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Trump Orders Cuts to South Korea Drills, Cites Ties with Kim Jong-un; GOP's Cassidy Slams Trump's Order to Make MMR Shot Into 3 Jabs; Estrogen Patches Scarce as Menopause Therapy Demand Grows; Midwest Flooding Begins to Ease After 8 Straight Days of Rain. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 17, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: President Trump defending his decision to scale back military exercises with South Korea just hours before they were set to begin. In just the last hour, the president says he recently spoke with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, citing his good relationship with the dictator as one reason for the reduction in drills with Seoul. The President, though, also implying South Korea's refusal to help with the Iran war was a big factor in his decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un, your next-door neighbor, and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? That's strange. I'm making it much safer.

You see, I'm actually making it much safer. Kim Jong-un has always treated me with great respect, and we've met on numerous occasions, actually, two primary occasions.

Spoken and spent time. I understand him. He understands me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining us now, Christopher Hill, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea. The President there talking up his relationship with Kim Jong-un, questioning why the United States should be involved with South Korea. I just want to remind people that since his last meeting with the North Korean leader, North Korea has increased its nuclear capabilities, built up its military arsenal, sent troops and missiles to Russia, and also shared its missile technology with Iran.

All of this in the background as the president is drawing back on some of those planned exercises. What does this mean for that alliance with South Korea?

CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA: Well, first of all, the U.S. does have 29,000 troops, not 39,000 in Korea, but who's counting? Secondly, what this means, it's kind of an unbelievable situation that I think the president does not seem to understand that when the U.S. has an alliance with a country, in this case, a country that we've had an alliance with since 1953, a country that pays its bills big time, that supports the presence of U.S. troops there. They are there because the Koreans essentially pay to have them there.

And then to suggest that he has a good relationship, a relationship which, as you suggest, is not at all matched by any actions on the part of North Korea. They have not diminished their capabilities. If anything, they've increased them.

They've been exercising with Russian troops. They've been doing a lot of things. And then to suggest that we shouldn't do what we've done every single year for many decades, that is exercise with our allies.

You know, when you exercise, you don't just meet them over coffee and donuts or go play volleyball together. You need to make sure that your capabilities match with theirs and you know what you're doing together. So this is going to have a real pall, a real negative sense in the relationship with South Korea.

And frankly, with the rest of Asia, they're all going to be wondering, what is the U.S. doing?

HILL: So as they watch and they wonder, it's interesting too, as we see the president citing a lack of help with Iran. But in May, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth actually was praising South Korea while the secretary was in Singapore, saying he was optimistic that regional U.S. allies would step up, driven by shared national interests, the unprecedented threat environment. I just want to play some of what he had to say back then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: In fact, we're already seeing progress. If you want to see what burden sharing looks like, consider the Republic of Korea. South Korea has invested consistently in its own defense, not because -- because it does not have the luxury of treating war like an academic exercise.

They live on the front lines, and so they build real combat power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Is there still truth to what we heard there from Secretary Hegseth despite the comments from the President today?

C. HILL: Yes, I often disagree with the secretary of defense, but I think he had that one correct. And I think it's important to understand that our capacities, which we exercise with the South Koreans, have to do with defensive exercises. We do not exercise for the purpose of invading North Korea.

We exercise for the purpose of defending South Korea. That's the whole game there. So, again, this is rather, to put it diplomatically, rather baffling.

HILL: Rather baffling. It's also, you mentioned, who else will be watching this? China, of course.

Xi Jinping will be watching all of this as the world is also watching what is unfolding in the Middle East. How much is that impacting the credibility of this administration?

C. HILL: Well, our credibility is going down every day, including in the Middle East. You know, his lashing out at Oman earlier today. Oman is a key player.

