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The Situation Room

Trump to Give Speech Tonight in Touting Economic Progress; Putin Showed No Movement Today on Ending the War in Ukraine; Trump Not Ruling Out War with Venezuela; TikTok Agrees to Deal with U.S. Investors to Avoid Ban. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 19, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll new this morning, the latest numbers show people are feeling a little more optimistic about the economy with consumer sentiment inching up over the past month. These figures from the University of Michigan measure how people feel about the economy, their own finances, and future spending. And this comes as President Trump is preparing to take his economic message on the road. He'll give a speech tonight in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

Also new this morning, growing backlash after the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted to rename the performing arts center the Trump Kennedy Center. A spokeswoman said the vote was unanimous, but Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, who's an ex-member of the board, says that was not the case.

So, let's go to CNN White House reporter Alayna Treene to find out more. Tell us about the reaction. And does the board even have the power to do this, Alayna?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, let's break it down. I want to start with what we heard from President Trump because -- and I'm sure a lot of our viewers notice this as well, but for recent months now, the president has been actually referring to the Kennedy Center as the Trump Kennedy Center. Sometimes he was joking, but then when he was talking about this yesterday, he acted very surprised that the board actually did this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I was honored by it. The board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country. And I was surprised by it. I was honored by it. You know, we've -- we're saving the building. We saved the building.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, interesting as well, Pamela, is that earlier in the day, our Betsy Klein reports that the president had actually called in to that exact board meeting. And I should note as well that the board serving on top of the Kennedy Center is mostly handpicked by President Trump himself. He's made a number of changes, of course, to the Cultural Center in recent months. But many of those board members were put there by him.

But let's get into some of what we also heard about some of the legal concerns of this. We -- you know, a lot of people are saying, you know, is this even lawful, given that Congress had actually passed a law to name this the John F. Kennedy Center back in 1964 as a memorial to the Democratic president after he was assassinated.

We did hear some backlash from members of the Kennedy family, one of them Joe Kennedy III. He was a former member of Congress and also the great nephew of the late president. He said, quote, "The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law." He said, it can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.

Now, again, this law, just going back to this 1963 -- or excuse me, 1964 law, it does say very clearly that it assures that after 1983, no additional memorials or plaques in the sign or in the nature of memorials should be designated or installed in the center. So, a lot of pushback over whether or not this is actually lawful. And, of course, criticism, as we're hearing from the Kennedy members as well.

BROWN: Also, Alayna, before we let you go, the president is announcing a new fitness competition?

TREENE: That's right. He has announced that he wants to have a fitness competition. It's calling it the Patriot competition to commemorate America's 250th birthday. This is something we know that he is trying to do all out, you know, plan a lot of events to celebrate America's birthday. And he's saying that they're going to pick some members who they argue win this competition. It's supposed to be younger students to, again, commemorate the 250th birthday of America. So, we're going to be seeing probably more of that and a lot of hype around that from this White House, Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you. Well, just ahead, a major deal to save tick tock here in the U.S. We have some new reporting on the buyers and what it will mean for your feed.

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[10:35:00]

BROWN: New this morning, Vladimir Putin showed no movement today on ending the war in Ukraine. In his annual year-end news conference in Moscow, Putin said President Trump is making what he called frank efforts to end the conflict. And he said Russia has accepted some compromises in a peace plan proposed by the United States. But Putin said the ball is now in Ukraine's and the West's court.

Earlier this week, Putin reportedly called European leaders piglets and said Russia's goals in Ukraine would be met unconditionally.

President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to meet in Miami today with a top Russian economic official.

[10:40:00]

And new this morning, CNN's exclusive reporting on fallout from that controversial video where six Democratic lawmakers urged U.S. troops to disobey illegal orders. The top lawyer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said military commanders should ask to retire rather than resign in protest if they believe they received an unlawful order.

CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand is here now. What more can you tell us about this?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This really offers an interesting window into how senior military officials are thinking about this issue, which, as we know, has really reached a fever pitch over the last month or so with the controversy over whether these boat strikes the U.S. military is carrying out are actually legal.

