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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Trump: "I Will Never Allow" Iran To Have A Nuclear Weapon; Ukrainians Says They're Exhausted After Four Years Of War; How Ukrainians Are Coping After Four Years Of Conflict; Zelensky: If Putin Gets What He Wants, We Lose Everything. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired February 25, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Think of that. 25,000 soldiers are dying a month. A war which would have never happened if. I were president would have never happened. As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. president also claimed that he would end the war within one day of taking office. But that conflict rages on.

Ukraine's president says the latest round of U.S. led peace talks with Russia were not, quote, "sufficient." Ukraine's allies showed solidarity on the anniversary of the start of the war. On Tuesday, the Eiffel Tower lit up with Ukraine's national colors. Berlin's Brandenburg Gate was also illuminated in blue and yellow. And crowds marched in the city in support of Ukraine.

Ukrainian flags also flew outside the European Union buildings in Brussels, which also showcased Ukraine's national colors.

I'm Lynda Kinkade, thanks so much for your company. Don't go anywhere. We have much more news coming up. The next hour of The Story Is begins right now.

Hello and welcome to our viewers watching from around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade in tonight for Elex Michaelson.

The top story is President Trump's State of the Union address. The speech lasted a record one hour and 47 minutes, with the president heralding the arrival of a new golden age in America. He claimed success on improving the economy, stopping illegal immigration and lowering crime. He said his tariffs are saving the country and protecting world peace. And he claims America is bigger, better and stronger than ever before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Members of Congress, the state of our Union is strong. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: In a CNN poll of people who watch the speech, which tends to lean towards the president's party, 38 percent said they had a very positive reaction, 25 percent felt somewhat positive, and 36 percent had a negative reaction. The president repeated his dubious claim that he stopped eight wars since he returned to office last January. He said the U.S. was restoring its dominance in the Western Hemisphere. And he warned Iran would never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: No nation should ever doubt America's resolve. We have the most powerful military on earth. I rebuilt the military in my first term. We're going to continue to do so. Also, we just approved a trillion dollar budget.

We have no choice. We have to be strong because hopefully we will seldom have to use this great power that we built together. It's really called peace through strength. And it's been very, very effective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: U.S. Democrats are seeking to contrast their party from President Trump's vision for America. Many of the party's lawmakers boycotted the State of the Union address entirely. And shortly after the president's speech, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger delivered a sharp rebuke of the president's policies in a Democratic response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: As the president spoke of his perceived successes tonight, he continues to see cede economic power and technological strength to Russia, bow down to China, bow down to a Russian dictator and make plans for war with Iran. Here's the truth. Over the last year, through DODE mass firings and the appointment of deeply unserious people to our nation's most serious positions, our president has endangered the long and storied history of the United States of America being a force for good. So I'll ask again, is the president working to keep Americans safe both at home and abroad? We all know the answer is no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Let's get some international perspective on President Trump's speech. CNN's Ivan Watson joins us live from Hong Kong.

Great to have you with us, Ivan. So it is the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, yet it received only a brief mention in what the longest State of the Union in history. Why do you think the conflict was given such limited attention and what's your assessment of the points Trump did make?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, frankly, international has got very little mention in this record setting speech. It was very focused on things going on in the U.S. which, you know, that's not precedent breaking by any -- by any means. But I did find it notable that while on the one hand, President Trump claimed to have ended eight wars and you can go to cnn.com and see some of the fact check on that claim, which is spotty in certainly a number of places. He -- the ninth war, the deadliest war in Europe, this four- year anniversary of Russia launching its full scale invasion of Ukraine barely got a mention. President Trump said his envoys are working on this, on bringing peace.

[01:05:32]

He did acknowledge that some 25,000 soldiers are being killed every month. But this is the same president who famously claimed that he would end this war in 24 hours at the beginning of his second term. And we're a year in and the war is still very much raging. And I think to the concern of many of the U.S.'s traditional allies in Europe and certainly in Ukraine, you hear the Trump administration periodically repeating the Kremlin's talking points. So that is an area of concern amid the negotiations that do continue to hopefully bring an end to this intractable conflict.

