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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Now: U.S. Markets Set To Close Down After Brutal Jobs Report; WSJ: Upcoming HHS Report Will Link Autism To Use Of Common Pain Reliever And Folate Deficiency During Pregnancy; Trump Takes Questions In The Oval Office. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired September 05, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. Happy Friday to all of us, shall we say.
There is breaking news as we come on the air. We are just under a minute from the closing bell on Wall Street. Right now, the Dow down around half a point. The S&P down about 4/10 of a point. And of course, the tech heavy Nasdaq seems to be faring a little bit better today down just about 1/10 of a point.
This slide coming in the wake of a brutal jobs report indicating that President Trump's policies appear to be weakening the U.S. economy.
[16:00:09]
And there it is. There is the bell. It gets cheered like this every, the crowd there obviously having the chance to do this.
But of course, it has been a difficult day from an economic perspective. Just 22,000 jobs were added in August that caused the unemployment rate to rise for the first time in nearly four years. The jobless rate, 4.3 percent, is now the highest it's been since 2021.
You may remember what was happening back then. Manufacturing jobs fell for the fourth straight month, which means America has lost 78,000 manufacturing jobs so far this year. Now, of course, this is a president who ran on trying to bring back just these kinds of jobs, bring factories back to America. He promised a golden age.
Today's numbers. Nothing but bad news on that front. So, let's be real. Almost eight months in, it is definitely Donald Trump's economy now. His tariffs, his strong arming of businesses, and perhaps most notably of the Federal Reserve, the markets facing a massive amount of uncertainty, we're starting to get a little bit of a clearer picture of what that means because today, faced with data showing that the economy is cracking, the administration's explanation -- well, it's basically just to blame anyone except President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: The holdovers from the Biden administration were just -- they're just bent against the president's success. They're rooting against America and against Donald Trump. And that's got to end. KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: This jobs number
was certainly a little bit of a disappointment right now. But one of the things -- there was a Goldman Sachs study that came out yesterday that showed that because the BLS hasn't really done a good job on its seasonal adjustment in August, that they tend to revise this number up by almost 70,000 jobs, would give you the revised number a month later.
LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER, LABOR SECRETARY: Jerome Powell should be embarrassed by this report because he has not done his job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Let's get off the sidelines and head into THE ARENA. My panel is here.
We're also joined by CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes.
Kristen, so you heard there what some of these members of the administration are saying in public about this report, but how worried is the administration privately, how -- they have got to be taking this more seriously than they seem to be in public? No?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, Kasie, look, they know what president Trump ran on. They know why he won. They can say that it was immigration. They can say that it was crime. But the deep, dark secret is that it was all the economy. And they know that. This is something that they had really pitched. They were going from state to state, talking about inflation, and people wanted to see some ease on their wallet.
Obviously, these numbers contribute to a downward turn in the economy. So, this is not something they want to see. Also, this threatens their agenda.
Now, of course, there is this speculation that this could long term help President Trump, because this is exactly what the Fed might need to actually cut those interest rates. But that's not going to reflect on President Trump. These are the numbers that reflect on President Trump's economy.
And one of the things that you heard there, Kevin Hassett, say, one of Trump's top financial advisers or economic advisers is talking about -- well, maybe the revisions will show that there is a big increase in these job numbers. I mean, just to go back to why it is that Donald Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics to begin with was because one, he said the numbers were rigged and it was political. But two, he also said that all the revisions showed that they weren't doing their job right.
Well, now you have this and they're saying essentially that they believe the revisions will be positive for them. But we've obviously seen what they looked like back in June.
So, this is not something that's going to go away right now. They are just kind of trying to downplay the headlines. One of the things that we also heard, Howard Lutnick, who played some sound from their earlier talk about, was, oh, this is just the beginning of the economy. See where things stand in a year?
Well, he was also saying at the beginning of this administration that it was now Trump's economy, very early on, that he was taking over when we saw a surge in the markets.
So, you know, everyone's using whatever language they want to try and distance themselves from these job numbers, try to point to a possible revision, but they are aware of what this looks like and how this can be damaging to President Trump's agenda as he moves forward.
HUNT: All right, Kristen Holmes, getting us started today. Kristen, thanks very much for that reporting.
My panel is here in THE ARENA. CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams; CNN political commentator, Republican strategist and pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson; CNN political commentator Xochitl Hinojosa; and the former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short.
Welcome to all of you. Thank you very much for being here.
Marc, I got to start with you here because for Lutnick to go on TV and say, well, this is just a holdover from the Biden team causing this -- can you fact check that for us, please?
[16:05:02]
MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Look, we know that this is Trump's policies that are creating this. I still think -- it's the starkest difference between his first administration and his second administration is this nonsensical trade agenda.
In the first administration, he spoke tough. He always has been a protectionist. But really the tariffs were targeted to China and steel and aluminum. This global war on trade is just a whole different dynamic. The tariffs today are higher than they've been since Smoot- Hawley 100 years ago across the globe. And you're seeing the impact on jobs.
I think in some ways the fact that the markets have remained near all- time highs and inflation is not really hit the levels they did with Biden has given a false sense of security to keep doubling down on this. But I think now it's a tough spot, too, Kasie, because now the courts are ruling that these tariffs are illegal. What's the incentive for other countries to want to strike a trade deal right now? Why not wait it out and see what happens next to Supreme Court level?
And so, the administration, I think, is in a tough spot. And it's not just these bad numbers for several months in a row, but specifically the whole trade agenda was designed to say, we're going to rebuild manufacturing in America. And its four months in a row of declining jobs in manufacturing in the United States.
