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Trump Administration Guts Climate Policies; Trump Threatens Tariffs on EU; Democrats to Block Funding Bill; Rubio in Canada for G- 7; Fact Checking Trump. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 13, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Bill Weir joining us now.

Walk us through what the Trump administration is planning on doing here, or has already said it is going to do, when you just were on our air yesterday talking about the temperatures being incredibly, dangerously high worldwide.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, highest, hottest ever. Twenty-seven separate billion dollar disasters last year in the U.S. alone. And of course, the ground level pollution affects asthma, heart disease, premature death, all of that. This administration is taking just that chainsaw to all of it.

The EPA is sort of a victim of its own success. Not a lot of people are old enough to remember when the smog was so thick around American cities you could taste the air, or rivers were starting on fire. The regulations to stop that pollution obviously worked. And now they say we don't need them anymore.

So, they're going after power plant regulations. We've got the list here. Oil and gas, wastewater regulations, coal ash, which is a huge problem. Of course, a lot of these pollutions are dumped in communities with no voices on the margins. Vehicle emissions, tailpipes. He's going after that. But then yesterday he was helping sell Teslas on the lawn of the White House. So, there's no coherent policy to any of this.

Coal fired power plant closures. Nobody's opening up new coal plants. It just doesn't make any sense anymore. It's dirty and too expensive. Sun and wind and storage (ph) is cheaper. The greenhouse gas reporting program. He's gutting environmental justice. They just dropped a case in Louisiana with this community, an elementary school right next to a petrochemical plant that was leaking possibly hazardous materials. They just dropped the case and said it was a blow against radical equity, inclusion and diversity policies from the previous administration.

So, a lot of this stuff has to go through courts. It has to go through Congress. A judge this week scoffed at the Trump administration holding back $20 billion in environmental grants and climate grants, saying you have to prove that there's waste and abuse. You can't just cut these programs. So, this could drag out, but it certainly sends a message to the rest

of the world that the U.S. is - is - is going absolutely backwards.

Meanwhile, China is leaning into electrification in ways that are staggering. Even the most bullish analysts there. So, it's clear now that China is going to own the post-carbon economy as a result of this administration. The question is, how many people get sick (INAUDIBLE) a comeback of pollution. (INAUDIBLE) being given carte blanche as promised - as Trump promised to oil executives before the election.

SIDNER: Yes.

Bill Weir, thank you so much. Really appreciate your reporting on all of this and throughout on the climate.

All right, a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, is this trade war about to spiral? I ask because moments ago President Trump issued a new threat to further escalate the trade war, now threatening a 200 percent tax on France's wine and champagne unless they pull back on their tariff on American whiskey.

And it is deadline day in Washington. Agencies across the federal government ordered by President Trump to give Elon Musk's DOGE team their plans for a new wave of layoffs and restructuring, and do so no later than today.

Here's a quote, the economy is weakening as we speak. That's a warning from the CEO of the world's largest asset manager about how President Trump's policies are paralyzing Americans and American business.

John is out this morning. I'm Kate Bolduan, with the one and only Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: Moments ago, a major escalation in President Trump's trade war. The president now firing back at the retaliation Europe took yesterday. Here is what he just posted. Quote, "the European Union has just put a nasty 50 percent tariff on whiskey. If this tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200 percent tariff on all wines, champagnes and alcoholic products coming out of France and other EU represented countries."

CNN's Alayna Treene with us right now.

We've got this message here. This is the president sort of jumping back at France, who, by the way, was hit with tariffs when he put huge tariffs on the EU this week. What are you hearing?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, look, Sara, this is actually, I mean, one, not totally unexpected given if you've listened to what the president has said repeatedly. He, really when I talked to Trump administration and White House officials, they essentially say that they believe that the president is right to put these tariffs on these different countries. And if they're going to retaliate with tariffs of their own, that he's going to punch back several times harder. And that is what we are seeing today with this announcement in this Truth Social post.

I just want to read a little bit for you. He said he would impose a 200 percent tariff on alcoholic beverages from the EU.

[09:05:01]

He said, "if this tariff is not removed immediately," that's the 50 percent tariff, excuse me, that they had the European government had put on the United States goods following the tariffs that Trump had initially placed on all steel and aluminum coming to the United States. He said, "if this tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200 percent tariff on all wines, champagnes and alcoholic products coming out of France and other EU represented countries." He went on to argue that this would be great for the wine and champagne business in the United States.

