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Trump Takes Questions During Oval Office Swearing-In Ceremony; Trump: "I Think We're Making Progress On Ending War in Ukraine But There's A Lot of Ill Will Between The Parties"; Trump: "We're Going To Be Helping" After Deadly 7.7 Earthquake In Asia; Stocks Sink As New Report Shows Uptick In Core Inflation. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 28, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- interest deduction on their car if it's made in the United States. If it's made someplace else, that won't take place.

But car companies, as you know, are already expanding and building new plants. They've already started. And I think you're going to see numbers -- Howard, you're seeing it.

And, Scott, you're seeing it.

You're going to see numbers the likes of which you've never seen before.

Yes, please.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, the vice president is in Greenland right now. Do you have plans to expand U.S. military presence in Greenland?

TRUMP: We get along very well with Greenland. We get along very well with Denmark. We've always had a good -- Denmark does a lot of business in the United States.

We don't do so much there, but they do a lot of business in the United States. And I think they want to see -- I think everybody wants to see that work out.

We need Greenland very importantly for international security. We have to have Greenland. It's not a question of, do you think we can do without it? We can't.

If you look at Greenland right now, if you look at the waterways, you have Chinese and Russian ships all over the place. And we're not going to be able to do that. We're not relying on Denmark or anybody else to take care of that situation.

And we're not talking about peace for the United States. We're talking about world peace. We're talking about international security. And right now, you look at it, you have warships all over the place

going through right along Greenland. We're not going to let that happen. We cannot let that happen. Or if it's going to happen, we have to be protective of our country.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: And more important, really, protection not only of our country, of the world. So Greenland is very important. And modern-day weaponry makes Greenland -- 100 years ago less so.

But also --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- to visit Greenland?

TRUMP: -- you notice -- if you notice also some of those you could call them roadways. OK? They're water roadways. But some of those areas are opening up and they're opening up -- icebreakers out there. They're opening them.

And by just nature, they're opening up and they're headed right into China, right into Russia. And we have no choice.

The answer is he's there with his wonderful wife, Usha. They're there right now. They landed a couple of hours ago. And they will represent us well.

But Greenland is very important for the peace of the world, not us. The peace of the entire world. And I think Denmark understands it. I think the European Union understands it. And if they don't, we're going to have to explain it to them.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Would you like to visit? Would you like to visit Greenland?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Iranian drones attacking Ukraine every day.

TRUMP: What's that?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Iranian drones are attacking and killing Ukrainians every day. Why aren't you doing something about that?

TRUMP: Well, you're going to see what happens with that. I'm getting reports on that. And we're looking at a report.

You're right. They make a lot of drones. Iran makes a lot of drones. They make very effective drones, too. They do very effectively at some things.

But Iran is very high on my on my list of things to watch. And as you probably know, I sent them a letter just recently and I said, you're going to have to make a decision one way or the other. And we're going to either have to talk and talk it out, or very bad things are going to happen to Iran.

And I don't want that to happen. I don't. My preference -- and I don't say this through strength or weakness. My big preference is we work it out with Iran. But if we don't work it out, bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran.

OK. Thank you very much, everybody.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, guys. Let's go. Come on, guys, let's go. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you everyone.

TRUMP: Thank you

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, we're hearing President Trump there at this event as he is swearing in Alina Habba.

And he said, as he was asked about Greenland, just clearly not backing down as the vice president is there visiting, not backing down from his statement that he is going to have Greenland.

He hasn't, of course, ruled out acquiring Greenland through military or economic pressure.

And then he was also asked a kind of niche question about Russia buying North Korean and Iranian weapons. He said he hasn't spoken to Putin about that, but he pivoted away from something that, was kind of -- he pivoted towards the issue of Ukrainian children.

He said, there are a lot of children living in Russia right now. That certainly does not tell the whole picture.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans have raised this issue with the Trump administration because it actually recently ended funding for tracking what they say are approximately 20,000 abducted Ukrainian children who are being hidden in Russia.

And they have questioned if Trump officials or contractors have deleted a database of information about them.

But he talked about other things as well, including his talk with the prime minister of Canada.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: With the prime minister of Canada. That was a talk that they had this morning with Mark Carney, saying that -- Trump said, we are going to end up with a very good relationship with Canada.

