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Trump's Sweeping 25 Percent Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum Imports in Effect; U.S. Inflation Slows in February for First Time in Four Months; European Union, Canada Slap Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Goods; JPMorgan Says There is a 40 percent Chance of Recession This Year Due to Extreme Policies. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 12, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:55]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Ready to sit down. Canada's incoming Prime Minister says he's ready to meet with President Trump to talk tariffs, but also says he wants Trump to start respecting his country's sovereignty. This as both countries impose new hefty tariffs on each other.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Plus waiting on the details. The Kremlin says it wants more information before commenting on the proposed Ukraine ceasefire deal. Trump says the ball is now in Russia's court. We're going to take you live to Moscow for a full report.

And one step closer, a SpaceX rocket expected to launch soon, clearing the way for two NASA astronauts to finally return home after their week-long mission turned into a 10-month stay aboard the International Space Station. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

KEILAR: New tariffs are now in effect on all steel and aluminum coming into the United States as President Trump escalates his trade war to a move that threatens to drive up prices for Americans on a wide range of goods from cars to appliances. But it comes as we're finally seeing stubborn inflation slowing down a bit and there are concerns that Trump's sweeping policy could undo that progress. Already we're seeing swift retaliation, the European Union slapping duties of its own on billions of dollars worth of American products and Canada firing back with a 25 percent levy that targets items from computers to sports equipment.

All of this chaos and confusion rattling Wall Street, fueling fears of a possible recession with economists at JPMorgan Chase saying they believe there is a roughly 40 percent chance now of an economic downturn this year. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is live for us now at the White House. Jeff, give us the very latest.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, there's no doubt that the soundtrack of this administration, at least for the last week or so of the White House, has been the falling markets. It's really been accompanying the president's ongoing decisions, off again, on again on the tariffs he's imposing on Canada, on Mexico, on China, and of course, coming up more on European allies. And that really was the basis of the backdrop of the conversation that the president had just a short time ago with the Prime Minister of Ireland who is here at the White House.

He's visiting Washington for a ceremonial visit, marking St. Patrick's Day. It's always one to underscore the relations, but certainly these new tensions with the E.U., these new trading tensions, imposing tariffs on very American things like Kentucky Bourbon and motorcycles made in Wisconsin. Harley-Davidsons are coming front and center here, but the president was defensive about all of his decisions and the uncertainty that has roiled to markets.

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TRUMP: Let me just tell you the inconsistency. I have the right -- I have the right to adjust. And I would call -- I was called by the automakers, as an example, General Motors, Ford, et cetera., the big three, the big four.

[14:05:00]

And they asked me to do them a favor. Could I delay it for a period of four weeks, so that they're not driven into a little bit of a disaster for them? They actually love what I'm doing, but they had a problem and I didn't -- I'm not like a block that just, I won't delay it. I have -- it's called flexibility. It's not called inconsistency, it's called flexibility.

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ZELENY: But that flexibility also is seen by many as uncertainty, which has led to confusion in the markets in terms of business leaders trying to plan for the future. So Brianna, the bottom line here is the market is still watching very carefully what this administration is doing, perhaps seeing a shorter game than the long game that he is talking about here. But he defended his moves as flexibility and said as president that's what he can do and what he plans to do. Brianna?

KEILAR: Whatever the game, they're still trying to figure out how to play it, and that is the challenge. Jeff Zeleny live for us at the White House, thank you. Boris?

SANCHEZ: As President Trump ramps up his trade war, brand new CNN polling out today is giving us a clearer picture of what Americans think about his performance on the job so far. CNN Washington Bureau Chief and Political Director David Chalian joins us now to break down those numbers. David, what do they say?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, the President's overall approval number stands at 45 percent in our brand new poll conducted by SSRS, Boris, 54 percent disapproved. He's clearly underwater. He's upside down here with the American people. That's actually a familiar position for Donald Trump to be, and he's a polarizing figure, we know. In fact, that 45 percent approval number, that was his high watermark that he hit twice in his first term.