So they're in a pickle. And this is going to be really hard for them to get out of.
HUNT: Yeah, I mean, we can put up on the screen the U.S. job, the chart. Right. Month by month of jobs that were added or lost since this administration came in. And look at that.
Now, what happened in April of 2025, Xochitl? Liberation day, I think they called it?
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's right.
HUNT: They clearly liberated themselves from job creation.
HINOJOSA: That\s right.
HUNT: If you look at these bars.
HINOJOSA: Yeah, I mean, this is Donald Trump's economy. And I agree with you on tariffs. I think that at the beginning of the year, Donald Trump was saying and the administration was saying, we just need a few months, we need a few months to show that at the end of the day, tariffs will be a good thing on our country.
And we're seeing that with consumers and with businesses, the uncertainty of tariffs is really hurting things. And not only that, but you're also seeing that I think it was about 66 percent of overall -- job cuts are at six, up 66 percent compared to the previous year.
So, this is bad news for Trump overall, we're almost one year from the midterm elections. Democrats will be hammering the economy. That is why Trump was elected. If he does not correct course in the economy, it is going to be a bloodbath for Republicans next November. And so, at this point, I think he's probably -- this isn't a golden age.
SHORT: The only good thing about this trade agenda is some Democrats are actually becoming free traders now.
HUNT: Silver lining for you there, Marc.
Kristen Soltis Anderson, I want to show you something. Xochitl mentions the midterms, right? I know you're doing lots and lots of polling on this. It's clear that this is becoming -- that people are starting to feel this in their real lives, right? And we're going to turn to a TikTok trend to prove that. This is a trend on TikTok, it is known as job hugging. And it's because now, all of a sudden, people realize they really want to hang on to their jobs, even if they don't like them at all.
Let's watch one person from TikTok to talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got two kids. I'm job hugging. I don't know anybody right now, at least in my position, that's job hopping. We're holding on to our jobs tightly, loving, kissing, cuddling with it every night. I'm there to hug my job tightly, make sure it never, never leaves me. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: It shows that people are a little bit afraid of losing their jobs now, which is not something that was going on at in more recent years.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I mean, the issue has been that the job market actually, during a lot of the Biden presidency, because of that -- there was -- there's this real tightness in the labor market, right? It was -- it was tough to hire, a lot of people sitting on the sidelines, in part because of policies that were making it beneficial if you sat on the sidelines, you got generous benefits, and that all kind of went away. And now things have shaken up.
But the problem is the cost of living has not been solved. And so, if we were trading this for, look, cost of living has stabilized, but the job market is becoming a little bit less friendly, maybe that's an ebb and flow, but in this case it feels like everything's getting worse at once.
That's not good news for this administration. And the other reason this is a big problem is the economy has always been Donald Trump's big strength, even in moments during his first term when people said -- I don't like the tweets, I don't like X, Y, and Z. They -- a lot of them would still say, but he's good for my pocketbook.
He has to make that a reality if he wants to have a good midterm for Republicans.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The trickiest thing in this and the market today seemed to be reacting to the pretty dismal job numbers. We can all -- we're not economists. We can all agree to that.
But my first thought when I saw that number was, gosh, do I trust that data? And because of the president a month ago, firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because she was not providing data that he wanted to see, we have this question looming overhead of how much we can actually trust what's coming out of there.
Now, maybe it was career folks today who put it together, maybe not, and we just don't know.
[16:10:01]
Now, certainly if the president were putting folks in, they might have put better numbers out. But needless to say, I just don't know how much we can really rely on the information.
HUNT: Well, I think I think it is worth underscoring. I spoke with a former and, Marc, you were you were here I think the last time we talked about Bill Beach. But, any person who's run that job in the past has said that, look, I don't see these numbers before they come out, right?
WILLIAMS: Sure. HINOJOSA: Yeah.
HUNT: And that was a conservative in that case. So --
HINOJOSA: Yeah. I was -- I was at the Department of Labor and the political leadership at the Department of Labor had to sign a piece of paper where put in a room at 8:00 a.m. and that's when we were given the numbers and we were briefed on them, and we would get on the phone with the White House to figure out how to message them. And then everybody would go out and do their TV on how to message around that.
HUNT: The point being you had no idea --
HINOJOSA: We had no idea what they were, except the White House does know the night before, the White House does get a heads up the night before of what the jobs numbers are.
I will say about this though, if there are, if they're messing with the jobs report, I do think that career -- career officials will come out and sound the alarm, and this has just been across the federal government. And so, I -- but I'm with you. I was also skeptical. I think career officials will come out.
WILLIAMS: And I want to be clear, I'm not accusing anyone of anything. And God bless the career officials who hopefully are keeping everyone in check.
The question I have is, can we trust the numbers? Do we trust the numbers? And a week from now, a month from now, six months from now, can we continue to -- and I don't think --
HUNT: This is going to be a theme on this show, too, because we're going to talk about something RFK is reportedly going to announce and whether or not we can trust that. But let's stick with the economy for a second.
Marc Short, what do you think about this? Can we trust these numbers, do you think?
SHORT: Look, I think there's a lot of places we get numbers from. And I don't mean to suggest that this isn't important, but there's ADP numbers, there's private payroll numbers, there's unemployment numbers. There's actually the market has a good sense of knowing when companies are laying people off or not.
And so, I think the markets going to react to this. Whether or not there's people in political positions who think they can control this narrative, the market is going to dominate what the reaction is going to be.
WILLIAMS: But can we agree that since time immemorial, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has provided nonpartisan clear data.
