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Trump: Trudeau Call Ended in "Somewhat" Friendly Manner; White House Delays Auto Tariffs on Mexico & Canada for One Month; Stocks Rebound After Two-Day Hit Triggered by Trade Fears; Musk Gives GOP Senators His Cell, Says He'll Collaborate More; Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) Discusses About President Trump's Speech to Congress; Dems Hold Up Protest Signs, Walk Out of Trump's Address; Shutdown Feared as Democrats Reject GOP Funding Strategy. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 05, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:43]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A temporary truce in the trade war after the big three automakers talked to President Trump. Cars and trucks get a one-month exception to the new tariffs, but the White House says those tariffs are only paused and they are still coming next month.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, Elon Musk back on Capitol Hill one day after getting a shout-out during President Trump's speech. He may get a different reception behind closed doors, though, as Republicans grow anxious about the impact of DOGE cuts on their constituents.

And fears for the future of American farmers. The men and women who grow the country's food worry that tariffs could hurt their bottom line, even costing them their farms.

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

KEILAR: New details in the trade battle between the U.S. and its biggest trading partners. The White House announcing a one-month exception for tariffs on cars imported from Mexico and Canada following a call between President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and after talks between the President and the big three automakers.

In a post on social media, Trump says Trudeau called to ask what could be done about the tariffs." The President claiming he told Trudeau he wasn't doing enough to stop fentanyl from crossing the border.

Important context here, though, Customs and Border Patrol shows just 0.2 percent of all fentanyl seized by U.S. authorities in 2024 came through Canada. It was less than 50 pounds. And since then, the amount seized has been shrinking. Less than half a pound found, seized at the northwest border in January.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny live outside the White House with more details. All right. Jeff, tell us about this exemption on autos. And considering these numbers, is it clear what the President actually wants from Canada when really the fentanyl is minuscule?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Brianna, that has been a central question through all of this. What can Canada do to really appeal to and perhaps appease Donald Trump on fentanyl and on immigration.

Now, we heard the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying yesterday when he directly addressed the President, really raising the question of is this about fentanyl at all. And last night in the President's address to Congress, he laid out several examples and several reasons for why he is imposing tariffs and fentanyl was not the only thing on the list.

So, look, the bottom line to all of this is the President issued that sweeping tariffs earlier in the week and now is only backing off of a reprieve on the three U.S. automakers. And that was from a series of phone calls. Even as the President was working on his speech yesterday, I'm told these three automakers, the CEO of these auto companies, called the President. He listened to them.

They said that they were at an unfair competitive advantage. So now, the President is putting in a one-month reprieve, explained by the White House Press Secretary.

KEILAR: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much. Boris.

ZELENY: And we may not have that sound there ...

[15:05:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: ... on any autos coming through USMCA, reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April 2nd. But at the request of the companies associated with USMCA, the President is giving them an exemption for one month so they are not at an economic disadvantage.

So, the three companies that he spoke to are Stellantis, Ford and General Motors. They requested the call. They made the ask. And the President is happy to do it. It's a one-month exemption.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So the one-month exemption there for these three automakers. And asked why only a month. The Press Secretary went on to say that in one month from now, on April 2nd, the President still plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on E.U. countries and others. So, then, all companies will be on a level playing field.

But again, it raises the question, is this going to, again, create a chaos in the markets? Asked about that and said the President did not make his decision based on the stock market alone, of course, but you can see what the markets have done since they've put this pause on. They've responded going upward, just like they went down on Monday when he imposed it in the first place. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, we're keeping an eye on it. It sure is something. You call for a soundbite, Jeff Zeleny. We're going to find it for you, even if it takes us a second.

ZELENY: Thank you.

KEILAR: Thank you for the report. Boris?

SANCHEZ: The stocks are rebounding today. As the White House said, it would make a one-month exception for autos in the escalating trade war. So, markets are mostly in the green in late trading today, a big relief after two days of heavy sell-offs. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is in New York tracking all of this.

Vanessa, what is driving investors today?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, the markets have been bouncing around all day, but they are very much up right now, and that is coming on the news that Jeff just talked about. The pause for U.S. automakers on these tariffs, that is significant for these companies that do so much business with Canada and Mexico. Look at the Dow now, almost crossing 600 points, nearly erasing losses from yesterday.

Also, the big three automakers, Stellantis, Ford, General Motors, they have been in the green for most of the day. And I believe they are remaining there right now, just taking a look there, all of them up. This is welcome news for the auto industry, who was very nervous about what these tariffs would mean for companies' bottom lines, and also for U.S. consumers, who are obviously buyers of all of these brands.

