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Trump Rips Iran After Terms of Deal Appear in State Media; USA Opens World Cup Play Tonight Vs. Paraguay in L.A.; 125,000 Guests Expected at White House UFC Event. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 12, 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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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, deal whiplash. President Trump is now lashing out at Iran just hours after saying the U.S. has ended the war with a, quote, great settlement. Iran still has yet to confirm the agreement.

Plus, immigration detention on school grounds, agents arrest two people in Baltimore as the school was preparing for kindergarten and pre-K promotion ceremonies. Maryland's governor is now calling it, quote, disturbing.

And later, historic Wall Street debut after the largest IPO ever. SpaceX is now awaiting its very first public trade. It likely will make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And security on the biggest stage. The first 2026 World Cup game in the United States kicks off today. We'll take you inside the massive operation to keep players, fans, and communities safe. One official says it's like 78 Super Bowls in 39 days.

Plus, firsthand tour, Pamela and I walk around D.C. to see all the changes to the nation's capital just ahead of this weekend's UFC fight at the White House.

And later, Knicks super fan in The Situation Room, Fat Joe, will join us live. Why he thinks the Knicks can go all the way up.

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

And we begin with the breaking news. After saying there was a deal, President Trump is now lashing out at Iran. In a Truth Social post that appeared just a few moments ago, he called Tehran, and I'm quoting him now, dishonorable for what he's calling inaccurate descriptions of a proposed agreement. He also said they better get their act together, and they better do so fast.

Let's go to CNN's Kristen Holmes over at the White House. Kristen, what else is the president saying this morning? It's all very dramatic.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And Wolf, we're going to get to what he's saying in a second, but I do want to explain how we got here and what it is that he is referring to. Because we had gotten a readout of this memorandum of understanding from a diplomat who had been briefed on what was in this document.

And some of the key points were this, that it would be a 60-day ceasefire that would include everything, Lebanon included, that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened immediately, and that pre-war levels of traffic would begin again within 30 days, that the U.S. blockade of ports and some Iranian sanctions would all open up as part of this deal, and that it satisfies all the U.S. requirements on the nuclear issue. So, that is what we had been reporting.

Then we had Iran come out, state media, and give their version of the deal, which looks significantly different. And there are a couple of points in there that are likely to make President Trump angry. One of them, they would not commit to ceding control over the Strait of Hormuz, and the other is that frozen funds, these frozen assets that have been a point of contention for President Trump, they say, Iranian state media, and, of course, keep in mind the source here, that the agreement would demand the release of $24 billion in those frozen funds.

So, now you have President Trump reacting to this, essentially saying that the terms that Iran leaked to the fake news media have nothing to do with the terms that were agreed to in writing. What they said, including their weak, pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth, and with them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith.

I assume what he's talking about when he talks about their weak and pathetic statement on the deal is the fact that we had heard that the response to the deal or the response to President Trump was that the text still requires review and finalization. They have been saying that it has not been signed off on.

President Trump, of course, saying that everybody was in agreement. So, that is what is happening now. And, again, we've been down this path before. President Trump says a deal is imminent, and then we see a situation like this where one of the sides starts to backpedal and it all falls through. So, we'll see what's going to happen now. U.S. officials are still cautiously optimistic.

BLITZER: We shall see. All right, Kristen Holmes over at the White House for us, thank you very much, Kristen. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Let's continue this conversation with CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst Barak Ravid. He's also the global affairs correspondent for Axios.

[10:05:01]

What do you make of this development with President Trump going from they've reached a great settlement to now saying Iran needs to get its act together because of what the state media there is reporting, which is different from what the U.S. has said?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, I think what the US has been told by the Qatari mediators and the Pakistani mediators and the Iranian negotiators themselves yesterday was that they're basically ready to sign. That was the message that the White House got.

And preparation started for a possible signing ceremony during the weekend. For example, four U.S. Air Force C-17 planes left Washington yesterday to Europe as an advance for possible trip by Vice President Vance to Geneva to sign this agreement with the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf.

