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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
New CNN Poll: Trump's Approval At 100 Days Lower Than Any President In At Least 70 Years; Interview With Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D- MN); Trump Claims 200 Tariff Deals In Interview But Gives No Details; Putin Announces 72-Hour Truce In Ukraine Starting Next Week; Uncertainty, Bewilderment & Praise: Arizona Voters Reflect On Pres. Trump's First 100 Days. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired April 28, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: The Energy Department spokesperson says that the department is currently undergoing a review to make sure its activities align with the law, as well as Trump administration policies, Erin, and the secretary said in regards to the energy spokesperson said in regards to Secretary Wright, that he does follow all procedures within the department and disclosure rules -- Erin.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, Kyung, thank you very much. Such important stuff for us all to know. And thanks to all of you for being with us. AC 360 with Anderson begins now.
[20:00:25]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360 on the eve of 100 days in office, how is the President doing? A look at the numbers and some of the fear and anger behind them.
Also, tonight, Russia announces they'll have a brief ceasefire in Ukraine, but not quite what it sounds, with President Trump back from Rome and has sit down with Zelenskyy.
And later John King "All Over The Map" this time with voters in Arizona, where tariffs are already hitting home.
Good evening. Thanks for joining us.
We begin tonight where things stand going into the 100th day of Donald Trump's second term in office. Because of the size and scope of the administration's agenda, it's a selective and not all encompassing look and a small slice of reality. It's a snapshot in time but let's start with some noteworthy numbers, 41 percent job approval in new CNN polling just out today. That's lower than it was at the 100-day mark of his first term, and the lowest for any President in 70 years.
Also, by the numbers, the stock market is about to rack up its worst start to a Presidential term in more than 50 years. Both tariffs and the uncertainty surrounding them appear to be rattling investors.
As for the administration's effort to leverage those tariffs into trade deals with other countries, some numbers there as well, 19 days into the 90 days, the President has given himself to do it, precisely zero deals have been reached. Even though he recently told "Time" Magazine "I have made 200 deals."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He didn't give us any details about what those could be, what countries he's talking about. Has he actually inked any trade deals and with whom?
BROOKE ROLLINS, U.S. AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: On the deals, we have a hundred countries that are knocking on the door, I believe, I'm not in the room, I'm not negotiating the trade deals. But my understanding is we should have several this week that are coming forward that are very, very close.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Close is not done and zero is not 100 as she said, or 200 as the President claims.
As for Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE some numbers there too, though it's hard to know what to make of some or verify others. You'll remember the promises, they started out big.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget?
ELON MUSK, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think we can do at least $2 trillion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Two trillion, that was back in October, two trillion then became one trillion. And now, Musk says he expects DOGE to save the government $150 billion this year, which is certainly not nothing, but even that's unclear, given all the questions surrounding the claims that DOGE has made about the savings they say they've already achieved. What DOGE certainly has done is cut tens of thousands of federal jobs and gutted entire departments, including the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control.
The CDC cuts are being felt tonight in Milwaukee, which closed two more schools today over lead paint dangers, bringing the total now to nine. The city, by the way, turned to the CDC for help, only to be told that the agency's lead poisoning prevention program had been cut and that no emergency epidemiologists were available to help assess the impact.
Quoting now from the CDC's chief of epidemiology, "Obviously, in this case, we no longer had the expertise at CDC to support that request." Think about that, CDC no longer has the expertise.
Other numbers: Today, the administration put dozens of migrant mug shots along the White House driveway and announced they've now deported about 139,000 people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM HOMAN, LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER AND FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: Am I happy with our numbers are good, especially if you look at the ICE numbers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, if you look at other numbers, though, the story changes. So far, the administration has deported at least one person Kilmar Abrego Garcia in error and has yet to do what a unanimous Supreme Court said to do, namely, facilitate his release.
Federal agents have also deported at least three U.S. citizens, all of them children. The youngest just two years old. Also, two siblings, one seven, the other age four. The four-year-old has metastatic cancer.
Now, according to their mother's attorney, the mom was detained after she took the children to a check in Thursday with immigration authorities. They were arrested. The lawyer says she filed for a stay of removal, but her clients were deported within 24 hours with no access, she says, to her. Border czar Tom Homan says children are being removed at their parents request, and had they stayed, the administration would be accused of separating families.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOMAN: No, we're keeping families together. So, when a parent says, I want my two-year-old baby to go with me, we made that happen. They weren't deported. We don't deport U.S. citizens. The parents made that decision, not the United States government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's unclear, at least it is to a Trump appointed judge. He scheduled a hearing for May 16th, citing the need to resolve a strong suspicion that the government may have deported a U.S. citizen, in this case, the two-year-old, without providing meaningful due process.
