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GOP Lawmakers React To Trump's New Tariffs; GOP Senators Brace For Trump Tariffs Impact, Warn Of Higher Prices; Canada Hits Back As Trump's Sweeping Tariffs Go Into Effect; Trade Wars Erupt As Trump Tariffs His Canada, Mexico, China; Zelenskyy Describes Oval Office Meeting As "Regrettable"; Zelenskyy Reiterates Desire To End War With Russia In New Video; Trump To Lay Out Plans In Major Speech To Congress Tonight; House Republicans Urged To Avoid In-Person Town Halls Amid Protests. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 04, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We are six hours away from the biggest speech that President Trump has given since his inauguration address just over six weeks ago and it's happening as the American economy is facing new headwinds from a trade war with some of the country's biggest economic partners.

And what could it mean if Elon Musk and his DOGE team use artificial intelligence to cut staffing in the federal government? Why those reports have experts worried about what they call a, quote, "massive risk."

And new numbers from the measles outbreak that is causing such worry in West Texas as health officials try to get a handle on the disease that was considered eliminated 25 years ago, but is surging in a time of vaccine skepticism.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

In just hours, President Trump will head to Capitol Hill to lay out his plan for America when he addresses Congress for the first time since retaking the White House. But concerns over an escalating trade war are overshadowing tonight's speech after Trump's decision to implement sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

Today, all three hitting back, vowing to retaliate and caught in the middle everyday people who will soon need to prepare for the likelihood of even higher prices on everything from cars to electronics to food. Right now, we're learning Senate Republicans are also bracing for impact, acknowledging the blow that tariffs could have on the wallets of their constituents.

Let's go live now to Capitol Hill and CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju. Manu, what are you hearing from lawmakers ahead of this speech tonight?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there is a lot of concern about this Trump tariff policy. There are some that are - Republicans who are very supportive of what Donald Trump is doing some of them are hoping that this will simply be a temporary measure, that Trump will ultimately pull back from this because of concerns of the impacts on their respective states.

One of those the Senate Majority John Thune. I just asked if he's willing to stick with Trump through and through if this were to increase prices on his constituents back home. He said that he is in a quote different place than the Trump administration is on this issue. And that is very clear talking to Republicans across the board, some of them are plainly worried about what this may mean for their constituents in their districts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: What's the impact on your constituents of these tariffs (INAUDIBLE) --

REP. DAN NEWHOUSE (R-WA): Well, it wouldn't be good. You know, I come from an agricultural area. Canada and Mexico are two of our top trading partners. And so, it would make our ability to sell our products more difficult.

REP. MARK ALFORD (R-MO): And if I have to pay a little bit more for something, I'm all for it to get America right again to start whittling down this $36.5 billion or trillion worth of debt that we have that's unsustainable.

RAJU: Do you think that a lot of your constituents feel the same way, they're willing to pay a little bit more.

ALFORD: I think so. I mean, look we have lived under the oppression of Joe Biden's hyperinflation for some years.

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): Am I worried that it could impact us? Of course. Is American people ready to get the country back on track and do what it had - do what it needs to or do what it takes to get - to make that happen? Absolutely. We're going to have to adjust some prices for it. But the President is tired of people taking advantage of our country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my goal is that these tariffs don't end up with higher prices.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: But we can expect to hear Democrats tonight saying very much that this will impact raise prices on consumers across the board and aligning themselves with some Republicans as you heard there who are sharing those concerns. Elissa Slotkin who was slated to give the Democratic response to President Trump's speech to Congress tonight comes from Michigan, a state that is - could be impacted heavily. An auto producing state from those tariffs particularly on the key tariffs on Canada.

[15:04:59] So, expect Elissa Slotkin to raise concerns about the impacts of the

manufacturing sector from all of this.

But what you hear from Republicans across the board, they wanted Donald Trump to clearly articulate how he views some of these issues, how he views in particular the one issue that is on the minds of so many Americans, how will he drive prices down for consumers and what will the tariffs do, ultimately, to that end and would he pull back from them if it were to lead to an increase in prices.

