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Any Moment, Trump Hosts Cabinet Meeting at White House; Partial Government Shutdown Pushes TSA Wait Times to Record Highs; Airports Brace for Easter, Spring Break Travelers Amid DHS Shutdown. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired March 26, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, Trump cabinet meeting in just a few moments. The president will gather the top officials from his administration. We're going to bring you that cabinet meeting live.

Plus, stark threat to Iran, President Trump now telling Tehran to, quote, get serious soon in talks, before, he says, it is too late.

And later, four-hour TSA wait. That's the nightmare situation unfolding right now at Houston's Bush Airport as another attempt to end the DHS shutdown sputters.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off. You're in The Situation Room.

We begin with the breaking news. At any moment, President Trump will begin his cabinet meeting over at the White House. We're going to bring that to you live. It will be his first cabinet meeting since the beginning of the war with Iran. We're expecting to hear directly from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at that cabinet meeting.

It's also the first cabinet meeting since the Department of Homeland Security shutdown has snarled airports and left the TSA agents unpaid for six weeks. A possible deal is now bogged down as Congress gets ready to actually leave tomorrow on a two-week recess.

We're covering all the angles this morning. Our correspondents are fanned out across the world from the White House to Tel Aviv, to New York and here in Washington.

Let's begin over at the White House with CNN's Alayna Treene. Alayna, the cabinet meeting, we take it, will begin within a few moments. What do we expect to hear this morning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, this is going to be a very notable cabinet meeting. And, look, I think if you look at the past cabinet meetings, what's likely is going to happen is the president will go around, get updates and briefings publicly from his different secretaries. But, of course, there are two main topics that are at everyone's minds right now. One, of course, the war with Iran. We did see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrive at the White House a short time ago. What he's going to have to say is obviously going to be very notable given just the tenuous state of play right now between the United States and Iran with this hope from the president, public hope I should say, that they could find some way forward for diplomacy, even as we're hearing a lot more skepticism from the Iranians.

So, stay tuned for that. Of course, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he will be there providing updates. The vice president, who is expected at some point to travel out of the country for potential talks with the Iranians, potentially in Pakistan, as we reported yesterday, all of that going to be, I think, front and center at this cabinet meeting.

But the other big issue, of course, is the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. We have hit day 40, Wolf, of this shutdown. We have a new secretary of Homeland Security who was just confirmed and sworn in, you know, Mullin. And what we're going to see if -- with him being here, we have not yet caught him, at least on camera, arriving to the White House, but, you know, Markwayne Mullin, he's going to be a big presence here, his first cabinet meeting. We'll see what he has to say.

But that's going to be top of mind as well as, really, we're seeing the White House Republicans and Senate Democrats in this crippling standoff over what to do about DHS, as we're seeing, of course, airports across the country being snarled by the shutdown, TSA workers going weeks now without pay. So much to get to.

There's a lot of other issues, of course, we'll be hearing from all the cabinet secretaries likely, but those will really be the two big topics I think they're going to try to tackle.

BLITZER: And we'll be hearing from you again after the cabinet meeting. Alayna Treene over at the White House, thank you.

Jim Sciutto is in Tel Aviv for us. Jim, this is, what, day 27 of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. Multiple sources telling CNN that U.S. allies in the Gulf and in Europe, for that matter, are increasingly concerned about a lack of negotiations. But what will they be listening for during these cabinet meeting comments?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They'll be listening for, if the president indeed gives this, for any indication that what to-date are really just indirect communications between the two sides via intermediaries, whether those will lead to actual negotiations and an actual compromise on some of these issues, which at this point remain diametrically opposed.

[10:05:07]

I mean, for instance, on the Strait of Hormuz, a big focus for the president, the president wants it open unconditionally. Iran wants to maintain sovereignty over that strait. How do they bridge that gap? It's not clear.

I'll tell you that the skepticism in this country among Israeli officials remains very real. I spoke to the prime minister's foreign policy adviser, Ophir Falk, last night, and I asked him, what is the source of that skepticism? Why do you not believe these talks are likely to go anywhere? And he said a few things. One, he said, because in their view, and, again, I'm quoting him, Iranian leaders are liars. And then he went on to say that from Israel's perspective, they're going to continue their military operations with the intention, again, his phrasing, of bombing the Iranian regime into the Stone Age. I mean, that kind of language does not signal a great deal of openness from this side in terms of where those talks might lead.