SHORT: Yeah, since they were created 100 years ago. Yes, that has been -- that has been reality. And I'm not suggesting necessarily it's going to change, but I do think that we can hyperventilate about one position change. The reality is there's a lot of ways the market --
ANDERSON: But also, these numbers were not great.
WILLIAMS: Oh, no, this is not --
ANDERSON: This was not like the wheat harvest is wonderful kind of stuff going on here. These were -- these were bad numbers. This was -- this was a miss. This is tough.
And I hope that this is a wake-up call. I mean, that chart you showed was so powerful because it showed there really was some potential for some real rocket fuel in this economy.
Trump comes in. The business community is like, all right, were going to have a good regulatory environment. We're going to have a good tax bill, like we've got a lot of ingredients. We're ready to cook here. And then the tariffs just slam on the brakes.
And this is an entirely self-inflicted wound. And that chart just really shows it.
WILLIAMS: Yeah. And it's the pottery barn economy at this point. You broke it. You bought it. At a certain point, they cannot keep pointing backwards at the Biden folks, regardless of how bad some of Biden's economic policies might have been.
The simple fact is this is Trump's economy and the data --
HINOJOSA: And also with the CEO dinner last night, that just brings me back to everybody wanted their carve out, too, right? It was like the uncertainty of the tariffs were coming and hurting all of these businesses and hurting consumers as well.
But people were also lobbying for trying to get their -- their cutouts, like Apple and others, right? And I think that that is also --
HUNT: Well, can I just raise this, too? Because, Marc, one of the reasons why America has and its economy has been a cornerstone of the global financial system for so many years, is the laws and rules-based system that has made it predictable for businesses to operate. And suddenly were in a world where instead of being able to rely on the system, you got to ask the president for a favor?
SHORT: Look, I think that the tariffs are a terrible economic policy in and of themselves. But a part of this that gets less coverage is the fact that the swamp is gross. This every major company hires lobbyists, get carve-outs from the various tariffs that happen. You're developing a cronyist economy.
You're not developing an economy that's flat and fair for everybody to play in. You're developing one in which people can have winners and losers, and they have political connections to get that. And so, not only is it bad economics, but it also is creating a bad precedent down the road.
HUNT: Yeah. No, it's -- it's really remarkable stuff.
All right. Coming up next here, we are standing by for a major announcement from Eric Adams on the future of his campaign for reelection as the mayor of New York. We're going to be that live.
Plus, a major announcement expected from the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. We were just talking about trust. Has HHS identified a new possible cause of autism? And should we believe what he says?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: This is a preventable disease. We know it's an environmental exposure. These are kids who, many of them were fully functional and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism, when they're 2 years old.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:19:20]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY: We've launched a massive testing and research effort that's going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world. By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic, and we'll be -- we'll be able to eliminate those exposures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. promising to produce evidence of what may cause autism this month.
Well, September is here. And here is reporting just out today from "The Wall Street Journal", RFK and the Health and Human Services Department plans to go -- to announce that pregnant women's use of the over-the-counter pain medication Tylenol is potentially linked to autism.
[16:20:09]
CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joins us now.
Sanjay, thanks very much for being here. We were just talking about trust in our government. You and I were talking about trust yesterday. I will say I have read whatever is available to read about the links between Tylenol, autism, anything, et cetera. I've had two babies in the last six years.
Pregnant women across the country are going to be worried about whatever this is. Is there any evidence of what we think RFK, Jr. is going to say here?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know. I mean, that's often the case with him. We're not sure.
But I will tell you that the studies I think some of the ones that you're referencing, they've been around for a while. We've been reporting on this potential association -- and I'm using that word deliberately, association, not cause and effect, not causal relationship, but association between Tylenol and autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD. We've been talking about this for about a decade, first of all.
Two things, Kasie, just to keep in mind, it's very hard to do studies on things that are very, very common. As you point out, Tylenol is commonly used, and that means it's very hard to control for something that's -- that commonly used.
People may have had fevers. Thats why they were taking Tylenol. They may have had other things that could have potentially been associated with autism. So those are hard to do studies.
Also, these are retrospective studies. Meaning you go backwards, and you say, okay, child with autism. Let's look at what happened to mom. Do you remember if you took Tylenol. When did you take Tylenol? How much did you take Tylenol?
My whole point, Kasie, these are hard studies to do. Now, there was a study in 2019 that we reported on at the time from Johns Hopkins that looked at cord blood, fetal cord blood. And they did find in that study that the highest levels of acetaminophen or Tylenol, was associated with increased rates of autism. So, if you had more acetaminophen in the cord blood that was associated with higher levels of autism. But again, just an association.
So, there have been these studies and most recently there was a study in August of this year, just last month, there was basically a meta analysis looking at lots of different studies, 46 studies, and in 27 of those, again, they found this association between Tylenol use and all kinds of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism.
So, we don't know -- I don't know if there's something new that they're going to say or they're going to interpret this or overinterpret this. But I want to be very careful as you are, Kasie. These are associations. More than 50 percent of women, according to some studies, have used Tylenol while they were pregnant. Obviously, they didn't all have children with autism or neurodevelopmental disorders.
There has been a lot of studies showing that there are autism genes, so there may be a genetic component of this that maybe is then triggered by some sort of environmental component. This is complicated stuff, is my point. I think maybe you're getting the gist of that, but well see. And hopefully this is not distilled down to some sort of unifying theory, because it is complicated.