KINKADE: And of course, Ivan, Trump did reaffirm his hardline stance against Iran, saying they can't have nuclear weapons, while also signaling a willingness to pursue diplomacy. How should we interpret that mix of threats and engagement given what we've heard from him in the past?

WATSON: Right. Well, look, there's this enormous armada that has been gathered, U.S. armada across the Middle East. You've had U.S. diplomats being pulled out for protective reasons from the U.S. embassy in Lebanon with concerns that a much wider war could break out. So anybody trying to get hoping for answer in the state of the union speech, I was frankly left not knowing which direction this American president will go. He did signal that negotiations are still on the table, but did not rule out the possible use of force.

Take a listen to an excerpt of his speech here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal but we haven't heard those secret words. We will never have a nuclear weapon. My preference -- my preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: I do have to point out though, that Iran's foreign minister published a social media announcement hours before Trump's speech where he apparently did say those secret words that Trump wants to hear, not so secretly, quote, "Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon."

Now look, the dispute between the U.S. and Iran goes back multiple generation -- administrations, both Republican and Democrat. There's always been accusations that Iran is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapon. Which the Iranian official position has been no. So this is something that goes back quite a long way, but we still have no clarity about whether we could be on a brink of a wider regional war in the Middle East.

And I will note that hours before the State of the Union speech, you had the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top administration officials providing a classified briefing to top U.S. lawmakers about the situation in Iran and heard both Democrats and Republicans urging for the Trump administration to brief Congress about the potential of a possible conflict, with some Democratic lawmakers saying that this is a very serious moment. So watch and see. We do not know what will happen when it comes to the U.S. military and Iran in the hours and days ahead.

KINKADE: Yes, certainly a lot of unknowns. Evan Watson in Hong Kong for us. Thanks so much.

And we are going to continue our discussion on Iran. I want to welcome Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Good to have you with us.

BEHMAN BEN TALEBLU, SR. DIR. OF IRAN PROGRAM, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRATS: Great to be with you. Thank you.

KINKADE: So as were just discussing them, Donald Trump said he'll never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. He said his preference is diplomacy. Given your work tracking Iran's nuclear missile programs, how do you assess the credibility and the logic of that mix of threats as well as diplomatic language?

[01:10:04]

TALEBLU: Well, this is really the million dollar question right now because the U.S. last June in Operation Midnight Hammer, actually took away the Islamic Republic's enrichment capacity. But the regime, because it still has the know how and potentially could reconstitute the capability, could surge up at a different time when the U.S. isn't looking, or potentially under a different administration here. So, so the million dollar question for the Trump administration is what does it actually want to do to actually rid the regime of this capability? Is it going to settle for a deal? The president seems quite keen on a deal still.

But if not a deal, then what might the conflict look like? And in particular, would the conflict be aimed at defanging the regime of not just what's left of its nuclear installations and facilities, but also its long range strike capabilities like ballistic missiles, which the president also rightly mentioned, but that also could function as a potential delivery vehicle for weapons of mass destruction here. So the president still, you know, putting his thumb on the scale as, you know, new negotiator in chief or dealmaker in chief, but also quite keen to flex here that he is commander in chief.

KINKADE: It certainly appears that Iran's leadership is willing to talk -- to resume talks on Thursday. How do you assess their concessions that they're willing to make to get to the point of a deal?

TALEBLU: Well, the fear here is that the Islamic Republic actually won't concede. The fear here is that they'll actually use talks as a -- as a way of buying time. Buying time to do several things. One, to deter and prevent a strike or potentially impede it or raise the political cost for the president of carrying out a strike, whether that's against the nuclear program, the missile program or the regime. Second, actually, to be able to build back better when it comes to its nuclear facilities or harden some of these facilities, make it harder to hit, as well as with respect to its missile program.

