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CNN This Morning

U.S. Wins 4-1 Against Paraguay In Its First Match Of 2026 FIFA World Cup; Trump's Name Is Being Removed From The Kennedy Center; Trump And Iran Say Framework For Potential Agreement Within Reach; SpaceX IPO Makes Elon Musk The World's First Trillionaire. U.S. Military: Iranian Drones Shot Down Near Strait of Hormuz; Congress Rejects Short-Term Extension of FISA Act; Pulte Appointment to Interim DNI Triggers Blowback. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired June 13, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:37]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN This Morning. Here's what you need to know. The U.S. dominated in its opening World Cup match against Paraguay. Our Coy Wire was there and has the highlights.

Also new this morning, President Trump's name is coming off the Kennedy Center with more on the winding legal fight that ended with Cruz (ph) removing the letters early this morning. That's coming up.

Also, a key surveillance tool seen as vital to preventing terror attacks on the U.S. has expired after Congress refused to extend it. The impact that could have on national security.

And President Trump is expected to attend a UFC fight at the White House tomorrow. But could 19 months and $60 million worth of work be knocked out by weather?

Also happening now, trooping the color, the annual event celebrating the British monarch's birthday has begun. We'll take you to the celebration coming up on CNN This Morning.

Saturday, June 13th. Welcome to your weekend. I'm Victor Blackwell.

Let's start with Team USA. A decisive win over Paraguay for their 2026 World cup debut.

For one win got tens of thousands of fans screaming inside SoFi Stadium, really across the country. This is a big win for both Team USA and their coach, who faced a lot of doubt going into his first World Cup leading the team. CNN's Coy Wire is in Inglewood where players say they are just as excited as those fans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: The atmosphere was electric, like a Super Bowl crowd that found the turbo button. It was a sellout, 70,000 plus bringing the volume from the jump and the celebrity spotting almost as entertaining as the match. Katy Perry sang before the match. Ted Beckham, Tom Cruise, Halle Berry, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and then Christian Pulisic took center stage.

Captain America forced an own goal early, then threaded a ridiculous nutmeg assist to FBalogun. And as for Balogun, the man came in firing a laser off the left foot. A brace before halftime to make it 3 nil and a statement for the US. Now, Paraguay scored once, tried to make it ugly. The Americans made it look beautiful. Scoring again through Gio Reyna, four goals most ever by Americans in a World Cup game. Flo Baligan says this is something he's visualized.

FOLARIN BALOGUN, USMNT FORWARD: I visualized, you know, my debut, you know, in the World Cup scoring. But yes, you know, the, the reality did surpass that was scoring two goals. And, you know, the second goal was -- was a fantastic goal as well. So, you know, as I said, a very dreamy, dreamy night.

CHRISTIAN PULISIC, USMNT FORWARD: Being in America, having this crowd around us, seeing the red, white and blue, all the, all our red and white striped shirts in the crowd. It's, it's awesome. I mean, here at the USA chance, it's -- it's really pushing us forward. So we just hope it continues like that. And I'm sure it will. We're just thankful for it.

WIRE: The U.S. played with swagger already. More goals in this World cup than all four of their games in last one combined. Mauricio Pochettino's squad look like a team that's not just playing in a World Cup. They are planning to make some noise in it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Coy. Team USA plays Australia. That's next Friday in Seattle. And taking a look at another host country for the World Cup, Team Canada versus Bosnia and Herzegovina ended in a draw. Canada will play Qatar in Vancouver on Thursday and Bosnia will play Switzerland in la.

New this morning, the name Donald J. Trump has being removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Kennedy Center board asked a judge to delay the removal. That request was rejected Friday afternoon and an appeal was also shot down last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not what democracy looks like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And protesters were not happy with the delay, and they made that clear. Finally, though, work crews started removing Trump's name just a few hours ago, well after the judge's deadline. The actual name removal was blocked from view by the workers with a tarp.

[06:05:05]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: There's really nothing like it in the country.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For months, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has been thrust into the center of politics.

TRUMP: We ended the woke political programming and we're restoring the Kennedy Center as the premier venue for performing arts anywhere in the country.