HUNT: Yeah. I mean -- I mean, if you're -- what would you do based on all those things that you just laid out there? Do you think it's dangerous for women to take Tylenol during pregnancy? GUPTA: I think the guidance from big associations and doctors already
has been, look, if you're pregnant, you have a fever, probably having fevers is worrisome concerning for baby --
HUNT: It's more dangerous for the baby perhaps.
GUPTA: So reducing the fever is important.
HUNT: Yeah.
GUPTA: More dangerous for the baby.
I think what doctors have long said is use the lowest doses for the shortest amount of time if you do need to use Tylenol, but limit it.
ACOG, which is the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, they released a statement about this in which they say acetaminophen has long been established as a safe pain reliever for pregnant women during pregnancy. There is no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen and fetal developmental issues. Neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular, are multifactorial and difficult to associate with a singular cause.
That sounds right --
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Dr. Gupta, I'm sorry to interrupt you. I honestly would like to talk about this with you because it's very important. But we do have to go to the president of the United States in the Oval Office.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it sends a message -- really, a message of strength. We're very strong. We're much stronger than anyone would really understand. And again, you know, having -- having the great equipment we have just so much better.
You look at all of the -- just any of it, submarines as an example, we're 20 years ahead of anyone else. Nobody even compares. And I let a lot of this happen in my first term. You know, we totally rebuilt our military.
Then, of course, you had that catastrophe in Afghanistan where they gave up a lot of the equipment, but a relatively small amount, but a lot.
[16:25:03]
It was a lot in Afghanistan. I think it was the most -- General, I'd say it was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country, the way that happened, the way they went to the wrong airport. They should have gone to Bagram, not the local airport with no security, with tight quarters, et cetera. You know what happened.
I think it was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, frankly, that was under the Biden administration. It was terrible. And we were going to be leaving, but we were leaving with strength and dignity. We were going to keep Bagram because Bagram is one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.
We're going to have that all to ourselves. A big, beautiful place built many years ago for money that today would be the equivalent of, you know, many, many billions of dollars. You couldn't build it. The longest runways, the most powerful runways in terms of load capacity. And we just walked away from it.
So stupid. And they were fools. The people were fools. No. We're -- we have the strongest military, and I think that indicates we have the strongest military. And, you know, we had it, and we won World War I. We won World War II. We won everything before, and as I said, we won everything in between.
And we were very strong. But we never fought to win. We just didn't fight to win. We didn't lose anything, but we didn't fight to win. We could have won every one of those wars quickly.
But they went a route that I think was probably politically correct, but not correct for our nation. So, I think the Department of War sends a signal.
Yeah. Please?
REPORTER: Mr. President, you alluded to this a little while ago, but you said that this rename is a good reflection of where the world is at right now. How do you square naming it to the Department of War when you've been pursuing peace --
TRUMP: Yeah.
REPORTER: -- in so many different parts of the world?
TRUMP: Well, I think I've gotten peace because of the fact that we're strong. If we weren't strong, those seven deals I told you about the seven wars, a majority of them wouldn't have happened. They happened for two reasons, trade and our strength.
Those are the two reasons. And probably strength may be more important than trade. So if we. I was very proud of all those words. Those were wars that could not be settled. And I settled all of them. And we'll get the other one settled also. It'll get settled, but without the strength, we wouldn't have settled any of them.
Yeah, please?
REPORTER: Mr. President, is your -- is it your expectation that Congress will codify this name change in the law?
TRUMP: I don't know, but we're going to find out. But I'm not sure they have to. We're signing an executive order today. But we're going to find out. We're going to see if they do. We're going with it, and we're going with it very strongly. There's a question as to whether or not they have to, but we'll put it before Congress. REPORTER: Do you know how much this rebrand will actually cost? And
are there any concerns about the Pentagon's mission of actually cutting back on spending?
TRUMP: Yeah. But not a lot. You know, we know how to rebrand without having to go crazy. We don't have to re-carve a mountain or anything. We're going to be doing it. Not in the most expensive. We're going to start changing the stationery as it comes due, and lots of things like that. We're not going to be doing things like have been done in the past, when they change the name of forts that shouldn't have been changed. Those names of the forts should not have been changed, at least for the most part.
And as you know, many of them have been changed back already at the request of the communities. Every one of those communities said, we want our name back, like Fort Bragg, as an example. The people in that community wanted that name back.
They refused to call it anything else but Fort Bragg. So we're not going to be spending very much money on that.
Yes, sir?
REPORTER: When you spoke with the Europeans and Zelenskyy earlier this week, did you preview this for them? And did you say what security guarantees they might be involved in?
TRUMP: No, this is nothing to do with anybody but the United States of America, the people of America. This is who I talk to about changing a name. This is a very important change because it's an attitude and we know how to win. We've been winning, and we're going to win like you've never seen.
Wait until these factories start to open up that are being built all over the country. You're going to see things happen in this country that nobody expects. We have over $17 trillion in investment coming into the country.
We never did anything even remotely close to that. We've never -- no other country has either, by the way. So you're going to see things that are pretty amazing. But it's really about winning.
REPORTER: And what about the security guarantees aspect of that with you, sir?
TRUMP: Well, we'll work that out. We'll -- we'll help them. Look, we want to save a lot of lives, so we'll do something with that. I think people expect that we'll help them.
Well, Europe will be first in by far. And they want to be first and they want -- they want to see it end. Europe wants to see it end and it'll end. It'll end.
All of a sudden, it's going to come together. You watch.
Yeah. Did you want something? Right. Right here. [16:30:01]
Yeah. Behind you. Please?