And third, and perhaps most important, and very little attention has been paid to this to actually draw out talks to dishearten the Iranian protesters? Lest we forget, the entire forcing function for this crisis right now with Iran is not nuclear, it's not missile, it's the fact that the regime has engaged in the most massive repression of protesters in the entire history of the Islamic Republic. And President Trump, not once, not twice, but eight or nine times, depending on how you count, promised Iranian protesters that he would stand with them, that he would hold those who engage in the crackdown against them responsible, and that help is going to be on the way. So the question is, as the regime is negotiating, what is their other political motive? And the political motive is if they believe Trump or Israel is going to strike them anyway, what they're trying to do is prevent a domestic contagion effect of protests following a strike.

And they're trying to signal to their own population that, hey, the guy who promised you guys support is actually more interested in talking to us. So we have to be aware of the regime's political calculations here for engaging with the United States.

KINKADE: And when you talk about the potential for U.S. strikes, it's worth noting that, you know, some observers say this is the largest buildup of U.S. military presence in the Middle East in decades. From your perspective, how should we interpret this simultaneous push? Is it deterrence or is it preparation for escalation?

TALEBLU: Well, it's highly likely both. You know, President Trump was willing to pull the trigger against key targets in the Islamic Republic in 2020 when he took out the regime's chief terrorist in Iraq, Qasem Soleimani when previous presidents wouldn't. And he was willing to strike the regime's nuclear facilities in 2025 when previous president wouldn't. So there's always that unpredictability factor with the president. And I think he's actually cultivating that both among friends, adversaries and allies alike.

So we're all kind of left here guessing as to what he's going to do. But I think in the short term, he's trying to sharpen the knife at the neck of the regime to force them to concede. Now, actually, the regime isn't keen on conceding. Lest we forget, it's led by theocrats and ideologues. And therefore, actually the president seems, in the short term, frustrated that the regime isn't giving him the surrender that he wants.

And this is going to make, I think, a conflict, at least in the short term, much more likely than diplomatic resolution to the crisis.

KINKADE: We will be watching this closely over the coming days. Behnam Ben Taleblu, we appreciate your analysis. Thanks so much.

TALEBLU: Thank you.

KINKADE: President Trump also mentioned restoring security in Mexico. Cartel members went on a rampage over the weekend after their leader, El Mencho, was killed in a military raid. Mexican troops are now in Jalisco to reinforce security. The U.S. State Department and Mexican officials say the situation has returned to normal. President Claudia Sheinbaum has also reassured people that there's no risk coming to Mexico for the World cup matches this June.

But while the government tries to portray calm, there's still a lot of uncertainty, as CNN's David Culver reports.

[01:15:00]

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's a real effort across this country and certainly here within the state of Jalisco, to project a sense of security, of calm stability. In fact, we were just on the base hearing from the governor of this state. And one of the things he messaged to the general public, you had about two, three dozen Mexican media, is that the code red has been lifted. Public transportation is back open. You can see cars returning to the streets.

Businesses are opening back up. Tomorrow schools are scheduled to open. And he said that things are safe. Now saying it and experiencing it are two very different things. As soon as we wrapped our interview with him, we were hurried off the base very quickly.

We saw military personnel running, and it was made clear to us that there was a nearby threat, that they were trying to have us not be anywhere near. And so it gives you a sense of just how quickly things can turn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CULVER: We were just told to move along. We were parked there right at the convenience store and across the street from the base that we were just on. And they are seemingly uneasy about something that's happening in the area.

Now, President Trump is going to be addressing the nation tonight. He will no doubt make mention of the killing of El Mencho. He's calling for the total elimination of cartels in Mexico. Is that even possible?