But I'll tell you this as well, Wolf, that in terms of the pace of the crossfire here, it has not abated. In fact, over the last 12 hours, we have experienced here the most air raid warnings, I think seven by last count, every couple of hours or even more frequently, as Iran has continued to fire missiles towards Tel Aviv. And that, of course, requires folks across Tel Aviv to go into those shelters to protect themselves.

Meanwhile Israel continues its strikes on Iran, the most consequential of which today, Israel saying that it took out a targeted assassination of the leader of the IRGC's naval forces, which Israel says was responsible for directing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

So, the pace of the fighting here has not changed, it doesn't mean that if the president and Iran believe that they're making progress on peace, that it doesn't stop at some point in the coming days. But I will tell you, Wolf, that the skepticism here is still very real, skepticism that those talks lead anywhere.

BLITZER: Yes, it looks like, at least over there where you are in Tel Aviv, in Israel, this war seems to be intensifying right now, all these warnings that you've been getting, the sirens going off, the rockets and the missiles coming in, and Israel going ahead and retaliating with its rockets and missiles at various targets in Iran and also against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

All right, Jim Sciutto, we're going to get back to you after the cabinet meeting as well.

Priscilla Alvarez is here with me in The Situation Room. Priscilla, this will be the first time that the new secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, will be in this cabinet meeting. What are you going to be listening for?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in his first remarks so far, he has talked about the shutdown of his department, and that is a priority for him to have his personnel get paid. Of course, top of mind is TSA workers who are working at airports and are not getting paid, and it is leading to call-outs and to those long lines at airports.

We heard him talk about this right after his swearing-in in the Oval Office, but he also released a statement via the Department of Homeland Security right after that, where he again mentioned it. So, I anticipate that it is going to be among his first remarks during this cabinet meeting, is touching on that shutdown, a shutdown that he is keenly aware of just based off his previous position as senator, where he was involved in talks as there was this -- there is this back and forth between Democrats and Republicans.

But as a reminder to viewers, this is his third day on the job as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. I am told that over the last couple days, he has been focused on getting briefings from Homeland Security officials as he's getting read in and getting settled really as secretary of the department, even making some personnel moves. He brought some of his staff from the U.S. Senate over to the department. So, he is still very new to the job, but he is already grappling with this shutdown as well as any other policy changes that may come.

I will also note that recently, when there was another cabinet meeting this year with President Trump, that came at a time where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was under intense scrutiny over the operations happening in Minneapolis, and he skipped over her during that meeting. I also expect that that's going to be different this time around. The president has expressed great confidence in Mullin. He's called him a friend repeatedly and now he's going to be in a room with him and his other cabinet where he is also, I would expect, likely to talk about his new installment as secretary as well.

So, a few things going on here with him being the secretary only for a few days now with the shutdown in place of his department and him saying that his priority is to get it funded. And then in addition to that, of course, this is a department that has been under intense scrutiny and controversy. So, we'll see how he sets the tone in this cabinet meeting.

BLITZER: Usually the president at these cabinet meetings goes around the table and asks his cabinet members to speak up and say a few words at the beginning. We'll hear what he has to say.

All right, Vanessa, thank you very, very much. Not Vanessa.

Vanessa Yurkevich is joining us now. She has more on this war that it has caused the global oil prices to climb and gas prices have spiked here in the United States.

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Will budget-strained Americans see any relief soon, Vanessa?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Wolf, some encouraging news, a glimmer of hope this morning. National prices for gasoline have actually fallen for the first time since February 27th, a month ago, when the war got underway. You can see right there on your screen, we're talking about a fraction of a penny, and most people are not going to feel that. But it is notable that we're not seeing that dramatic rise from one day to another. So, today, the national average is $3.981 compared to yesterday, which was $3.983. But as I mentioned, we're still up about a dollar from a month ago. That is a 34 percent increase from just a month ago. This is largely because of something called price cycling. This is when gas stations try to edge out their competition, and they drop maybe a cent to 3 cents so they can bring people to their gas station.

