Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump Digs in on Divisive Agenda in Speech to Congress; Trump to Speak With Trudeau After New Tariffs Spark Retaliation; LeBron James is First NBA Player to Score 50,000 Points. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 05, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A victory lap. Just 43 days after taking office, President Trump addressing Congress, talking about his rapid fire changes to overhaul the federal government and the nation. Democrats holding up signs, walking out and even getting kicked out.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Deal or no deal, the tariff whiplash continues with the commerce secretary suggesting the President may be ready to meet in the middle today. And also igniting hope on Wall Street.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This mammoth winter storm sparks fires, dust bowls. Now, there are concerns of blizzards and tornadoes. We have the latest severe weather forecast.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: This was not about unity. The people elected me to do the job and I'm doing it. And this morning, major questions on what President Trump will do next after telling Congress, America, and the world that his divisive agenda is just getting started.

Trump signals full speed ahead. Combative Trump vows to press an unrelenting agenda. The New York Times, Trump celebrates disruption and defies backlash. Politico, some of the reviews this morning as Trump laid bare his power in a historically long speech that touted his future plans on tariffs, trade wars, foreign wars, and more, all the while attacking Democrats who attacked back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years, and we are just getting started.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): The chair now directs the sergeant at arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the chamber.

TRUMP: These people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won't do it no matter what. Tariffs are about making America rich again, and making America great again, and it's happening, and it will happen rather quickly. There'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that. It won't be much.

Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine.

My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.

Every single day we will stand up and we will fight, fight, fight for the country our citizens believe in and for the country our people deserve.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Today, we are standing by for President Trump to speak with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau amid trade war fears. Trump also today will meet with GOP lawmakers.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House. What did last night tell you about how Trump is going to move forward? It was certainly a divisive conversation or speech, if you will.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: No, you're right, Sara. I mean, look, this was a classic Trump speech. As someone who spent the last two years following him all over the country and listening to his, his campaign rallies. This sounded almost like a campaign speech. It was you know, defiant. It was very partisan and it was very long. This is one of the most -- the longest joint addresses or State of the Union dresses, essentially, that's what this was last night, in modern history, coming in at around 99 minutes.

But there's a couple of moments that I really want to highlight here. And one is tariffs because look, the president seemed very dug in on the tariffs that just 12 hours, or not even 12 hours earlier that day, had been enacted on Canada and Mexico.

Now, despite what we've been hearing from some of his top advisers, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the president did not seem very eager to want to roll them back or try to have further negotiations to change those tariffs. But at one point as well, he also acknowledged that, look, there are going to be some disturbances. He told Americans, and particularly farmers, singling them out, saying, bear with me. He added that there was going to be an adjustment period for the economy.

And it comes as I know that yesterday the president, but also many of his advisers, were closely monitoring the stock market reaction to the tariffs. We know that over the past couple of days.

[07:05:00]

Now, we've really seen the stock market plummet on the news of that. So, interesting as we continue to look forward to that conversation between the president and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today.

But another moment I want to highlight as well is immigration. This is actually the topic that the president spent the most time on, about 9 minutes and 49 seconds. But one of the most interesting moments of that part was that he appealed directly to Congress. He essentially said, I am frustrated and I need more money. He talked about how he campaigned on mass deportations of undocumented migrants in this country, but really, even though his border crossings are down, the deportation levels under his administration are basically in line with what we saw under the Biden administration. He told Congress, I need money.

And this is really the crux of one of the biggest issues that the president faces, which is essentially he can sign executive orders every single day, but he needs Congress for the big things, including trying to get his tax cuts renewed and also on immigration.

Then finally, I just want to quickly touch on Ukraine, because this was a moment that I knew his advisers knew is going to be one of the closest, most closely watched moments of the evening. And he didn't make a huge announcement on Ukraine, but he did strike a more conciliatory tone toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He essentially said that he appreciated a letter that the Ukrainian President had sent him saying he was ready to move forward on that very important minerals deal. And he said, I just got it a little while ago, you know, essentially signaling that a deal could be coming on that in the coming days. So, all of that kind of signaling where the president's focus is, Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Alayna Treene, live for us from the White House there this morning. John?

BERMAN: All right. Let's get right to elsewhere in Washington to find out how Democrats are feeling this morning about all this. CNN's Lauren Fox, not far from Capitol Hill this morning. What are you hearing, Lauren?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Obviously this was a real low point in terms of congressional relationships on the floor of the House. Traditionally, this is really an opportunity for both sides to express some concerns about a president's message when they are addressing a joint session of Congress, but it doesn't always devolve in the way that we saw last night. I mean, a member, a Democratic member, Representative Al Green, was removed from the chamber during the first minutes of this speech because he continued to jeer at the president. And despite the fact that he was warned by the speaker of the House to return the House to order, he continued to stand.