All of the questions that Republicans and Democrats have ahead of this major speech tonight, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Manu Raju, thank you for all of that reporting.

And as Trump is preparing to deliver this address tonight, Canada has this message for the President's newly imposed tariffs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Now, it's not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal, but Donald they point out that even though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's talk about this now with Roben Farzad, business journalist and host for Full Disclosure.

Roben, great to have you.

You hear Trudeau there announcing as he did as part of his remarks, 25 percent tariffs on $155 billion on U.S. goods. How are Americans going to feel that, how quickly are they going to feel it?

ROBEN FARZAD, BUSINESS JOURNALIST & HOST, "FULL DISCLOSURE": They're already feeling it if you look at the bond markets' reaction, if you look at the stock markets' reaction, if you see retailers coming out there and saying it's going to hit us. It's going to hurt us certainly at a time when consumer sentiment has been trending lower and inflation is still not fully in the rearview mirror.

I mean, you don't have a lot of wiggle room for things like this, so it's really a roar shark and how you want to look at things. We're still in the opening innings of this and there's a lot of bluster and banter going back and forth. But at some point you have to decide, am I going to, you know, put that addition on the house? Am I going to build that house, for home builders. Am I going to buy that timber or sheetrock?

Restaurants are going to say, do I have to pass down the cost of higher avocado or tomato prices. You know, it becomes much more than rhetoric when you get down to brass tacks.

KEILAR: And we know they do pass it down. They pass down the higher cost of eggs, right? We see how they do it. And you saw Trump quickly respond, right?

So, Trump goes tariffs. Trudeau says more tariffs or tariffs right back at you. Trump says, okay there's going to be more in kind.

When does that stop? I mean, who's the first to cry uncle here?

FARZAD: Well, the cry uncle thing is interesting because Trump did offer an out. I mean, he makes it sound so easy. All you have to do is build here. But it's not like a factory or someplace that makes spark plugs that might be in Canada or someplace that does textiles that is used to shipping a certain volume to Wal-Mart or target can suddenly open up in the Midwest or in the Southeast.

You saw that headline yesterday with Taiwan semi, that is a national champion. That's a great coup for Donald Trump to be able to have these guys saying that we are doubling down. I don't remember if it was Arizona, because you're sticking it to the Chinese in two ways. The Chinese covet Taiwan and you have the national champion here doubling down on, you know, on shoring in the United States. Very rare to get immediate victories like those. Those require Companies even small businesses to do years of planning.

So, initially, people are going to take the cost hit and then down the line maybe companies will think twice about, you know, should we be on shoring, should we be building here?

KEILAR: So, listen, if you're managing your household budget groceries are such an important line item. And so, I wonder what you think about this because this morning the CEO of Target said that Tariffs on Mexico could force them to raise prices on fruits and vegetables as soon as this week. I think we should all agree we should be eating our fruits and vegetables. Do you expect that we'll be seeing that at all grocery stores soon?

FARZAD: I could - I honestly if you were to asked me from my heart I'd say buy a 40-pound weighted blanket and just order pizza and binge Netflix, but that's not the world we have. You know, unfortunately, we have to try to parse these things out. Wall Street currency analysts, everyone is trying to say how is this ultimately going to settle? Are you going to see Trump back down? I mean, when does he run out of his political capital in the first hundred days in the honeymoon and whatnot, because this has real effects.

Already you've seen the bond market in the United States, which eclipses any market in the world by orders of magnitude completely react to this. More and more people are pricing in the possibility of a recession, which was not in the conversation, I think, 40 days ago.

KEILAR: Don't you think the pressure is higher though if people start seeing their grocery bills go up?

FARZAD: Yes, so it becomes kind of a meaning-of-life question, is that then add to the pressure of inflation or is that - and then maybe in a perverse way convince the Trump White House that this will force Jerome Powell's hands and maybe if the Fed was skittish about cutting rates, you put enough fear and dislocation back into the economy that maybe we can cut rates again. It's a bizarre way, you know, this chaos to rule the economy and to rule, you know, the leader of the free world.

