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U.S. Out Of World Cup After Four-One Loss To Belgium; U.S. Out Of World Cup After Political Firestorm Over Suspension; President Trump Arrives In Turkey For NATO Summit; Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 07, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:45]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN HOST: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on "CNN This Morning." It is half past the hour.

Here's what's happening right now. The man accused of placing pipe bombs in Washington, D.C. five years ago will not have his charges dropped. A judge on Monday rejected a motion to dismiss the case after the defendant tried to argue that Trump's sweeping pardon for January 6 rioters also applied to him. The judge says, the pardon does not apply because he had not yet been convicted of any crime when the pardon was issued.

A new video out of New Jersey showing the moment a roof of a supermarket collapsed two people were trapped under the debris. They were able to get out and there were no injuries. The roof collapsed after torrential rain in the area. Several roads were washed out by flood waters and the area hit with five inches of rain in just a few hours.

And Cuba working to restore power after suffering a nationwide blackout on Monday. The island has experienced several blackouts as the country's aging electric infrastructure struggles to meet demand. Cuba's energy crisis became worse after the U.S. issued a blockade on fuel shipments.

And the dream is over for the team USA in the World Cup Monday night. They lost to Belgium by a final score of four to one, eliminating them from the tournament in the Round of 16.

[06:35:10]

Now, the loss comes despite the fact that U.S. player, Folarin Balogun, was cleared to play, even though originally he was supposed to be suspended due to a red card.

And that suspension, of course, was lifted after a phone call from President Trump to the head of FIFA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONAD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He didn't do anything wrong, and he's our best player or one of our best players. A very vital player. And they gave him a red card. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can't play in the next game. At least in the next game.

All I did was ask for a review.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now, Will Leitch, contributing editor at "New York Magazine." Will, you and I have been talking for months. And it was like, is the U.S. going to become the super villain, the sports villain of the World Cup? Is Trump going to insert himself? And you and I said to each other, oh, no, it looks like that is not happening. People are eating barbecue and loving everything. And then, and then, and then.

So, was this a bad call?

WILL LEITCH, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: We were so close.

CORNISH: We were so close. OK? But here I am.

So, when this was announced, the red card, was it considered a bad call? Was everyone in the World Cup like, oh, what a bummer the best player isn't going to make it? And we're OK with that call? Or was it controversial to start?

LEITCH: It was a controversial call to start. But what wasn't controversial was everybody understood that once the red card went down, he would be suspended to the next game. FIFA had no sense of appeal. That is the rule. That has been the rule throughout World Cups throughout history.

Certainly, a lot of people didn't like the call. I personally didn't like the call. But once the red card was given, there really wasn't a lot of debate whether or not he would be able to not play next game. It was not up for appeal. And yet, things didn't change in that regard.

CORNISH: There's a t-shirt around that jokingly says USA versus everybody. And then that t-shirt just became a reality because people started to freak out internationally about this.

Talk about the win from Belgium because they were clearly pleased with this victory.

LEITCH: Yes. It was quite interesting. Belgium's coach Rudi Garcia, before the game, they asked him how important this game was, which is a silly question. It's the World Cup qualifier. It's the World Cup game. Of course, it's a knockout phase. Of course, it's an important game.

He said, we are not just playing for the national team or the Federation. We are playing for football itself. That's a lot for the U.S. team to come up against. And you could see that really from the very beginning last night.

The U.S. really seemed -- the talent-wise, they were probably a little bit lower than Belgium. I think that that's a larger issue for U.S. soccer. But more to the point, they looked overwhelmed, kind of spooked from the beginning. They were very rattled from the start of this game. Belgium almost scored very early, didn't score very quickly.

On the whole, the U.S. team looked like the moment was maybe a little bit too big for them, which you can kind of understand because it really was everyone against them for a team that is good, but not at the top tier of the sport. It maybe was a little bit overwhelming point.

CORNISH: I want to play for you what the U.S. soccer players had to say after the match. We know what Belgium thinks because I think they tweeted overturn this, but here's what the players had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM REAM, U.S. SOCCER DEFENDER: No. I had no idea. Outside noise, we've -- we've done a good job with this group of -- of allowing outside noise to be outside noise.

