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U.S. Gas Prices Hit $4 a Gallon, Highest Since 2022; Sources: Hegseth Downplayed Risks Ahead of War with Iran. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 31, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:04]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news: the price of gas hitting a Trump-era high. The national average, now $4 a gallon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's got me wanting to just start walking everywhere I go.

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HILL: There is little evidence this pain will ease soon. Overnight, another Iranian strike on an oil tanker as President Trump renewed his threat to blow up Iran's oil facilities.

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PETE HEGSETH, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We negotiate with bombs.

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HILL: Pete Hegseth speaks later this morning, sources telling CNN he downplayed the risks of a spiraling war to the president. Could that prove costly?

Two attack helicopters seen hovering over a celebrity's swimming pool. The Army now investigating the flyby at Kid Rock's house.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Turn around. Turn around!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Passengers panic. Sparks flying from a Delta jet in mid-air, forcing an emergency landing. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

Following weeks of attacks like this one, the average price for gas in America is now at $4 a gallon, although of course, it is much higher in a number of areas around this country.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Erica Hill, in for Audie Cornish.

We do begin with the breaking news in the war with Iran. U.S. crude oil prices surging more than 50 percent in March, settling over $100 a barrel on Monday.

Near Dubai, another tanker with a full load of oil hit by an Iranian drone. That strike coming just hours after President Trump threatened to blow up and, quote, "completely obliterate" all of Iran's electric generating plants, oil wells, and Kharg Island, and possibly desalination plants if a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz can't be reached.

CNN business correspondent Eleni Giokos, joining us now from Dubai. So, Eleni, as we look at all of this, let's start first of all with this attack on that tanker overnight. What more do we know about that strike?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a Kuwaiti oil tanker, and it was around 31 nautical miles from Dubai. So actually, not very close to the actual chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz.

But it shows that Iran has effective control over the straits, that it can terrorize vessels and shippers. And also, the messaging that it has been giving since the beginning of the war: that it needs to -- you know, anyone wanting to pass through the strait needs to coordinate directly with Iran.

This strike is really important, because it's a vessel laden with crude and fuel. A massive fire erupted on board. The 24 crew members are all safe. No injuries were reported.

And also, there was concern about a potential oil spill. But now authorities here in Dubai say that they've been able to contain the impact.

But again, Erica, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has become a flashpoint in this war. And of course, President Trump saying, Look, if you don't open up the strait, we're going to start targeting desalination plants, critical energy infrastructure in Iran.

So, escalatory tone coming through from the Trump administration.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. And the White House asked about that yesterday, because some of those acts could potentially constitute an act of war.

The White House saying that they will continue to follow laws when it comes to this.

Let's talk about the price of gas specifically, if we could. So, as I just noted, the average price for a gallon of gas in here -- here in the U.S., now above $4 a gallon. This is having such an important ripple effect across the global economy. Jet fuel certainly getting a lot of attention, Eleni.

GIOKOS: Yes, absolutely. So, what this war has exposed is the Achilles heel of the global economy, Erica, no doubt. This war isn't just contained to the Gulf region, but it actually has

a chain reaction around the world. When I see gas prices in the United States hitting over $4 a gallon, this is the highest level since 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Markets are interconnected.

You know, President Trump keeps talking about the United States being energy independent. But because everything is so connected, people in America are feeling it at the gas pump.

And in fact, we've seen ripple effects around the world economy.

Jet fuel prices, really fascinating. I was looking at what they've been doing over the past month. They've doubled. They're up 104 percent.

If you break that down further into Asia and Oceania, you've got jet fuel prices. So refined jet fuel up 134 percent. In North America, jet fuel prices are up 88 percent.

[06:05:04]

So, we're talking about a massive impact here. So, the overall closure of the Strait of Hormuz is not just about 20 million barrels of oil passing through, but it's also those refined crude products that includes jet fuel, Erica.

HILL: Eleni, really appreciate the reporting. Thank you.