But look, I think this shows this approach that the president and his administration is taking shows just how quickly some of this tariff policy can get out of hand. We are really seeing this not only stop and go approach, but also this tit for tat retaliation back and forth with a lot of these different allies of the United States that are beginning to really not only obviously affect the markets, which we have seen on a downward spiral for the last couple of days now, but also the relationships that the United States had with these different trading partners.

Now, I do also want to point out, though, how Donald Trump sees this as a negotiating tactic. He made that very clear yesterday in the Oval Office. And part of that negotiation we are going to see continue today when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and the United States trade representative Jamison Green, is going to meet with some of Canada's top officials, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, look, Alayna, when you consider this, I - I've never thought I'd ever have to say this, but there might be a run on champagne because France is the only one that officially has the champagne as a name. Everything else is sparkling wine.

We will see what happens here. But this is what a trade war is. If you start and someone else responds, you're then in the middle of a big fight.

Alayna Treene, thank you so much for your reporting there from the White House for us.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, with a possible government shutdown looming off in the distance tomorrow, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says that he has the votes to block the Republican funding bill that passed the House earlier this week. But will Democrats actually do it in the Senate? Republicans need at least eight Democrats to vote with them to get this through. Democrats, right now, they want an even shorter stopgap of 30 days to allow for the normal appropriations process to take place, as it's called. It will also gives Democrats more leverage and more say in the Republican-controlled Congress. But House lawmakers have already left town.

So, what now? CNN's Lauren Fox joining me now from Capitol Hill.

And, Lauren, what are you picking up on this this morning?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Democrats are really still all over the map, Kate, when it comes to what they're ultimately going to decide. Are they going to decide to shut down the government and withhold their votes on a procedural vote that would essentially make them potentially responsible for this shutdown, or are they going to find a way to eventually get to yes so that they can at least allow this bill to move forward?

And this is a little bit complicated because there are some procedural steps that have to happen before you get to a final vote. So, Democrats would be needed for a procedural vote in which 60 votes is the requirement.

And you heard Chuck Schumer yesterday say that Democrats are united in voting against that. But there's a little bit of a loophole because some Democrats are calling for an amendment vote on a 30-day stopgap spending measure. It's not clear if they got that if some of them might be willing to vote yes on that first procedural vote. And that is really key here because that could potentially unlock a path forward for Democrats and Republicans to find a way to avert a shutdown.

Here's a couple of Democrats I talked to yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): So, we can - we can do better than the CR that the House guys did without including us, and we should. So, that's - that's my goal. I'm a no on this. we can do better, and we should.

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): We - we are trying to have conversations on this. And I think the American people should realize that the best path forward here is to do what we normally do, which is appropriations bills, which are sometimes we have to do a short term CR to get there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Now, ultimately, Democrats have a potential political issue on their hands because if they do shut down the government or if they withhold those votes, they could potentially be blamed. And typically the party that doesn't give the votes is the one that is dealing with a lot of the political fallout.

You also have to have a plan to get out of a shutdown because otherwise you have a prolonged scenario where government workers aren't getting paychecks. And ultimately, even if you're trying to make this about protecting government workers, you can really step on your own message there.

Kate. BOLDUAN: You say - you really put the context altogether very

perfectly on where things stand.

Lauren, thank you so much for your reporting.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, joining us now to discuss this further, politics reporter for "NOTUS," Jasmine Wright. Also with us this morning, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for "The New York Times," Zolan Kanno-Youngs.

Thank you so much, both of you, for being on.

I want to get straight to the breaking news, which is, Donald Trump is threatening even bigger tariffs on Europe because of the EU responding and France responding to the initial tariffs, saying that they're going to put a 50 percent tariff on U.S. alcohol.

[09:10:15]

Trump now saying he's going to put a 200 percent tariff on any of the alcoholic beverages coming from France.

I want to let you both listen to what we heard from Tommy Tuberville before he - Donald Trump made this new fight even stronger. Here's what he said about how Americans should be responding to the tariffs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): No pain, no gain. That's what we used to tell our football players. There's going to be some pain with tariffs. But tariffs got us back as the strongest economy in the world when President Trump was in the first time. He knows what he's doing. Democrats, get out of the way. Shut up. You have no answers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Zolan, what do you - what do you think about what you're hearing from Tommy Tuberville telling Democrats, look, you - get out of the way. You don't have any answers. And the - the - everyone else who is looking at these tariffs, when you look at the polling says, we don't like them.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, one of the more significant changes when it comes to the rhetoric of Republicans and allies of President Trump and Trump himself has been the remarks about consumer prices and almost the message to voters about what to expect in terms of the pain - the economic pain that they may feel.