TYLER ADAMS, U.S. SOCCER MIDFIELDER: We were happy that we had an opportunity for him to play. I think he -- he tried today to -- to be a -- a presence and a nuisance, and at times, he was getting the ball in behind and -- and doing what he does. Just didn't have too many opportunities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I can't help but wonder, like, was this a momentum killer? I mean, after the whole Trump-Knicks thing, I sort of, all the New Yorkers got it in my head that Trump's a cooler.

And did he basically hurt the vibes?

LEITCH: The vibes definitely shifted very quickly. This was an upstart team. You know, this has always -- U.S. soccer team is not generally like most U.S. national teams. They're not the overwhelming favorite. They're the plucky underdog. They're the way that Americans generally think we are, but aren't.

They -- they usually are that upstart team that you can get excited about. That switched so much on them. And certainly, you know, this was a team that everyone was behind, knew that everyone was behind, suddenly felt was getting tough questions from all across the board.

Certainly, these people -- the United States soccer players, they play internationally. They know what everyone is saying about this decision, everyone was saying about their team.

And they knew instantly they had gone from this fun underdog that everyone was cheering for and having these street parties cheering for to taking really tough questions and having the entire soccer world outside the United States, furious with them and rooting against them.

They can feel that whether -- whether they will admit that or not, whether the state that was outside noise, they are part of the soccer world. They know they play with the people. A lot of these people are teammates in their -- with their club teams with the people that were trying to beat them and they know how angry everybody is.

[06:40:06]

So, certainly, there was a clear shift in the way that U.S. soccer was seen both before this and very much afterward, after kind of what Trump did.

CORNISH: Will, I'm out of time, but I have to ask one last thing because FIFA's presidents looked this decision was made by an independent commission. The phone call from the man I gave a made-up peace prize to had nothing to do with it.

Can you talk to me about FIFA's Infantino? Is this a guy on the bubble? Or has he just done so much for so many countries who want a part of the FIFA revenue pie that it doesn't matter?

LEITCH: Certainly, this is the most perilous situation for him. He has made a lot of money for a lot of people. He's making a lot of money people -- for people from this World Cup.

But the one thing he's never crossed over to has been competition on the field. People have not loved everything he's done, but he's -- he's brought them a lot of money.

The tournament -- the integrity of the tournament itself has never been questioned until now. And I think that is -- I think it's provided an opening for people that were frustrated with him to potentially do something after this term. But you have to wonder if he will think it was really worth it when this tournament is over.

CORNISH: OK. Will, thanks so much. We'll have you back soon for the rest of the tournament. I got to bring in the group chat now to talk more about this because it's all of a sudden turned into a political story.

Aaron, your most recent CNN piece, you talked about how this kind of fits into a pattern for Trump in his second term. And your -- your story was in my mind because of this thing that Trump said. I want to play it for the audience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And you know what? If they beat us, then they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we'll say it was -- I say it was rigged. Just like the election was rigged in 2020.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This world sporting event is just like the election that I still insist despite no court agreeing with me was rigged. AARON BLAKE, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I think that comment is very telling about how Trump uses the sense that things were rigged to his political benefit.

But I think what's really interesting here is --

CORNISH: But the pitch isn't politics. Like, somehow I feel like that falls flat in this completely different other context.

BLAKE: Yes, yes. No, I get that. And I think the interesting thing here is, you know, we as Americans kind of look at this -- this phone call to Gianni Infantino and we're kind of like, you know, that's how Trump operates. We're used to it by now.

But I think when we look back at things like Trump talking about Greenland, talking about making Canada the 51st state, these were things that were offensive to the rest of the world. They created kind of international incidents that I don't think we in America really appreciated as much as -- as other countries were experiencing.

And I think this is kind of along those lines. These other countries are like, this guy is kind of, you know, throwing his weight around and -- and creating unfair advantages. And -- and, you know, we're the victims of what this guy is doing right now.

CORNISH: Oh, can you stop at that phrase, unfair advantages? That's the thing I'm wondering about.

Marco Rubio, first of all, says everybody chill, from the secretary of state. This is not an international incident. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Maybe turning into international incident. I don't know. Maybe we'll bring it up at NATO tomorrow when we're there with the Belgians and everybody else. But I just hope the match will go on. Everyone will be at full strength. And the winner will be the winner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And I was thinking about this in the context of this polling from Pew Research Center. Has Trump improperly used his office to enrich himself or his family?