President Trump is claiming great progress on a possible deal with Iran to end the war after serious discussions with, in his words, "A NEW AND MORE REASONABLE REGIME."

But just who is the U.S. actually speaking with? And is Iran saying something different in public versus those private, potentially, discussions?

Well, it's a good question, because according to Tehran, the U.S. peace proposal is unrealistic, and Iran says there are no negotiations.

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MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: And if there are new people now in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news for us, for them, for the entire world. But we also have to be prepared for the possibility, maybe even the probability, that that is not the case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, but --

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HILL: Holly Dagres is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and also curator of the Iranist Substack.

It's good to have you here this morning. What do you make of what we are hearing from -- from both sides here? What does that tell you about what's actually happening?

HOLLY DAGRES, SENIOR FELLOW, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: Sure. Well, I think it's noteworthy that the president is coming out publicly, saying we're talking to a different face of the regime, but it's still the Islamic Republic.

So, even though the supreme leader was killed at the beginning of the war, his son took over. And according to reports, he's speaking to speaker of Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf.

And what's interesting about that is Ghalibaf is tweeting or posting on -- on X, saying that he's not talking to the Americans. So, it's a -- it's a lot of mixed messaging about what's happening.

HILL: It really is. And it's confusing. We also heard from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke with Al Jazeera about Iran's leadership. I want to play some of what he had to say.

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RUBIO: No one has seen him. No one has heard from him. It's very opaque right now. It's not quite clear how decisions are being made inside of Iran.

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HILL: That's him talking about Mojtaba Khamenei, obviously. But when we look at the way this is being played out, and as you referenced, too, the notes from the leader of Parliament, or rather the posts.

Do you have a sense that the White House is talking to the right people with the power to make a deal?

DAGRES: So, I mean, from our understanding, it's not just Ghalibaf. It's allegedly Mojtaba Khamenei. And granted, we haven't even heard an audio recording from the guy. He's supposedly hiding in a bunker. But there's also rumors that he's gravely injured, might have even lost a leg, and one might even say he could be dead because we haven't heard from him.

And maybe they were trying to give him a sign of like, a transition that was going smooth during wartime. We just don't know.

But I think that what's interesting to me is that we saw IRGC- affiliated Tasnim news agency put out an editorial that basically insinuated, you can't do this without us, referring to Ghalibaf.

And so, does that mean he actually has the ability to carry a deal all the way, and especially one where the United States is basically asking to capitulate? And I just don't see that because of the regime we're dealing with.

HILL: One of the things we're not hearing a lot of is voices from inside Iran. Part of that is this near-total Internet blackout, right?

DAGRES: Correct. HILL: That that has been going on for so long at this point. But you do have, and certainly in your newsletter, you have some notes from people inside Iran: how they are dealing with things.

What are you hearing? What is -- what is it like in this moment for people in Iran?

DAGRES: Well, as you noted, there's been an Internet shutdown. People like me that still have friends and family, we really don't hear from them.

And so, the voices that do peter out every now and then, there's mixed feelings. There's a mixed feeling of hope and fear. Hope that this regime does eventually go. They've been having these cyclical anti- regime protests for years now, with the goal of overthrowing the Islamic Republic.

But there's also fear. Fear, because this is wartime. There's been at least 1,500 civilian casualties.

There's also fear that this regime, if it survives, which it has at this juncture, what it will do to the Iranian people. Because we've seen this unprecedented massacre in January. They're capable of committing mass atrocities. And so, there's a worry about a revenge factor.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

Holly, really good to have you on this morning. Thank you, I appreciate it.

Just ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, is blowing stuff up the best way for Pete Hegseth to keep his job? The new CNN reporting about the conversations and what wasn't said before bombs were dropped on Iran.

Plus, T minus one day. NASA preparing for liftoff on its first mission to the Moon in more than 50 years.

And scary moments on a Delta jet caught on camera. We'll tell you what caused an engine to explode at takeoff.