SERFATY (voice-over): The remaking of the iconic institution becoming a personal conquest for President Trump.

TRUMP: In the coming months, we'll fully renovate the dated and the really the entire the infrastructure of the building.

SERFATY (voice-over): Last year, the president took the extraordinary step of gutting the existing board of trustees, replacing them with allies. He also ousted the chairman and installed himself in that role.

TRUMP: In a few short months since I became chairman of the board, the Kennedy Center, we have completely reverse the decline of this cherished national institution.

SERFATY (voice-over): Trump even served as host of the Kennedy Center Honors Awards ceremony in December.

TRUMP: And I'm doing it because I feel it's very important that we all get out and do something. And if that can make a difference, that's tremendous.

SERFATY (voice-over): Then the board voted to rename the building The Trump Kennedy Center, though an act of Congress is required to legally change the name since it was designated as a memorial to President Kennedy following his assassination.

TRUMP: This was brought up by one of the very distinguished board members and they voted on it. And there's a lot of board members and they voted unanimously. So I was very honored by it. Thank you.

SERFATY (voice-over): But Trump's efforts to reshape the national landmark to his personal liking has been met with pushback. After Trump's aggressive moves to remake the center, protesters voice their frustration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Together we can continue to fight back and make a difference.

SERFATY (voice-over): And artists in productions like Hamilton, the Washington National Opera, and Bela Fleck began dropping out of scheduled engagements.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF ME DIA ANALYST: There has been this rejection of The Trump Kennedy Center by many in the arts and entertainment world. And now you have Trump saying, hey, let's turn off the lights all together for two years. Let's renovate the building. Maybe he sees an opportunity for a big construction project. We know the president likes those.

SERFATY (voice-over): This isn't the only renovation project the president has undertaken in his second term. He completely demolished the East Wing of the White House to build a massive ballroom, paved over the Rose Garden in favor of a patio resembling his Mar-a-Lago resort, redecorated the Oval Office with ornate gold trimmings, and has announced his intention to build a giant arch across from the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the nation's 250th anniversary.

TRUMP: It'll be substantial. I'd like it to be the biggest one of all. We're the biggest, most powerful nation. I'd like it to be the biggest one of all.

SERFATY (voice-over): And President Trump's own comments suggest a pretty dramatic renovation beyond just replacing carpets or painting the columns. In speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, he painted a very stark visual which really speaks to how far the building could be stripped down. He says he's planning on using the structure of the existing building, but added the steel will be all checked out because it will be fully exposed. The president is estimating the project could cost around $200 million.

Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Well, now to the war in Iran. U.S. Central Command says the U.S. downed several Iranian attack drones near the Strait of Hormuz. In a social media post, the U.S. military says that the drones were attempting to disrupt commercial shipping. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iran say that they're close to a potential agreement to begin discussions over ending the war.

But there's conflict, the conflicting information about what's been agreed to. Let's go now to CNN's Leila Gharagozlou to break it all down for us. Close, Leila, means that there's still some work to do.

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: Yes. So we're getting a lot of conflicting messaging on what we're expecting out of this memorandum, this memorandum of understanding. Both sides are saying it's close, but the details are still quite murky. We've heard from sources close to the White House saying that there are certain in this MOU.

And then we've also heard from Iranian state media that they have published the 14 points of this MOU. But President Donald Trump did say that what the Iranian state media had posted was fake news. Then we also heard from Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi about 10 minutes after President Donald Trump posted, also saying that the media should not speculate. That post was then subsequently reposted by Donald Trump's account on X and was echoed by the vice president as well. Now, we don't know what is going to come out of this, but it does seem like both sides are saying that things are very fragile. They do want to protect what is going on with this MOU.

[06:10:02]

We might see something signed around Sunday. It could be a couple of days from that. When it does come to who's kind of the victor out of this, the Iranians had some very choice words about who has the upper hand. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We are the victor of this battlefield. The Islamic Republic of Iran has emerged as a victor. The Iranian people achieved victory. This is not a slogan. This is no exaggeration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GHARAGOZLOU: So this is obviously also going to be a slight point of contention between President Trump and the Iranians. These are all things that are going to be worked out. Hopefully we see some sort of agreement. Once that agreement is signed, whenever that is, it's going to be another 60 days for them to really discuss the key issues like the nuclear agreement, any sort of sanctions.