And that was after saying that their conversation was productive and that they had a very good talk, despite, again, further tariffs expected to go into place next month.

Also -- or next week, excuse me.

[13:35:06] Also with the earthquake happening in -- that happened in Myanmar and affected parts of the region and Thailand as well. The president did say we are going to be helping with some of the response there, which is an interesting note off the top.

He also talked about Elise Stefanik, who obviously, as we know, is expected to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, had that pulled. And we knew it was because the margins are pretty tight in the House right now. But we heard him say, specifically, "I didn't want to take a chance."

KEILAR: That's right.

JIMENEZ: So he had a number of topics over the course of that.

We're also expecting to see Vice President J.D. Vance in Greenland any minute now at this point. So we'll bring you some of those comments, if he makes them, when they do.

But obviously, we still have a lot of news to get to in the meantime.

KEILAR: We still do.

Still ahead, stocks sliding as Wall Street digests a one-two punch of concerning economic news. The first is that uptick in core inflation. The second, new numbers showing Americans are increasingly fearful of rising unemployment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:35]

KEILAR: This just in. The State Department has formally notified Congress it is effectively dissolving the U.S. Agency of International Development. It is moving some of its functions under the State Department.

JIMENEZ: Yes. The Trump administration has accused USAID of mismanaging taxpayer dollars and funding overseas programs that aren't in U.S. interest.

Now, current and former USAID employees and experts have countered that the agency, while imperfect, meets vital humanitarian needs and bolsters Americas soft power. The reorganization will be done by July 1st.

We're also following more breaking news. Stocks are tumbling again today. A whole lot of red across the board. Right now, the Dow is down more than 700 points there, S&P 500 and NASDAQ also trading lower.

KEILAR: And there is new data out today showing inflation remains sticky. And American consumers are bracing for the impact of Trump's escalating trade war.

CNN business and politics correspondent, Vanessa Yurkevich, is with us now. Vanessa, first, start with those inflation numbers.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So markets right now are really reacting to several sets of data that we got this morning.

In addition to waiting for the next phase of this trade war to heat up next week, which we just heard President Trump double down on. But inflation, headline inflation PCE. This is what the Federal Reserve likes to look at. That was flat.

However, when you look at core inflation, this is stripping out volatile fields like food and energy that unexpectedly heated up to 2.8 percent year over year and then 0.4 percent in February.

And so if you look at PCE over the course of the last couple years, you can see in a line chart that we've kind of been stuck, a little bit stuck around 2.5 percent. We want to be closer to 2 percent.

And that is concerning for investors, because a trade war and tariffs could mean higher prices.

And we saw also in new data this morning that consumer spending was a little bit weaker than expected, up 0.4 percent and actually a revision down even further in January, 0.3 percent.

So softer economic news than investors we're hoping for, basically coming ahead of a big week next week when we're expecting reciprocal tariffs to go into effect. Tariffs on autos and potentially more sector tariffs to take effect.

You see Wall Street really not liking this mix of news and just trying to digest where things are going right now.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, a big aspect in any economic story, any economic trend is the consumer confidence and how good they feel going out and getting products. I mean, what does the consumer confidence data tell us right now?

YURKEVICH: Yes. So we just talked about the numbers. But let's talk about the feelings, how people are feeling.

Well, consumer sentiment, according to the University of Michigan, dropped by 12 percent in March. That's the third-straight month of declines in how people are feeling about the economy.

Two-thirds of consumers say that they're fearful of rising unemployment. We haven't seen levels like that since 2009.

And there's something interesting in this report. The report essentially says that key demos have coalesced. So listen to what they said.

They said, "This month's decline reflects a clear consensus across all demographic and political affiliations. Republicans joined Independents and Democrats in expressing worsening expectations since February for their personal finances, business conditions, unemployment and inflation."

So this takes into effect how people are feeling. And we're seeing forward looking feelings. People are expecting that inflation will rise in the next year.

And even five years down the line, people are getting nervous about what things may look like because of the economic conditions and, of course, all of the uncertainty around this trade war -- Omar, Brianna?

KEILAR: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you for all of that.