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[06:14:09]

HILL: Just under two hours from now, we expect to hear from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a new briefing about the war with Iran. A war that started with the enthusiastic approval of Hegseth.

And this new reporting from CNN takes us inside the meeting where Trump decided to go to war. A meeting in which Hegseth, quote, "not only validated the president's idea to move forward, he also downplayed the inherent risks of the conflict spiraling out of control." That's according to three sources familiar with the matter.

The reporting: Nobody in the room during that critical meeting emphasized the potential risks of starting the war.

Today's briefing also marks a milestone for the defense secretary. More press briefings in the last month than in all of 2025.

He's been outspoken in these briefings, touting the United States' military might and perhaps upping his standing in the administration.

The former FOX News host, according to multiple sources, had at times been relegated to the back bench of Trump's cabinet before the war.

[06:15:03]

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HEGSETH: It takes money to kill bad guys. So, we're going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we're properly funded.

Never in recorded history has a nation's military been so quickly and effectively neutralized. Operation Epic Fury is not an endless war.

That's why we see ourselves as part of this negotiation, as well. We negotiate with bombs.

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HILL: Joining me now in the group chat, Margaret Talev, senior contributor at Axios; T.W. Arrighi, who's former senior aide to Lindsey Graham and Mike Pompeo; and Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist. Nice to have all of you here.

So, in this new reporting from CNN, what it essentially lays out is that, if there were worst-case scenarios, they did not really come up. And this is something that the president himself really seemed to allude to in a recent Oval Office appearance. Take a look.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Unexpectedly, when this war broke out -- unexpectedly, they started sending missiles to UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and elsewhere, and nobody thought they were going to. Were you equally surprised by that, Pete?

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HILL: So, CNN also had reporting in the days just before the war that General Caine was -- was really in a bit of a balancing act here, right? Trying to avoid confrontation with the president while also laying out -- trying to lay out the risks here of the war.

Margaret, especially in a moment like this, when U.S. service members are being sent into a dangerous situation, it's important that the president have the full scope of what could happen.

This is more reporting that that's not happening. How -- how damning could that be? MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think you're exactly

right that, when you get involved in -- in military strikes, any president wants full awareness; multiple case scenarios; an idea of the strategic kind of best case scenario, worst case scenario; but also the long-term prospects.

And I do think he's lucky to have the chairman of the joint chiefs there to give him that sort of guidance.

But in terms of the political -- more political leadership, you know, at the civilian level, you know, I think, look, as this goes on, this kind of reporting is going to be really important. Important to help people understand the conversation that's going on behind the scenes.

But I do think there are certainly leadership on the president's -- inside the government, including the chairman of the joint chiefs, who can give all of that kind of guidance and all of that kind of scenario planning.

HILL: It's also, T.W., as we look at this, right, the -- the secretary of defense has really pushed back against questions about the war. Taking this -- this posture.

And yet, there are valid questions, right, that the American people need answered about how things are going, where things are going. Not asking for specific troop movements, obviously. I think everybody understands that they're not going to reveal that. Does this erode the credibility of this administration?

T.W. ARRIGHI, FORMER SENIOR AIDE TO LINDSEY GRAHAM AND MIKE POMPEO: Well, I'm not so sure. To what Pete Hegseth said about one of the greatest military actions that our country has ever taken to neutralize the country that fast. That is true. And it is often clouded by a lot of the other noise that we hear in our political system.

I think General Caine, I think the leadership of our military has shown a tremendous depth of knowledge of the region. They've shown a depth of -- of tactical excellence. And that, I think, is really important.

And at the end of the day, that's the secretary of war's job is to oversee that apparatus.

Now, we can debate the politics of it. We can debate how he says something, what he says. But I think, at the core of it, the functionality of our military in this moment has been outstanding.

HILL: Right. Which most people would agree with. And with General Caine's seriousness in these moments.

ARRIGHI: Yes.

HILL: And the way that he has approached it and those briefings.