Now, another judge, this one from Milwaukee, also figures in the first hundred days, the first judge to be arrested on charges she tried to help an undocumented migrant avoid arrest in her courtroom.
[20:05:17]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This is a criminal judge sitting on a criminal bench.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, that's Attorney General Pam Bondi defending the arrest, which critics say was designed to intimidate and chill dissent. In any case, by the numbers, it was a first.
Another number with the President back from the Pope's funeral, in a meeting with Ukraine's President is 98. That's how many more days than the one day he promised it would take to end the war. He since said he made that claim that he'd do it on his first day in office, "In jest" in fact, he said it at least 53 times, sometimes even taking pains to underscore that it was no joke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'll get that done within 24 hours. Everyone says, oh, you can't. Absolutely, I can, absolutely I can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, keeping them honest, he absolutely didn't and he couldn't, and it absolutely remains to be seen if he can do it at all. The administration by the numbers, going into day 100 tonight.
Some breaking news as we start things off tonight. New reporting, "The Wall Street Journal" that the President will give carmakers a bit of relief tomorrow from the tariffs he imposed. According to "The Journal," the decision will mean that companies paying the automotive tariffs wont also be charged for other duties, such as those on steel and aluminum.
With more on that and all the rest, we're joined by CNN chief White House correspondent "The Source" anchor, Kaitlan Collins. So, what more are you learning about the President's evolving stance now on automotive tariffs?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, this is a space we've been watching really closely, Anderson, when it comes to what this is ultimately going to look like. And obviously, carmakers have been looking at this as well to see what this means for the impact on the prices that people are paying. And so, with this new reporting from "The Wall Street Journal," essentially arguing that because they're already paying on other tariffs, they're not going to also have to pay for the steel and aluminum tariffs in order to essentially save them from having tariffs stacking on top of one another for some of these carmakers.
The real thing here, though, is this is reporting, we have to wait and make sure that this is actually an announcement that comes from the White House, because it has been very fluid behind the scenes, and things have kind of been moving back and forth as we've been watching all of this shake out.
As you just heard there in Dana's interview with Brooke Rollins, when it comes to actual trade deals being formed, we've been asking a lot of questions at the White House about which trade deals they believe they're close to making, and why. We heard the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, say they could be coming close to one with South Korea, that they were moving a lot faster than he thought. But, Anderson, a lot of that remains to be seen. If it's actually a
done trade deal, is it just a memorandum of understanding? Because obviously that changes the nature of this and actually hammering out a trade deal and getting it done takes a lot of time and is quite complicated.
And so this is certainly something that obviously Americans have questions about. You look at the new polling from CNN that came out today and the President's ratings on the economy, which are generally some of his strongest areas, in addition to immigration, have actually fallen in the last few months since March, where people's confidence in his policies is not as high as it once was.
And so, that's a question for the White House, if these numbers are sinking in, how they view that. So far, the President has been quite defensive of his economic policies and says he plans to move ahead with the tariff policies, even suggesting just yesterday on Truth Social that Americans making under $200,000.00 maybe would not be paying income taxes if they raise enough revenue from their tariffs. Obviously, Anderson, a lot of that remains to be seen tonight as they are closing in on a hundred days.
COOPER: Yes, Kaitlan, thanks very much, we'll see at the top of the hour, you're going to interview Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Joining me now is Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is the third ranking Democrat in senate leadership. Senator, good to see you.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today said it's been, "A hundred days of hell for American families" and Senate Democrats will do what Senate Republicans refuse to do, conduct oversight on this administration. What exactly would that look like, given the fact Republicans control the House and the Senate?
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Well, that's the point. This has been a rubber stamp Republican Congress, and it's time for them to stand up. All it really takes is four Republicans in the House, four Republicans in the Senate, enough of complaining behind closed doors. It's time to act.
You look at where the people are. I look at your CNN poll that came out showing the President at a hundred days at his lowest approval rate of any President since polling began.
I look at the fact that the approval of how he's handling the economy is in the 30s, the fact that only a third of the people like the tariffs, they're figuring this out, and they're figuring out that they are the roadkill.
It is not the big, big, big companies where Tim Cook can call the White House and get in and get an exemption. More power to him for phones, but not the head of Busy Baby. You may not know what that is, Anderson, but it's a company in Minnesota that was Entrepreneur of the Year that makes things for highchairs. She doesn't have a special meeting with the Treasury Secretary on Wall Street like some people had.