There with Tuberville's remarks I also hear no pain, no gain. And there's something interesting there. It's almost like you're hearing Republicans continue to tell voters that there may actually - trying to almost hedge expectations on the economic frustrations that will come. We know that with this administration that the president has centered in many ways his foreign policy when it comes to the western hemisphere, as well as Europe, around tariff threats. We know that that's going to continue.

The thing to watch now moving forward is, how do voters respond, especially as the weeks go on and you may see most economists would say consumer prices would go up. As that frustration builds, will voters start to turn that frustration against the administration and against - and against the position of using these tariffs this frequently?

I think the thing that we have to watch in the weeks forward, as you continue to see these tariff threats, are not just the response by different nations, but also how voters respond, including in town halls, which we've seen in recent weeks.

SIDNER: Right. Those town halls, Jasmine, we have seen, for Republicans, where people have gotten extremely agitated with their representatives because of what DOGE was doing, which is stripping the government of its workforce, which was affecting local economies as well. But now we're in this situation where Democrats now sort of hold the cards in the Senate if they decide not to vote for this stopgap measure to keep the government open.

What are you reporting on as far as whether Democrats are in any danger of being blamed by the American people, even though Donald Trump has said, look, I have a mandate, I have a mandate, and the Republicans are both running the House and the Senate and in charge there?

JASMINE WRIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, "NOTUS": Yes, Sara. Well, I think, historically, we've seen that really both parties take a share of the blame at any moment when there is a shutdown. But I think Democrats are really in between a rock and a hard place. On one hand they really want to show their base that have been quite, you know, unimpressed, I think, with the way that they've been not able to push back on Donald Trump over these last 53 days, really trying to show them that they hear them and that they recognize that there needs to be more of a united front from Democrats to push back against the Trump agenda, but also really going against something that Democrats never liked to do, which is shut down the government and put federal workers in an even more difficult place than they have been in the last 52 days because of the actions of DOGE. And so, I think that they're really trying to work that out in real time.

I'm not sure how many of them are going back to their districts and talking to voters. And I'm not sure how many voters are telling them, we want you to shut the government down. But certainly those are the discussions happening right now on Capitol Hill.

But I think, just to Zolan's point, there has been an incredible shift in rhetoric from Republicans, not just on the economy, but certainly on what Americans should expect and the pain that they have to bear. We just know, just, you know, some two, three months ago we heard Donald Trump saying from the campaign trail that these issues, with the economy, that the feelings that people are having about their wallets being shorted (ph), them not being able to make payments or things like that, or just not feeling great about the economy, that those would be fixed on day one. And now we hear Tommy Tuberville, we hear the White House basically saying that they need a period of transition and that the American people should be more than willing to give that to them because of the gains that they will seek at the end of these kind of trade wars.

And I'm not sure that the American people are buying it, specifically when you look at some of the polling that's happened, including that CNN poll that came out just this week.

[09:15:05]

SIDNER: Yes, the CNN poll showing very clearly that Americans are pretty upset with the tariffs. They do not like them. And they're worried that the economy is not going to be better, but worse in a years' time.

Jasmine Wright and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, thank you both so much for coming on and discussing this. There's a lot more to discuss and I'm sure we'll have you back very soon.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Right now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Canada meeting with his Canadian counterpart today. What's happening behind the scenes at the G-7 Summit now as tariff tensions increase. We'll take you there live.

And labor unions are suing to keep DOGE away from sensitive Social Security information. What we are learning now from the first really extensive insider account to be made public of the chaos within one of the agencies targeted by Elon Musk's cuts.

And a wild video of a snowboarder outrunning an avalanche by just seconds.

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[09:20:05]

BOLDUAN: So, right now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Canada meeting with G-7 foreign ministers, as President Trump, as we know, continues this morning to fuel a global trade war with his sweeping tariffs. Just last hour, Rubio met with his Canadian counterpart, who has called out Trump's tariffs a - as a move to weaken the country in order to, quote/unquote, eventually annex Canada.

CNN's Alex Marquardt is in Canada for - following the secretary of state during his travels. He joins us now live.

What are you hearing from there, Alex?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, there is a lot of confusion. There is a lot of frustration. I think this talk about a U.S. led ceasefire for Ukraine is going to soften the landing for Secretary Rubio here because that, of course, has widespread support from the Canadians and from the Europeans. But at the same time, you have the U.S. now putting tariffs and

threatening more tariffs on a huge scale on both the Canadians and the Europeans. And that is really going to antagonize the meetings here. So, we'll be looking to see what extent the allies go after Rubio and attack him for that, and certainly ask what on earth the U.S. is doing right now.