REPORTER: Yes. Yes, sir. You haven't been shy about bold, decisive, offensive action to protect American values. Strikes in Iran. The strikes this past Tuesday and the positively ID'ed Tren de Aragua narco terrorists.
Is that going to be a critical function of the Department of War?
TRUMP: It depends on the individual instance. You know, we don't want drugs coming in from Venezuela or anybody else or any place else, and we'll be tough on that. And we don't want human trafficking. We don't want to see people coming in where they open their prisons from all over the world, and they dump their prisoners into our country, which is what they did in the Biden administration, where they took insane asylums and places of that held people that were seriously mentally ill, mentally incompetent, mentally dangerous. And they dumped those people into our country, and we're trying to get them out now.
What they've done, what the Democrats and Biden have done to this country, will go down in infamy, what they have done to our country. And especially that, you know, they created the worst inflation we've ever had. That's nothing compared to what they did with the people in our country right now. And we're getting them out.
And it's not easy when you have the liberal judges destroying our country but we've won them all. We've won it all, ultimately, won it all, hard process. It should be easier.
We know who it is. We know exactly who we're looking for. We had 11,000 murderers dropped into our country. Weve gotten a lot of them out. Or in some cases, they're so dangerous. We were afraid to get them out because they'd come back in.
But for the last 120 days, zero people came in. Can you imagine? This is me speaking. But these are figures developed by, they say, a pretty liberal group of people. They admit that zero people came into our country. Think of that.
A year ago, it was millions of people were coming in. Millions. They were coming in, you could look at them and you could say, big trouble. And that's what we have in our country, but we're getting them out. And despite that, we're doing really well.
Yeah. Please?
REPORTER: Comment on recruitment levels across the --
TRUMP: Yeah. Well, the recruitment is the most exciting thing. So, when I was campaigning for the office, numbers were coming out that the recruitment numbers generally you could speak to it better than anybody. The recruitment into the military, all branches of the military and police and firemen and everything else, anything having to do with like a public service. The numbers were horrible, record setting, bad. And now, they're
record setting good. We're setting every record every month for recruitment. We're packed in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, my beautiful, Air -- I love Space Command. I love Space, I see space command. But Space Force has been -- we've got a waiting list of people wanting to go in.
A year ago, especially a year and a half ago -- you know, when I took the lead in the polls, which was very early, it really helped with the recruiting. And when I won from November 5th on, it's been amazing. And over the last 4 or 5 months, it's been we're just back. It was very hard to get police officers. Now, the departments are loaded up. Everyone wants to be a policeman or woman. So, it's been a great thing.
General, do you want to talk about that?
GEN. DAN CAINE, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Sure. As you said, serving our nation is an incredible gift that we give. And the reward on that gift pays back exponentially year over year. And I think the young people of America are seeing the importance of service. And whether it's in any of our armed services or in local police, fire rescue service is an important thing that I personally encourage. And I know everyone else in government service sees that same reward.
TRUMP: And, Pete, on recruitment.
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I was down at Fort Benning, the newly properly renamed Fort Benning yesterday, watching Army basic training. And they're so full, they can't barely handle the throughput. It is truly historic across all the services, as you said.
It's been a surge into the -- I was going to say the Defense Department. But I will say the War Department and that you might. almost call it a vibe shift., an attitude shift, a feeling that the country is back, that service is back.
And there were military families last year, Mr. President, that said, I don't know if I can recommend -- I mean, I wrote a book on this. I don't know if I can recommend service to my son or daughter, given what's been done to our military.
You heard it over and over and over again, and I hear from those same military families right now, sir. And they're saying, I recommend to my kids that they go into this, this department, this Pentagon, under this commander in chief, who they know you'll have their back and they want to serve.
So, it is historic, and it's the biggest reflection of how motivated Americans are by your leadership, sir.
TRUMP: You know, it really is nothing more than spirit love for the country.
[16:30:02] I guess the esprit de corps, as they say, you have more of that than we've had, maybe ever, frankly. But to see a turn over a period of less than a year, I would say. But to see a turn. Nobody wanted to go into the military. Now everybody wants to go into the military.
Jennifer, you want to?
REPORTER: Yeah. There's some new reporting on North Korea in this Navy SEAL incident in 2019. Can you say if the administration has engaged with North Korea on that incident since it happened recently? And then can you share some --
TRUMP: I don't know anything about it. No, I'd have to. I could look, but I know nothing about it.
REPORTER: Can you confirm that it happened?
TRUMP: I don't know anything about it. I'm hearing it now for the first time.
REPORTER: Okay, great. And then on the Hyundai incident in Georgia with the arrests of some workers, construction workers at the plant. Have you heard any feedback from Hyundai?
TRUMP: I just heard about that a little while before the news conference. And I would say that they were illegal aliens, and ICE was just doing his job. But I know nothing about the incidents that happened a little while ago. Okay?
REPORTER: There has been some pushback on that, though, from South Korea already. And of course, you know, they pledged to invest $150 billion in the U.S. and they were just here last week. Are you concerned --
TRUMP: Well, when they have the right to sell cars and things in our country? You know, it's not like a one-sided deal.
REPORTER: Or are you concerned at all about, you know, your immigration agenda potentially clashing with these economic goals?
TRUMP: Well, we want to get along with other countries and we want to have a great stable workforce. And we had, as I understand it, a lot of illegal aliens, some not the best of people. But we had a lot of illegal aliens working there.
So, you know, look, they're doing their job. That's what they have to do. These are people that came through with Biden. They came through illegally. They came into our country. So, we have to do our job.