[13:44:33]

And still ahead, drastic job cuts planned at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Those cuts could make it harder for those who served in the military to get the care they need. We have some new reporting next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: "Heartless and dangerous." That is what a source is calling the Trump administration's layoff plan for the Veterans Affairs Department, which each year provides medical care for at least nine million men and women who have served their country.

JIMENEZ: Now, sources tell CNN one move would be to automate call centers, eliminating the staff, so that there may not be a live person when a veteran calls to make an appointment or arrange medical care.

CNN correspondent, Brian Todd, is with us. He's been digging into the proposed cuts at the V.A.

And, Brian, to be clear, what you're learning is on top of the 2,400 employees who have already been fired.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's correct, Omar, 2,400 roughly have been fired already. But this is new information kind of crystallizing on who they could be targeting next. They could be.

Now the V.A. is stressing that plans have not been finalized yet. No final decisions have been made.

But according to multiple sources familiar with the plans for cutbacks at the V.A. that the V.A. call centers are expected to be streamlined with automation, which could reduce the need for live agents on the phone.

[13:50:06]

So some of those live agents could be laid off. This is expected, not finalized yet, we should stress.

Now, according to one Democratic congressional staffer briefed on the layoff plan at call centers, they told us this:

Quote, "This is heartless and dangerous. Veterans in need of life- saving care and compassion should be met with a person who understands their needs and can provide them the information and resources they seek, not a lifeless machine.

Again, this is according to the V.A., who got back to us on all of this. They say the decisions have not been finalized yet.

And this is a statement from Peter Kasperowicz, the V.A. press secretary:

Quote, "We are planning to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs to fix major problems. As part of this process, we've asked our subject matter expert employees and senior executives for recommendations on how to improve care and benefits for veterans without cutting care and benefits for veterans."

And he also told me in a statement that they're actually looking to expand their ranks of doctors, nurses and people who process claims.

So again, this is a work in progress. They do stress that this has not been finalized yet. But what we're hearing from sources is that the call centers are being looked at, could soon be streamlined.

And these -- just so you know, the broader plan for 80,000 layoffs, which is a little less than a fifth of their workforce, 20 percent, we are told by sources that that is going to start to take into effect in two waves in July and in September.

KEILAR: You're also reporting, for instance, that supply clerks, folks who would restock operating rooms with supplies -- that's an important job -- will be laid off. Is that right?

TODD: Some of them already have been.

KEILAR: Some of them already have been. And that means that now nurses who would be in charge of direct care to patients are now taking over some of those responsibilities.

TODD: It's a possibility that that could happen. Some of this is just starting to kind of come to fruition.

There could be -- if they've laid off some of those stock clerks, maybe they're having other people fill in the void. But that is one of the, according to congressional sources that we spoke to, again, briefed on the plans for the layoffs, they've started to lay off people like that.

But again, you know, the V.A. is very adamant that these are -- these are plans. They -- Secretary Doug Collins has acknowledged 80,000 people. That's the target. That's the goal.

And again, anyone who has followed the veterans situation -- you followed it, Brianna, I know, very closely. Anybody who has been an advocate for veterans knows that the V.A. has had problems over the years.

It has not been the most efficient agency in the world over the years. It does need to be streamlined. But some of these cuts are coming into some stark relief here.

KEILAR: Yes. They're huge. It's very big stuff.

Thank you, Brian.

TODD: Sure.

JIMENEZ: Meanwhile, more than 100 migrants expelled from the United States are now essentially stuck in a country they know nothing about, Panama. They came to America seeking asylum but got caught up in the immigration crackdown.

I went to Panama to speak to some of these migrants who feel they have nowhere to go.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, we're on our way to a shelter right now here in Panama City, Panama, where migrants are caught in this sort of Trump created limbo where they've been deported from the United States but they also can't go home.

"AMBO", MIGRANT FROM CAMEROON: I left Cameroon due to political issues. It is either I will be sentenced dead or I will spend the rest of my life in prison.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Life for Ambo, as she asked to be called, is now this shelter. She's among the dozens of migrants here from places like Afghanistan, Russia, China and more.

(on camera): These are all people who say they can't go home because they fear either persecution or potentially being killed.