Sixty-one percent say, probably definitely. And that idea of unfair advantage. Is that like a ball rolling down the hill? Does it get bigger and bigger as more and more happens?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Potentially so. And -- and, look, we see evidence of this all the time of what he's doing, what the family's doing.

But there's a separation between that, I think, in -- in the World Cup. And part of it is there's an addiction to all things Donald Trump. And I'm not a big defender of Donald Trump on the global stage. But Keir Starmer made a phone call to delay -- to try and delay or not delay a time for one of the matches. We've had other players.

CORNISH: Play time.

HEYE: For -- for a -- a U.K., an England match.

CORNISH: OK.

HEYE: We've had other players.

CORNISH: Bringing suspended player back to the field?

HEYE: Well, but Cris -- but Cristiano Ronaldo had his -- had his suspension also --

CORNISH: OK. OK.

HEYE: -- moved. So -- so this is precedented. The problem is the media has a pure dopamine Trump addiction. So, if we can talk about Donald Trump and make things about him, he loves it.

CORNISH: Let me let Karen jump in before we end.

HEYE: But let me say.

CORNISH: No, no, because I think one of the things about the media argument --

HEYE: The -- the Knicks game, it was more coverage about Donald Trump going to the Knicks game than the actual Knicks game. "The New York Times" is speaking.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Not -- that's not true.

HEYE: The lead piece on -- the lead opinion piece in "The New York Times" on July 4th was somebody said, I can't celebrate July 4th because of why? Donald Trump.

There was another story.

CORNISH: Doug, I'm going to put it out there. Under your face --

HEYE: What was the Taylor --

CORNISH: -- I'm going to put local man ignores sports fans --

HEYE: What was --

CORNISH: -- and let your mentions would have fire. Because I would never --

HEYE: What -- what did "The New York Times" write about the Taylor Swift wedding? Well, gosh, it's got to be about Donald.

CORNISH: Knicks fans.

HEYE: Everything has to be about Donald.

CORNISH: Knicks fans were upset. That was a real thing.

[06:45:00]

HEYE: Are they still talking about it? No. The next day onto the next --

(CROSSTALK)

FINNEY: If you're a New Yorker, my brother, yes, you are. You are definitely (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: Which is fine. But what I'm saying is this is a collision of sports fandom and regular news. There's a reason why it's called the World Cup.

HEYE: Right.

CORNISH: So, I don't really want to do one of those games of it's the media problem when this was international response by sports fans. And I think it's OK for them to respond. They don't have to be wrapped up in our bipartisan nonsense. And I do think he inserted himself.

HEYE: Of course, he did. And he knew that you would talk about him ad nauseam as you always do because you're addicted to him.

CORNISH: I'm not addicted.

HEYE: Break the addiction.

CORNISH: Oh, my God.

FINNEY: Oh, my God.

CORNISH: If you want to -- the World Cup is not a little league game, Doug. People were upset about this.

HEYE: Again --

CORNISH: And I don't think --

HEYE: -- somehow "The New York Times" made Taylor's Swift's wedding about Donald Trump and Fourth of July about Donald Trump and the Knicks game about Donald Trump. The answer always goes back as he depends on you to do to Donald Trump.

CORNISH: OK, Karen.

FINNEY: I'm a little shocked that Doug, of all people, would spend how many minutes have we now been talking about Donald Trump?

Look, here's what I would say also as a former college athlete. It's -- there's something about the sanctity of sport, period, full stop. FIFA has had a lot of trouble in the last several decades with corruption. We know that.

And so -- and -- and Donald Trump has a problem with corruption. And so the call, it also played into a narrative, frankly, not just because of Trump, but because of FIFA. And because, as you pointed out, I made up this award to make Donald Trump happy.

But there is something about for athletes, about the sanctity of sports should be outside of politics with very rare exception, like, when Jimmy Carter had to make the call on the Olympics.

Generally, world leaders don't get involved. Politics does not get involved. And there's usually an attempt to keep it that way. And I think that's part of why people were so angry was, wait a second, why are you getting involved? And particularly when I'm going to say, I didn't even know what a red card was. I mean, come on.