[15:10:04]

But, you know, it is what it is and you're seeing the desperation. And I think the Prime Minister of Canada's voice, he's kind of a lame-duck at this point. People are using equal parts, charm, you know, appealing to reason, citing the Wall Street Journal. It's a - it's really bizarre times we live in.

KEILAR: Yep, invites to hang out with the king, all the things.

Roben Farzad, thank you so much, really appreciate your time.

Ukrainian president Zelenskyy describing his fiery White House meeting with President Trump is regrettable. Says he's ready to negotiate peace. In a just-released video statement from Kyiv, the Ukrainian leader expressed concern about President Trump's decision to pause shipments on military aid to Ukraine, said he wants a respectful dialogue with the U.S. while reiterating his desire to end the war with Russia.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is with us now.

This was a big move, the pausing of aid.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. It was a big move. Now you have something, I suppose, of an apology from Zelenskyy, which we know that the White House was looking for. What we don't know is, is that enough to satisfy President Trump. It's unknowable to some degree. And then, we don't know what the next requirement is, right?

Because until a few days ago, the only requirement was that Ukraine signed this minerals deal. That was the price in effect not even of security guarantees, just of keeping the door open to the White House into negotiations going forward.

I spoke to a Ukrainian - senior Ukrainian military officer this morning in the wake of this pause in aid and he said, listen, the U.S. has lost trust here that Ukraine does not believe it can rely - needs the U.S., but it doesn't believe it could rely on it and it fears what the next demand is or the next pause in aid. And meanwhile, the pause is still in place as of now and that has immediate effects on the battlefield, because they're concerned how long can we keep firing shells? How long do we have missiles to put into our Patriot missile systems to shoot down incoming Russian missiles? And morale is a big factor as well, because the folks on the front line, they don't know how long the U.S. will have their back.

KEILAR: And when that stops, when they can't shoot Patriot missiles ...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

KEILAR: What does it look like? SCIUTTO: It's even worse than it is. I mean, listen, every day Russia

is raining drones and missiles down on Ukraine. None of this has stopped in the midst of these negotiations. But when President Trump and others put pressure on Zelenskyy to get serious about peace, Russia is still raining missiles down, including on civilian targets in Ukraine. There's been no signaling from Russia about its interested moving towards peace.

KEILAR: Killing dozens and dozens of civilians.

SCIUTTO: Killing dozens of people. And when they have less support, Ukraine, it can't defend as well against those attacks. And one more piece I'll say, and this is what folks in the Pentagon have been telling me, if the U.S. suspends intelligence sharing as well, this is truly consequential for Ukrainians, because they use that intelligence to help pick out Russian targets. But they also use it for overwatch to, to get a sense of where the incoming fire is coming from so that they could defend themselves.

It has multiple effects over time, and as an ally, as this officer was saying to me, we can't rely on the U.S. anymore. That's a remarkable thing to hear from an ally.

KEILAR: Jim, thank you so much for that.

And joining us now to talk more about these developments with Ukraine is Evelyn Farkas. She is the former deputy secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. She also is the executive director for the McCain Institute.

Evelyn, I wonder how you view what we're hearing from Zelenskyy taping a video, something we have certainly seen from politicians here in America as they try to target that audience of one. Is this him getting in line? Is it enough to satisfy Trump, do you think, as long as he capitulates on this rare-earths mineral deal?

EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA, UKRAINE & EURASIA: Yes, Brianna, he's definitely trying to get in line. He's trying to salvage the situation, get back to where they were, I guess, before that Oval Office media interaction. And so, the - and the beginning of that was to sign this deal. I mean, that was the point, so it's still a starting point though.

KEILAR: So, in a social media post today, Zelenskyy laid out potential first stages of a deal. A prisoner release, a truce in the sky, meaning a ban on missiles, on long-range drones, bombing infrastructure and also a truce in the sea. If Russia will do the same, that last bit, a very important quote, what do you think of what he laid out here?

FARKAS: I think there are reasonable expectations. If you're going to have a ceasefire, those are the elements, you know, prisoner exchange. I mean, we've seen it in Gaza as well, prisoner exchange and then, of course, the discussion about next steps.