Now, as you know, things can change very quickly. We've seen that happen time and time again in this conflict. So the next couple of hours, next couple of days are going to be really critical.

BLACKWELL: Leila Gharagozlou reporting from Abu Dhabi, thank you very much. Next, SpaceX makes history with a blockbuster stock market debut. And Elon Musk also makes history as the world's first trillionaire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSCK, FOUNDER AND CEO, SPACEX: If people had told me this was the -- it's going to happen, I was like, man, you must be smoking some really good crack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:16:10]

BLACKWELL: A manhunt for a West Texas fugitive ended after the man fired random shots at passing cars. One person was killed, 10 others were injured. Authorities have been searching for Victor Mata Villarreal since Wednesday. He was wanted for the attempted murder of a police officer.

Now, as police closed in on him yesterday, he barricaded himself inside a building and started just wildly shooting at passing cars. SWAT teams stormed the clinic and found Villarreal died of a self- inflicted gunshot wound.

Attorneys for Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk. They're asking a Utah judge to take the death penalty off the table. The defense claimed a prosecutor violated a pretrial gag order by talking to reporters about ballistic evidence. The state argued they were simply clearing up misinformation. We're expecting that ruling on June 22nd.

A federal judge has indefinitely blocked President Trump's nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. You see, the Justice Department claimed the plan is already dead, so the injunction is not necessary. But the federal judge in Virginia says that she is not buying that. She's given the DOJ one week to state under oath that the fund is gone for good or the block stands.

SpaceX had a massive blockbuster choose your adjective debut on the stock market yesterday with shares that gained 19 percent after a record breaking IPO. And when trading ended Friday, the company's market value was above $2 trillion, which then cemented Elon Musk status as the world's first trillionaire. CNN's David Goldman breaks down the numbers of what is now the sixth largest publicly traded company in the US.

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DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: SpaceX had its IPO it's a big deal. How do you know it's a big deal? Look at the size font that I'm using for this segment. It is enormous. It is almost as big as SpaceX. And it was a really significantly large IPO. It traded for $135 a share. Now, at the end of the day, that went up, way up.

And it raised $75 billion in its IPO. That is the largest ever by a factor of three. It valued the company at $1.7 trillion with a T, that's 1 and 7, followed by 11 zeros, and it was the largest IPO ever. This is now a much larger number after it traded on the stock market.

And this is not some kind of that you usually see from an IPO. This is a mature company. Look at this. It's already making $18.7 billion in one year alone. That's last year. But look at this. It's up 33 percent over the past year. Unbelievable.

You usually don't see this kind of growth from a mature company like this, but there's always a but, you have some big losses here. And the reason why you have $4.9 billion in losses in 2025 and 4.3 in the first quarter of 2026 is because of AI. This is not just a space company.

This is also Elon Musk's ambition to make an AI company. And that is a very, very expensive venture. Look at $12.7 billion in 2025 alone in AI spending. 7.7 billion in the first quarter. What's going on here? Well, SpaceX really wants to put data centers into space.

[06:20:05]

Imagine the expense of that. That's why it's raising all of this money and its IPO. Now, it's a good idea. You get free cooling, you get free electricity from the sun, and you've got the Starlink network to beam all that signal back down to Earth. But that is not where SpaceX's ambition ends. Note it. It wants to put colonies on Mars.

It wants to put colonies on the moon. And if it does both of those things, then Elon Musk will make another $1 trillion. Yes, I said another $1 trillion because he has become the world's first trillionaire. Congratulations to Elon Musk. He's the first person to ever accomplish this feat. And just from the IPO alone, he is now worth over $1 trillion. That is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. I'm running out of room. 11, 12 zeros after that.

