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Trump Defends Plan to Accept Luxury Plan from Qatar; Why Gen Z is Turning to 'Conscious Unbossing' at Work. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 13, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Closing up factories that were having a lot of unrest. And they were very happy to be able to do something with us. And the relationship is very, very good. I'll speak to President Xi maybe at the end of the week.

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[06:00:15]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. That's going to do it for us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon, live in New York. I will see you tomorrow. But in the meantime, CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: It is Tuesday, May 13. Here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

The art of the deal. A live look right now. President Trump getting the royal treatment in Saudi Arabia, of course, as he kicks off his trip to the Middle East with a big goal in mind. New business.

Plus, tariffs under threat. How an obscure court could bring the trade war to an abrupt halt.

Also, nearly a decade after she was tied up and held at gunpoint, Kim Kardashian set to tell her story in court.

And first, there was quiet quitting. Now it's conscious unbossing. The latest work trend that could change the dynamics of the office as we know it.

It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. You are looking at live pictures out of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meeting with diplomats at the royal palace at this hour.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Erica Hill in for Audie Cornish today. Nice to have you with us.

We do begin with President Trump's arrival in Saudi Arabia this morning. This, of course, is the first major international trip of his second term. His target: partnerships and business deals.

The president, as you see there, meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. They do plan to sign agreements, we're told. The details, though, a bit thin at the moment.

Overshadowing this trip, of course, is that $400 million plane that Qatar's royal family reportedly offered to the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a businessman, some people may look at this and say, have you ever been given a gift worth millions of dollars and then not received anything?

TRUMP: It's not a gift to me. It's a gift to the Department of Defense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Well, that gift is raising serious legal and ethical questions and also sparking pushback from members of the president's own party.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito saying she'd be checking for bugs.

Senator John Kennedy questions the legality of it.

Senator Josh Hawley says it would be better if Air Force One were a, quote, "big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America."

Let's bring in now our group chat. Joining me, Phil Mattingly, CNN chief domestic correspondent; Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist, senior adviser to Bernie Sanders's presidential campaigns; and Ashley Davis, former White House official under President George W. Bush. So nice to have all of you here.

So, this is the first foreign trip for the president's second term, starting off in Saudi Arabia. And yet, Phil, I'm going to start this with you.

As we look at everything that is coming into play now, these pictures, the big royal welcome. We've got a big purple carpet. This plane is really going to dominate and certainly dominated the conversation ahead of this trip. How damaging is that to potential deals?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I think what it does, actually, is it frames this entire trip.

If you watch what's been going on right now, when you came on air, President Trump and Mohammed bin Salman were -- were talking to Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber. We have seen a steady line of not just top officials from both sides, but also from CEOs, executives. The most wealthy U.S. business people in America are in this delegation, on this trip with the sole purpose and drive towards making deals.

This is a transactional presidency. This is a presidency that has made very clear that top-line numbers, $7 trillion in domestic investment, has been the key behind the scenes that people like Howard Lutnick have been pushing CEOs to try and reach in the lead-up to this. Now they're pushing that into the Middle East, as well.

The plane certainly looks, as Republicans are saying, probably like that's not what's supposed to happen. And yet, I think that's going to be the through line of what we see over the course of these -- the kind of three-country swing in the next couple of days.

HILL: So, when you say through line, we look at that plane, the through line actually, in some ways, being so what am I getting here? There is an art of a deal, right? There's a give and there's a take. Is that really the message the U.S. should be sending right now?

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, no, but I think this has been a complete interest of his from the beginning.

I mean, obviously, he's put a huge emphasis on the Middle East, and I think he's going to continue to. And not just for deal reasons, but also for diplomatic reasons.

But I'm not convinced -- we have to remember, this president is the best president to have us all divert -- like, look at another area when something else is going on over here.

I'm not convinced this plane thing is real. I am convinced that he's floating this, because he's really, really mad right now that the Air Force One plane has not been done in eight years. And is this more of a little bit of a threat?

But you're right. I mean, it's taking the air out of the room. I mean, just -- it's kind of like, "I'm running for a third term," to get out of Signal-gate conversation. I mean, this is what we're talking about.

[06:05:08]

HILL: Or maybe I don't want to talk about the fact that the China deal isn't really a deal. Right? Or you had to pull back on tariffs.

To the point of things being ready earlier, the security concerns, the legal issues, the ethical concerns, just to make this plane sort of ready, if you will, and secure would take a number of years, in and of itself.

Chuck, when we look at, though, the pushback, we've seen, again, not just from Republicans but from Democrats, there is a call for ethics investigations. Right? A letter to the GAO from Congressman Ritchie Torres that Axios was reporting on. They're going to look into this.

What does any of that do? Even if you have the Senate Foreign Relations Committee people saying, yes, we should -- we should look into this? And?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Normally, not just one thing with Donald Trump is enough. It's one thing and the next thing and the next thing. And I think he does that, to my sister's point, on purpose sometimes. But on this one, it's kind of -- people understand big giant airplanes from foreign countries. They may not understand what the CBO is or what the Office of Budget Management does, but they understand a big airplane that comes from another country.