So, it is the small companies that are going to be the first to have to fold. It is the consumers with the $4,000.00 tariff tax. That's what we are seeing a hundred days into this presidency. Chaos up, corruption up, costs up.
COOPER: Well, last night, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had some strong words for Democrats. And the way they're responding to the President. I just want to play something what he said and have you respond.
[20:10:32]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): Fellow Democrats, for far too long we've been guilty of listening to a bunch of do-nothing political types, who would tell you that America's house is not on fire, even as the flames are licking their faces.
Those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people, of trans kids, of immigrants, instead of their own lack of guts and gumption.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He also said that some of his fellow Democrat leaders -- Democratic leaders, have been wrong and out of touch with what the party should stand for and the threat that the President poses. Is he wrong?
KLOBUCHAR: I see an empowered Democratic Party right now. When you look at the people showing up, thousands and millions of people across the country, 25,000 in Minnesota alone, a few weeks ago, at a rally, small towns, I just look to the future here. And right now what I see is Democratic leaders, both ones who've been in a while and new ones who are all standing up together and saying, enough is enough of this President. We have been pushing votes in the Senate on showing that they will not even stand up, the Republicans to taxes on billionaires.
They literally are going to give a $50 million tax break to Elon Musk with his budget proposal. So, focusing on the economic and making very clear where we stand is the most important thing right now, no matter where people are in the country. And I am actually, when I look at these numbers and what people are thinking, this is what I've seen anecdotally when I go to 19 counties in Minnesota in the last few weeks, and to me, I was happy activists came on our side.
But I was also happy that people who voted for me and Donald Trump showed up and said, you know what? This is not what I bought into. My farm, my soybean farm is on the edge of the brink. So, you've got to see that there's different voices out there, and it's really important that Independents right now are coming over and saying enough is enough.
COOPER: I want to just briefly ask you about something that I don't think has gotten enough attention. You and Senator Cruz have introduced -- or introduced a bipartisan bill, the Take it Down Act aimed at protecting victims of deepfake revenge porn, something the First Lady has also championed. I did a piece on "60 Minutes" about Nudefi sites that use A.I. images, create doctored images, sometimes of school kids.
The House has now passed the bill. President Trump is expected to sign it. How significant is this do you think?
KLOBUCHAR: It's a big deal because it's the first dent when it comes to some of this horrific content, whether its fentanyl or whether its porn, over 20 kids committed suicide in one year, Anderson.
They sent their photo to who they thought might be a girlfriend or a boyfriend, and then it gets broadcast to their school. Or it's an A.I. created fake porn. So, what happened here is this bill says in 48 hours, the platforms have to take it down, and it puts responsibility -- criminal responsibility on the people that put it out there.
So, this is a bill that I actually brought up to the First Lady at the Inaugural Lunch, and she embraced it. And Senator Cruz and I had gotten it through the Senate several times now. And now it just -- it passed the House. So, it's going to get signed into law.
COOPER: Senator Klobuchar, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.
COOPER: Coming up next, we're going to dig deeper into that new CNN polling and how voters assess the presidency. The economy and where this is all heading.
And later, Ukraine calls Russia's promise of a ceasefire for a few days as tactical games. Fareed Zakaria joins me, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:18:24]
COOPER: The breaking news tonight from "The Wall Street Journal" suggests the Trump administration may be bending a bit more on tariffs on top of the 90-day partial pause now in effect. "The Journal" reporting that the President tomorrow will give car companies a break on the tariffs they pay on steel and aluminum, which are heavily used to make cars. That's against a pretty dark backdrop for the President on the economy and how he's doing his job.
Again, this President now with the lowest job approval rating of any president at this point in his presidency in 70 years. Joining us to drill down on the rest of the new CNN polling and more generally, size up the administration going to the 100th day. CNN's Harry Enten, also CNN political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin and David Axelrod. So, David, according to "The Journal," the President is expected to back down on some of the tariffs. Will it hurt -- for negotiating? I mean, what do you think the viewpoint is around the world of this President and his actual negotiating skills on trade deals? DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, pretty
obviously the world is baffled, as is the business community. The economy has been impacted by that. The markets have reacted to that. But Anderson, the thing that people most voted for, Donald Trump for to do was to reduce costs. These tariffs are going to raise costs, and automobiles are a big component of that. So, he -- it's not surprising to me that he has to bail out of this one.
It's so interesting to me when you look back at the Biden administration and you look back at polling and Harry Enten can speak to this. You look back to that withdrawal from Afghanistan, that shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Biden's numbers took a big hit and they never recovered. And you wonder whether on April 2nd, you know, what he called Liberation Day, but for the for the markets was kind of incineration day, you want to -- you look back and we wonder whether you look back at that. And what you find is that was the beginning of the end that he never recovers because these economic numbers are devastating.