I'm not suggesting it's kind of the great ally that South Korea has been, but they've been a good ally and friend. And to go after them is part of, again, this pattern of going after friends and allies and essentially ignoring the behavior of our adversaries and enemies. So I think it's rather, it's odd again, and I can assure you people in Asia are looking very hard at this, and no country is looking at it more closely than the Chinese are because they sense from these kinds of statements that the U.S. is retrenching from the world, and this is frankly not good for anyone's security. And even with China, I mean, they have to be worried what in the world the U.S. is really thinking.

HILL: You know, as you lay out, right, what you're seeing in this moment, we have heard from Secretary Hegseth about the unprecedented threat environment globally. That threat environment, right, we hear from this administration, requires a strong military, requires a strong military presence. It would also require careful diplomacy.

Are you seeing more evidence at all of that, that there is perhaps starting to be an understanding with this administration that it's not just about showing military might, there needs to be the diplomacy angle as well?

C. HILL: Well, they should be seeing that, but I'm not seeing that they're seeing it. Frankly, they are asking for a historical increase in the Defense Department budget, historical but also hysterical, I mean, to go at 50 percent, but they're not at all explaining how they're going to protect American interests around the world. We want our interests protected not just on the shores of the United States, but out there in other countries far away from those shores of the United States.

And so we have done that over the years, and I might add we've done that very successfully. And so what is going on now in South Korea, where we have a great relationship, have always had a great relationship, it didn't matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, it's been a great relationship, very meaningful to us, and very important to our defense. And here we are in this situation now where the South Koreans must be just in shock about how President Trump is describing them.

And then describing, on the other hand, a friendship with Kim Jong-un, I need not go into all the sins of that regime. Suffice to say, it's probably among the worst regimes in the world.

HILL: Ambassador Christopher Hill, appreciate your insight and your outlook today. Thank you.

C. HILL: Thank you.

HILL: Ahead here, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy now calling President Trump's new executive order on vaccines for children, quote, wrong on so many levels. Ahead, we'll speak with a vaccine expert about the potential impact for children as they're heading back to school.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Republican Senator and doctor, Bill Cassidy is calling President Trump's new changes to the children's vaccine schedule, quote, wrong on so many levels. After Trump signed an executive order saying that the single MMR shot that vaccine vaccinates against measles, mumps, and rubella should be separated into three individual injections. CNN's Jake Tapper asked Senator Cassidy about it yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is the precedent right that breaking up the MMR will save millions of lives and that nothing bad can happen because of these changes?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): If it wasn't so potentially tragic, you would break out laughing at a comment like that. Instead of the child getting two shots, they're getting six. Instead of mom and dad missing work twice to bring the child to the doctor, they're missing six times.

And instead of the insurance company paying for two visits, they're paying for six. But the president's proposal is going to end up with more children being sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Joining us now is Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He also served as a vaccine advisor to the CDC. Dr. Offit, thanking so much for joining us. So all 50 states have their own laws requiring certain vaccines for students to attend school. And, of course, state authority to set vaccine policy has been challenged before but broadly upheld by the Supreme Court.

[15:45:00]

I wonder if you're expecting that we might see changes to requirements at the state level or perhaps attempts to change at the state level.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR OF VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: I don't think so. I think this executive order does not have the rule of law behind it. It was not based on any new science. And I think Donald Trump is just saying to the states that he wants them to consider his non-science-based ideas about the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine.

I know that our governor, the governor of Pennsylvania, has said that he's going to ignore it. Even Texas Public Health Department said they're going to ignore this because they can. So what will happen is we will continue to have a routine childhood vaccine schedule that is backed by science, that is put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics, that pretty much all pediatricians follow. So I think nothing will come of this other than you have the president of the United States standing up there and casting doubt on measles- containing vaccine safety at the time when we have more cases of measles than we've had in three decades, including two little girls die of measles in West Texas.

Can he be more irresponsible?

SANCHEZ: I wonder if you could expand on what we heard from Senator Cassidy there about what would happen, what the consequences would be if you split up the MMR vaccine.