There's a question about tone, too, from the Pentagon in the briefings. I want to play something that General Stanley McChrystal said, former Special Forces commander. He spoke about this in "The New York Times" podcast.

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GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL (RET.), FORMER SPECIAL FORCES COMMANDER: I'm disappointed by the current atmosphere that is communicated from the top.

I had the honor and opportunity to serve with some of the most elite forces, people who really did some extraordinary things, but they didn't beat their chest about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

MCCHRYSTAL: And they weren't braggadocious. And they didn't talk about, yes, we love killing people. That's just not the way they behaved.

Now, the danger, though, of some of that verbiage now is much of the force is 18 years old.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

MCCHRYSTAL: And -- and it's influenceable.

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HILL: It's the balance of how you talk about things. You're nodding your head, Maria, to that last point that he made.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think he's absolutely right.

And I think one of the things that we can't do here is extract the politics from this, because he is -- Donald Trump is the commander in chief.

And it was jaw-dropping to me when he said, and has said several times, that the reaction by the Iranians was unexpected.

[06:20:05]

It was not unexpected. There have been plans. The reporting has been that there have been plans for years, that this is exactly how Iran would react if we did what we did.

And so, what Pete -- Pete Hegseth and everyone who was surrounding him from the political standpoint, they're all "yes" people. And there is a danger in surrounding yourself with "yes" people. But we all know that that's the only thing that Donald Trump accepts.

And you even saw, the joint chiefs. You said he was kind of dancing around and not wanting to say things very directly to -- to not offend Donald Trump. That doesn't do Donald Trump any good. And importantly, it doesn't do the American people any good. It absolutely takes away credibility, if Donald Trump had any

credibility to begin with, because the things that he's saying don't track with the reality of what we're hearing in terms of reporting about the war.

HILL: All right, group chat, stay with me. Much more, of course, to discuss on this Tuesday morning.

After the break here on CNN THIS MORNING, TSA workers getting paid. Congress, though, still can't get DHS funded. Could all this uncertainty lead to even more resignations at airports?

Plus, a golden arch, a luxury jet. President Trump offering up a preview of his new presidential library.

And a good morning to all of our friends joining us from Baltimore this morning.

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[06:25:42]

HILL: Twenty-five minutes past the hour now. Here are five things to know to get your day going.

The FBI releasing new images of the vehicle ramming attack at a Michigan synagogue earlier this month, and officials now confirming this was a Hezbollah-inspired act of terror.

Further images released of the attacker, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon, show him stocking his truck with gasoline and fireworks. He shot and killed himself at the scene after exchanging fire with the synagogue's security officers.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help! Help!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around!

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HILL: You hear the panicked passengers there. They're watching out the window as their Delta flight, which was taking off, caught fire.

The flight from Brazil, bound to Atlanta, had experienced a mechanical issue with the aircraft's left engine, according to the airline. Flames from the aircraft spattering onto the ground, causing a fire on the runway.

All the passengers and crew were evacuated safely.

President Trump sharing his vision for what his future presidential library might look like. In a two-minute video, the library is shown to be a massive tower looming over the Miami skyline. The interior features replicas of White House landscapes and a presidential jet on display.

It's not clear if these renderings, which appear to be A.I.-generated, are actually final plans for design.

Later today, NASA set to hold a news conference on the Artemis II mission. You're looking at live pictures there of the launch pad from Kennedy Space Center. We're counting down to what would be the first launch to the Moon in more than 50 years.

And if all goes as planned, the rocket and its four-member crew are set to blast off tomorrow.

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CELINE DION, SINGER (singing): Near, far, wherever you are.

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HILL: Her heart will go on and so will the show. Celine Dion returning to the stage, announcing a ten-show run in Paris. It's her first set of concerts since she revealed she had Stiff Person Syndrome in December of 2022.

Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the war in Iran dragging now on into a new month. How Russia is emerging as one of the real winners in this conflict.

Plus, run it back. The women's Final Four is set. It's a repeat of last year.

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