PABLO LEMUS NAVARRO, GOVERNOR OF JALISCO STATE: Yes, it's possible. And I think the collaboration between the U.S. Government and the Mexican government, it's something that it's very important so we can have better results in security in Mexico.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CULVER: There's a lot of skepticism still amongst the general public, and something that's been emphasized in the media here, that even with the removal of El Mencho, that things will somehow return to normal. They believe that there are five individuals, and these folks have been profiled essentially on television here and across the media as potential successors to this leadership role of the cartel. And they believe that if those five individuals can somehow come to an agreement and choose one, then the power will be consolidated. If not, you have a fractured cartel similar to what Sinaloa has been experiencing in recent years. And the concern with the latter part of that is that it will lead to more infighting, more violence that could very well spill over and impact once again the general public here.

KINKADE: Our thanks to David Culver there.

Well, much more news to come, including Democrats brought Epstein survivors to President Trump's State of the Union speech. And they wore special badges. Their message to the president next.

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KINKADE: Welcome back. I'm Lynda Kinkade.

During his record long state of the union speech, the U.S. President did not mention the Epstein files. Many Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, wore pins that said, quote, "stand with survivors, release the files." Several Democrats also invited survivors at Epstein's abuses to the speech as their guests. A group of Democrats and Epstein survivors held a news conference earlier to draw attention to the Trump administration's handling of this case even as President Trump has tried to downplay it. They expressed anger and said they will not move on until justice is served.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): He must answer for why the Department of Justice has still refused to release 3 million remaining files and why they continue the massive cover up of a depraved Epstein class. He must answer to the people across the country and the world who see that powerful predators in government, academia, finance and law have all been part of abusing and raping young girls and joking about it with zero accountability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: In London, lawyers for Peter Mandelson say his arrest was prompted by a baseless suggestion that he planned to leave the country. The former U.K. ambassador to the U.S. was arrested and questioned Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office amid the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. He was later released on bail. His lawyers say his overriding priority is to cooperate with police and to clear his name. Mandelson has not publicly commented on those allegations and he had previously apologized for his association with Epstein. Well, the British government is backing a proposal to publish documents related to former Prince Andrew's appointment as a U.K. Trade envoy in 2001 after his arrest last week. CNN's Max Foster has the details from London.

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely consuming Parliament in Westminster, this whole story, and we're not even talking about Peter Mandelson, who's someone else who's been facing the similar sort of allegations. But in terms of Andrew going into the succession debate, you have to pass a law in 14 -- 15 different parliaments. So that's one part of the story. The other part of the story is this police investigation into Andrew's role as envoy, whether he abused that position. He hasn't been charged around that.

And Parliament doesn't want to get involved in the police investigation. But what they are doing is going to the government saying we want to see all the files that relate to the fact that he was appointed to that position all of those years ago. So in order to do that, they had to have a parliamentary debate. This is how complex this is all getting. There's a -- there's a rule in Parliament that they're not allowed to debate, the monarchy.

That's the king, the heir to the throne, but also other members of the royal family. They're not allowed to talk about their conduct because the royal family in theory can't answer back. They're also a branch of Parliament as well.

[01:25:11]

So the speaker today had to give special dispensation for this debate to go ahead, which was extraordinary in itself. This is centuries old traditions really burning up here. Just shows the repercussions the Epstein files are having here. And then take a listen to this, so you're going to hear from a government minister and they really did not hold back on Andrew.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS BRYANT, BRITISH MINISTER FOR TRADE: Colleagues and many civil servants have told me their own stories of their interactions with Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor and they all betray the same pattern. A man on a constant self-aggrandizing and self-enriching hustle. A rude, arrogant and entitled man who could not distinguish between the public interest which he said he served and his own private interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Andrew of course denies any wrongdoing in relation to all of this and he hasn't responded to any of our requests for comment.

KINKADE: Our thanks to Max Foster.

Well, Netflix has released the first teaser trailer of its interpretation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." The limited series stars Emma Corrin and Elizabeth Bennett and Jack Lowden as the iconic Mr. Darcy. Netflix says the six episode show is for fans of the love story as well as for a new generation who may not know it.

Joining Corrin and Loden, Rufus Sewell and BAFTA and Oscar winning actress Olivia Colman. "Pride and Prejudice" is set to stream later this year.