So, I see this as a as a kind of a small bailout from the position he put himself in. But there's so much more to it, and I'm not sure there's a way out for him.
[20:20:30]
COOPER: Yes, Alyssa, is this now just chaos followed by bluster?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that the President is looking for an elegant off ramp because this was disastrous. It was received horribly this Liberation Day announcement around tariffs by the entire business community.
Now, you have the polling that backs it. He can't turn on Fox News and not see that his numbers are underwater, on the two things he was elected on the economy and addressing immigration.
So, I think that he's looking for targeted ways to be able to claim victory, will actually rolling back his own policies here. But one area that I think is also interesting is immigration, which that was a key issue that he won this election on. And now that the numbers are underwater on, immigration is stunning.
And what I just have a hard time with is folks around him need to be telling him the message is clear. He has effectively secured the border. The border crisis is over, but he's not talking about that. Instead, they're talking about deportations that have bypassed due process, that have made mistakes in people that they've deported. Putting up signs on the White House lawn about all the illegal immigrants that they're going to deport and it's missing the message.
All the American people wanted was, we don't want half-a-million people coming across the border, and we want the cost of living to go down, like get back to the basics and you could change these numbers.
COOPER: Harry, what does the polling say right now? HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I mean, you know, we're talking
about tariffs, we're talking about the economy. It's just a disaster. I mean, that's the only real word you can use to describe it. I mean, take a look at Trump's economic approval rating now versus a hundred days in to his first term and what we see is it's 10 points lower, right? The economy was a strength for him during his first term. Now it is a weakness. Now it is dragging him down.
And we talk about history, right, and historic numbers. I look back for every single president since Jimmy Carter in 1977, the lowest economic approval rating through a hundred days belongs now to Donald John Trump.
And more than that, you know, tariffs are also related to Foreign Affairs, right. Your relationships with other countries. So, take a look at Donald Trump's approval rating when it comes to Foreign Affairs. You see again, lower than the first term, you see it underwater 39 percent, and again, that is the lowest on record all the way back since James Earl Carter in 1977, when we began polling that, and I love to see the smile when I refer to him as James Earl Carter.
COOPER: No, it's that you're shouting at us.
ENTEN: I guess I'm so excited.
GRIFFIN: -- I'm so sorry, I mean --
ENTEN: I'm just so -- numbers get me excited, Anderson.
COOPER: I know they do, I know that's why we love you.
ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.
COOPER: So, David, President Trump's approval -- I mean, the economic approval ratings took a hit after the tariffs announcement. Are Democrats -- where are they on this? I mean, they are doing enough to make the most of this? Do they have answers for any of this?
AXELROD: Well, look, I kind of think it's taking care of itself right now. I agree with Senator Klobuchar. I think Democrats have a lot of work to do to figure out why they became associated with the status quo and lost to Donald Trump, who wasn't that popular a figure when he got elected. They have work to do to talk about the future. And after this tear down, what do they propose to build?
But in the short term, he's destroying himself. And we should point out that there's an election tonight -- after to what Harry said in Canada, in which the Liberal Party of Canada very likely will win. We'll see what the result is, but they have a great chance. They were way behind before Trump basically declared economic warfare on Canada. And the Prime Minister up there, Mark Carney, used that issue to leverage his way back into the race.
So, that's one election, that victory, that Donald Trump can justly claim credit for. I'm not sure that he's going to, though. COOPER: Well, also, Alyssa, to David's point, I mean, he's brought --
he's unified countries around the world against us, but not this country.
GRIFFIN: The Canada one really doesn't make sense to me. I mean, this is kind of a side point in all of it, but were it to become a 51st state, which of course is not happening, you'd be importing a massive, highly progressive population into the United States, which would basically ensure that Republicans aren't elected again anytime soon.
But listen, I think that there's going to be a lot of comparisons to the first Trump term and the second Trump term, and there were a lot of flaws in the first, and there's going to be a lot of flaws in this one, but I'll be curious to see what advisers actually stand the test of time after this hundred days.
You see some of these folks like Peter Navarro, who I think put some information in front of the President that was not ready for primetime, that got him into this place that had the markets open close the lowest they had since the 1930s. That's someone who I think there's going to need to be a question around, should that be who were listening to, or do we need to bring new voices in? And he's still got some time to do that.
COOPER: Yes, David.