REPORTER: Mr. President --
REPORTER: The Department of War has been involved in the crime cleanup in D.C. Youve tasked Congress with proposing and passing a crime bill. What are some things that you would really like to see codified in that crime bill? TRUMP: Well, I think one of the things is the cashless bail. It's
killing it. When that came out originally, when that came out the first time, that's when you saw the real big crime start to happen. Cashless bail. What a disaster that is.
You murder somebody. You don't have to put up bail. And you go out in the street, you murder somebody else. Thats what's happened. It happened so often. And that's one of the things.
And other of the things you're reading about, you know, it's a standard, but just a certain toughness. I have to say, one of the elements of fascination for people over the last period of time has been what's happened to D.C. So we've gone from a one of the most dangerous cities in our country to a what they call a safe city.
It's a totally safe city. In fact, I set up dinner in Washington, D.C. next week. I wouldn't have done that. To be honest, I would have had an obligation not to do it before I came into office or even at the very beginning when things were so corrupt and so dangerous out on the streets.
So, Washington, D.C. has had virtually no crime. We even have a mayor that's admitting to it. And she's, a, you know, liberal Democrat. In all fairness, she's a person that hasn't gotten exactly along with Republicans over the years.
And she said she's never seen anything like it. So, Washington, D.C. is a totally safe city. We have virtually no crime. One of -- it's gone from the most unsafe city in the United States, almost, just about, to one of the safest cities, maybe the safest city in the United States.
That's a tremendous compliment to our military, what we did. The National Guard has done a fantastic job.
Yeah. Please?
REPORTER: Mr. President, can I ask about Florida. Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez was at the White House yesterday as part of a leadership summit.
TRUMP: Yes.
REPORTER: I understand you met with him separately, Mr. President. What did you two talk about? And also, did you explore him running for Florida --
TRUMP: I didn't -- we didn't talk about that. But he's done a fantastic job. He's respected all over the country. Really. He's a leader and he has done a just a fantastic job. We didn't discuss anything having to do with his future. I'm sure he'd be very good at that.
REPORTER: My second question, Alligator Alcatraz sticking with Florida, a major ruling appeals court blocked a federal judge's order to close it, and it can remain open for now. Your reaction? TRUMP: I think they've done a fantastic job in building it, the
governor and everybody else that's been involved. It's an incredible facility. It's housing people for usually a very short period of time before they get brought back to their countries.
As you know, we're -- we focus on criminals before we focus on anybody else. And we're taking thousands and thousands of criminals out every month out of our country. Some of them murderers. And I think Florida has done a great job by building it. And whether it's Alligator Alcatraz or anything else you want to call it, I was there.
[16:40:00]
I visited with the governor, with other people. I guess Nikki was there. Tom Homan's been there a lot. A lot of people have been there from. It's an amazing facility for what it is. It's not a hotel. It's not supposed to be a hotel.
But they've done a great job with it. And I'm very happy with the judge's decision.
REPORTER: You also mentioned Venezuela. I want to ask one more follow- up question on that. On the U.S. strike on the Venezuelan drug cartel, the Maduro regime is pushing back today. In fact, they say the U.S. seeks regime change through military threat.
Your reaction to those words? And also, would you like to see regime change in Venezuela?
TRUMP: Well, we're not talking about that, but we are talking about the fact that you had an election, which was, a very strange election, to put it mildly. I'm being very nice when I say that. I can only say that billions of dollars of drugs are pouring into our country from Venezuela. The prisons of Venezuela have been opened up to our country.
They've taken their prisoners. The worst prisoners, murderers, Tren de Aragua, the worst prisoners that you can ever imagine are now happily living in the United States of America.
Now, many of them have gotten out. It's not easy to get them out because of the liberal system that were working with in many cases, not in all cases, but millions and millions of dollars and billions of dollars of drugs are pouring out of Venezuela and other countries. Look, China, what they're doing with fentanyl is a terrible thing. It comes through Canada, and it comes through Mexico.
But a lot of it is coming through Venezuela. Venezuela has been a very bad actor, and we understand that. And when you look at that boat, you look at that, you see the bags of whatever it is -- those bags were, you know, those bags represent hundreds of thousands of dead people in the United States. That's what they represent.
Yeah, please?
REPORTER: Mr. President, your reaction to the jobs report this morning?
TRUMP: Well, I'm going to talk about that in a minute. We have our great people here. So I'll talk that in a minute. Let's talk about this. Well give a couple of them because these two people want to get to work on the Department of War. So, let's keep them first.
REPORTER: Mr. President, the DOJ is reportedly considering a ban on transgender people owning guns after the Minneapolis shooting. Do you think --
TRUMP: Are we talking in the military?
REPORTER: No.
TRUMP: Okay, I thought you were talking about in the military. I'll let -- I'll refer to that then differently, because it's not a military question. I'll be able to pass on that very nicely. Unless you'd like to talk about it. Now, Pete doesn't want any part of that question.
Yes, please?
REPORTER: Mr. President, who do you blame for losing India to China? In your post earlier today in the morning, you did put that out.
TRUMP: I don't think we have, you know, I've been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil, as you know, from Russia. And I let them know that. We put a very big tariff on India, 50 percent tariff, very high tariff. I get along very well with Modi. As you know, he's great.
He was here a couple of months ago. In fact, we went to the Rose Garden and it was the grass was so soaking wet. It was so -- such a terrible place to have a news conference. I said, well, let's use a beautiful white stone emblematic of the White House. Okay. And it's been very well-received.
But we had a news conference in the -- in the -- on the grass. That was my last news conference I had on the grass because everybody sunk in. You probably sunk in, every reporter out there. They ruined their shoes. We made that change. It's been a really well received change.