CORNISH: Well, to be clear, FIFA 2022 bribery scandal, OK? So, just for you at home --

FINNEY: Also 2015.

CORNISH: -- who were like FIFA scandal, if you're not following FIFA and it's OK if you aren't, they have been dealt many corruption blows in recent years. We were talking about Italy in the past.

So, this is something that is coming up and it becomes like everything with the World Cup symbolic.

BLAKE: Yes. And the pattern is super important here. If this was an isolated incident of President Trump calling a buddy and being like, hey, maybe you guys should review this, maybe that would be a little bit different.

But we are talking about FIFA which has this demonstrated the history of corruption issues. The United States government has gotten involved in prosecuting them for this.

We also have, as you mentioned the made-up Peace Prize. This is a FIFA president Gianni Infantino who has gone out of his way to curry favor with President Trump. There was a built-in power dynamic with those two that made that phone call not necessarily just a, can you please review this kind of phone call. It's understood kind of the -- the power dynamics that are involved in that. And so I think that's why this was a bigger deal than it might otherwise seem.

CORNISH: OK. We want to come back to domestic politics here. Turning to Maine, that Senate race, because Graham Platner very much in trouble and now reflecting on the best path forward, after new accusations, if he exits the Maine Senate race. Who should take his place? Will they have a better shot at defeating Susan Collins? We're going to talk about that in a minute.

And later on CNN, Trump wants to make your energy bill cheaper. Was defunding wind and solar the way to do it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:50:53]

CORNISH: So, President Trump just landed in Turkey for the NATO summit, where tomorrow he is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In recent months, Trump has turned his focus away from Ukraine, instead focusing on Iran.

Now, attacks from Russia this week, ramping up. Yesterday, 19 people were killed in Kyiv. Zelenskyy plans to ask the U.S. and European allies to deliver air defense systems that urgently needs to protect against Russia's escalating attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Unfortunately, there is a shortage of anti-ballistic capabilities, a shortage of patriots, and our partners, primarily the United States and our European partners, need to be more proactive in providing assistance with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. Bringing in CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas. And, Alex, right now, we are looking at the president's plane landing in Ankara, Turkey. We know that Ukraine has a lot of questions going into this summit.

And months ago, president said to Zelenskyy, you don't hold the cards. Have things changed for Ukraine, especially in the light of the -- of the war with Iran, where all of a sudden knowledge about how to conduct drone warfare was very valuable?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, things have fundamentally changed on the battlefield. And quite frankly, I'm told, so has the president's perception of the war, and that Ukraine has been successful now in long-range strike capabilities in hitting Russian oil and gas to make sure that Putin couldn't take advantage of the war in Iran with rising fuel prices to make money, but also causing domestic fuel shortages at home.

The second is the staggering number of casualties that Ukraine has been able to inflict. They were trying to get about 50,000 a month. We're now told by British intelligence that number sits at around 500,000. That's out of a population of 143 million.

So you're talking one in every 287 Russian citizens. And because the population of military-age males is only about 21 million, I mean, you're talking with one in almost 42 males of that age group has died in Ukraine. That's simply unsustainable. And Putin's going to have to launch a mobilization, given the losses if he wants to spring offensive.

[06:55:01]

CORNISH: How would Patriot missiles make the difference? PLITSAS: So, his response has been to continue to launch ballistic missiles at -- at Kyiv, as well as these long-range drones. And quite frankly, they're running short on interceptors. So, President Zelenskyy is asking NATO allies, particularly the United States, to provide those systems.

But as you correctly noted, we've had to provide defensive capabilities because of the war in Iran to both -- to both Israel and then also to Ukraine and then lead up to both of those wars.

Some of those missile defense systems were going end-of-life in the United States and projections about how many we would need and for how long and when the new systems would come, et cetera, was all predicated upon usage and nobody foresaw this war with Ukraine or the wars that Israel launched in Gaza or having to defend against, you know, Iran on the -- on the horizon. Unfortunately, that meant a shortage of interceptor systems.

CORNISH: So, this plane is landing in Ankara. Can you talk to me about what it is European allies want out of Trump? Is this just their usual kind of management trying to prove that they're doing more spending when it comes to NATO? Or do they have real asks around either the Russian war or what's going on with Iran?

