsthand every time they go to the checkout. I also wanted to ask you about something the president said, and I have to admit, when I heard him earlier today, I thought, did I hear that correctly, and actually went back and watched the tape.

So, in this Cabinet meeting, he was blaming these reported cyberattacks on the water systems in Minnesota on the state itself. What do we know about those attacks?

DALE: Yes, so he said that he doesn't think it was Iran. He thinks Minnesota was behind it, blaming what he called a corrupt governor, referring to Democrat Tim Walz.

We don't know who was responsible. There has been no definitive official government determination, but there is certainly no basis for saying that Tim Walz was behind it, in part because it seems absurd on his face, but also because the FBI reports that seven states have experienced similar attacks on local water infrastructure.

So President Trump blamed Walz, did not blame the six other governors in question.

HILL: Yes, an important note.

Daniel, appreciate it, as always. Thank you.

Ahead here: FIFA and its boss locked now in a fight over the future of the World Cup. Why the plan to sell a stake in competitions is provoking such anger, that's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:24:20]

SANCHEZ: The global goodwill that came with this summer's successful World Cup is quickly evaporating for FIFA's president, Gianni Infantino. He's facing a strong rebuke over his plan to sell stakes of FIFA's biggest competitions to private investors, including the brother of Jared Kushner.

Last night, Infantino's right-hand man, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned in protest of the new investment plan, which not only is catching heat over its lack of transparency, but red flags are also going up over the potential main investor, Thrive and Thrive Eternal, which is led by Joshua Kushner.

Thursday, the governing body of European soccer, UEFA, threatened to boycott all FIFA tournaments, including the men's and Women's World Cup, if the plan goes through. Since then, a growing list of football federations have joined them in rejecting FIFA's proposal, while stopping short of saying they will boycott.

[13:25:10]

Let's discuss with CBS Sports Golazo commentator Chris Wittyngham.

Witty, always great to see you.

What do you think FIFA is trying to accomplish with this separate subsidiary?

CHRIS WITTYNGHAM, CBS SPORTS GOLAZO: Well, it's not what FIFA is trying to come trying to accomplish. That's becoming increasingly clear. There was another statement that came out from another member of the executive team at FIFA, who basically said we were completely unaware of this.

It seems like Gianni Infantino single-handedly came up with this plan and single-handedly intends to execute it. And that's why I think this has been received so poorly, because I actually don't necessarily think in a vacuum that this would be a situation that all of FIFA would be completely against, especially with, as you say, the goodwill that Infantino accrued.

But because it's kind of done in this way, where it's not just we're selling to private equity, it's, I'm doing this without any consultation, and you have less than two months to accept, you can't go through the financials, you can't go through why -- we don't know why Gianni Infantino has this incredible compensation plan, which will come into effect at the end of his term.

So this just seems like a bit of a haphazard idea that he was trying to force through with this incredible amount of power that he accrued with how successful the World Cup here was.

SANCHEZ: Do you think he's being viewed the way that Sepp Blatter was, one of his predecessors, given investigations and allegations of bribery and corruption?

WITTYNGHAM: That depends on by whom you ask.

And I think this is the first time that within FIFA there is a little bit of a move away from Infantino, because I think a lot of football fans have been really mad at Gianni Infantino for a long time with the way that things have built up to the World Cup, with as cozy as he got to Donald Trump in the buildup to the World Cup, with some of the decisions that were made with the revoking of the suspension of Folarin Balogun of the U.S. men's national team, with issues around how expensive the ticket prices were.

There are a lot of fans that have been mad with him for a long time. But, ultimately, people were mad at Sepp Blatter, the previous FIFA president, for a long old time. It only changed when there were arrests that happened as a result of the U.S. Justice Department, and then things started to turn against him.

This is the first time that because of this power play, because a lot of these confederations and these national associations don't know what's going on, that people are finally starting to ask, well, is Gianni Infantino the right person to lead FIFA forward?

So it really had been almost universal approval until now, and he might have taken it one step too far.

SANCHEZ: What does it mean that UEFA is threatening to boycott and that others, other associations may follow?

WITTYNGHAM: Well, I don't think the boycott is really going to come from too many other places. I think -- and this is sort of where the internal politics can get a little bit in the weeds, where UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, and FIFA have never really had that great of a relationship, because I think FIFA have always represented the rest of the world, the rest of the playing soccer world, where UEFA have always had the concentration of power and of the best teams. And so while decisions are not really made always with them in mind,

they make the World Cup bigger, when I think Europe would probably think about making it smaller, because that benefits their best teams, I think FIFA have always been about, well, what about the rest of the world? What about bringing more countries into the fold, whereas I think Europeans have tried to keep things more traditional.

But the reason why this is so interesting and so important is that you look at this past World Cup, six of the eight teams that make the quarterfinals of the World Cup are from Europe. Europe have always brought the best of soccer to the party when it comes to the World Cup.

And without them, you don't really have a World Cup to sell to private equity. And normally it's been a lot of backroom bickering and complaining, but never really collective action. This is the first time that we have seen UEFA flex their muscle and say, we are not going along for this anymore, and we're going to use our power, our considerable power, because without our teams, you don't have a World Cup to sell.

And this is the first time that they have really gone all the way out and said we are not having this from FIFA anymore.

SANCHEZ: How much of this response is tied to Joshua Kushner's connection to the president by way of his brother and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner?

WITTYNGHAM: It's worth saying that Donald Trump today said that he knows nothing about this.

SANCHEZ: Right.

WITTYNGHAM: But I do think that it certainly leads to a level of skepticism because, again, of the small circle nature of this.

So why isn't, if we're saying that FIFA are going to start a new business enterprise and private equity is going to own 21 percent of it, you don't think the other private equity firms would be incredibly interested in that, have a stake in the World Cup, this tournament that just made $15 billion over a four-year cycle for FIFA?

You don't think other investment firms would be interested? I wouldn't be surprised if, in years to come, other investment firms are interested in trying to do something like this. It's about how small this was, that it just seems like it was Gianni Infantino and a few other people that were aware of the plan.

So, yes, I do think, especially after what happened with the Balogun incident, with a lot of the unsavory things that happened as it relates the hosting of the World Cup over the last few years, that other nations probably aren't pleased with the fact that that's there.

But I think the biggest thing is how little transparency there is around this plan and this idea.

SANCHEZ: Well, we will see if it moves forward.

Chris Wittyngham, thanks so much for joining us.