But I think what happened in the recent hours is what happened several times during those negotiations, that every time when the parties were close to a deal, each side wanted to market the deal to its own domestic audience. And when you do that, then each sides obviously, you know, gives the deal its own spin, emphasizes the things that it's going to get, and downplays the things that it's going to give.

And I think that's again what happened today when the Iranian presented their narrative or their spin on what has been agreed, and President Trump pushed back and presented him and White House officials presented their narrative about what has been agreed.

And I think it's not totally different, but I think each side just emphasizes what it is getting from a deal, and not really talking about what it is giving in this deal.

BLITZER: Because, Barak, when I woke up this morning and saw everything that was happening overnight, it looked like there was going to be a deal that included a 60-day ceasefire, including other stops, including a ceasefire involving Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon as well. But now it looks like this whole thing potentially could collapse.

Do you think potentially, God forbid, that the region now, the U.S., Israel, and Iran, are on the verge of an all-out war?

RAVID: I'm not sure because I think even though President Trump ordered new strikes in recent days, all of them were still below the threshold of an all-out war. I'm not saying it can't happen.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu definitely wants this war to resume because he doesn't believe the Iranians, and he thinks that the regime needs to be weakened even more. But I think that at least at the moment, even though Trump just, you know, posted this very angry response to the Iranians, my sense from talking to people that are involved in the negotiations on the U.S. side is that they still want to see if they can get to sign this agreement over the weekend.

I still hear the same thing from the different mediators. So, it might all collapse. We might be seeing at the moment how this thing is collapsing, but it might be, you know, one of those hiccups that you have before you get to a deal. BLITZER: Yes. Yesterday President Trump was threatening to launch U.S. troops to take over Iraq's critically important -- Iran's critically important Kharg Island. That sounds like that would be a major escalation in this war right there. And a source is telling CNN, by the way, Barak, that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, wasn't aware of an agreement with Iran and that remarkably, he learned of it only from social media. What does that say to you about the Trump-Netanyahu alliance, at least right now?

RAVID: So, first about Kharg Island, I have to say I find it -- at least at the moment, you know, things change all the time and very quickly. I do not sense that there's either an appetite or a real operational plan, imminent operational plan to do anything on Kharg Island. I just -- I have no information that shows that this is where Trump really wanted to go.

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And it is true that Netanyahu learned about Trump's post yesterday announcing that there's a deal from social media when he was sitting with his security chief. And one of his advisers came into the room and told him that while they were discussing about what is the -- what are the potential U.S. strikes that were going to happen several hours later, all of a sudden one of his advisers came in and said, well, there are no strikes. There's actually a deal, according to what President Trump just posted.

And the U.S. did not notify Netanyahu in advance of this post. And I think that in the phone call, from what I heard from U.S. officials about a phone call Netanyahu and Trump had several hours later, Netanyahu was very -- he sort of told the president that, you know, he understands that there is a deal and there's nothing he could do. I'm sure that if Prime Minister Netanyahu read President Trump's post from a few minutes ago, his mood improved significantly.

BLITZER: It certainly did. All right, Barak Ravid, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: Thank you so much.

RAVID: Thank you.

BROWN: And still ahead, the World Cup officially kicks off in the U.S. today. How officials are securing the host cities for the weeks- long event.

BLITZER: And later Knicks super fan Fat Joe joins us live as his team heads to San Antonio for game five. Why he believes this team is bringing New York City together.

Lots going on, you're in The Situation Room.

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[10:15:00] BROWN: Happening now, the first World Cup game here in the United States gets underway. In just a few hours from now, the U.S. will take on Paraguay tonight at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Over the next month, the tournament will be played across 16 cities in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of President Trump's World Cup Task Force, says here in the States it's like hosting 78 Super Bowls over 39 days.

CNN's Marybel Gonzalez is in Los Angeles. So, wow, 78 Super Bowls over 39 days. That's a lot of people and a lot of security. What's it looking like there, Marybel?

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Pamela. Huge, that's a huge, huge undertaking, and you can definitely see why. I mean, we're at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and just take a look around at the sheer size of this venue. We are a few miles from SoFi Stadium. That is where the actual World Cup matches will be happening.