(voice-over): Ambo didn't want her face identified on camera.

She says she arrived at the U.S. Mexico border on January 23rd, hoping to make a case for asylum. The U.S. eventually put her on a plane, and she thought she was being transferred to another American immigration facility until they landed in Panama.

"AMBO": We're asking them. Why are they bringing us to Panama? Why are we in Panama?

JIMENEZ: It was actually part of the Trump administration's mass deportation plan, which it has pressured Latin-American countries, like Panama, to help with.

The Panamanian government then took these migrants to a hotel in Panama City, guarded by tight security, the migrants say, with little to no access to outside communication.

"AMBO": Maybe the immigration from the U.S. has come to Panama to listen to our stories, why we went there, maybe they were --

JIMENEZ (on camera): So, you still had hope --

"AMBO": Yes.

JIMINEZ: -- that someone from the United States would come and fix the situation?

"AMBO": Yes.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Her optimism was shattered.

"AMBO": It shouldn't just, like, abandon us like that without telling us what we have done wrong. It becomes very, very difficult and confusing to us. I've left my children back home.

JIMENEZ: Others don't have anything at home to go back to.

(on camera): Why can't you go back to Ethiopia?

"SALAM", MIGRANT FROM ETHIOPIA: That is political. I cannot go back. I don't have family. They die already, our family. All of my family.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Salam, as she wanted to be called, is from Ethiopia. She also didn't want her face on camera.

[13:55:01]

(on camera): Is this where you all sleep? In this room?

"SALAM": Yes. Everyone is in a bad situation.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): It's one of multiple places in Panama where these migrants are trying to navigate life in a country they've never known.

ARTEMIS GHASEMZADEH, MIGRANT FROM IRAN: We are lost here.

JIMENEZ: Artemis Ghasemzadeh fled Iran.

GHASEMZADEH: I changed my religion in Iran. And the punishment of that is maybe a long prison or, at the end, is death.

JIMENEZ: She was seen in this February photo from "The New York Times" with the words "help us" written on the hotel window where these migrants were first taken. They were then moved to a location hours outside the city.

(on camera): Over 100 of the migrants that were sent here to Panama City were then taken to a remote jungle camp, away from the resources of Panama City, but also, for the most part, away from effective means of communication.

GHASEMZADEH: The food was really disgusting. The bathroom was really dirty. privacy. No door.

"SALAM": The water -- even if you will take shower, it's itchy. You can see my leg --

JIMENEZ: Wow. "SALAM": All my body is like this.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Through every step along the way, attorneys for these migrants argue their rights were violated.

SILVIA SERNA ROMAN, REGIONAL LITIGATOR FOR MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA: When they got to America, and when they got to Panama, they were never allowed to speak to an official that wanted necessarily to hear their story and their circumstance.

And so even though they all claim to be asylum seekers, they have never had the right to be heard.

JIMENEZ: In early March, the government released the over 100 migrants from the remote jungle camp but gave them temporary permits to find another place to go or risk deportation from Panama.

ROMAN: They might be, like involuntarily be taken back to their countries. And that's our concern.

JIMENEZ (on camera): If you went back to your country, do you think you would be killed?

"SALAM": Yes.

GHASEMZADEH: If I come back to my country, my government kill me.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Ambo still dreams of America but has no idea how this nightmare will end.

"AMBO": I don't think I can stay in Panama. But now the point is, where am I going to go to?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: That is the question.

Now, the Panamanian government has denied any wrongdoing throughout this saga. They have issued these migrants 30-day permits, which are set to expire in early April.

But they are extendable up to 90 days. When I asked, though, if at the end of 90 days, these migrants could be forcibly returned, this official in the security minister's office didn't outright tell me no, but said each case will be looked at on an individual basis.

That said, we also reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ICE on the nature of the previous expelling flights. CBP said these migrants were lawfully processed and deported and served with the proper documentation in a language they understand.

I should note, though, that lawyers for the migrants in Panama, and Panama, however, deny any of the migrants there received any documentation.

All right. Just ahead, President Trump signs a new executive order that looks to reshape the Smithsonian. We're going to show you what he wants done and what this could mean for the institution's many museums. Stay with us.

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