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Global Markets on Edge After Trump's Tariffs Drive Steep Losses; Trump Administration Officials Downplay Market Chaos, Push Optimistic Outlook; Rising River Levels Trigger Evacuations, Water Rescues in Kentucky. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 07, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go, S&P 500 eyeing a bear market ahead of the opening bell. A new week and fresh fears of stock market pure chaos all over President Trump's tariff war.

The president's response so far, hang tough. And he's also saying there's no inflation.

Deadly storms on the move this morning that we are watching very closely. Heavy rain and possible tornadoes threatening parts of the southeast. The extreme weather that has already killed at least 19 people across seven states.

And a high stakes visit to the White House. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to become the first foreign leader to meet face to face with President Trump since announcing those sweeping tariffs. Can Netanyahu secure himself a deal?

John Berman is out today. I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news this morning, some foreign markets in free fall. Now all eyes are on U.S. futures as investors around the world are grappling with President Trump's trade war.

Despite the markets melting down, the president is arguing this morning that the U.S. is in a better economic position, even as the S&P is set to open in bear market territory after hitting a record high less than seven weeks ago.

So far today -- this is the big one -- Hong Kong's main exchange, the Hang Seng, dropped 13 percent. Taiwan's exchange saw its biggest one day drop on record.

And new this morning, J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon issuing a blunt warning about the president's tariff policy, saying it threatens to raise prices, drive the global economy into a downturn and weaken America's standing in the world.

Financial market reporter for The New York Times, Joe Rennison, is joining me now.

When you see the futures and where they are now, when you look at them, what are you preparing for as the market wakes up and that bell rings and we're off to the races again?

JOE RENNISON, FINANCIAL MARKETS REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, sure. Well, I think that the challenge is that it's just so uncertain at the moment. And uncertainty itself, aside from the tariffs, can kind of breed these sort of selloffs because people become uncertain about where the economy is headed.

They don't know if these tariffs are going to be reduced or even go further in a sort of full-blown trade war as people retaliate. And so that uncertainty is what makes this so challenging. We just don't really know where this stops. And it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

SIDNER: The big question I get for people is, as they're watching this, everyone's like, do I lock in my losses and start putting things aside and putting it into cash? Or do I wait to see if President Trump or some other country blinks during all this? And I think that's the big question this morning.

RENNISON: Sure. I would hate to be giving out financial advice right now because, I mean, --

SIDNER: Who knows!

RENNISON: -- if investors don't know, I don't know either. But typically it pays to do your best to ignore the numbers on the screen. If you're a long-term investor, if you're a retiree, you maybe have, you know, 10, 20, 30 years left before you're going to be accessing that money. Markets tend to come back.

Admittedly, this is a shock that markets haven't really dealt with before. It's unique in the sense that it's coming directly from presidential policy, whereas, you know, the shocks that we've had of a similar magnitude have been the, you know, COVID pandemic. It's been 2007, 2008, and the financial crisis then. And then you have to go back to the 1987 stock market crash to get something comparable.

So this is a serious moment. This is a big sell-off. But markets do tend to bounce back overtime.

SIDNER: Historically. And it sort of depends on where you are in your life as well when you have to look at this.

But you talked about kind of the historic -- where this is in history, and the uniqueness of this. Did any of those other situations where we saw crashes, where we experienced these huge shifts, come from a single policy? Or was it the markets telling the government, hey, we're in trouble?

RENNISON: Yes, I think an argument could be made both ways. Because, you know, with the pandemic, there was a very big government response to that, injecting a large amount of stimulus that has been attributed to then the inflation that we saw. And it was the inflation that drove interest rates higher and that drove a stock market sell-off. Less direct, however.

This is coming straight from the president with, you know, very little sign of backing down or willingness to kind of retrench because of what's happening in the stock market. And so it's unique in that sense. Yes, policy can affect markets. Yes, policy has affected markets in the past. But this is still a bit different.

[08:05:00]

SIDNER: It's still different. We are hearing a lot of mixed messages from the White House, from the different advisers. President Trump himself seems like a little bit, we can't tell what's going on.

Is that having the big effect? Or is it really the trade wars that's causing the markets to do what they are? Or a combination of both?

RENNISON: Yes, well, there are certainly other factors at play here. I think that's a really important point.

Markets were primed, to some extent, for a sell-off. We were at very elevated levels. The tech rally had run a long way. Markets were sort of overvalued to begin with.

And so there are some investors out there that say well you know we were we were primed for this. This is it's around 20 percent now. If it sort of slows down here that's kind of fine. We're still as Jamie Dimon pointed out this morning at fairly elevated levels in the stock market historically. And so there are other factors. There are other reasons that are driving this.

But certainly the catalyst when I speak to analysts when I speak to investors when I speak to economists is the tariffs.