But there, they seat around 70,000 people, here 38,000 people. I mean, these are a lot of people in a small area. And we know that these events are highly advertised, highly attended. Those pose security challenges for people here.

Now, other things are -- these matches are harder -- are hard to track. It's difficult to know which teams will be playing in which cities, and we'll be learning as the World Cup moves along in the next few weeks.

But we know that they're looking -- security officials here are looking out for certain things. A few hours ago, we saw members of the LAPD as well as bomb squad with the FBI accompanied by sniffing dogs. They were scoping out this area hours ahead of the fan festival that will be happening here in Los Angeles. They're also looking for any sort of drones. Those will be security concerns, artificial intelligence, lone wolf actors, and, of course, violence among fans.

Now, the FBI tells us there is no credible threat at this moment, but that doesn't mean that they're letting their guard down. Again, these are very highly attended events, lots of people coming from all over the world. Geopolitics is also a concern. We know that Iran is playing here in the U.S. This is amidst the war that is happening there. That's also a concern.

Now, they're also -- security officials are using counter-drone technology, A.I., and other measures to ensure that fans can come to places like this one and enjoy the matches in a safe manner.

BROWN: All right. Marybel Gonzalez, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there. Wolf?

BLITZER: And coming up severe weather turns deadly in the Central U.S. as storms rip through the region for a second day. We're tracking the storms as they move east.

And next, new details emerging right now about when and how President Trump decided to stage a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn.

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BLITZER: Happening now, we're getting new details about when and how President Trump decided to stage a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn. One White House official tells CNN President Trump made the call when he attended a UFC event at Madison Square Garden just after his 2024 election win.

Sunday's fight comes on the president's 80th birthday, and new court documents show the event could draw more than 100,000 people. Those same documents also show it's costing the UFC more than $60 million to stage it.

CNN's Tom Foreman explains how the event is stirring up controversy.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Critics of this event say it just should not have happened. They're calling it a violation of the rules about how such things can happen on public land. They're saying the structure should have never been built without more clearance, more environmental study, and they're saying it's essentially a private event.

They're saying you can say it's about Flag Day, you can say it's about the 250th anniversary of the country, but it really, to them, feels like it's a celebration of Donald Trump's birthday, and he's invited a bunch of friends, military people, VIPs, people he wants close to the White House. And they're just saying that is all wrong and should not have happened.

The White House has said, no. First of all, it is a public event. It is all the things that they say it is. The White House says they did follow the rules. This isn't a permanent structure.

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And just as importantly, they're saying it's way too late now for anyone to stop this. Too many people are counting on it, too much money has been spent, and it has to simply move forward.

Now, the money, important, is about $60 million in the budget to do this. That's being paid by the UFC folks. They say they're doing it, and there's been some hint that, well, it's well worth it to be able to do this on the White House grounds and get all this publicity.

But that doesn't change the fact that it is still going to be mainly for about a few thousand people close to the actual fight. There will be tens of thousands more on the Ellipse of the White House, which is basically a big park to the south. But they're not really going to be watching the event as much as a big screen where they can see the event happening.

Still, all sorts of events over the weekend, a Zac Brown Band concert, a ceremonial weigh-in of the fighters, a meet and greet with fans out there. The White House and others are saying, hey, that's all great. It's never been done before. We're glad we're doing it.

But the fact that they're doing things, like selling ceremonial gold and silver coins for thousands of dollars at a time when gas prices are so high, inflation is higher than it's been in several years, we're at war with Iran, the fact that all of that is going on, a lot of people are saying is just completely tone deaf for this White House, and adds to the list of things that they're troubled about, the ballroom, the triumphal arch, and so on and so on. Those are, for them, the fighting words.

BLITZER: Tom Foreman reporting for us. Tom, thank you very, very much.

On this note, coming up in our next hour here in The Situation Room, Pamela and I go to the White House to see all the changes happening there, and indeed across D.C.

BROWN: And just ahead, SpaceX goes public on Wall Street with an astronomical deal. That's next.

Stay with us.

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