Early on, this point eight years ago, and then, shortly after COVID hit, he hit that number. He left at a low of 34 percent. So he stands at 45 percent right now. It's not where any president would want to be. And in fact, when you stack him up against his modern era predecessors, the 45 percent and the 45 percent eight years ago and now that he's at, that's the lowest. Everyone else was above 50 percent at this point, at the start of a term. And where he stands on issues overall, there is some bright spots here for Donald Trump. 51 percent, a slim majority of Americans approve of the job he's doing on immigration.

We know how central that is to his political identity. He splits about evenly with the public on managing the federal government and the federal budget. But again, Boris, it is this number here. This 44 percent approval on the economy, issue number one that's worth looking at deeper, 44 percent approval, 56 percent disapproval. That is minus 12 percent. Look what a strong issue the economy was for him in his first term. Only back here did he have disapproval higher than approval, but it was far more narrow than it is here. This is a warning sign for Donald Trump.

SANCHEZ: Notably on those approval numbers by issue: Tariffs, sub 40 percent. How do Americans feel about this trade work?

CHALIAN: Well, you note that number there, that's the 39 percent approval. I'm looking at this 61 percent, more than six in 10 Americans in this poll disapprove of how he's handling tariffs, his worst issue that we've tested to date. And then I just think there are two other interesting things that the White House is no doubt aware of. This Donald Trump would say 86 percent of Americans think he's busting the norms. He is approaching his use of presidential power totally differently than his predecessors. He likes that.

But warning sign in here, 49 percent of Americans think his different use of presidential power is a bad thing, more than say it's a good thing. And this is probably what will keep folks up in the White House more than any stat we have in our poll. 57 percent, nearly six in 10 Americans say Trump does not have the right priorities. Only 43 percent say he is focused on the right priorities. And we know that the economy is issue number one far and away for Americans, and he's not scoring well on it

SANCHEZ: As we just heard him say, he's not a block. So we'll see if these numbers perhaps make him more flexible than he already is. Brianna?

KEILAR: Happening now, the Trump Administration is gutting the Department of Education. We heard the president last hour praising Education Secretary Linda McMahon for slashing jobs. She's firing more than 1,300 people. Hundreds of others accepted separation packages. And more than 60 probationary workers were let go weeks ago. That is nearly half of the workforce gone as President Trump seeks to shut down the agency altogether.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is with us now with details on what's happening here. And Sunlen, Trump promised on the campaign trail he would do this. How is he doing it?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this certainly, Brianna, is indicative of that this is the first step of potentially many that will hit the Department of Education. And the numbers here are significant and worth repeating. 1,300 workers at the department, that's 50 percent, nearly 50 percent of their workforce that was let go starting yesterday and into today.

[14:10:00]

Many regional offices completely shut down with the entire staffs laid off in Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, San Francisco, New York, and many other cities. And I heard from many employees that are still at the Department of Education, employed there today and expressing real concern about their ability to carry on the mission of the agency given these dramatic staff reduction, concerned about carrying on their usual day-to-day activities.

And in essence, that is part of the point here. As you referenced, President Trump has been very clear that he -- his goal is to dismantle the Department of Education. He has tasked the new Education Secretary Linda McMahon with that. And she called this just one step in that ultimate goal of, in her words, cutting the bureaucratic bloat there that exists at the agency. And here is President Trump just a short while ago in the Oval Office.

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TRUMP: I feel very badly and -- but many of them don't work at all. Many of them never showed up to work. Many of them -- many of them never showed up to work, Kelly (ph). And unfortunately, and that's not good. And when we cut, you know, we go and that's what I had a number of meetings with a lot of people over the last couple of months. When we cut, we want to cut, but we want to cut the people that aren't working or do -- not doing a good job. We're keeping the best people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Now these cuts come as President Trump himself has been considering an executive order to begin the process to eliminate the Department of Education. CNN obtained a draft order that was written last week, and it never was released. McMahon, the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, she has acknowledged that eliminating the Department of Education would require Congress to do so. But she has said that they'll be working with Congress and other federal departments to start that process, to start the next step. So it's very clear here, Brianna, these layoffs are just the first step of many other potentially more significant changes to come to the department.