OFFIT: Well, first of all, the MMR vaccine, which is measles, mumps, rubella, is not available as single-component vaccines and hasn't been available as single-component vaccines since 2009. In order for the two companies that make that vaccine, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, to offer it as separate vaccines, I think they would have to, again, get a license for each of those separate vaccines. There's no interest in doing that.

Both companies stepped forward and said it does not make this vaccine safer to divide it into its three-component parts. All it does is what Senator Cassidy said, which is make a two-dose vaccine a six-dose vaccine, make it so that children will only increase the period of time during which they're susceptible to these diseases for no benefit.

SANCHEZ: Is it your estimation that this focus on vaccines by the administration, and specifically by the HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is pulling resources from other health issues for children that perhaps have less research behind them?

OFFIT: Yes. You know, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he is on a war against childhood chronic disease. He believes that chronic diseases in children are caused by vaccines. He does, and that's why he has made vaccines less available, less affordable, more feared. Fewer people are getting vaccines, and you're seeing outbreaks, not just of measles and measles deaths, but whooping cough deaths at levels we haven't seen recently, or influenza deaths in children we haven't seen recently, and he says nothing, because he considers those deaths to be just the normal consequence of his war against chronic diseases, and vaccines don't cause chronic diseases.

I don't think people realize just how serious he is about the fact that he thinks vaccines are doing far more harm than good. It's really hard to watch this. He is a cruel joke being played on the children of this country.

SANCHEZ: Dr. Paul Offit, always appreciate the expertise. Thanks for joining us.

OFFIT: Thank you. SANCHEZ: Of course -- Erica.

HILL: The alarm bells have been going off now for months about a shortage of estrogen patches, and we're still dealing with it here in the United States. So a number of women rely on these patches to help manage the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. For months, though, patients have been scrambling to get their prescriptions filled. CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard joining us now.

Jacqueline, I feel like I have done a segment with you on this a number of times over the last several months. Why are we still experiencing this shortage in the U.S.?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right, Erica. This has been going on for some time. And the reason why we're still seeing this shortage, it really comes down to a mix of we're seeing an increased demand for these patches, and we're seeing manufacturers really scrambling to keep up with that demand, and so that's what's causing this shortage.

And when I say that there is an increase of demand, if you take a look at this chart here, since the year 2017, which you'll see on this chart, there has been a steady increase in the use of hormone therapy for perimenopause and menopause symptoms. And then last year, in 2025, we saw an even greater increase in demand because that's the year in November is when the FDA removed that black box warning from hormone therapies, including estrogen patches, and when that happened, we saw more prescriptions for these therapies, we saw more demand for them, and so this increased demand is continuing to go up, and we're continuing to see manufacturers, again, really scrambling to increase their supply to reach that demand.

Now, we did reach out, CNN did reach out to several of the manufacturers behind estrogen patches, including Sandoz and the company Amneal.

[15:50:00]

Both of those manufacturers did tell us that they're working to increase supply. Sandoz specifically said they're allocating more products to the United States to meet this demand. But this could take some time, Erica, and that's also what the American Pharmacists Association told me.

They said that while there's white at the end of this tunnel because manufacturers are aware of this demand, they're working to address it, it still will take some time to get the supply that we need.

HILL: So in the meantime, there are a lot of questions about what should women do if this is their preferred method. The reality is this is not the only way to get that hormone therapy. There are creams as well.

I take a pill instead of a patch. Are there shortages for those options? HOWARD: There are not shortages for those options. The way to view

this, really, Erica, is while there's a shortage of estrogen patches, which are called estradiol patches, there's a shortage of estradiol patches but not a shortage of estrogen.

So like you said, there are other forms available for women out there who are not able to get the patches that they previously were prescribed. So you can ask your doctor to maybe switch you to another form of estrogen, possibly the oral version. Like you said, Erica, you can get this as a pill.

Or if you prefer your patch, call around to different pharmacies to see if another pharmacy location may have the patch that you were prescribed. Or you could even talk with your doctor about switching brands of patches. Keep in mind, if you switch to another brand, it might not be covered by your insurance.