SIDNER: Yes, and the big question is how long will this sort of trade war and how many other countries will start putting tariffs on the United States.

RENNISON: Exactly.

SIDNER: And those questions that we will see reflected in the market if they are answered soon. Thank you so much for being here. That was really excellent. We appreciate your time.

RENNISON: Thank you.

SIDNER: Over to you Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now to talk about this is from Washington to CNN political commentator Karen Finney. And here with me on set is Lee Carter strategic communication expert and former Republican strategist and pollster. Thanks guys for being here.

Lee, guys I'm giving a mixed issue in my ear if you want to try to fix that for me. Lee there are the numbers that they were just talking about there. But there's also the way the administration is talking about it themselves and trying to sell it.

I want to play for you what White House officials said as they fanned out across all the Sunday shows.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE ROLLINS, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: So I think we'll see in short order really positive outcome from this.

KEVIN HASSETT, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: It is not a strategy for the market crisis. It's a strategy to create a Golden Age in America for the American worker. That's his strategy.

PETER NAVARRO, TRUMP SENIOR COUNSELOR FOR TRADE AND MANUFACTURING: We are going to have the biggest boom in the stock market we've ever seen under the Trump policy.

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: This is the moment that the United States of America takes hold of itself. And Donald Trump's been talking about this his whole life. This is Donald Trump's agenda. And we are all here to help him execute it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Is that the way to message this. Do you think.

LEE CARTER, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: So I think for Republicans it's working. When you look at the polling right now -- and this is somewhat surprising because we're all talking about how polling is underwater. When you look at Republicans about 60 percent of Republicans are willing to say that it's worth it to go through the tariffs even if it means that costs are going to go up because this is not about just the economy.

This is about America reclaiming its place in the world. This is about America getting tough again. They believe the system's been rigged and they're willing to go along with Donald Trump for the ride.

The bigger issue I think is among independents and many independents supported Donald Trump during the election. And now they're questioning it. This isn't necessarily working for them.

When they're talking more about bringing back manufacturing. When they're talking more about creating a level playing field that can be working but really saying that we're just going to push Donald Trump's agenda no matter what. That's not getting people comfortable because you hear people like Jamie Dimon. You hear all these people out there saying how bad this is that there's no way that this is going to work.

Those independents are starting to question it especially when they're looking at their 401ks. Now we have to remember that more than half of Americans aren't invested in the stock markets or aren't feeling this. But those swing voters.

BOLDUAN: Voters yet.

CARTER: Yes. Right, those swing voters are having some trouble right now.

BOLDUAN: Karen speaking on message here because the numbers are going to speak for themselves as the market is plunging and we'll see it when opening bell. We saw what happened with markets overseas. They are going to speak volumes and speak for themselves.

But I'm really interested in how the president and everyone around him is talking about this right now because it does seem different at least from Donald Trump. His message from over the weekend was at one point hang tough. It won't be easy but the end result will be historic.

Then this morning he put out another post seeming to try to calm people down saying this: Oil prices are down. Interest rates are down. The slow moving Fed should cut rates. Food prices are down. There is no inflation -- which obviously he cannot say with a straight face. And the longtime abused USA is bringing in billions of dollars a week from the abusing countries on tariffs that are already in place.

That's his message as he wakes up today. And Axios had an interesting take on all of it that I want to read for you. Here's the reporting from the team at Axios.

For one of the first times in his career, Trump seems more bent on making a point than making a deal. He's confident nations will bend to his will just as universities and law firms have.

And here's a quote from a longtime adviser. We don't have a playbook for fully committed Trump.

And that does what.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And that is the crux of this. You know the other thing we heard across the shows this weekend you played some of the quotes. You know it was unclear.

[08:10:00]

So he's going to make a deal. He's not going to make a deal. Right. So there was some confusion there, which will be interesting to see when the markets open.

Here's the problem though. Average everyday Americans are experiencing chaos and they're experiencing uncertainty. Right. And they see the president off golfing when we've got storms that are affecting people. Inflation is real. Costs are up. And he said he would bring them down within 24 hours.

And you're starting to see people feel like wait a second. This isn't what I voted for because his message on tariffs has really changed. Right now he's talking about oh there's going to be some pain but hold on. It'll get better.

That's not what he said during the election. And I think a lot of people even you're starting to see among Republicans. I mean look at how many people turned out this weekend across the country at different rallies.

I mean I have members of my family who have never gone to a rally went for the first time in their lives because they're so upset about what's happening with the stock markets.

And again we have to remember Americans are also experiencing DOGE cuts. Right. That are coming -- as people are losing their jobs as that's starting to have an impact in communities. And we're about to see what the Republicans in Congress are going to do on this budget.