KEILAR: All right, Sunlen Serfaty, thank you for the report. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Joining us now to discuss is Republican Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. Can you confirm that these cuts at the federal level are not going to represent fewer resources for students, teachers, teachers' salaries, after-school programs in your home state of Ohio?

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON, (R-OH): Yeah. Thanks for having me on. And I think it's important for people to know, we just in House yesterday passed a Continuing Resolution, and so the appropriation to the department is still the same. And in theory, when you have less overhead, you should have more to go to the cause of education. And I think that's the direction the administration is going to do. Department of Government Efficiency, we want to support the mission, not necessarily the workforce.

SANCHEZ: More broadly speaking though, as there is this effort to repurpose the Department of ,Education to have more of those resources move to the state level, can you confirm, for example, that the 800,000 kids that depend on Title 1, this grant program that helps lower income families, can you confirm that they're not going to see the resources affected?

DAVIDSON: Well, right now, when you look at the Department of Education funding, a lot of it does go to block grants. I think directionally, you want to see more money going directly to the states and the states have more discretion. You want fewer decisions made in Washington, D.C. and fewer strings attached to the Washington, D.C. money. I mean, I remember last Congress, we voted on whether kids should have chocolate milk at school. I don't think we need a national milk policy. We don't need a national lunch menu. I don't think Ohio needs a state lunch menu, frankly, across any of our counties. I think the lunch lady at your given school is fine. We don't need a countywide policy. And I think that's the direction, on school and education in particular, people feel like local control really does work.

SANCHEZ: But you don't feel like any resources are going to be cut? You really confident they're not?

DAVIDSON: Right now, the plan is that the federal money would go to the states, and we could do that frankly, without even a Department of Education. And that's kind of the tension now, is do we need a leaner meaner Department of Education, laser focused on improving the results? That hasn't worked. That was the theory when Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education. But the reality is the results have been worse. We spend more and get worse results. Now we want to say, what is it going to take to get better results?

SANCHEZ: You mentioned DOGE and we've spoken about DOGE before. I do wonder if you have any ethical concerns about the president essentially hosting this Tesla showroom outside of the White House as Elon Musk has direct business that is overseen by some of the agencies that are supposed to hold DOGE, or rather Tesla and other of his businesses accountable.

DAVIDSON: Yeah, I mean, look, you know, presidents have always highlighted products. I mean, President Trump highlighted Harley- Davidson motorcycles in his other term. Joe Biden had Jeeps and Fords. They all go out and do this.

[14:15:00] And one of the thing is this is a made in America product, and you know, I think it's important for -- I would think that the left would be excited Donald Trump is embracing the greenest vehicle made in America is a Tesla. So, instead of that, there's all this, oh, but it's Musk and it's panic. Oh, it's Musk and it must be bad.

SANCHEZ: Well, it's not necessarily panic to ask about the ethical consideration that somebody who, for example, is gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which oversees the loans that Tesla gives out, is now promoting his vehicles. And there's this talk of expanding X, the formerly called Twitter, this platform to allow for payments between consumers, something that would've been overseen by the federal government. You don't feel uncomfortable having the guy that's making these decisions about cuts to those agencies at the White House showing off his vehicles?

DAVIDSON: You know, you know, what I feel proud about is you have a guy who came to America, became an American citizen, has been phenomenally successful in America in a way that he could have never done in any other place in the world. And he's willing to risk, literally what has he lost, like a $100 billion of net worth. So the narrative is somehow he's going to benefit himself? He's lost like a $100 billion of net worth because he decided to be public, support Republicans, Donald Trump in particular, and then take his particular talent and put it to work for the American people.

And I'll tell you, when I go back home, I was just home this weekend in Ohio. We had a farm forum, talked to hundreds of farmers and ag people, and frankly, some others that just came out because they knew we were having a public event. And they were all excited about ways to save money, even people that are critical, like CNN has been of Elon Musk. But they're saying, you know, we are spending money on things that we don't agree with.

SANCHEZ: To be fair --

DAVIDSON: And it's great that they're finally highlighting it.