What happened was those Democrats released a video, obviously last month, saying that troops have a duty to disobey unlawful orders. As a result of that video, we're told Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, he asked his lawyer for the latest guidance on how to determine whether an order is unlawful and what a commander should do if they are confronted with an illegal order or something they consider an illegal order.

What this lawyer, Brigadier General Eric Widmar, got back to the general with was if someone determines, a senior officer determines that they have received an illegal order, they should consult with their lawyers, you know, determine whether or not that's actually true. And then if they still determine that it is an illegal order, they should simply request to retire. They should not resign in protest because that might be seen as a political act and they should not try to pick a policy fight because that might also be seen as political.

But nowhere in the guidance that the brigadier general gave to General Caine does it say that they have a duty to disobey an unlawful order. And that's really causing a lot of heartburn among current and former officials that we've spoken to because they say that really perpetuates a culture of silence and lack of accountability that is problematic in the military, especially if you simply leave, retire early, leaving that illegal order essentially in place for the person below you in that chain of command.

And so, one former senior defense official put it to us like this. They said, quote, "A commissioned officer has every right to say this is wrong and shouldn't be expected to quietly and silently walk away just because they're given a free pass to do so."

Final note on this, we should note Secretary Hegseth issued very similar guidance to senior officers about this back in September. He said, if you don't agree essentially with the direction of the military, you should simply leave the military. Of course, not agreeing with his policies is very different than being given an illegal order. BROWN: And unlawful order. Exactly. Excellent reporting. Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much.

And new this morning, President Trump says he is not ruling out war with Venezuela, and the U.S. military says it attacked two more alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean yesterday, killing five more people. Retired Air Force Colonel and CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton joins us now here in the Situation Room. What do you make of the president's latest comments about Venezuela not ruling out war with that country?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST AND U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): Well, it certainly leaves the door open, Pamela, to all kinds of possible actions that the president might want to take in in this case. So, one thing that we do know is that the Venezuelan Navy has been ordered to escort tankers in Venezuelan waters and presumably beyond Venezuelan waters as well. And what that means is that this is a possible prelude to some kind of confrontation between the militaries of the United States and Venezuela.

So, President Trump is clearly leaving his options open. The Maduro government is also kind of putting a marker down there. And I guess they think that they have support from other countries such as Cuba and Russia when it comes to a possible confrontation with the United States. So, this is something that could escalate very quickly.

BROWN: What about China's role in all of this?

LEIGHTON: Well, China also has a role. That's actually very important to note because financially and from a commerce perspective, an economic perspective, they import a lot of oil from Venezuela.

BROWN: Exactly.

LEIGHTON: And that becomes one of the critical things. So, it's going to be in China's interest as well to keep the oil flowing. So, between Russia, China and Iran, as well as Cuba and Venezuela, you see kind of a quadrilateral alliance forming here. And that is one of the things that is going to really keep this pot boiling if it isn't de-escalated very quickly.

BROWN: And as this concern is ongoing, there have been yet more attacks on alleged drug boats. The president says more oil tankers will be seized off Venezuela. Where is this headed in your view?

LEIGHTON: So, there are two basic things that are going on here. You know, number one is the thing that started out first was the attack on the alleged narco-trafficking boats. Those narco-trafficking boats, we really don't have the concrete proof that every single one of those was carrying drugs. So, there's a bit of a problematic strategy when it comes to a possible regime change in Venezuela.

Now, going after the oil, that has the -- you know, possibility, at least a greater possibility, of limiting Venezuelan oil supplies and oil exports.

[10:45:00]

But it also has the possibility of, you know, exerting enough force to potentially result in regime change. At least it has a greater chance than going after the narco-boats themselves or the alleged narco-boats themselves.

BROWN: And just explaining to our viewers why this administration would want regime change and go to these links for that.

LEIGHTON: Yes. So, there are several different possibilities. One is a very commercially-oriented possibility where President Trump, you know, believes that the oil fields were expropriated from American companies. And that technically is true. But that was done way before either the Maduro regime or the Chavez regime in Venezuela. We're talking in the 1970s.

And the other thing that you're looking at here is, you know, if President Trump believes that this is, quote-unquote, "American oil," that then gets into issues of national sovereignty and that could really complicate relations with the rest of Latin America.