AXELROD: Anderson, I know we probably have to run, but I just want to say the people who are really on the bubble here are Republicans. If you're Thom Tillis, a Senator from North Carolina, if you're Susan Collins and you're running for reelection, if any of those Republicans in swing House districts, you're looking at these numbers and you're saying, what do I do here? I am trapped, so they're the ones who must be really anxious tonight.
[20:25:20]
COOPER: Harry, what other numbers --
ENTEN: I mean, look, we've been talking about it. Donald Trump's overall approval rating, when you put it all together is the worst on record at this point through a hundred days. And the fact is, the only one who is anywhere close to Donald Trump was him in his first term at 44 percent. He's a dozen points behind Joe Biden, two dozen points basically behind Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
The bottom line is what Donald Trump is doing right now is not working the minds of the American people. And I can guarantee you this, if Donald Trump's approval rating is 41 percent come November of 2026, you can kiss goodbye that House majority for the Republicans. And there's a decent chance as well, they could blow the Senate as well, which is something I never thought could possibly happen given the map.
COOPER: I like that you actually went through on the actual kiss.
ENTEN: Mwah, mwah, that goes to everyone, you're all so beautiful. COOPER: Alyssa, David, thanks, Harry, thanks very much.
ENTEN: Thank you.
COOPER: Coming up next, a new Russian ceasefire proposal for Ukraine. The skepticism surrounding it and CNN's Fareed Zakaria to help put it in perspective. And later, a hundred-day progress report from voters in Arizona, John King is "All Over The Map."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:02]
COOPER: Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a unilateral three-day ceasefire in Ukraine starting next week on May 8th. The Kremlin says the decision coincides with commemorations marking the end of World War II in Europe and is also based on what they say were humanitarian considerations.
But an advisor of the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office is calling the move Putin's tactical games. President Trump is signaling he wants more. Here's CNN's Matthew Chance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Putin --
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the Kremlin, the announcement of a new ceasefire. For three days in May, the Kremlin says its guns will fall silent. To show Washington, in the words of one Russian official, that Moscow wants a stable, permanent peace.
But President Trump, fresh from a face-to-face meeting with the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the papal funeral in Rome, wants substantial progress in his flagging peace effort, not empty gestures.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Vladimir Putin this morning offered a temporary ceasefire. The president has made it clear he wants to see a permanent ceasefire. First, to stop the killing, stop the bloodshed. And while he remains optimistic he can strike a deal, he's also being realistic as well.
CHANCE (voice-over): But realistically, the latest Kremlin offer may amount to little more than its last one. An Easter truce that followed this deadly strike on Palm Sunday in Sumy, killing at least 35 people. And even that 30-hour pause was violated thousands of times, according to both sides. The latest ceasefire is meant to coincide with Russia's 80th anniversary celebrations to mark the Nazi defeat in the Second World War, including the annual military parade through Red Square on May the 9th.
Ukrainian officials say the ceasefire should be implemented now if the Kremlin is serious about peace, not just for this. Instead, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has listed terms, telling a Brazilian newspaper that international recognition of Crimea and four other eastern Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia is imperative. Demilitarizing Ukraine, lifting sanctions on Russia, cancelling arrest warrants, and unfreezing Russian assets in the West are also on the agenda, Lavrov added.
While Russia will insist on security guarantees to shield it from NATO and European Union threats. But it is the threat posed by Russia that has U.S. allies concerned, and that agreeing to Moscow's terms would make that threat even worse.
Matthew Chance, CNN London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Joining me for his perspective, Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
Fareed, what do you make of Vladimir Putin's decision to announce a three-day ceasefire in May as negotiations for the permanent ceasefire are currently stalled?
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": It's the most extraordinary act of self-serving non-statesmanship because he's not really proposing a ceasefire for any purpose that would advance peace to allow negotiations to begin. Obviously none of that could be done in three days. He's asking for a ceasefire so that he can have a victory parade in Moscow so that his, you know, his celebrations around, you know, a war anniversary are undisturbed by any bad news on the battlefield. It's not a serious offer that has anything to do with the negotiations. It's really just image management for Vladimir Putin.
[20:35:08]
COOPER: It does seem like so much of this is performative or, I mean, you say image management, being done out in public, which is very unusual. I mean, you had this meeting of Ukraine's President Zelenskyy in the Vatican, very dramatic image of the two, you know, seated at these chairs, like sort of going to a confessional in the middle -- you know, in St. Peter's Basilica. And then the president afterward makes a statement on social media questioning Putin's desire for peace, saying, it makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. He's just tapping me along and has to be dealt with differently. And then lo and behold, a couple of days later, you know, Putin makes this performative gesture.