One estimate suggested that because of tariffs, it would cost $3,500 to $12,000 more to produce a vehicle. Now, this is just a pause, a 30- day pause. Obviously, these automakers would like to be exempt fully. Part of the reciprocal tariffs that are going to go into effect on April 2nd are putting tariffs on other countries that are importing foreign vehicles here into the U.S.

And part of what Donald Trump has been trying to do is incentivize these companies, Ford, Stellantis and General Motors to invest here in the United States, to stand up plants and factories here. But the reason that many of these automakers have shifted abroad is because it is cheaper to produce vehicles, and then it is cheaper for U.S. consumers.

I also just want to point out, coming later this week, Boris, is the jobs report. That is a key indicator for the U.S. economy. This will be the first complete jobs report under this Trump administration. Investors will be looking very closely at that report, what it says about the U.S. economy. No doubt President Trump and his administration will be watching very closely, but markets no doubt have been on a wild ride these past two to three days, and I think one could potentially predict that that is going to continue to happen as they respond very quickly to news, and the news has been very quick, changing at every moment, and markets have responded accordingly. And there they are, up right now on this news, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much for that update. Brianna?

KEILAR: Happening now on Capitol Hill, Elon Musk just finished up a lunch meeting with Republican senators. Then, this evening he'll be meeting with the House Republican conference, which is all a response to growing complaints, a lot of them, that lawmakers are getting about how he has gone about laying off federal employees and slashing the budget without congressional input. CNN's Manu Raju is at the Capitol. We have CNN Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston here with us in studio.

Manu, tell us what you were hearing about the meeting with Musk.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I just talked to a number of senators who were at that closed-door meeting, and really the upshot is that they want more of a say in the process over how these cuts are being implemented. And there's now growing talk among Senate Republicans about putting together a legislative package to essentially codify the cuts that so far have been done administratively, and a lot of those cuts have been rejected by the courts.

[15:10:03]

Most notably just earlier today the Supreme Court halting this effort to essentially stop funding - provide any funding to the USAID program.

Now, there's some discussion about doing that through a process that would actually allow the Senate to adopt those cuts through a simple majority, meaning Republicans could do that on their own.

And I'm told that when those discussions would happen behind closed doors with Elon Musk, Musk was open to this idea. That is the - what senators said, including Senators Lindsey Graham and Ron Johnson, in the immediate aftermath of this meeting.

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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): We need a system where if you see something that you think is not what was intended, who do you call and how do you fix it. He said, when - I want to fix it quickly, is what he said. I want to keep the momentum.

But from a political point of view, we need to take the work product of DOGE and put it in a rescission package.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Elon is very up front, so they're moving fast, it's not going to be perfect, there will be mistakes made, but we'll correct those mistakes very quickly and setting up a process, so he can - and his team can be contacted quickly to reverse mistakes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And one of those processes is actually to provide members with a direct way to contact him. I am told that in this closed door meeting, that he actually gave out his cell phone numbers to the Republican senator in the room and really urging them to call him directly if those concerns - they want to raise any concerns, want to coordinate with them better, because that has been one of the major concerns among Republican senators and congressmen alike is that they don't - they're getting blindsided by some of these costs. They're learning about that through the news media. They're getting angry calls from their constituents and they want to have a better sense of how this is all being done and actually weigh in directly with him.

So Musk is indicating that he wants to try to collaborate more with Republicans and perhaps give them a vote in this process, too, that's something the White House, of course, would have to sign on to as well, but definitely some interesting developments here as Republicans feeling the heat back home over these cuts and trying to figure out how better to get involved in this process. Brianna.

KEILAR: And Mark - Manu, thank you so much for that. Mark, it's interesting because you talk to Republicans and they'll say, yes, you know, we support this. But the truth is they're the one who are getting - they're getting all the pressure on this. They're hearing from their constituents. And when we talk to them, we ask them, what are you hearing? They'll tell us, people are calling us, yes they are. They're definitely giving us an earful on this.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Well, you know, there's this old saying that says don't let your mouth write a check your tail can't cash. That basically says, don't go out there and over promise something that you're not going to be able to deliver in.

In politics, that's a very important saying. And guess what, Musk is out there doing that right now and the people who are going to have to deal with these checks being cashed by Musk are the same House members that are back home right now.

Last night, we saw Donald Trump say that DOGE has saved a couple of hundred billion dollars, I believe - found hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud - hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud. DOGE itself says it has found $105 billion in fraud.