Well, still to come, what the U.S. president is saying about Ukraine after he promised to end Russia's war in one day.

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[01:31:08]

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to The Story Is. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

The director of the Louvre Museum in Paris is stepping down months after that daytime heist that stunned the world. While several suspects have been arrested. Frances crown jewels worth tens of millions of dollars are still missing. President Emmanuel Macron accepted her resignation and praised her decision as an act of responsibility.

Donald Trump claims the State of the Union is strong thanks to his economic policies. The U.S. President says tariffs are saving the country, protecting world peace and will one day replace income taxes. Mr. Trump claims inflation is falling, wages are rising and more Americans are working than ever before. His address to Congress was the longest in U.S. history.

President Trump only briefly mentioned Russia's war with Ukraine. His State of the Union address fell on the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion and the start of the full-scale war. President Trump only briefly mentioned it. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the latest round of U.S. led peace talks are not sufficient.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is in Kiev to see how Ukrainians are coping with four years of fear, hardship, cold and loss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We were here, of course, four years ago as those Russian bombs began falling and Russian tanks began rolling in. And we've been coming back regularly ever since. And I can honestly say I have never seen the country in quite such a bleak state. A lot of people here now really feel that they've reached a breaking point, that they simply don't have the endurance to keep on going. This has obviously been a particularly brutal winter, the coldest in recent memory.

There have been relentless Russian strikes on Ukraine's infrastructure Constant power outages, heating outages. Hundreds of buildings here in Kiev will not even have heating or power from for the rest of the winter.

We met a young mother, a single mother with a three-year-old daughter who is often carrying her up and down 10 flights of stairs to get in and out of her apartment. And I think there's an increasing sense of bitterness here too, like what happened to the United States. They used to be our closest partner. Now they feel abandoned.

We spoke to President Zelensky, we put this to him, we said, you know, how is the relationship now? He said that they had good contacts in December, that the negotiating teams are talking on pretty much an everyday basis. But he did have a personal plea for President Trump. Take a listen.

WARD: This woman said to me, I never want to hear the word resilient again. I am so over being resilient. I am so exhausted. I am so broken. What do you tell Ukrainian people right now who are feeling that they're -- they're done?

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRANIAN PRESIDENT: It's very difficult. It's very understandable and painful that we want to end this war as quick as possible. And really, each day we do all we can. I speak with all the partners. I tried to negotiate. I'm asking different parts in different countries help me to stop Putin, but if we will give him all he wants, we will lose everything.

WARD: When we asked him what he would like to hear from President Trump in his State of the Union address, he took a very, very long pause while he was thinking about it. And then he said simply, we want him to stay on our side. And the very fact that he had to say that, and so many Ukrainians feel that they are now in that position of almost begging the U.S. to keep its focus on Ukraine, to continue supporting Ukraine, I think is a pretty staggering assessment of just how much things have changed in these four years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Thanks to Clarissa. What I want to go now to CNN European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas. He joins us now from Los Angeles. Good to have you with us, Dominic.

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Thank you so much, Lynda, for having me on your show.

KINKADE: So Trump has historically minimized Russian aggression. And on the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion, Ukraine was only briefly mentioned in what was the longest State of the Union address in history. Why so little attention and how should European audiences interpret that?

THOMAS: Lynda, you're absolutely right. Not only when it came to Russia, Ukraine, in which really the only mention was taking some sort of credit for the team that he'd assembled that was engaged in negotiations. But in fact, throughout the speech, foreign policy was essentially in the background. It doesn't mean it was not relevant to the broader discussion. But he did not mention NATO and he did not mention a single ally with any reference to peace, the international sort of situation. It was as if that was completely erased in a speech that essentially focused on domestic issues.

And so I think that given this sort of multiyear process in Ukraine, the involvement of NATO, the involvement of the European Union would be an extraordinary disappointing to them that this platform was not used to make a powerful statement about his vision for resolving that particular conflict, which in his broader list of successes in achieving peace, questionable as they were -- as they were. This still stands as a glaring failure on President Trump's second term.