Yeah. Please go ahead.
REPORTER: Venezuela, you said F-35s out of Puerto Rico. You said naval vessels in the Caribbean. You're concerned about drugs being illegally sent in here.
TRUMP: Yeah.
REPORTER: How do you describe this buildup, this situation?
TRUMP: Well, I just think it's strong. We're strong on drugs. We don't want drugs killing our people. I believe we lost 300,000. You know, they always say 95,000 or 100,000. I believe they've been saying that for 20 years. I believe we lost 300,000 people last year. I know families that lost
their son. Those families will never be the same. I know a family lost a daughter, a beautiful daughter in fact, it was like she took something that she thought was like a minor deal, and it turned out to be riddled out with fentanyl. The size of the head of a pin. And you're dead.
And, no, we're stopping the drugs. We're going to save a lot of people. Look, whether it's 100,000, but it's not. It's 300,000, 350,000 people died last year from drugs. And we're not going to let that happen to this country.
Think of that. Think of you're in a war and you lose 300,000. We'll lose 600,000 in the pretty much between Gettysburg and all of that, the civil war, we lost, what, 600,000. So we're losing half of that every year to drugs. We're not going to do it. We're not going to allow it to happen.
You think of the wars if we lost 600,000 people in a war, but we lost -- we lose that every two years. More than that. So, it's 300,000 to 350,000 people.
And when I see boats coming in like loaded up the other day with all sorts of drugs, probably fentanyl mostly, but all sorts of drugs, we're going to take them out. And if people want to have fun going on the high seas or the low seas, they're going to be in trouble.
I will tell you, boat traffic is substantially down in the area that happened. They called it the runway. It's a runway to -- it's the runway to the United States. And boat traffic is very substantially down on the runway. You can imagine why I think anybody that saw that is going to say, I'll take a pass.
I don't even know about fishermen. They may say, I'm not getting on the boat. I'm not going to take a chance.
REPORTER: What happens if Venezuela flies jets over U.S. naval vessels?
TRUMP: Well, I would say they're going to be in trouble. We'll let them know about that. We heard that happen, but it wasn't really over. Not like they described.
But I would say, General, if they do that, you have a choice of doing anything you want. Okay? If they fly in a dangerous position, I would say that you can, you or your captains can make the decision as to what they want to do. All right.
CAINE: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, we have one more.
REPORTER: You said they didn't go over?
TRUMP: Say it.
REPORTER: How close did they get? You said the planes did --
TRUMP: Well, I don't want to talk about that. But if they do put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down.
Thank you very much, everybody. So we're going to now cover the G20, and I'm going to let these people go back to the Department of War and figure out how to maintain peace. Okay?
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks very much. Congratulations. General, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Great job.
CAINE: Thank you, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, just before G20, we do have one more EO for you today. And I should also say --
HUNT: All right. We've been listening to President Trump in the Oval Office. We're going to continue to monitor what's going on there. We'll bring you any news.
But he was asked a wide range of questions by the reporters there, including "The New York Times" reporting around a reported incident in North Korea with Navy SEALs that went wrong. The president said it was essentially the first that he was hearing of it.
He was also asked about the immigration raid that took place at the Hyundai plant in Georgia, which of course caused the operations at their EV battery plant to cease. One of the largest operations in immigration enforcement history here in the U.S.
And, Marc Short, I wanted to ask you about that, because the question the reporter asked was whether this raid, which of course, was part of his immigration policy, is in tension with his stated economic policy goal of growing U.S. manufacturing.
SHORT: I think it's less than that, Kasie. I think it's probably more as a deterrent for other people to enter the country. Like if I think there's a strong belief that you continue to see this coverage on TV, it deters people from wanting to cross the border. I think that's part of their strategy. I don't know that this has linked to the -- to the trade agenda and the manufacturing job agenda.
I think that the president has -- was elected in large part on the economy and the border. I'm still very supportive of his border policies. I have greater concerns about his trade policy.
HUNT: Fair enough. All right. We got a quick take, a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:52:45]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'd prefer not to have a communist mayor of New York city. And you know, that's what he is based on his policy. If you look at his statements in the past. So I would -- I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one on one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: President Trump now, of course, a Washington resident, but a long time New York City resident weighing into -- wading into the New York mayor's race, of course, referring there to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee who's running against fellow Democrats Andrew Cuomo and the current mayor, Eric Adams. They are, of course, now both in the race as independents. But it could all be shaken up, potentially in just moments.
Adams is set to make an announcement about the future of his reelection campaign. We had been expecting that to start any moment. We'll bring it to you live if it gets underway, but it comes amid reporting that he's privately discussed a role in the Trump administration that could potentially allow Cuomo to challenge Mamdani one on one if the Republican nominee in the race, Curtis Sliwa, is also given a Trump administration role, apparently also under consideration.
Our panel is back.
I have to say, Kristen Soltis Anderson, I'm fascinated to know why Donald Trump is so, so interested in making Andrew Cuomo the next mayor of New York City, considering they do not share a political party. What do you make of all of this?
ANDERSON: I mean, I think that Donald Trump just likes New York City politics. Thats the world in which he was raised. I think that, like, if this was the race for the mayor of Chicago or Los Angeles, he would not be nearly as interested.
But I also think there's something here with this potential generational shift in the Democratic Party, this rise of Zohran Mamdani that I think, you know, if this is where the country is going, that's very much at odds with where Donald Trump thinks the country should go. And so, I'm certain he has no love for Cuomo. But I imagine there's a little bit of that going on.