PLITSAS: So, it's a mix of everything you just described. So, yes, they would like to see more U.S. involvement and support for Ukraine. They do want to tout increased spending. The president made it part of his agenda that he wanted an increase in spending from NATO states from three percent of GDP to five percent, which is actually now why we're seeing the U.S. try to propose a budget of 1.5 trillion.

The messaging hasn't been great around that, but that's about five percent of U.S. GDP, which is what we're asking the Europeans to spend on that.

And then lastly, I was told that he is in Turkey personally because that President Erdogan asked him to come and this surrounds, you know, Turkey's involvement in a number of issues. They helped broker some of the backdoor agreements with Iran. They also played a key role in Syria and helping to stabilize there as far as the president's concern.

But the Israelis are apoplectic. They see Erdogan's language in Turkey as a long-term strategic threat. And so what looms large over this inside the discussions is a U.S. decision to give or to allow Turkey to participate in the F-35 program again to give it that advanced fighter jet, which the Israelis are worried will tip the balance of power in the region.

CORNISH: You know, it's interesting right now, we're watching a carpet being rolled out into Air Force One.

And as much as this is a summit, when it comes to Trump, we're talking about bilateral relationships, right? He's got a relationship with Netanyahu. He's got a relationship with Erdogan.

What do you know about the balance of these two kind of who's up and who's down and in terms of his favor?

PLITSAS: So, Turkey is definitely on the rise in terms of favoritism. I mean, he -- President Trump and President Erdogan's relationship has continued to grow over time. And Erdogan has used that to his advantage.

You know, there was, I was told, of actual plan to arm the Kurds at one point. It was part of a long-term Israeli plan to eventually, you know, see the overthrow of the Iranian government.

But Erdogan stepped in because he didn't want to see another independent or semi-autonomous Kurdish state like we have in -- in Northern Iraq.

Because about a third of Eastern Turkey is Kurdish and they fought a long-term war against the PKK, which is a Turkish separatist group that's a designated terrorist organization.

So, he was worried about that. He stepped in, used it for that. He's able to -- to maneuver to get the F-35 that he wanted. And he and President Trump just have this relationship just given their styles. And it has really unnerved the Israelis.

CORNISH: OK. Alex, thanks so much. Always love your insight. Appreciate that.

Right now, you are looking at the President's plane, which has touched down in Turkey for a meeting with NATO allies.

Turkey really wanted the president there. We've been talking about that relationship.

I want to turn to the group chat because this is a kind of day where we just want to know, what do you think is going to come out of this meeting today? Doug, let me start with you. Is there a particular leader you're watching coming out of this?

HEYE: I'm looking to see what the side conversations are. There's been a real effort over the past year and a half. I was at some of the meetings for this last year for what's called the Defense Security and Resilience Bank that would basically help fund those -- those countries who haven't gotten to the five percent threshold yet. Will that be successful? Will that rise in -- in the attention of the leaders?

CORNISH: Go ahead, Karen.

FINNEY: Yes. I'm looking for just the tone and tenor because one of the things we're seeing are -- is the European leaders, like, other parts of the world, kind of figuring out how to get along without us because the United States has become less reliable.

And so some of those dynamics I think will be in play in terms of the posture of some of these leaders.

CORNISH: Now, Aaron, you and I were nerding out about the sort of weapons systems and questions around Air Force support that people will be watching for here in military land, but can you talk to me about what else you're watching?

BLAKE: Yes. The -- the decoupling is a big thing. You know, we have that big speech from --

CORNISH: Decoupling.

BLAKE: Decoupling. The Mark Carney speech in Brussels earlier this year where he kind of laid out a path forward for these Western countries to maybe not be so closely aligned with the United States.

Then also, I think this F-35 issue is really interesting, not just because of the relationship with Israel, like we talked about, on Netanyahu does not want these -- these -- the stealth technology going to Turkey, but also Congress might not like this.

Congress could stand in the way if Trump wants to press forward with this. That's a very interesting dynamic in Washington.

CORNISH: OK. A lot of questions going into the day. Thank you to your -- to our group chat. Really appreciate you guys being here. Thank you to you for waking up with us.

Right now, we are watching the president touchdown interview where he is set to meet with NATO allies to talk about Ukraine, among other things.

I'm Audie Cornish. And I want you to stay with us because we've got these headlines next.