So, President Trump thinks that, you know, these are areas that we can exert influence and, in essence, take possession of the resources. That flies in the face of international norms as they exist today. So, this could set ourselves up for a major confrontation, not just with Venezuela, but potentially with other countries in this hemisphere and perhaps beyond.

BROWN: Yes, that's as you laid out earlier, places like China that rely on oil from Venezuela. You heard a reporting from Natasha on that guidance from a top military lawyer that officers should put in for retirement rather than resign in protest if they think they've received an illegal order. What is your reaction to that?

LEIGHTON: Well, I think it's a very limited way of looking at what is actually happening here. If someone receives an illegal order, first of all, not all military personnel are retirement eligible. So, this was clearly an order that was designed for the very highest echelons, you know, people that are in command of large units, people that have spent 20 years or more in the service. So, if you're a much more junior person, this guidance really doesn't pertain to you because you can't retire. There's no mechanism for you to retire under normal circumstances.

So, it's a very limited thing. And it's also -- and when you get to the senior levels, it also limits the capacity of senior officers to potentially question orders. And as Natasha was reporting, this is a real problem because you have to have a dialogue with your superiors, you know, whether that superior is the secretary of defense or a unified commander of a combatant command or just your wing commander or squadron commander. You have to be able to question them in a respectful way, absolutely. But you have to be able to go in there and say, you know, hey, sir or ma'am, this is not the right thing to do because of X, Y, and Z. And oh, by the way, here's what the law says.

So, you know, the idea of getting legal advice is good. But sometimes you really have to take these matters into your own hand. And you also have to say that, you know, limiting the type of dialogue that a commander would have with his or her subordinates is actually antithetical to American military values.

BROWN: All right. Always great to have you on, Colonel Cedric Leighton. Appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: And coming up here in the Situation Room, major changes to the childhood vaccine schedule could be coming. Why the Department of Health and Human Services wants fewer shots for kids.

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[10:50:00]

BROWN: New this morning, TikTok has signed a deal that could keep it going in the United States. The deal isn't finalized just yet, but the company will sell most of its U.S. assets to a group of mostly American investors, including Oracle. TikTok's parent company, China- based ByteDance, would keep a 20 percent stake in the new company.

So, let's go straight to CNN Tech Reporter Clare Duffy. What does this mean for the millions of American TikTok users, Clare?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Well, Pamela, this brings TikTok one step closer to ensuring its long-term future in the U.S. and accessibility for those 170 million American users. But as you said, this is not a done deal just yet. In particular, we expect that this deal is still going to need the sign-off of the Chinese government. We haven't heard directly from Beijing. Although President Trump has said that Chinese President Xi Jinping is on board with this deal. TikTok CEO Shou Chew saying in this memo to employees that they're working towards a close of this deal by January 22nd of next year.

The other thing that we learned from this memo is more about what the structure of this deal is going to be. This is not a straightforward sale of TikTok's U.S. assets to American owners. What they're doing here is they're creating a joint venture. 50 percent of that joint venture will be held by this consortium of investors. That will include Oracle, the private equity firm Silverlake and the Emirati- backed investment firm MGX. 30 percent of the joint venture will be held by existing ByteDance investors. We don't know who those people or those companies are. And then just under 20 percent is going to be maintained by ByteDance.

Now, this new ownership group is going to oversee retraining the algorithm that U.S. users see on the app, securing U.S. user data in the United States. Oracle is going to be overseeing that and then controlling content moderation for U.S. users. But what's interesting here is that ByteDance, the global TikTok entity, is going to continue to control marketing, advertising and e-commerce on the U.S. platform.

So, there are still going to be some real connections between this new U.S. version of TikTok and the global entity. And I think you could ask whether that meets the spirit of this ban or sale law that was passed by Congress last year. President Trump has declared that this does count as a qualified divestiture under the law. And so, these parties are moving forward to close this deal early next year, Pamela.

[10:55:00]

BROWN: All right. Clare Duffy, thank you so much for bringing us the latest on that. And coming up right after the break, a rental car, a storage unit, security footage, a Reddit thread. How investigators broke the Brown University shooting case.

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BROWN: Happening now --

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