So you want to check there first before you make that change if it's a choice that you decide to go with.

HILL: Yes, absolutely an important point. Jacqueline, appreciate it. Thank you.

Still to come here, we have a winner. That winner, a rescued pug, Jinny Lu, taking home the crown for this year's World's Ugliest Dog Contest. I mean, ugly, really?

It's in the eye of the beholder, as we know. Prepare to meet Ginny Lou when we come back.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Disastrous weather conditions have begun to improve across the Midwest. After eight straight days of heavy rain inundated the region, Indiana was especially hard hit.

Seven people were killed in the storms, including a four-year-old boy who was killed after a tree fell on his home. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam has more on the remaining threats.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Fortunately, we're in a much quieter weather pattern across the Midwest, giving places like Illinois and Indiana a much-needed break from the relentless rounds of rain that dumped over a foot during that five- to six-day stretch last week. You can see some of those rainfall totals. Very impressive, but that's what caused the flooding that we saw in the local rivers.

Now, the waterways across this area are still very elevated. In fact, we have multiple river gauges that are forecast to reach or stay at moderate flood stage across central Illinois and southern Indiana. Those red boxes are the moderate flood stage river gauges.

And this is where our flood threat is really for the day today. Outside of the ongoing river flooding across Indiana and Illinois, we have flood watches in effect for parts of eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, and the southeastern sections of Ohio. A few scattered showers and thunderstorms could drop a quick one to two inches, especially if they're slow moving.

Remember, a saturated environment with additional rain could potentially bring localized flash flooding concerns. But this is a far cry from the weather pattern that we were stuck in last week, where storm after storm after storm rode around this ridge of high pressure. We call this a heat dome.

And you can see the radar over the past week and how active it was around that periphery. And unfortunately, that heat dome kind of changing its shape, it's locked in the heat across the Deep South. That's where we have millions of Americans under heat alerts right now.

And according to this NOAA heat risk map, we have extreme heat risks for millions of Americans across the lower Mississippi Valley and parts of the southeast, inclusive of the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. That's because when you factor in the humidity levels, the feels like temperature, what it feels like on your skin outside is working above 110 degree mark in so many locations. This is dangerous heat.

You want to take it seriously. And of course, never leave children or your animals unattended in vehicles in this type of weather. Back to you.

SANCHEZ: Good advice from Derek Van Dam. Thank you so much.

Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now become the deadliest in that country's history. New government data shows the death toll exceeds 2,300, with cases nearing a record 5,000. The current strain has no approved vaccines or treatments.

HILL: A rare sighting of one of the most secretive felines in the world, this is the palace cat spotted in the northern part of Iran, which is not the animal's main habitat, which makes this footage from Sunday all the more remarkable. The animal lives primarily in Central Asia. It's so rare, scientists don't even know how many there are in existence.

SANCHEZ: Curious cat.

HILL: We know how many ugly dogs there are, though. Only one with a crown. Maybe some other ones, but you know, ugly is so relative.

Jinny Lu, the six-year-old pug, just crowned world's ugliest dog. Sweet Jinny Lu beating out seven other finalists to take home the top prize. She was runner up last year.

Jinny Lu coming to win this year with the pearls and the floppy tongue, and they did the trick.

SANCHEZ: Packing the pearls, yes. Her fun fact, she screams at her own reflection in the mirror, the world's ugliest dog contest in Santa Rosa, California. In its 50th edition this year, why does she scream that way?

HILL: I don't know. I wouldn't scream at that dog. She's adorable.

SANCHEZ: She looks pretty sweet. I mean, the tongue is a bit much. The pearls, though.

HILL: The pearls are really something. I'm going to have to talk to my dog about accessorizing.

SANCHEZ: Not a bad idea. Shout out to Dakota.

HILL: And to Harley, our favorite dog.

SANCHEZ: "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

END