And also, oil prices, while still elevated more than 40 percent from a month ago, they have come off their highs. So, that is WTI crude, that's U.S. crude, coming off that $100 a barrel mark, settling closer to $90, $93 as you see there on your screen. So, as that leveling continues, maybe there will be some relief at the pump. But the only thing that will bring total relief is, of course, the Strait of Hormuz opening again, moving 20 percent of the oil that the world consumes once again.

But for everyday Americans at home, Wolf, every time gas prices jump by a dollar, that's $122 billion of spending every single year. And for the average American family, that's $1,000 every single year if these gas prices continue to be elevated. This is obviously concerning for so many Americans, so many people who use their cars for work, for business, who are just trying to figure out how to make affordability work for them in America. I've spoken to so many people who are just really surprised by the dramatic rise in gas prices, and it is certainly affecting them at their bottom line. Wolf?

BLITZER: It seems to be going up and up and up.

All right, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you. We'll get back to you as well.

Lauren Fox is here with me in The Situation Room. Lauren you're our Congressional reporter. More than 480 TSA agents have quit since this partial government shutdown choked off funding. Airports around the country are reporting wait times of several hours, four hours in Houston right now just a few days ago. Senate Republicans, they seemed to be pretty optimistic a funding deal could be struck. Now, Congress is just one day away from leaving on a two-week recess. They're all heading out of town for vacation for two weeks right now in the midst of what's going on. Is a deal anywhere in sight?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think if you're looking at Republican and Democratic leadership to strike a deal, that's probably not where this is going to come from at the moment. The question now becomes, are there a handful of Senate Democrats who may be willing to break with their leadership out of pure frustration over the fact that these negotiations seem to be moving really slowly, seem to not be leading to any kind of consensus?

And, you know, yesterday, Democrats put forward another proposal to Senate Republicans, but it included many of the same reforms that they have been going back and forth with Republicans and the White House about over the course of the last several weeks. And it's important to keep in mind that they want these reforms despite the fact that they are not agreeing to fully fund immigration and enforcement activities by ICE. They are agreeing perhaps to fund CBP activities and part of ICE, but that is very different, Republicans argue, than funding the entire agency, therefore, Republicans don't want to engage in a conversation about those reforms.

Now, is there a handful of Democrats who may be willing to have some other more informal conversations with their Republican colleagues knowing that the clock is ticking, knowing that a two-week recess is on the horizon? I think that's the question today. And we'll see if any rank and file conversations start to shake this loose. Jet fumes can be very powerful.

BLITZER: Any chance Lauren, that they could cancel this two-week recess keep the members here in Washington and try to negotiate a deal to keep the government running, let these TSA agents around the country get paid?

FOX: Well, I think that that is something that a lot of lawmakers are perhaps bracing for. John Thune yesterday told our colleague, Ted Barrett, which I thought was very revealing, that he could always bring members back if a deal came together. But, you know, members, generally, when they have been in session for five, six, seven weeks, they are ready to get out of town.

And sometimes having everyone in Washington together doesn't actually break anything loose. I know that that's hard for people who are standing in airport lines and really are struggling with the fact that how could members possibly leave Washington at a moment when so many Americans, including TSA workers, are suffering and, in the case of workers, not getting paid.

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BLITZER: Yes, and if they have to bring them back, it's not going to be that easy. Flights are pretty much booked, and it's difficult getting to airports and all of that. So, they should perhaps think about staying here and getting their job done.

FOX: Thank you.

BLITZER: Just my opinion.

All right, thanks very much.

And to everyone, stick around. We're going to go to the White House once this cabinet meeting begins. We'll have coverage of that.

And also coverage of airports across the United States bracing for yet another crush of weekend travelers. We're live in Houston and Atlanta, where travelers are once again facing hours-long waits, in some cases up to four hours.

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BLITZER: Breaking news, we're waiting for President Trump to hold a cabinet meeting with his top officials over at the White House. We're going to bring that to you live once it begins.