ZAKARIA: Yes, I mean, look, let's try to take the most charitable interpretation because it's important to be open to that possibility. This may be the education of Donald Trump. He may have come to realize what many of us and many people who have been following this war closely have said all along, that the principal obstacle to peace is not Zelenskyy, but Putin. The principal problem has always been Putin.
COOPER: Russia's foreign minister said that the country would require international recognition that Crimea and the four other Ukrainian provinces that were illegally annexed during the war are Russian territory as imperative for ending the conflict. It doesn't seem like there is a lot being offered to Ukraine. It seems like, you know, the U.S. is going to get a mineral deal or some sort of a deal from Ukraine. Russia will obviously -- you know, it seems like Russia wants exactly what they want. It doesn't seem like Ukraine gets a lot.
ZAKARIA: Correct. Look, I think Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia's statement, is not a deal breaker. That is going to be their opening position. Where we're probably going to end up, I hope, is that there is a kind of de facto acceptance of Russia's annexation of these areas, but there will not be a legal acceptance. I think that's important, Anderson.
But you raise the crucial issue, which is what isn't getting discussed is what Ukraine needs to stop fighting is some kind of security guarantee, both from outside countries and also the ability to build and maintain a very powerful army. If it doesn't have those security guarantees, Anderson, it's not going to stop fighting. These guys are fighting for their country, for their freedom, for their independence, for their lives. They're not going to just -- even Donald Trump, no matter how powerful the American president is, will not be able to order the Ukrainians to sign their, you know, their extinction as a nation. They won't accept that.
COOPER: I'm wondering what you made of his recent remarks in The Atlantic. He said the first -- this is with President Trump. He said, "The first time I had two things to do, run the country and survive, I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world."
ZAKARIA: Well, if he's running the country and the world, he's doing a pretty bad job of it 100 days into his presidency. Look, it's true. The United States president does have this much larger responsibility, and it has had it since 1945. I would hope that that would make him understand that there are some broader responsibilities that come with being president of the United States. You're trying to maintain an open international system.
You're trying to maintain a rules-based international order. You're trying to create a world in which conquest and aggression are not -- don't pay off, so that people -- you know, so we don't have a disorderly, chaotic world where the law of the jungle reigns. I don't get the sense that is how he is viewing it. He seems to be viewing it more as something of an ego trip for him.
COOPER: Fareed Zakaria, thanks so much.
ZAKARIA: As always, Anderson.
COOPER: Up next, a new all-over-the-map report from our John King. He has reaction from Arizona voters on President Trump's 100 days in office and how tariffs are playing to people's perception of the president.
[20:39:04] And later tonight, the secret conclave to elect a new pope starts next week. What to expect when the cardinals meet to pick a new leader coming up.
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COOPER: President Trump will mark his first 100 days back in office tomorrow. One of the critical states that put him back in office was Arizona. President Trump won Arizona in 2016, lost in 2020, but flipped it back in 2024 with 52.2 percent of the vote. As part of his ongoing series, "All Over the Map," John King went back to Arizona to check in with voters there to get their take on his first 100 days.
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JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The afternoon rush in full swing. Pallets of produce whizzing by. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash and more. Farm to table has a pit stop. This one in the Arizona desert. Feeding America is complicated, more so right now.
Everything here is from Mexico, and Donald Trump is back in the White House threatening tariffs.
MATT MANDEL, ARIZONA VOTER: It's a brave new world.
KING (voice-over): Matt Mandel helps run SunFed, this warehouse just a few miles from the border.
KING: One hundred days into the Trump presidency, your business has been impacted how?
MANDEL: The biggest problem that we have up till now is uncertainty. We have talk about tariffs, and then the tariffs are off. We have tariffs that came into play for three days, they were canceled. But the constant threat of what if makes it very hard for us to plan.
[20:45:13]
KING (voice-over): The border crossing at Nogales is almost always humming. Commerce both ways caught up in 100 days of Trump trade turmoil.
MADEL: Food does not make sense at all. All you're going to do is raise those costs to consumers. People have become accustomed to having all their fruits and vegetables on a year round basis, and that is entirely due to imports. Putting tariffs on imports is only going to limit supply, raise prices, or both.
KING (voice-over): Small businesses at the border are grumbling too. They complain of a double whammy. Tariff threats and tough immigration talk. Yes, illegal crossings in Nogales and across Arizona are down. That's a big Trump campaign promise. But business owners say legal crossings are down too, dropping sales as much as 40 percent these past 100 days.
Tucson is an hour north, reliably blue, but Trump did run a bit stronger here last year, as he won Arizona and all the battlegrounds.