HUNT: But, Marc Short, I mean, I've talked to so many Republicans in Washington who are just dying to see Zohran Mamdani become the mayor of New York so that they can run against him in their campaigns. Why is Trump not there?
SHORT: Absolutely. I mean, it's clear that the president has a certain affinity for New York that, you know, it's his home. And I think he feels differently about it. But he does actually have an affinity for the Cuomo family. He really does. And it's an -- it's an oddity.
HUNT: Wait. So, explain -- explain that. Well, I mean, even during the COVID, the president and Governor Cuomo would talk very frequently one on one. And it was a very familial conversation that they would have.
So why I don't -- why the president, though? It's not as if there's a Republican who get elected. So, it's really like, this isn't like a conservative Democrat. It's Cuomo who has a lot of his own scandals behind him. Why they want to see him lifted up as opposed to having a foil of Mamdani that is looking to seize control of grocery stores in New York, that is a great foil for Republicans. So I don't get it, but I just think it's personal.
WILLIAMS: Yeah --
HINOJOSA: Well, I also think it's interesting is that Trump's Justice Department, before in Trump one and in Trump two have attempted to investigate Cuomo for his handling of COVID and that investigation. There was some talk about it earlier this year. And so, I find it interesting that now all of a sudden, he is wanting to endorse Cuomo and see him succeed in this mayoral race when his own Justice Department, which he genuinely controls is looking to investigate him. And so, the whole dynamics of this is just very odd.
WILLIAMS: You know, Zohran Mamdani is the only mayoral candidate in the country that is a national figure right now. And frankly, I don't think someone running for mayor in Chicago or Los Angeles could ever have a statue like that just because of what New York means.
How it is not -- this is to your point, mark, how Republicans are not licking their chops at having this guy be the foil in the face of the Democratic Party is beyond me. There has to be a debate happening in the White House right now over that very issue. Like, I just like I get it. I get that Donald Trump cares about wealthy friends and taxes in New York City and so on. But this is a golden opportunity to have a national face.
SHORT: Again, I think it's just personal. And I -- and I -- don't forget that Donald Trump was a huge developer when Mario Cuomo was at HUD. And so, there's a relationship here that goes back quite a long time with the Cuomo family.
HINOJOSA: Well --
HUNT: It's interesting to hear Andrew Cuomo talk about it, actually, which happened during the debate in June when he stood on stage with Mamdani.
Let's watch what Cuomo said about Donald Trump and Mamdani.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW CUOMO, NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE: I know how to deal with Donald Trump because I've dealt with him before. Many times, we've had many encounters. He can be beaten, but he has to know that he's up against an adversary who can actually beat him.
And I can tell you this -- I am the last person on this stage that Mr. Trump wants to see as mayor. Donald Trump would go through Mr. Mamdani like a hot knife through butter.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: Then there's this aspect of it, Xochitl, right. The idea that -- I mean, are Democratic voters in this day and age, like in this moment, this divided moment, going to want to see Donald Trump helping Andrew Cuomo, like, is that going to make them more likely to vote for Andrew Cuomo?
HINOJOSA: I don't think -- I think Democrats want to get away from New York in this primary in every sense. I don't -- Mamdani is not the leader of the party. He does not share everything about the party.
But I think it's also funny in the way that Mamdani is playing some of this. I think why Trump is so angry at him is there's a little bit of Mamdani in Trump, in the sense that he kind of like, likes these viral moments. He says what, you know, off the cuff things. He says what he believes, things like that.
And so, I also think Trump is very intrigued by him, playing his similar game as Trump.
ANDERSON: Let me let me just say, for all the I think the consensus of this panel seems to have been like, oh, Mamdani is obviously a gift to Republicans. Like, let me just play devil's advocate here for a moment, which is I do think that if he becomes mayor of New York, I think it's going to be disastrous from a policy perspective. I think if he becomes mayor of New York, he definitely embraces policies most Democrats don't want to associate themselves with.
But I think camera friendly populism is a really powerful combination these days.
HINOJOSA: That's right. Yes.
ANDERSON: And we would be foolish to underestimate it.
HINOJOSA: And Trump appreciates that. He appreciates it.
ANDERSON: Exactly.
WILLIAMS: And his -- the core message Mamdani was pushing was about prices, which, you know, in the Venn diagram of unlikely bedfellows in American politics really sticks with people. And, you know, there's -- there are similarities there. He was masterful at managing the Internet and TikTok and social media, which are how many people get elected, particularly in big cities today. It's a skill --
HUNT: We can watch a very brief clip of Mamdani that speaks exactly to the point you're making. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Let's cut out the middleman. Why should I debate Donald Trump's puppet when I could debate Donald Trump himself? If Donald Trump is serious about this, he should come to New York City. We can have as many debates as he want about why he is cutting SNAP benefits for hungry New Yorkers just to fund tax cuts for his billionaire donors. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: I don't question that that's where the Democrat Party is. I'm not questioning the strength of his candidacy. I think that's why AOC and Bernie Sanders are out there campaigning for him. I think that's why you see Democrats being nervous, though, and I do still think from a policy perspective, he's a great foil for Republicans.
HINOJOSA: Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, he's talking about costs. And that's what people want to hear. And that's why it resonates with.
HUNT: And as you were pointing out earlier, if these job cuts were coming and cost of living was going down, people might be able to tolerate it. But that's not what's happening.
All right, guys, thank you very much for being with me today. I really appreciate it.
Thanks to all of you for joining us as well. Don't go anywhere.
"THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.