The first thing that an old country boy like me would say is like, I wonder if they could put bugs in something like that, because it seemed like they could listen to everything that we're saying.

It's something very elementary, as the elementary part of this newscast this morning.

But seriously, when you think about what Democrats are talking about, it's just one -- another thing. And I think a lot of this foreign trip, if you look at who's there right now -- and that's what we were talking about in the green room -- it looks like everybody is there from this White House. Is there anybody left here in D.C.?

DAVIS: The entire cabinet is there practically.

HILL: There are a lot of people from the administration. There are a number of business leaders. As you point out, Elon Musk is supposed to be there. The head of Nvidia, as well.

MATTINGLY: Elon Musk's brother is also in the delegation.

HILL: I mean --

MATTINGLY: No idea why, but just -- just in case.

(CROSSTALK)

ROCHA: -- get them all over there.

HILL: Well, we know that --

DAVIS: He's the SolarCity guy. So maybe it's for the solar reasons.

MATTINGLY: That's true.

HILL: But in terms of all of that, right, when you look at -- to the point of is this a distraction, Chuck, what do you think it's distracting from?

ROCHA: There's a big budget going on right now where they're talking about cutting $16 billion out of Medicaid. That's just one thing. But there's so many other things on top of that thing.

HILL: Phil, what are you watching for to come out of this meeting? When you talked about the through line, we talk about the deals. We know they're supposed to be in agreement, but what specifically are we anticipating is going to be connected to those big zeros?

MATTINGLY: So, you will see a lot of pledges for investment. There's no question about that. The U.S. businessmen that are over there. There's also a Saudi business delegation that is both -- in every stop on this trip, there are explicit efforts and have been a lot of groundwork laid in advance of this trip to set up for trillions, not billions, trillions of dollars in commitments.

They know how important that is to the president, these foreign leaders, and they plan to give him that or put that on the table.

I think what's more important is this is not just a purely transactional business, dollars and cents. This is a diplomatic effort. This is now kind of the linchpin part of the president's diplomatic strategy.

If you look at everything that's been going on in the world, in the Middle East, but also with China, with Syria, with kind of across the board, Mohammed bin Salman is a critical, essential player. Qatar is a critical, essential player. The UAE, critical, essential players.

They have been very quiet in this part of the world over the course of the first 125 days of the Trump presidency. Behind the scenes, they have not.

HILL: Yes.

MATTINGLY: And I think the kind of full scale of what's happening right now and how the center stage of the entire diplomatic universe is where the president is, that's going to be what to watch.

HILL: Really quick on that point. Of course, the president is not going to Israel. This has come up, right? We saw with the release of Edan Alexander that that was basically a deal where Israel was not part of it.

The fact that -- I don't know what you want to refer to it as, but this change in the relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu and, frankly, the importance, when you look at this trip, what does that tell you about the -- about the focus moving forward?

DAVIS: Well, I think, I mean, listen, we're -- we're going to be friends with Israel forever. Obviously, Netanyahu has his own issues at home and abroad.

But I think that he -- they know exactly what we're doing in the Middle East. And I think that -- that the president showing the world that he's putting their -- his arms around this part of the -- the world and part of the region is something that's very telling.

But the one thing I want to say to go back at, which I know you'll appreciate on this is CFIUS.

One of the things that's supposed to be announced this trip is that CFIUS is the foreign investment in the United States. It's a huge process, foreign investment.

There's supposed to be a deal with the three in the region that it's going to be easier. He's going to make it easier for those three countries to make foreign investment in the United States. That's huge, in regards to a national security perspective. HILL: Yes. Chuck, do you want the last word?

ROCHA: I think that keep your eye on the ball. He wants you to be watching him over there. What's going on right here is making a lot of news in Congress this week. There's so much news coming out of the Congress right now. And he's overseas. We're being inundated with news.

HILL: We are. Well, it's a good thing that that's what we're here to talk about is news. So, there will be no shortage. So, stay with us for more on that.

Still to come here on CNN THIS MORNING, the last known living American hostage freed from Hamas captivity. The emotional moment Edan Alexander was reunited with his family.

Plus, how deputies finally managed to distract two kids playing with a loaded gun.

And the Trump administration closing off the U.S. to nearly all refugees except for one key group. Why the president is fast-tracking white South Africans.

[06:10:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, COMEDY CENTRAL'S "THE DAILY SHOW": White South Africans. That's the only group we're opening. What? You already have one. What? Why?

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[06:14:49]

HILL: Fourteen minutes past the hour now. Here's your morning roundup.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes!

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HILL: What a moment. The emotional video. That is the moment, of course, the last known living American hostage in Gaza was reunited with his family. That hug. Nothing like that for his mom and for him.

Twenty-one-year-old Edan Alexander is free after being held by Hamas for more than 19 months.

Deputies in Albuquerque disarming two children, seven and nine years old, who were playing with a loaded gun.

So, this is police drone video. You can actually hear on the video, the deputies urging the kids to put those guns down.

One of the boys even pulled the trigger. The weapon, thankfully, malfunctioned.