And I think that that's going to be a real moment to watch here because there could be repercussions for him. You heard yesterday from some Republicans in leadership that they potentially could look at censuring him because of this action. Here's what Republicans were saying about some of those actions by Democrats yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even me. We thought it was a new standard for vitriol.

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): Well, you saw a lot of disgraceful displays by the Democrats from Al Green yelling and knowing in clear violation of the House rules that he was trying to interrupt a speech that we were not going to let happen.

He knows what he did was a clear violation of the House rules and it shouldn't happen and it's going to be dealt with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And the president went after Democrats as well during his speech, targeting them. He called Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas at one point. And there's obviously a lot of concern among Democrats about the president's message last night. They were really distracted, though, from the fact that they were upset with his message as many of them just walked out of this speech last night, many of them, despite urging from their leadership, held out signs, expressing discontent.

So, this was really a moment where I wonder what the impact is going to be moving forward. Lawmakers are going to have to come together to fund the government in just a matter of days. John?

BERMAN: Good luck with that. Lauren Fox for us in Washington, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, meeting in the middle, President Trump is expected to speak with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today. Could this mean the president's ready to roll back on the trade war that he just ignited? We'll find out.

And a holy day of prayer without the pope, a new update on the pontiff's health as Catholics around the world observe Ash Wednesday.

And talk about a rental car nightmare, how three tourists wound up facing police with their guns drawn all over a reported stolen rental car.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: Welcome to trade war day two, I guess, and it could change yet again. President Trump is expected to speak with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau today, and that's just one day after the two leaders launched into a tit for tat tariff war and just also after the commerce secretary suggested that Trump could be ready to meet Canada and Mexico in the middle.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining me now. So what could happen today, Matt?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Kate, listen, we saw that Canada and China wasting no time firing back. And so that means that in this retaliatory tit for tat, you're going to have American workers, investors, farmers, all kind of caught in the middle, right? And that's by design. It's supposed to be painful.

So, say you're an orange juice farmer or you work for a company that makes motorcycles, your products just got less competitive in Canada because Canada firing back with a 25 percent retaliatory tariff on $21 billion of goods, including, yes, motorcycles and orange juice, as well as beer and footwear and spirits and wine.

[07:15:09]

And also $86 billion of goods face a tariff in the coming weeks, including food, vegetables, cheese, footwear, guns and ammo. And non- retaliatory tariffs, non-retaliatory -- non-tariff retaliation in the works as well, because we heard from Doug Ford, he is the premier of Ontario. He ordered the liquor stores in Ontario to pull American booze off the shelves.

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE) and this was coming.

EGAN: He did. He did. And so that means if you work for, I don't know, Tito's or Budweiser or Jack Daniels, again, that's going to be painful for the workers and the investors and the executives in those companies.

And then there's also China firing back immediately. They're putting a 15 percent tariff on various U.S. agriculture, including chicken, wheat, corn, cotton, 10 percent on pork, beef, fruit, and dairy. They're also halting imports of U.S. lumber. We're waiting to hear what Mexico is going to do. We should hear from them this weekend, but they've got a lot at stake here, too, because these tariffs could plunge the Mexican economy into recession.

I thought JPMorgan's David Kelly, he had the best quote of the week, summing up the skepticism on Wall Street about tariffs. He says, the trouble with tariffs is that they raise prices, slow economic growth, cut profits, increase unemployment, worsen inequality, diminish productivity, and increase global tensions. He said, other than that, they're fine.

Now, Kate, the good news, I think, is what you were talking --

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE) to take a breath halfway through that. That's just exactly how he feels about it.

EGAN: Yes, the good news. Maybe is what Howard Lutnick said yesterday afternoon. He was sort of hinting at maybe some sort of a compromise. Let's take a listen to what Lutnick said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: It's not going to be a pause. None of that pause stuff, but I think he's going to figure out you do more and I'll meet you in the middle some way and we're going to probably be announcing that tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Okay. Now, he said, maybe announcing that, I think that the president said --

BOLDUAN: There's a lot weighing on that maybe is what --

EGAN: There is a lot.

BOLDUAN: There's a lot that goes into this phone call with Justin Trudeau, is that this is where this could all be playing out.

EGAN: Yes, absolutely. And, look, the market is not really buying what Lutnick had to say yesterday. The market is believing more what President Trump was saying about how tariffs or maybe just beginning. We see Dow Futures are only up 100 points, the S&P 500 only up 0.4 percent. This is a very tiny rebound after what we've seen the last few days because the Dow plunged 1,300 points combined on Monday and Tuesday, the S&P 500 has given back all of the post-election gains. Look at this. We're back to Election Day right now.