And he is worth much more at the end of the day and he could be worth much, much more if SpaceX does all the things that he wants it to do. Big IPO, big numbers. We'll see what happens to this company over the course of time. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: How many of you counted Those zeros? The 12 zeros in his heart. $1 trillion. David Goldman, thank you so much for that. Next, Congress leaves town and part of America's key spy program goes dark. What the lapse in FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act means for your safety and your privacy.

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[06:26:06]

BLACKWELL: The U.S. and Iran have signaled that they are closer to signing an agreement to begin formal talks to end the war in Iran. But both countries are at odds over Iran's nuclear program and the potential release of Iran's frozen funds. Let's talk about this now with Elisa Ewers. She's a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Eliza, good morning to you. So they say they're very close. Is this very close? Closer than the previous dozens of times that they've said we're very close. What do you think?

ELISA EWERS, SENIOR FELLOW FOR MIDDLE EAST STUDIES, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Good morning. I mean, we've. We've seen this movie before, right? We've seen it now for almost six, seven weeks that we're almost there. And what it reflects, I think, is that last bit of any negotiation, whatever we're talking about, that last 5 percent is usually the hardest.

And so I think they're probably close, but that doesn't mean that they're signing it any moment now. I think they're still working out those final details. And this is the most fragile part of a negotiation. But both sides seem to be signaling that they are more close now than they have been in recent weeks.

BLACKWELL: More close. We'll take that grammar, considering the conversation. All right, so let's talk about this. You talk about the last 5 percent, and one thing that there is clear disagreement about. We don't know really what's in the agreement or the proposed agreement, but the discussion of the release of frozen assets.

The Supreme Leader's military adviser had said before this point that they're demanding $24 billion, 12 up front at the start of this and another 12 billion. He now says that the U.S. has agreed to release those funds. Vice President Vance wrote on X the Iranians are not receiving any cash and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting.

How crucial is that stipulation of the release of funds for either sides? And could it kill for the Iranians a potential agreement to move forward?

EWERS: Well, the Iranian regime wants to front load the benefits of any understanding as much as it can. Right. It doesn't trust that the United States is going to fulfill any commitment over the long term, just like the United States isn't going to trust that Iran is going to live up to its obligations just by merely saying that they're going to do it.

And so it's not unusual to expect the Iranian regime to say they want, they want some of this economic relief up front, whether it comes in access to frozen funds, whether it comes on simply allowing Iran to continue to sell its oil once the Strait of Hormuz is, quote, unquote reopened.

There are a number of ways that the regime can get some of its revenue. But this is clearly one of the sticking points. The sequencing here matters and it matters to those in Iran who are making the decision about whether or not to sign this memorandum of understanding. So getting something up front is probably going to be critical to them to seal the deal.

BLACKWELL: Well, remember that the President said that there were attacks coming late in the week and then called them off because he said that there was progress toward this agreement, that they were the final points. What do you make of what we saw from, according to U.S. military, the Iranians overnight, the U.S. military says they downed several Iranian drones that were aimed at the Strait of Hormuz. They're still attacking.

EWERS: Well, they've been attacking this whole time, Victor. Since the ceasefire was announced in April, we've seen repeated attacks by Iran on its neighbors on the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, on Kuwait, on Bahrain. We saw recent attacks, attacks on Jordan.

[06:30:00]

So they've been doing this all along. And we've seen repeatedly that the President has threatened military action, but ultimately has backed down because it has not risen to the level, going to resume full on attacks. What we saw this weekend was directly, and I think quite proportionately in response to the targeting of a U.S. helicopter.

So, I think the administration is making a distinction here because they want the deal to come through, right? They are not interested in a full resumption of the conflict. And I think we're seeing that in some of these decisions.

So, despite the fact that the President has threatened numerous times over recent weeks, he hasn't really followed through. And I think that signals to us that he doesn't want this to become a hot war again.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND: Elisa Ewers, thank you so much for being with me this morning. New this morning, a surveillance tool seen as vital in preventing terror attacks has expired. Last night, Congress failed to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

It's one of the nation's most powerful tools to protect national security. Nineteen Republicans joined most Democrats to block the extension, and that set up a political standoff over President Trump's selection of Bill Pulte to serve as interim director of National Intelligence. CNN's Annie Grayer has the latest from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN REPORTER (on camera): A key spy and surveillance program used by the Intelligence community to prevent terrorist attacks has lapsed after bipartisan negotiations fell apart on Capitol Hill. These negotiations had been struggling for months because while this program is critical, there's a group on the right and the left that have often taken issue with it, because this program will scoop up data of U.S. citizens in the process.