KING: What's all this going to do?
TAMARA VARGA, ARIZON VOTER: Well, this is going to train our individuals how to cook.
KING (voice-over): Tamara Varga is a Trump supporter, happy with some promises kept, but nervous a big one could be broken.
VARGA: I'm worried about Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security. He did say that he wasn't going to cut them, that he was just going to find the waste, and I really hope that he sticks to that.
KING: Why is that so important to you? It's important because we need to take care of our people with disabilities and our elderly and those that depend on it. And they can't survive as it is right now, and we cannot cut.
KING (voice-over): Varga is a Tucson hero. Her food truck and candy store employ 50 people with special needs. She's renovating this restaurant to employ even more. A devout Christian, lifelong Republican, but some big changes. Varga says she no longer believes Trump's claim the 2020 election was rigged.
She's now open to supporting Democrats for local offices and says Trump tariffs are one reason prices are not dropping fast enough.
VARGA: The items that we put in our gift baskets have gone up.
KING: So when he says there's going to be some disruption, maybe even some pain, but we're going to get there, for now you think, OK, I'll give you some time?
VARGA: I'll give him some time and I'm hopeful, but, you know, I think that if he doesn't come through, he's going to have a lot of people turning on him.
KING (voice-over): Melissa Cordero is an Air Force veteran who voted for Trump once, back in 2016, and regrets it every day.
MELISSA CORDERO, ARIZONA VOTER: He's, like, crazed right now. I'm constantly going, can he do that? I'm angry because the communities that I care the most about are being attacked, the LGBTQ community, the trans community. And what's really got me angry is immigration and what's happening to deported veterans.
KING (voice-over): Cordero just visited some deported veterans in Mexico. Just learned she lost a conservation grant that was part of a DEI program. He's organizing protests against Trump cuts at the Veterans Administration.
CORDERO: There's no one answering the phones. Mental health, too. Making cuts in that area, that's, like, what all of us veterans need the most.
RAY FLORES, ARIZONA VOTER: She made everything. She made the best cheeseburger.
KING (voice-over): Ray Flores named the Monica after a family legend, 100 years ago, Tia Monica inspired the first of what are now more than a dozen family restaurants.
FLORES: We're sending this to the Food Network, Vince. You don't make it right, you're screwed.
KING (voice-over): His biggest 100-day take, Trump turmoil, is rattling consumer confidence.
FLORES: We are definitely seeing less spending at the pump. In our world, that would be the cash register, right? So we're seeing numbers dropping 7 percent, 8 percent around the system right now.
KING: People are afraid to go out to dinner.
FLORES: We're built on hospitality and celebration and spending time together, and maybe there's some fear of spending that extra money out.
KING (voice-over): Flores is an independent disgusted with both national parties, all for cutting wasteful spending, all for deporting the undocumented who have committed crimes, but not impressed so far.
FLORES: I'm a little bewildered about how they've gone about things, only because it seems a bit haphazard.
KING: Scale of one to 10?
FLORES: I'm at a 5.
KING: What's your test for the second 100 days?
FLORES: I don't want to see it get worse. I don't want to have that aggressive, somewhat mean-spirited decision-making take root on everything we do.
KING (voice-over): A great kitchen thrives on controlled chaos. But in Trump, Flores sees too much impulse and emotion, too little planning and creativity, 100 days of too much heat.
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COOPER: John joins us now. We heard one woman tell you that she's willing to give President Trump time, but if he doesn't come through, a lot of people will turn on him. How much time does she think the president has?
[20:50:00]
KING: That was Tamara Varga, Anderson. That conversation was fascinating, all the more so because you remember how many times we went back and forth to Arizona last year several times, Tamara was one of the president's most fervent supporters. She was the one who predicted more Latinos would vote for the president in Arizona, and they did. And now she says that the rope is getting short, if you will, on a number of issues. She doesn't want the Republicans to cut Medicare.
She thinks the president has to fix the cost. She didn't put a time on it, but you could see her frustration, and remember, this is Arizona, 52 percent for Trump. You come back out to the map here. One of six battleground states he flipped, and what was the reason, Anderson? We know, the cost of living.
That's why voters were mad. That's why Trump won all those states and flipped them all back. Well, look at this in our polling. You talked a little bit about this earlier. Have Trump policies impacted the cost of living?
Yes. Six in ten Americans say they have increased, gone in the wrong direction. Six in ten say increased. Only 12 percent say decreased. That's just the cost of living.
What about the more global economic questions? What are Trump's policies doing? Again, Anderson, six in 10 Americans say they're making things worse. Only 27 percent say improved. So when you look at this map, Donald Trump filled in this map with all that red because he promised voters quickly.