KINKADE: You know, Epstein related investigations have toppled European figures, including diplomats, politicians, even royalty. Trump made no mention. What does it say about accountability across the Atlantic and how would that be viewed in Europe?

THOMAS: Yes, I mean, that's absolutely. So we saw in the audience several people were wearing stickers, badges, you know, asking for sort of full disclosure and opening up these kinds of files. It's essentially a culture of impunity here, an attempt to kind of exhaust people on this -- on this particular issue. And Europe has taken this very seriously in terms of how they address the question of victims of Epstein and also the whole question of making poor decisions in terms of the business handlings that have taken place. And people are being held accountable across the Atlantic in the way that they have not been in the United States yet.

And the fact that he didn't mention it, I don't think was a -- was a real surprise. But you never know with President Trump. He might have talked about a witch hunt and use it as an opportunity to sort of further denigrate those looking into this. But that did not happen tonight.

KINKADE: No, it certainly didn't. Trump certainly plans to continue with his global tariffs, even suggesting that they could replace income tax here, despite a recent Supreme Court ruling that he lacks the legal authority for sweeping tariffs. How is this viewed in Europe amongst major trading partners?

THOMAS: Yes, well, the whole question of tariffs, of course, you know, he talked about how, forget about the decision of the Supreme Court that many countries are delighted with the arrangement that they have. The reality is many countries were bullied into these arrangements on are extraordinarily fearful that if they should say anything it could result in further long-standing increases. The fact is that he did not talk about tonight was that the largest or one of the most important, certainly trading parties is the European Union, and that the process of ratifying the deal has been halted by that particular body. And he shied away from talking about that in favor of emphasizing more the domestic agenda and all the other questions that he looked at tonight, Lynda.

KINKADE: And you know, just speaking about Ukraine and defense, you know, Trump mentioned very briefly NATO and U.S. alliances. How would you describe European confidence in America's commitment to collective defense?

THOMAS: Well, I think when it comes to that, they've been extraordinarily rattled. I mean, they -- they realize that NATO needs ongoing support, that everybody is trying to understand how to go about dealing with the various aspects of this administration when it comes to supporting allies. The speech was very much around America. It painted a kind of a nationalist agenda that was not this golden age place to which the world turns, but in fact an area of the world to which people aren't turning away from, who are turned off by this vision, this sort of migrant phobia, xenophobic sort of picture that he went about depicting tonight. And I think that feeds into the kind of the broader lack of identification with the U.S. today, the lack of trust and certainly the lack of any kind of predictability moving forward in these relations.

[01:40:15]

And the speech did absolutely nothing tonight to kind of bolster or reinforce the sense that there are allies that exist outside of the United States. It was yet again an America first, patriotic, nationalistic speech that left no room for any sort of notion of international partnership, Lynda. And I think that will be disquieting. I think also one other aspect here is that the speech ultimately, I don't think came from a position of strength. I think he endeavored to portray a strong America, but there's vulnerability there. These are the favorability ratings.

And I think that is a tremendous concern to the international community that as that situation in the United States becomes increasingly complicated for him, there's a possibility that he turns more and more to the international arena and to conflict and to distracting from those problems domestically. And that would be extraordinarily disruptive for Europe and other areas, Lynda.

KINKADE: Yes. It certainly would be. Dominic Thomas, always great to get your analysis. Thank you.

THOMAS: Thank you.

KINKADE: Well, finally, we all fell in love with Punch the Monkey last week and his substitute mother in orangutan plushie. Zookeepers gave Punch that stuffed animal, which is from a Swedish furniture shop known as IKEA, selling for just about $20, Punch's mom became a sought after item after his overnight fame. An IKEA store in Singapore said the plushie has been sold out since Monday.

On auction sites, they're going for as much as $355. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Lynda Kincaid. Great to have your company. World Sport is next.

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