And there's a small group of lawmakers on the left and right who have wanted to see reforms to this program. But it usually ultimately gets renewed because of the broader significance and the role that it plays.

But then, President Trump installed Bill Pulte as the nation's top Intelligence official, and that really changed the dynamics, because Democrats said that Pulte in that role as director of National Intelligence made these negotiations untenable because they said Pulte did not have the national security experience or clearance to be in that role.

So, lawmakers left town without passing an extension of this critical Spy Powers Bill. Now, President Trump has since announced that he will be nominating Jay Clayton for the role; a man who Democrats seem to find a lot more palatable.

But that announcement came after the House had already left town for the week. So, with the Friday at midnight deadline, it is clear that this law will expire. Now, the question is what happens now? There is an argument that this will end up in the courts, where some companies may try to continue collecting this critical data, given that the courts are allowing these companies to continue to do so.

But experts say, it's a very murky area. So, we are really in unprecedented territory here, with no sign of how it is going to resolve. And the -- a lot of national security matters are at stake. Annie Grayer, CNN, reporting from Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Yes, certainly a lot at stake. Annie Grayer, thank you. Cleanup happening now for a lot of people in the central U.S., destructive tornadoes hit that region. I want to take you to Merrillville, Indiana. Look at this. Parts of the buildings there reduced to just splinters and boards spread around.

County officials say more than a dozen buildings were destroyed in those storms. A tornado also hit just south of Chicago. In this town, police pulled a man, you see him here from under the rubble of his destroyed home. Listen to what he went through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY RYMEK, STORM VICTIM: A door flew out of my hand, and then everything just started falling apart. I'm just very thankful I'm alive, that we are. Because what we went through, what we've seen, we thought during the time that it was not, we weren't going to make it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Three people were killed as the storms came through this week. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar with me now. More storms on the way.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and in fact, it's actually an increased risk of storms today compared to what we even had just 24 hours ago. Now, we're starting to see the change from one front to the next.

So, you're going to see some of the same areas you saw maybe about two days ago in terms of where the peak severe storms were. You can see stretching from Michigan all the way back into the panhandle of Texas. That includes Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, even Oklahoma City for the target points for today.

Now, damaging winds is still going to be the main threat here, but we could also have a few isolated tornadoes and some large hail that kind of get mixed in some of those stronger thunderstorms.

[06:35:00]

Right now, this is where the activity is at the moment. You can see across states like Missouri, Oklahoma and even into Kansas. We've got a lot of lightning out there, but no warnings as of this very moment. That is expected to change as we go through the rest of the day, and then even into tomorrow.

You take a look at Sunday. This is where we have the main risk on Sunday. You can see it goes into portions of the northeast and into the mid-Atlantic. So, that system as a whole, starts to slide off to the east in the next 24 hours. Now, here's a look at the timeline.

Again, you can see this morning we've already got some of those clusters out there. But really, this afternoon and this evening, that's when it really starts to ramp back up the heating of the day, helping to fuel a lot of those storms, so that by the time you get to say 8:00, 9:00, 10 O'clock tonight, you basically have a line that stretches from Chicago all the way back to Amarillo.

And a lot of some strong to even severe thunderstorms embedded within that line. Then it continues to slide off to the east as we head into the day on Sunday. Another concern, especially because a lot of these areas have had day-after-day of storm systems move through.

You also have the potential for flooding. In fact, you actually have a level three out of four risk right through there that you can see in southern Missouri because again, the ground is already saturated. Now, we're going to be adding another 1 to 3 inches of rain on top of it.

And it just can't really kind of go away as quickly as you normally would. Then Sunday, you can see this elongated line here indicating where we're going to have the flood threat on the back half of the weekend.