Here's the deal, there is no evidence what these cuts are. There's no evidence of fraud. There's no evidence of waste.

Now, I'm not going to say that he's not going to find fraud or waste, it's the United States government, surely he will. But the reality of all this is, though, is he just thinks that he can get this through with these House Republicans and the House Republicans just can't deal with him doing it the way he's doing it.

KEILAR: You're writing checks your body can't cash. That's from Top Gun, the first one, just so you know. That quote, I think.

PRESTON: Yes, it's before Top Gun. Okay, come on. KEILAR: Okay. Now, I want to go with Top Gun on this one. Okay, so also, here's the other thing, you have the NRCC chair, Richard Hudson, telling Republicans yesterday to avoid in-person town halls.

PRESTON: Yes.

KEILAR: I want to read to you - I've been talking with a number of veterans who have been fired, and I spoke with one in Kansas, a reliable Republican voter, a Trump voter, fired veteran of the federal government, who said, these Skype calls, there's a lot of these senators and congressmen holding these town halls through conference calls. You have constituents who voted for you, and you can't look them in the eye, why not?

PRESTON: Well, you know, not only have they been told by the head of their campaign arm, the House Republicans, do not do these in-person town halls, because you're just going to turn it into a disaster. Do them all over the phone. Even the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, says the same thing.

So, imagine this, play this out. You have members of Congress making these incredible decisions, you know, at least backing these incredible decisions that are being made, but yet not being accountable to their constituents.

KEILAR: So, it's cutting them off, and at the same time, talking to this particular veteran, cannot get a response from the member's office. Is being very clear, I support President Trump, but this is happening to me, trying to talk to the constituent services in the office, cannot get a response.

[15:15:02]

The effect of not doing these town halls, yes, maybe they avoid a viral moment, but don't they also avoid trying to maybe right some wrongs from people who actually support them politically?

PRESTON: What's interesting too is that, you know, you're talking about veterans, and you're very well versed in the military community, you're from a military family. Will these become a very important subset of voters in the midterm elections? You know, we talk about soccer moms previously, you know, we go through and we make a subset of voters who are so important to that election.

Will it be veterans right now who have been supportive of President Trump, who don't like the way that he has handled what's going on at the Pentagon, he doesn't like what they're doing at the federal government, or perhaps in the case of the person, you know, they lost their job.

KEILAR: Yes. It's hard to see how you actually exempt all of them. They're such a big part of the federal workforce, you can't really cut it down without getting some of them.

Mark, thank you so much, really appreciate it. From handheld signs to color-coordinated outfits, to just walking out, to speaking out, we saw that moment, lawmakers with different ways to show their disapproval during the President's address, and hear what the White House is saying about unprecedented direct negotiations with Hamas, that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:20:44]

SANCHEZ: President Donald Trump's address to Congress last night drew rave reviews from Republicans, and not only criticism from Democrats, but also protests and interruptions. Despite calls from party leadership for restraint, some Democrats responded to Trump's fiery and often false rhetoric by holding up signs, walking out of the chamber, or in the case of Congressman Al Green of Texas, standing up to heckle the President until physically being escorted out of the chamber.

We want to discuss with a lawmaker who walked out on the speech, Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington State joins us now.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us.

I noted that you had high praise for Senator Slotkin's response, in which she said that amid this second Trump term, it's easy to get exhausted, but she called for citizens to stay engaged, saying, don't tune out. I wonder how you square that message to voters, don't tune out, with your decision to walk out during the speech.

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Well, I followed all of the speech, including after I left, but I can tell you that I went because I thought it was important for us as Democrats to reclaim the chamber where Donald Trump fueled an insurrection, where insurrectionists came in and took over that chamber where I was trapped in the gallery. I felt like it was important for me to be there and to listen to him. And I stayed for a good hour, which I think is a good amount of time to give a president to get his message across.

But unfortunately, what we heard was just lies, lies and more lies, more hatred, more divisiveness, and no plans at all for what he's going to do to lower costs for the American people. In fact, he said - he talked about tariffs, and he said that he was going to, you know, we should expect some hard times ahead. This is the same president who said on day one he was going to stop inflation, he was going to lower costs for the American people. None of that has come true.

So, I figured that by an hour I'd given the guy enough time to get his message across, and I couldn't listen to the lies anymore.

SANCHEZ: I have to tell you, Congresswoman, I was sitting beside a bipartisan focus group and asked the Democrats specifically how they felt about the protests and the demonstrations. Most of them were displeased. They saw it as a lack of decorum. That's a sentiment that's been echoed by several of your Democratic colleagues, especially in the Senate. Do you think that is the most effective way to show your dissatisfaction, to fight for voters? And I also wonder what your response is to senators who say that you took Trump's bait.