SANCHEZ: To be fair, Congressman, we are critical and question any view of ethical violations or stuff that looks murky. And it feels weird to have somebody who has business with the federal government making decisions at the federal level about agencies that oversee his business. Nevertheless, there are other things that --

DAVIDSON: He's not making decisions on awards of who buys what cars and agencies.

SANCHEZ: No.

DAVIDSON: Or anything like that.

SANCHEZ: But for example --

DAVIDSON: And he's also said, I don't want the subsidies. And he's also said, I don't --

SANCHEZ: The question --

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DAVIDSON: You don't need to build charging stations, we'll build our own.

SANCHEZ: There are questions about his businesses when it comes to the Pentagon, with Starlink and that sort of thing. Nevertheless, I take your point. You're not concerned about conflicts of interest. That was my question. I do want to ask you about the stopgap funding bill. You typically don't support them. You told CNN that you received a call from President Trump who asked you to lend your support to that. And you ultimately did in part because you plan to implement rescissions that would formalize DOGE cuts into law.

I do wonder if you got feedback from President Trump on that, if you got any assurances or guarantees from Speaker Johnson that they would follow through on that?

DAVIDSON: Well, you go back a couple weeks ago, we voted on a plan called a Budget Reconciliation Resolution, and it really is a plan to save money. It instructs the committees in Congress, find ways to save money. And that barely passed. I was one of the last people to vote for that. And one of the commitments I wanted for is, is there a way to save some money in this upcoming March 14th deadline? And so I met with Russ Vought, I talked to Russ Vought, he's the Director of Office of Management and Budget, and he kind of laid out the strategy that they're working on.

So since then, in the past week, I met with Russ Vought, President Trump, and Elon Musk, all last week, in small groups, not just one-on- one meetings, meeting in the Oval Office. And they really laid out some of the things that they have a vision for what they're trying to do. And frankly, some of the things that are being litigated right now, you see basically the left's ongoing lawfare where they want to sue, they built a whole, Marc Elias leads a team to engage in lawfare in this administration. So they already had a plan to sue on every front possible.

And I think it's important for them to test the boundaries and say, what is the limit of authority for DOGE? We provided a little more clarity for that in the Continuing Resolution, so that you can do things like, it worked with Marco Rubio. It really is the secretary's authority. They identified things that USAID was spending that weren't good. And they restructured USAID, the appropriation is to the State Department, not specifically to USAID.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

DAVIDSON: And there, it's the maximum discretion for the president. As you look down on some of the other programs that are Congressionally structured or funded, you have different lines. And what the administration really wants to do is work through that process. And as they've tested it and look at it, they want to come back to Congress with FY '26 appropriations. And then they also want to litigate on some of the things. And then when we get through with all that, and they've identified the savings, for example, they're not going to send money to Guatemala for sex change operations this year, like the Biden Administration did.

So that money isn't going to get returned to the Treasury right away, but it also isn't going to get spent. And so, same with Lee Zeldin. A lot of the things in the EPA --

SANCHEZ: Sure.

DAVIDSON: -- deal, he's highlighted all kinds of things that, you know, the Biden Administration was panicking, saying we got to get $20 billion worth of gold bars off the Titanic. He's reclaiming some of those.

[14:20:00]

You've got money that was handed out very hastily, with very little oversight, to people like Stacey Abrams and no experience in this and say, what are we doing with this money? And the review is going to take place. And if it makes sense, then the government will try to do it. If not, it'll make a rescissions package.

SANCHEZ: I have one last question for you, Congressman, specifically on foreign policy. If Russia doesn't sign on to this ceasefire proposal, how should the administration respond?

DAVIDSON: Well, look, the United States has been clear with President Trump in a way that Joe Biden never was. Joe Biden said, as much as it takes, as long as it takes, and he never defined a number, it will spend as much as it takes. That's somewhat clear. But he never defined as much as it takes to do what? And you had State Departments saying everything from, you know, regime change in Russia and war crimes tribunals for Vladimir Putin to no Russians in any part of Ukraine, including Crimea, to just to reach a peace deal. And it kind of depended on which situation they were in.