BLACKWELL: A lot to watch. Allison Chinchar, thank you. Next, team USA dominates in its World Cup opener. We'll talk about the biggest takeaways from last night's match, and the fan excitement off the pitch. And remember, Allison and I want to go.

If you're headed out, just stream our show. You can do it anywhere in the U.S. from the CNN app. Saint Louis get beautiful this morning. You can go to cnn.com/watch.

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[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Did you watch it? If you were up watching, you were up later than I was, team USA dominated in their World Cup 2026 debut, scored an explosive win over Paraguay 4-1. They scored more goals in this single game than they scored in their entire last World Cup appearance.

Soccer editor with "USA Today" Seth Vertelney back on the show. Seth, good morning to you. It is the dead middle of the night in Irvine, California, so a special appreciation for you coming on. So, team USA, they obviously got it done. How did they look?

SETH VERTELNEY, SOCCER EDITOR, USA TODAY: It was an incredible performance. One of the best that we have ever seen from a U.S. men's national team at a World Cup. I went into this game expecting a pretty close game. Paraguay was known as a pretty defensive team.

The U.S. is definitely better than Paraguay, but to see the U.S. come out and put together this kind of performance, and just blow them apart was amazing to see. It bodes well for them the rest of the tournament.

And hopefully, this is the kind of performance that can kind of get the U.S. public behind them moving forward in the World Cup.

BLACKWELL: All right, so, let's listen to some of the fans there. And this is what they had to say out there on the west coast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I haven't seen a win in a bit, so, it's nice seeing the men get some action, and all the goals are just great, both outside foot crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just super excited to be here. It's really a fun time, great setup. Got to come back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With that screamer going and go up 4-1, that was an incredible feeling. I've never seen such energy here in Los Angeles. And it's now, everybody know that the World Cup is here in the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so glad that FIFA has made this fan-fest together. I feel united as a city, United States together, we're going to -- we're going to win. We're going to win the World Cup!

(FEMALES SCREAMING IN EXCITEMENT)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: As soccer enthusiasm is obviously growing across the U.S., catching up with the rest of the world. Talk to me about the energy there.

VERTELNEY: Yes, it was a sold-out crowd at SoFi Stadium where as FIFA is calling in this tournament, Los Angeles Stadium, because they don't use sponsor names --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

VERTELNEY: But it was really an energetic pro-U.S. crowd. You know, this is a team that has become accustomed to not always playing in front of pro-U.S. crowds in their own country. But this one certainly was. I was really curious to see what the crowd was going to be like, given the ticket prices that we've talked about a lot leading up to this World Cup.

But it really was an energetic crowd. And of course, it helps when the U.S. scores three goals in the first half. And it really just kind of built this momentum, starting from the game and going all the way through to the end.

And so, you know, often times we've seen in World Cups, teams can feed off the energy of a home crowd and the home country performs better than maybe they would if they were not on home soil. And for the U.S., last night was a really good sign that, that could be the case in this tournament for them if they keep getting crowds like that.

[06:45:00]

BLACKWELL: Christian Pulisic was banged up a little bit. He was subbed-out for the second half, maybe not because the U.S. was up 3-0, but because he had a bit of an injury. What do we know about that, especially as the U.S. faces off against Australia at the end of the week in Seattle?

VERTELNEY: Yes, Pulisic, you know, the team's star player, someone who's been the face of this program for about a decade now, even though he's only 27, he had a really good first half. He created that opening goal which ended up being an own goal.

But yes, he went off at half-time and, there are definitely some concerns among U.S. fans to see him go off. He said after the game, he took a little bit of a kick to his calf, and that it was precautionary. He didn't seem too concerned.

I will say there's certainly something there, it wasn't purely precautionary. He wouldn't have gone off at half-time if he didn't have some kind of an injury. But hopefully, because the U.S. has an entire week off now until their next game on Friday against Australia.

He'll be OK, but it's definitely a situation that fans and U.S. team officials are going to be monitoring closely over the next few days.