I think the message from the market, Kate, I think is pretty clear, right, that tariffs are dangerous and they're particularly dangerous right now because inflation is already a problem. Everyone's very sensitive to higher prices. The Federal Reserve is worried about inflation. And, listen, the economy is already slowing down. It's hard to see. So, I think it's going to be interesting to see how waging a trade war with your three biggest trading partners is going to help any of that.

BOLDUAN: Yes. So, if as President Trump and his tariff team, economic team, want to argue that this is good for the American worker and the American people, they've got a lot of work to do to convince people of that.

EGAN: Yes. I don't think the market's believing that.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Matt. Let's see what happens in the coming hours. Sara?

SIDNER: You know who doesn't have any work to do?

BOLDUAN: Who?

SIDNER: LeBron James.

BOLDUAN: No kidding.

SIDNER: He did all the work. Like he's done the work.

BOLDUAN: Work has been done.

SIDNER: He added another milestone to his illustrious resume doing something no other player has ever done in the history of the NBA.

And Donald Trump hits eggs prices blaming Joe Biden. No surprise there. The truth, it's bird flu that has set prices soaring. But regardless of what has sparked grocery inflation, do Republican thinks Donald Trump is doing enough to fix the problem? That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: I'm super blessed to be able to, you know, put that many points up in the best league in the world with the best players in the world over my career. So, it's pretty special.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, LeBron James doing something no NBA player has done before and maybe won't ever again. He's now the first player in NBA history to score 50,000 combined regular season in playoffs over his career.

CNN's Coy Wire, who was six years old when LeBron James scored his first point, actually, you may not even be that old, is here with us this morning. Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: What's up, John? Yes, you mentioned something. Will anyone ever catch him? Kareem Abdul Jabbar is second on the all time list, nearly 6,000 points behind LeBron. He needed just one of them to reach this iconic mark last night. He put up 34 in a blowout win over the Pelicans. His Lakers have been rolling. Here's the moment, the assist from his new wingman, Luka Doncic, three pointer, money.

We're witnessing one of the greatest athletes of all time continue to shine. He is not slowing down, John. He was just named Western Conference Player of the Month at 40 years old. Averaging nearly 30 a game, this milestone sparking further debate about whether he is indeed the greatest hooper of all time. Some might say, ah, he just shoots it all the time. He's a ball hog. He's fourth on the all-time list for most career assists as well.

Here's his teammate Luka, in awe of what he's watching after a 136-115 win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUKA DONCIC, LOS ANGELES LAKERS GUARD: Watching him do this stuff at this age, it's just unbelievable, like 50,000 points. It's -- I can't even explain how insane that is. And he might get to 70,000. You never know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. Let's go Hoop College now. Madness in March before the official March Madness, number 22 Texas A&M taking down the number one team in the nation, Auburn.

[07:25:06]

The Aggies dominated, didn't trail once. It's their first win ever against a top ranked team. Check out Coach Buzz Williams. Don't you dare rush to court. Don't you do it. It's a $100,000 fine here in the SEC. Well, one of his stars, Solomon Washington, had something to say to the fans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON WASHINGTON, TEXAS A&M FORWARD: What do cameras say? What do cameras say? You want it done. You want it done. You want it done. It got done. It's done (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, history in the NHL. San Jose Sharks' Mark Edward Vlasic blocked a shot with his skate with a 6-1 over the Sabers, breaking the NHL record for most block shots in a career. This one's harmless, John, off the skate. But this dude's taking high speed shots, laying his body on the line. Now, 2,165 times afterwards, his teammates had a bulletproof vest waiting for him in the locker room.

More NHL action tonight on our sister channel TNT streaming on MAX, Capitals-Rangers at 7:30 Eastern, Maple Leafs and Vegas at 10:00. We can watch Alex Ovechkin, John, chase history, just 11 goals shy of breaking when Wayne Gretzky's NHL all-time goal record. He has 21 games left to do it. That's one of the most impressive marks in all of sports and we just may see this season someone take it down.

BERMAN: I think LeBron James and Ovechkin should do like a buddy film together or sing a duet in honor of these records.

All right, Coy Wire, great to see you. Thank you very much.

WIRE: You too.

BERMAN: Kate?

BOLDUAN: Is it settled in the NBA who the GOAT is?

BERMAN: It's Michael Jordan. It's been settled for a long time.

BOLDUAN: But now -- but LeBron has apparently now passed how many points Michael Jordan ever scored.

BERMAN: It doesn't matter.

BOLDUAN: I feel like I should not be courageous enough to even weigh in on this because I'm just going to -- it's going to be dangerous.

Anyway, coming up, the CDC is now on the ground in West Texas as the measles outbreak there continues to get worse. We have an update for you.

And there are new details also on the capture of a terror suspect wanted in the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:30:00]