JAYAPAL: Well, I would just say that when you're talking about decorum, it can't be one-sided. Let us remember that the first act of decorum or lack of decorum that often gets raised in these contexts is a Republican, Joe Wilson, yelling, you lie, at President Barack Obama. But that has been followed over and over again. If you recall, Marjorie Taylor Greene heckling Joe Biden multiple times. I did not say a word during the speech, the President's speech last night. I had a sign that I held around when he lied, because I think it is important when a president has that kind of bully pulpit to be able to say to the American people, that is actually not true.

And unfortunately, there isn't much fact-checking that goes on, or if it goes on, it happens after the speech. And I thought it was important in real time for the American people to be able to see that we had a president up there who lied continuously. So, I felt like I kept my part of the bargain in terms of decorum. But I also feel like the President should be held to a standard of decorum.

Is it okay for the American people that the President of the United States can get up and just continually lie to the American people? I don't think it is. But that is what happened. And often it is in the context of fueling racism and xenophobia and divisiveness that is absolutely unhelpful to ensuring that we have overall decorum, but more importantly, that we have a democracy, which he is also destroying at this moment.

SANCHEZ: Congressman, I do want to ask you about what options Democrats have on Capitol Hill.

[15:25:02]

Speaker Johnson is going to need your party to avert a possible shutdown next Friday. Would you support shutting down the federal government as a way to extract concessions from Republicans?

JAYAPAL: Well, let me be clear. Speaker Johnson does not need any Democratic votes to avoid a shutdown in the House. It is a simple majority. If Speaker Johnson needs Democratic votes because he can't get the votes on his own side from the majority party, which he controls, then he should talk to us about what would get us to a bipartisan agreement.

If he does not want to talk to us, then he should assume that he needs to get the votes all on his side. To date, I don't believe that there has been a conversation with Democrats about what we need if we are going to assist. But again, he's got the majority. It's a simple majority in the House. He doesn't need our votes. We wouldn't be shutting down the government. He would be shutting down the government.

SANCHEZ: How do you think a majority of voters who just elected Republicans to both chambers would feel about Democrats if you voted against keeping the government funded? JAYAPAL: Well, once again, Republicans have control of the House, the Senate and the White House. So, I think the majority of voters put Republicans in charge, and I think they're looking to see whether Republicans can govern or not.

If you recall last year, when we did not have control of the House, but we did have control of the Senate and the White House, there were many times when Republicans could not govern and everything would have shut down because of Republicans' inability to govern. But because we shared government responsibility, we did come in and save them, even when they broke the deal that they made, which I think the majority of Americans believe if you make a deal, you should keep your word.

I think now we're in a situation where voters put Republicans into office in the House, the Senate and the White House. They have the responsibility to govern. Let's see if they can do it. If they can't, then they should understand it has to be a bipartisan agreement. We're not going to help them rip programs, and services and institutions like the Department of Education or independent agencies away just because they want to and expect us to vote for that. We're not going to vote to slash Medicaid, to slash Medicare, to slash Social Security, that's not going to happen.

SANCHEZ: Sure. One last question. On DOGE, you mentioned the remaking of the federal government, the sort of gutting of these federal agencies. Elon Musk had this lunch with Republican senators he's expected to brief House Republicans later tonight. Do you think Democrats should also be briefed by Elon Musk? Would you participate if he were to hold something like that for Democrats on Capitol Hill?

JAYAPAL: Well, I think that it is important that everyone in the Trump administration recognize that you have to brief Congress, and that includes both Democrats and Republicans. So sure, if he wants to come and brief people about what he's doing. Though I'm still not clear, they keep saying that he's not actually in control of DOGE, but then maybe he is in control of DOGE. Seems to me he's acting like a shadow president, so he's got a lot of authority and responsibility, and we deserve to know what is happening with taxpayer dollars and with congressionally appropriated funds.

But there are too many people. I'll just give up - bring up Mr. Marocco from USAID, who refuses to have a public hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where I sit, to brief us on exactly the unconstitutional actions that are being taken. But what he's planning to do with taxpayer money when Congress has actually appropriated and directed funds for a different reason.

SANCHEZ: Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, we'll have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate you sharing your point of view.

JAYAPAL: Thank you, Boris. Appreciate it.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Still ahead, new tariffs bringing new fears for America's farmers. How the escalating trade wars threaten their livelihoods. And what the White House is now revealing after reportedly holding secret talks with Hamas.

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