He would get costs down, and he would fix the economy. One hundred days in, the verdict is clear, both in all of our conversations there and in these polling numbers. The president has failed that test. And those historically bad numbers tell you voters blame him.
COOPER: Yes. It was also interesting to see that in that town, legal crossings had also, and even kind of day crossings, had also cut into businesses and their profits. John King, thanks very much.
KING: Thank you.
COOPER: Coming up next, we're just days away from the secret conclave to elect a new pope. The Vatican says it'll get started on May 7th. What to expect coming up.
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[20:56:18]
COOPER: You may have seen the movie "Conclave," but now we're about to see the real thing, or at least see the results of it. The Vatican announced today that the secret voting to name a new pope will start next Wednesday, which is May 7th. Only cardinals who are under the age of 80 can vote during the conclave. Currently, about 135 of them are eligible, but it's unclear how many of those will be present when the secret election actually gets underway.
Eighty percent of the cardinals who can vote, by the way, were appointed by the late Pope Francis. Now, on Sunday, a large group of cardinals went to Francis's tomb in the beautiful Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore to pray and to hold the evening services. The conclave will continue with possibly multiple rounds of secret ballots until someone receives two-thirds of the vote. More details now from CNN's Vatican correspondent, Christopher Lamb.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Morning.
CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One by one, cardinals arrived at the Vatican this morning, with the politicking over the future direction of the Catholic Church already underway and a conclave set to start on the 7th of May.
The choice facing the cardinals, to continue full steam ahead with Francis's reforms and vision or slow things down. At the Pope's funeral, a strong message. The guiding thread of his mission was also the conviction that the Church is a home for all, the 91-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said. A home with its doors always open. Some reading the reaction of the crowd as a sign to the cardinals to pursue continuity with the late pontiff, who was popular among the people but faced fierce resistance in certain clerical quarters.
The politics of the conclave are subtle. Anyone overtly campaigning disqualifies themselves. In the early exchanges, some cardinals are emphasizing that the next pope must focus on, quote, "unity." Others, while seeing the need for unity, identify a danger in underplaying the Church's rich diversity. Cardinal Michael Czerny of Canada worked closely with Pope Francis.
CARDINAL MICHAEL CZERNY, PREFECT OF THE DICASTERY FOR PROMOTING INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: If you make this your obsession and if you try to promote unity as your primary objective, you end up with uniformity. And this is exactly what we don't need. We spend decades now trying to learn to get beyond uniformity to a true catholicity, a true pluralism.
LAMB (voice-over): Right now, there is no obvious front-runner candidate. The field is wide open. But two are seemingly leading the pack. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Holy See Secretary of State, the Vatican's top diplomat.
CARDINAL PIETRO PAROLIN, HOLY SEE SECRETARY OF STATE: El Padre del cielo de los espiritu santo.
LAMB (voice-over): A mild-mannered, thoughtful prelate. An Italian who knows the system. Yet his lack of experience of working at the Church's grassroots could weigh against him.
Then there is Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, leader of the Evangelization Department of the Vatican. His candidacy a reflection of the dynamism of the Church in Asia. The charismatic former Archbishop of Manila is known for his advocacy for migrants and the poor.
CARDINALD LUIS ANTONIO TAGLE, EVANGELIZATION DEPARTMENT OF THE VATICAN LEADER: In them, I saw my grandfather, who was born in China.
LAMB (voice-over): Who feels personally moved by their suffering. He sometimes dubbed an Asian Francis. With a cardinal body, the majority appointed by Francis, from every corner of the globe, this is a conclave that could easily throw up a surprise.
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LAMB (on camera): Well, Anderson, the cardinals will be continuing their discussions in the coming days. Another development tonight is that a cardinal who had insisted he could attend the conclave despite being barred has now accepted he won't be going into the Sistine Chapel. Cardinal Becciu, once one of the most powerful figures in the Vatican, had been embroiled in a Vatican financial scandal and had lost his rights as a cardinal.
[21:00:01]
Now, just a few days ago, he'd been telling reporters in Sardinia, where he's from, that he could attend the conclave. But he has now accepted he won't be going into the Sistine Chapel after being reportedly shown letters from Pope Francis which says he has not got the right to vote. I'm sure the cardinals will be quite relieved they won't have to shut the doors of the Sistine Chapel on Cardinal Becciu. Anderson.
COOPER: That's some behind-the-scenes drama, Christopher Lamb, thanks.
The news continues. "The Source with Kaitlan Collins" starts now. See you tomorrow.