Donald Trump has been very clear, our mission is peace. We want to find a way to restore peace. And so, I think he's going to continue to find paths to achieve that.

SANCHEZ: If Russia doesn't accept, how should the administration respond?

DAVIDSON: I think he'll continue to work with Russia to get them to accept. Just a couple weeks ago, Zelenskyy wasn't ready for peace and the administration worked to engage Zelenskyy and now, he's ready for peace.

SANCHEZ: I believe Zelenskyy would refute that. But nevertheless --

DAVIDSON: If he's not, then there's no point (ph) talking at all.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Warren Davidson, thank you so much for joining us. Great to see you in person.

DAVIDSON: Thank you. SANCHEZ: Still plenty more news to come on "News Central." President Trump says it's up to Russia now, after Ukraine accepted the proposed ceasefire deal. But for now, the Kremlin says it still wants more details. Plus, these two astronauts on the International Space Station, they've been stuck up there way longer than expected. They're one step closer to returning home after today. And the invasive Indo- Pacific Lionfish doing major damage to delicate coral reefs in the Caribbean. What conservationists and chefs are cooking up to deal with the problem? Stay with us. We're back in just moments.

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[14:26: 18]

KEILAR: Today, all eyes on Russia as Moscow considers a ceasefire proposal just 24 hours after Ukraine accepted the U.S. plan. This is a proposal that calls for a 30-day truce, which includes a pause in the fighting across what President Zelenskyy says is the entire frontline. But it all depends on whether or not Russia will agree to this plan. President Trump telling reporters in the Oval Office, the U.S. will get an answer soon.

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TRUMP: I haven't -- we haven't spoken to him yet with substance because we just found out and we just were able to get Ukraine to agree. So, we're going to know very soon. I've gotten some positive messages, but a positive message means nothing.

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KEILAR: With us now is the Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer. He now works with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Ambassador, how are you expecting this to play out with Russia's response once they are briefed by American officials? They do appear to be taking their time until that key step.

STEVEN PIFER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Yeah, I think Moscow is -- it's taking its time because they're trying to figure out how they want to answer. I don't think they want to say no, they don't want to do an outright rejection because Vladimir Putin wants to cultivate a relationship with President Trump because Putin believes that he can manipulate the American president. So, I think we're going to get not a no, but we'll get a yes but, and they're now figuring out what kind of conditions that they want to attach and that could in fact make the answer quite difficult.

KEILAR: OK. So the conditions, what could the 'but' be in that 'yes but', and how do you see him trying to manipulate Trump?

PIFER: Well, I think Putin's ultimate goal really is to get to a meeting where he can get one-on-one with the president. Remember, Putin is a KGB officer. They learned how to manipulate people. And I think we saw in 2018 when Trump and Putin met in Helsinki and following that meeting, President Trump came out and basically sided with Putin over the conclusions of the American intelligence community.

So, I think Putin is thinking about what additional demands he wants to make to achieve other goals. And they could be quite broad and quite sweeping.

KEILAR: So if Russia comes with their yes but, and it does seem difficult to see how they could just come out of the gate with a no. So if there is a yes and then somehow they kind of cloud the situation, which would -- with whatever proceeds during a ceasefire as they try to move to a second phase, how are you watching for Trump's reaction to that?

PIFER: Yeah, I think that's going to be very important because there'll be, I think, a requirement for some time to parse whatever conditions the Russians attach. So for example, Putin has regularly said that any kind of a ceasefire or settlement has to address what he calls the root causes. And the root causes he says are really things like NATO enlargement. Now, I don't believe for a minute that the Russians launched this war because of NATO enlargement, but they use that as a pretext.

And if you go back and look at in December of 2021, what Putin was asking for was things totally disconnected from Ukraine, but asking NATO to withdraw any military infrastructure that was put in place on countries that had joined the alliance after 1999, just have that all go back to 1997. That's simply not in the cards, but that's kind of the grandeur plan I think that Putin has.

KEILAR: So Ambassador, when you see President Zelenskyy saying he's expecting to see the U.S. take strong steps against Russia if they don't agree to a ceasefire --