And then on top of all that, Kate, Canada is hosting the G-7. And, of course, the Trump administration, President Trump himself has repeatedly talked about making Canada the 51st state in a way that has really, really angered top Canadian officials. The first meeting that Secretary Rubio had here this morning was with Canada's foreign minister, who is, of course, hosting this. And in just the past few days, she has talked about Trump's comments about Canada, both tariffs and the 51st state comments as being a fundamental threat to her country.

This is what she told our colleague Christiane Amanpour a few days ago. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIE JOLY, CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We want to make sure that we defend who we are as a country. And we've shown - we've been shown too much disrespect by the Trump administration at this point calling us a 51st state, calling our prime minister governor. This is not only a personal issue between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Trump. It's way more than that. It is much more than just the political rhetoric. It is a fundamental threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: And, Kate, we asked Secretary Rubio on his way here what he expected, what he wanted to talk about. And he told reporters that this is not going to be a meeting about how we, the U.S., are going to take over Canada. The fact that a U.S. secretary of state even has to say that, Kate, is just remarkable.

These G-7 summits, this is where the rubber meets the road. This kind of summit, the G-7, NATO, other groups, they have been at the backbone of U.S. foreign policy for decades. The allies here want to talk about strengthening the alliance. And at the same time, the U.S. is talking about putting tariffs on key members of this alliance. And, in fact, we've heard President Trump talk about welcoming Russia back into the G-7, which it was kicked out of more than a decade ago. So, Kate, this could be a very rocky G-7 foreign ministers meeting for Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So glad you're there to cover it all, Alex, thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, speaking of Canada, President Trump has said a lot of things about Canada recently. Some of his comments, just plain false.

CNN's Daniel Dale is joining us now with a fact check of the president's claims about Canada, which, as you just heard from Alex Marquardt, have angered our closest ally and neighbor in ways we've never really seen before.

Daniel, let's start with what Trump has said about Canada becoming the 51st state. This is his idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I called him Governor Trudeau because they should be the 51st state, really. It would make a great state. And the people of Canada like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Do they really?

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The Canadian people loathe this idea. It is wildly unpopular. One recent poll showed 85 percent opposition to 9 percent in favor. I've seen opposition as high as 90 percent. So, you can certainly find individual Canadians who support it. But the Canadian public writ large, absolutely not.

SIDNER: That is what I thought. Thank you for that fact take - check.

All right, Trump also claimed in a Truth Social post that - a couple of days ago that Canada is one of the, quote, as he put it, "highest tariffing nations in the world." True or false?

DALE: Also false. Canada, in terms of global comparisons, is a low tariff country. The World Bank published a list of 137 countries trade weighted average tariffs in 2022. Canada ranked 102nd from the top. So, not even close to the top. In fact, according to that data, Canada had a lower - lower average tariff than the United States. Canada was at 1.37 percent. The U.S. was at 1.49 percent. Canada was also lower in a simple average that didn't weight by volumes of trade.

[09:25:03]

So, it is true that, as President Trump repeatedly says, Canada has high dairy tariffs. But he doesn't mention two things, Sara. First of all, those are the exception, not the norm. Almost all U.S. agricultural trade with Canada gets to Canada tariff free and quota free, as the U.S. government acknowledges on the Department of Agriculture website. And, number two, he doesn't mention that those high dairy tariffs only kick in after the U.S. reaches a certain Trump negotiated quantity of tariff free dairy sales to Canada, and the U.S. is not currently even close to those quota limits. So, the tariffs aren't even actually being applied at the moment.

SIDNER: And the hits just keep on coming.

OK, finally there's this. Donald Trump saying Canada doesn't allow American banks to do business in Canada, but their banks flood the American market. What?

DALE: It is not true. U.S. banks have been operating in Canada for well over a century. More than a dozen are currently operating in Canada today. The Canadian Banking Association says it is 16. And those include well-known names, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, JP Morgan, Bank of America. They represent about half of all foreign bank assets in Canada.

Now, it is true that Canada has strict regulation over its banking sector, and some of those regulations have discouraged many foreign banks from opening retail branches in Canada. But, first of all, they're not prohibited from operating - from doing commercial corporate banking, investment banking. And, second of all, that's not a prohibition.

SIDNER: You got to wonder why in the heck he is saying all these things that just aren't true, but I know you cannot answer that question. Only he can answer that question. So, I will not put that on you this morning.

Daniel Dale, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on this Thursday.

All right, the economy is weakening as we speak. A warning from the CEO of BlackRock about how President Trump's tariffs and federal firings are paralyzing Americans and businesses.

And federal workers are not taking the DOGE job cuts without a fight. Details on a brand new lawsuit. That's ahead.

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