I will say though that we haven't heard anything from Russia along these lines and I would wonder whether privately what the Russians are saying.

[15:15:04]

I'm afraid, Brianna, that you know Ukraine is making concessions. And the way Putin operates, he's - he'll just take another concession unless he's pressed to give something up and that's what I think our government needs to do right now, press Putin to give something up.

KEILAR: And when the U.S. pauses military aid to Ukraine, is that just, you know, bringing Ukraine to its knees to bring it to the negotiating table?

FARKAS: Yes. I mean, plain and simple yes. And we know because President Trump has made comments in the past saying that he could cut off assistance to Ukraine in order to pressure them to make a peace deal. I believe at the time when he was campaigning, he also talked about putting pressure on Putin, but I don't recall exactly what he said he would do and what we see right now is no pressure at least publicly being applied on the Kremlin.

KEILAR: Yes, and we haven't heard that it's being applied privately. But let's talk about, as you mentioned, what would need to be applied. So, if - hey, we see what they're doing to bring Ukraine to the table, what would it take to bring Russia to the table in your analysis?

FARKAS: Well, first of all threatening additional sanctions on Russia something that would cause Russia pain if they didn't act to implement a ceasefire. And then, of course, telling Russia if they don't come to the table, we will turn on this bigot and we will allow for more weaponry and for, you know, more long-range weaponry, and we will back Ukraine more significantly from a military perspective. Those are two things.

The other last thing would be, of course, unfreezing the money which the Europeans are talking about. These are the Russian frozen assets, about $3 billion that largely is held in Europe, in Belgium.

KEILAR: So, what's the knock-on effects? As we mentioned doesn't appear there's private outreach, but what are the knock-on effects for American National Security that Trump has opened his arms to Russia so much if this continues, right? He's boxing Ukraine into a corner. He's paused these cyber operations on Russia. He's not willing to say a negative word about Putin.

FARKAS: The problem is, Brianna, on the one hand, you know, I think the administration people are trying to say this is in the context of a negotiation, but to the rest of the world it looks and feels like a realignment, like we're switching sides. And that causes a lot of consternation in places like Taiwan, in Japan, in South Korea where we have security commitments actually to the allies to Japan, South Korea, Philippines and, of course, a tacit one to Taiwan.

If we can't stand up to Russia and if we are switching sides to be on the Russian side, that means we're also on the side with China, with Iran and North Korea potentially because they're allied with Russia. So, I think it's causing a lot of real Concern about where this where all this is headed is it just to get the Ukrainians to the table or is it something more fundamental that President Trump has in mind.

KEILAR: Evelyn, always great to get your perspective. Evelyn Farkas, thank you.

FARKAS: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: Still to come, is the Trump honeymoon phase over? Is it ending? We're looking at where President Trump stands with Americans ahead of his address to Congress as lawmakers are facing very angry voters at town halls all around the country.

Plus, reports of DOGE using AI to make major cost-cutting decisions has experts worried about massive risks including cybersecurity breaches.

And alleged gladiator fights between kids at a juvenile detention center in Los Angeles, 30 officers now facing charges.

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[15:23:22]

KEILAR: Just hours from now, President Trump will deliver his address to a joint session of Congress amid a brewing trade war triggered by his new tariffs and growing anger triggered by his abrupt moves to slash federal jobs and programs.

A senior advisor says the President plans to lean into his tariffs during tonight's speech and he's expected to make the case for his sweeping domestic policies.

Joining us now is pollster and communication strategist Frank Luntz.

And Frank, here we are, we're about six weeks into Trump's second term. What are you hearing from voters?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST: Well, I'm going to be watching tonight for how disruptive Congress actually will be. You've seen occasions when people have shouted out or walked out of a Trump speech, the same thing happened with Joe Biden and it's not civil. It's not decent. And there's obviously applause and people standing up and cheering in some cases but not booing and to me that will tell me how civil Washington is and what kind of example Washington wants to set for the rest of the country.