We're also following other major news right now. Airports here in the United States are preparing for yet another crush of weekend travelers as TSA staffing shortages lead to very long security wait times. Watch.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the end of the day, I don't think it's fair that they're not getting paid. They should be getting paid. It's just like everyone has a paycheck and bills due. So, it's unfair to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to work for free. I don't expect them to. But, I mean, the politicians need to get their head out of their ass. I mean, I don't understand why Congress still gets paid while they do political games to shut everything down and inconvenience the people that they're supposed to be working for.

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BLITZER: CNN's Ryan Young is over at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Ed Lavandera is over at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

Ed, let me start with you. What are you seeing there in Houston this morning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's another difficult day here. You know, the latest information we have on the number of TSA employee call-outs here at George Bush Intercontinental was from Tuesday, where it was over 40 percent. We have not seen a number that high. We're still waiting on yesterday's figures. But it kind of gives you an idea of the challenges that these passengers will be facing.

Right now, the wait time here at George Bush Intercontinental at the only two terminals where the TSA security lines are open, is about three hours. But, you know, you try to find some slivers of hope and good news here, but if you look down below you can see this is an area that has been set up for the travelers, and these lines have really been filled up, most of this area on this lower level, most of the morning.

So, the sliver of good news is you can see it's about half full right now. This can fluctuate very quickly. But before, over the last few days as well, the lines have actually gone down to a second level below ground, the subway area, where people can connect -- use the tram to connect between terminals. The lines have not extended that far down, but it is extensive.

Where you see these people standing behind me here, they're probably a good hour, an hour 15 away from the TSA security line. Those people down there at the bottom will end up here again, and then going back outside beyond the glass walls there. They have to wind their way through lines that are out in an area that is normally the passenger drop-off area. So, you know, it's still extensive but we have seen lines here this week that have gone, you know, four to five hours. So, the fact that it's three, you know, slightly better, but still horrendous.

BLITZER: All right. Ed Lavandera in Houston for us, Ed, thank you.

I want to go to CNN's Ryan Young right now. He's over at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Ryan, what do TSA wait times look like in Atlanta this morning?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Wolf. You know, we really got this almost down pat now. We know Tuesdays and Wednesdays are really the light days here at the airport, and then Thursday you see the bounce. In the last half hour or so, the line has actually started to go down.

Now, I'm going to take us across this direction over here because I want to show you again all the TSA agents who are not here today. You'll see the empty seats stacked one by another. But the difference here today is we've actually seen ICE agents checking I.D.s. I hope we have this photo ready for you, we can show it to you. What we know is they've actually been behind the counter, checking an I.D. like a TSA agent before you move through the next step. So, that's something new in terms of the posture here of ICE agents.

Like I said before, this morning, it was crushed here at the airport, something that we normally see early in the morning. And right now, we've seen less people coming through, so that first wave has gone, and now you can see the line sort of building. Clear still remains closed here. TSA pre-check is open. Delta Priority is still here. But the real question is, what is this crush going to be like in the next hour or so? Because we do know around the noontime that we see more people sort of influx. So, you see she's calling people in for the pre-check. People come around this line and go that way.

One of the things I also want to highlight about this airport in particular, here at this airport, they confiscate more guns than any other airport across the country each year. That's why you want these TSA agents to be ready to check everyone as they go through. Some of the lines are open and flowing, but at the same time, we're still having to check to see when that next ramp up will happen. Usually around noon, usually around, Wolf -- 1:00, Wolf. We'll continue to watch this as the hours go on.

BLITZER: Any indication Ryan, that the TSA agents in Atlanta, where you are, are asking people for identification, more identification to prove they're not undocumented immigrants?

YOUNG: Good question. Our producer who went through a little earlier said they were just checking I.D.s. It didn't seem like there was any other extra questions, and they were moving people along through. But this is something that's new, that's happened just today, and we know they've been training on certain new steps to help out the TSA agents.

[10:25:05] It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few hours, and if any of that gets extended. But as of right now, they're almost acting as a function as a TSA agent.

BLITZER: All right, good to hear.

Ryan Young, thank you very, very much, Ed Lavandera in Houston for us as well. We'll get back to both of you.

And we're waiting for President Trump to hold a cabinet meeting with top officials in his administration. We'll bring that to you live once it begins.

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BLITZER: All right, breaking news, we're still waiting for President Trump to begin his cabinet meeting with top officials in his administration.

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