BLACKWELL: Well, U.S. fans are going to ride this optimism and this feel-good vibe for the rest of the week, until they get to Seattle. Seth Vertelney, thanks so much for being with us again, again at -- was it 3:46 in the morning out on the west coast?

Televisions hottest actors are on CNN. It's a new season of variety's "Actors on Actors" with new episodes dropping daily. Here's a look ahead of today's episodes with Claire Danes and Richard Gadd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD GADD, SCOTTISH ACTOR & COMEDIAN: To get us to learn Shakespeare, we watched "Romeo and Juliet" --

CLAIRE DANES, AMERICAN ACTRESS: Yes --

GADD: And I remember writing an essay --

DANES: OK --

GADD: On Romeo and Juliet, and particularly, I always remember so clearly an amazing bit you do in that, where you wake up and Romeo is dead, right? At that point, you do this amazing guttural sob, and I remember writing paragraphs about that sob and how impactful it was.

DANES: Oh!!! --

GADD: So, there you go.

DANES: And then you mastered the guttural sob.

GADD: Yes, I learned from the best.

DANES: You saw my guttural sob and you raised it.

GADD: Yes --

DANES: I remember, I remember that moment very distinctly, I was very surprised by it. And the environment was so epic --

GADD: Yes --

DANES: That baz(ph) had created.

GADD: Yes.

DANES: And I was, I think just like moved by the mise-en-scene in a way, and the tragedy, you know, but it -- you know, the world he creates helped elicit that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right, this episode drops in a couple of hours, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, but you can watch the previous episodes right now on the CNN app. Up next, a birthday party for a king. Today is not actually King Charles' birthday, but the weather is better in June.

So, this is when they celebrate it. A live look now in London for the royal celebration, Trooping the Color. We'll explain why it's happening now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:00]

BLACKWELL: How was your last birthday party? Was it anything like this? Probably not. Birthday celebration for the king. Thousands of people gathered in central London, it's happening right now. We're watching the annual Trooping the Color.

Massive military parade held in June each year in the U.K., marking the official birthday of a British monarch. This tradition dates back to more than 250 years. Live look here at the palace. At least 1,400 troops, 200 horses participating in this year's event honoring King Charles. Nada Bashir joins us now from London. Nada, what are you seeing?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, just as you mentioned, Victor, there are thousands gathered here around Buckingham Palace waiting from the early hours of this morning to catch a glimpse of senior members of the royal family.

In just about an hour ago, we saw the beginning of what was, of course, the grand military procession to mark the opening of the Trooping of the Color to celebrate the king's official birthday. Now, we are still waiting for them to return from the military parade, who we have seen so far is, of course, the Prince and Princess of Wales, accompanied by their three children taking part in that procession.

And, of course, King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Now, of course, as you mentioned, this isn't the king's actual birthday. His actual birthday is in November, but traditionally here in the U.K., the monarch's birthday is celebrated as a national celebration in June generally because the weather is a lot better, and we have been lucky today, with the sun finally coming out. And in about an hour or so, we are expecting senior members of the

royal family to make their way back to Buckingham Palace, and they will take their positions on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, where, of course, thousands of those gathered here to catch a glimpse of the royal family will be able to wave and cheer as they celebrate the king's official birthday.

And of course, we are expecting, as we do every year, the grand fly- past as well with the Red Arrows. So, a lot of pomp and pageantry around this celebration, but certainly, something for many to look forward to. Victor?

[06:55:00]

BLACKWELL: Always an iconic celebration, especially that wave from the balcony. Nada Bashir for us in London. Thank you. Ahead in the next hour of CNN THIS MORNING, workers spent all night taking down President Trump's name from the Kennedy Center. We'll walk you through how we got here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING There is a lot happening today, starting with the Kennedy Center. A live look for you now, letter by letter. President Trump's name is being removed, it's being covered by a tarp now. But we'll get you caught up on the legal fight that sent those crews there to remove the President's name early this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gio Reyna!!!

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The U.S. dominated in its opening World Cup match against Paraguay. Andy Scholes standing by with the highlights and a look at how the next match-up is shaping up. The Trump administration was hit with another --