Second is we're always going to see a follow-up to what happened in the Oval Office on Friday, which truly is unprecedented and unparalleled in modern foreign policy. The question is how far will Trump go in writing off Ukraine and whether he will leave an olive branch open for Zelenskyy to grab towards.

And third, you mentioned it correctly, tariffs. That's probably the number one economic policy of this administration. The public is very mixed on it. They do want to support American jobs, but they don't want - do not want to see American prices go up.

[15:25:03]

So, he's going to have some difficult moments with the people in front of him convincing them that they should pass policies that their own constituents think will make things cost that much more.

KEILAR: How quickly, Frank, do voters sour on, say, their groceries increasing in prices? Because we just heard from the CEO of Target, they're going to be increasing prices of fruits and vegetables here in the coming days.

LUNTZ: Well, the problem is he's only been present for, what, 40 days? And it's been an active, it's been a consequential 40 days. But in the end, there's not much a president can do to change economic conditions. Inflation takes half a year, sometimes a year to bake into the system and usually it takes more than a year to get it out of the system, Donald Trump probably wants to get credit for everything that's happening that's good and wants to shift the blame for everything that's bad on the previous administration. The fact is inflation has been baked in now for years and it'll take years for it to go through the system, that's why you have to be careful what you promise and you have to be careful about Expectations. The goal is always to lessen what the people expect and then deliver more.

You can exceed expectations that's a successful presidency and Trump has raised - President Trump as way raised expectations really high.

KEILAR: So, NRCC chair, Richard Hudson, urged Republican members not to hold in-person town halls in the future here, in the near future, opting instead for virtual ones because, let's play it, these are the scenes that have been playing out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I support the veterans, but what you're doing right now, what the government is doing right now, as far as cutting out those jobs --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is a damn shame.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Government employees are going to be let go, but that's just the reality of it and I'm so - I feel bad that people have been laid off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The end result of the fraud, abuse that has been discovered already ...

REP. GLENN GROTHMAN (R-WI): He's getting rid of the DEI ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I wonder how you're reading these reactions, Frank, because a lot of Republicans want to dismiss them as, oh, these are people who have been organized to come. But we've watched these moments in the past, right, on both sides of the aisle, where both parties have wanted to cry Astroturf (ph) and they've done so at their political peril. How are you seeing it?

LUNTZ: Let's go back and do some history, we saw the opposition to Barack Obama in 2009 and 2010 in these town halls and they've allowed us anything that we've ever had in modern times and that did actually indicate a Republican sweep in 2010. Similarly, there was opposition to what Trump was doing in 2019 and 2020 which made some Republican events very difficult to host and that was an indication, I think, we're shifting towards the Democrats.

I look at this simply as an indication, but I want to confirm one thing for you right now, the focus groups that we do and we do this every single week are allowed, they're boisterous and they will applaud the President for his agenda and condemn him for the way that he carries it out. And this is the kind of thing that someone should be telling Elon Musk right now the idea of cutting waste fraud abuse, mismanagement, corruption.

The public says, yes, do this, but not out of meanness, out of respect and appreciation for hard-working taxpayers. Not out of a sense of revenge, but a sense of making the American government more work, more efficiently, more effectively and frankly more accountably. Do it for the right reasons and the public will endorse you.

But do it out of anger and do it out of desire to get even, the public will turn against you and that is what is beginning to happen. It's just the beginning of it, but it's starting to happen across the country.

KEILAR: I heard that from a fired veteran that I spoke with from the Midwest who voted for Trump still supports Trump does not like, to your point, the way these things are being carried out, they feel arbitrary to him. To that point, since three in 10 federal workers are veterans, a lot of veterans are being fired, we heard that in the town halls, Democrats are emphasizing these fired federal workers, especially the veterans. Is that going to work for them, do you think?

LUNTZ: No, it's not going to work for them because people see through it. They see the politicization of it. And I saw this for the first time back in the Enron days when they tried to pin the Republicans for the behavior of corporate America.

[15:30:06]

If you look like you're doing it for political reasons, they will reject you.