Eventually, officers fired a non-lethal round in an effort to distract them so they could then come in and grab the gun police say belongs to the boys' father.

Some major setbacks for the morning commute in the Baltimore area today. A seven-alarm fire halting service on several train lines, including Amtrak service into Washington, D.C.

Crews have been working to put out the fire at a vacant mattress warehouse for nearly 12 hours now. You can see in some of this video here from the citizen app, you can see that heavy smoke.

No word yet on what caused the blaze.

And the Dallas Mavericks celebrating a win in the NBA draft lottery, scoring the first overall pick next month. The Mavs managed to win despite having a less than 2 percent chance to get that No. 1 spot.

Wonder how Cooper Flagg feels about Texas?

Still to come here on CNN THIS MORNING, Kim Kardashian set to testify in Paris against the men suspected of robbing her at gunpoint nearly a decade ago.

Plus, there was quiet quitting. Now, the next generation of workers may be consciously unbossing. We're going to break that down.

Plus, we are continuing to monitor President Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia and his meeting with Saudi's crown prince. We'll take a closer look at this crucial visit to the Middle East, coming up.

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[06:20:53]

HILL: Going off-script here with a look at the future of work, especially when it comes to Gen Z.

What's in? More freedom, more control over their time, a better work- life balance, if you will.

Out? The headache and stress of leadership roles. A little something that's being achieved by consciously unbossing.

Joining me now to explain is Jessica Kriegel, chief strategy officer for Culture Partners. Jessica, good to have you here with us.

So, consciously unbossing, this is, I don't want to talk to my boss or deal with my boss, or I don't want to be a boss?

JESSICA KRIEGEL, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, CULTURE PARTNERS: I don't want to be a boss. I am opting out of the whole management leadership track, and I've decided to do something differently with my time.

I think a lot of people have figured out that the command-and-control approach to leadership is not working, and so they're saying it's just not for me. It's a -- it's a conscious decision, though, right? So, it's purpose driven.

And I don't want your viewers to get intellectually lazy now and think, oh, this is because Gen Z is lazy, and they don't want to work. And that's not it.

Because there are also leaders who are choosing to stay in their leadership position, but to do leadership differently: to not be viewed as the boss, but to do a sort of decentralized leadership approach that is -- you know, that perhaps resonates more with people today.

HILL: So, maybe it resonates more because, look, I'm with you. I think probably we may all jump to, or many of us jump to the well, this sounds lazy. Nobody wants to work. They don't want to step up. They don't want to work hard.

But maybe there is something to be learned here, right? That there's a better way to do things.

But can you actually operate, especially in this environment where we're going to see a major gap in leadership in the coming years just because of the aging population? Can you operate without true leadership? I mean, it's lovely to all be friends, but someone's got to make a decision.

KRIEGEL: Yes, absolutely. But you're seeing a lot of headlines right now about companies who are cutting out all of the middle management in their organizations.

With the advent of A.I., we have more corporate transparency than we ever have before.

So, the key question for CEOs right now is how do I have decentralized leadership? But also make sure that accountability stays strong?

Accountability is the holy grail for corporations. We need to have accountability at all levels. But most people don't want to take accountability, because we only hold people accountable when something goes wrong. Right?

And so we need to rethink the way we approach accountability and make it positive accountability, which means how can I reframe this so that it's more about making a personal choice to focus on what I can control, to take the steps necessary to drive key results instead of who's at fault here?

HILL: So, part of that is also, I would imagine, looking at better engaging, especially younger employees, not only in their daily job, but getting them to reengage and invest in the idea of the future of this company and wanting to be a part of it. KRIEGEL: Yes, absolutely. So, you have to create clarity, alignment,

and accountability around your purpose, your strategy, and your culture to get results. That is the key.

And doing all of those things is hard. Being a great leader is hard. I think a lot of young people today have seen bad leaders and thought, I don't want to do it. It's too hard to do it right.

You see so many people sending out inauthentic messages. For example, we're going to be A.I. first, but people first. And then people see that. They realize it's not really true. They feel like leaders are corporate shills, and it's hard to get right. It is a very delicate balancing act.

And so, some people saying, you know what? I don't want to work that hard. I'm OK with that. I've made that choice in my career. It wasn't laziness. It was just my energy going in a different direction.

HILL: There you go. Energy going in a different direction. Jessica, appreciate it. Thank you.

KRIEGEL: Thanks so much.

HILL: Still to come here on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump's crucial trip to the Middle East, underway at this moment. He's greeting big tech CEOs with Saudi Arabia's crown prince at this hour. What the president hopes to accomplish during this visit.

Plus, the budget battle divide. Why some members of the president's own party are not on board with his big, beautiful bill.

And will Erik and Lyle Menendez see freedom after 30 years in prison?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:29:49]

HILL: Good Tuesday morning. Just about half past the hour now. I'm Erica Hill in for Audie Cornish. Thanks for being with me. Here's what's happening right now.

President Trump is in Saudi Arabia, where he's meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He arrived there just a few hours ago. Plenty of pomp and circumstance to greet the president. He also plans to speak today at a U.S. Saudi investment forum.

We'll talk a little bit more about his trip ahead here.