So you know, Trump's trying to have this conversation about the stock market which seems very chaotic in isolation from the fact that the way Americans are experiencing the economy right now is very uncertain. And it's not what he said he was going to do.

BOLDUAN: And Lee you hit on something that I'd actually asked folks of the administration this and haven't really gotten an answer which is how long will people be along for the ride. That you're talking about Republicans and others who are giving -- if you give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt that this pain will be temporary. I mean price increases will be temporary.

I keep asking how much pain is the administration willing to endure or have people -- have the people endure until it becomes too much. In your experience when it comes to kind of weathering a storm. How long will the public stick with any leader on this?

Like how long will they allow the pain to endure before they say this is -- I'm not here for this ride anymore.

CARTER: I think his supporters are going to give him a little while. I think you're going to see at least a year of his supporters standing by him. His support is so solid and so strong among his base.

The bigger issue for him is really those independent swing voters who came to him said you know what the Biden economy didn't work for me. I've never felt worse. Now they're feeling worse again. That's going to be the issue. And I think they might only give him a short amount of time.

BOLDUAN: When he puts the standard of how quickly he was going to turn things around on a very short timeline when he was campaigning.

CARTER: The expectation was was set to be 24 hours. So now we've got some challenges here.

But I think when you look at what's going to happen now I expect Donald Trump and his administration to talk a lot about quick wins. I think they're going to be talking about announcements by certain companies that can bring factories to America.

I think you're going to hear a lot about this deal and that deal. What they're going to try to do is say these one off things are monumental changes that are symbolic of the larger picture working. And you're going to say we're going to hear a lot about this being a journey. It's my guess from a messaging perspective.

And so, if they're if they're able to do that in a right way and there's symbolic gestures that are good enough for people to say, you know what, I do see some change. It's going to be -- it's going to be OK.

And I say that only because the problem the Democrats have is they're not viewed any better. As much as we're talking about Donald Trump's polling numbers, their numbers are even worse. When people say what the Democrats are going to do on the economy. It's even worse. And so Democrats in this moment need to pivot not to how bad this is but what would they do differently.

The Democrats have a huge opportunity right now. And I think they're squandering it by being hysterical about Donald Trump rather than that what they would do that was different and better.

BOLDUAN: I find it really interesting because you're also seeing Republicans panicking on the Hill and also not knowing what to do with themselves. Because I would venture to guess and I think we could all assume that Republican -- congressional Republicans are going to feel the heat and backlash much sooner than Donald Trump is back in their districts when people are really feeling the hurt. And Democrats need to figure out their message on it as well. Guys it's really good to see you. Lee, thank you so much. Karen thank you as always -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. This morning rising rivers putting communities at risk after relentless rain caused deadly flooding across the south and Midwest.

Plus Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Trump in Washington today. Can he get the president to back off the tariffs he slapped on Israel. And as the war continues I'm sure that will also be discussed.

Plus a fiery rescue caught on camera, an officer and a good Samaritan -- take a look at what they did after this devastating crash in New Jersey.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: New this morning, Kentucky is under a state of emergency amid widespread and historic flooding that's triggered evacuations and many water rescues. The Kentucky River is forecast now to crest today at a record 49 and a half feet.

[08:20:00]

The state has really been among those hammered so hard since the beginning of last week basically, when violent storms and tornadoes led to -- have now led to at least 19 people being killed across seven states.

In Hardin County, Kentucky in the western part of the state. There are reports of significant damage to buildings and many roads submerged in the flood in the flood waters. Let's get an update and the latest from there. Joining us now is the Hardin County Sheriff John Ward.

Sheriff, thank you for taking the time. What are you all dealing with this morning?

SHERIFF JOHN WARD, HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY: Well, we're still continuing to deal with roads that are covered with water. Many rescues still occurring. People are being rescued from their homes. I've lived here my whole life and I've never seen -- I've never seen water like this. I've seen water in places that you'd never see it before. It's just -- it's unbelievable.

BOLDUAN: Sheriff, is it it came -- is it how much came down at once or how long that the rain was coming down? How do you describe really what you all have been enduring really since the middle of last week?

WARD: Yes, it started in Wednesday night and rain Wednesday through what rain most of the day Sunday. So, thank goodness it's good to -- it's good to be able to come out this morning and it not be raining.

That's -- we're thankful for that. But we still have and we're still dealing with water rising. You know, we have our most northern city in Hardin County, which borders the Louisville metropolitan area, West Point.

The Ohio River there is not -- it's not expected to crest until sometime tomorrow. So we're expecting to deal with just because the rain has stopped. We're still doing -- we're still under basically under a state of emergency.

BOLDUAN: Yes, just with -- thankfully the rain does stop but that doesn't mean the water is yet done rise and that's for sure. You talked about water rescues. I mean, how many families and residents have need help with water rescues and what are you hearing from them? Were they just surprised that the water even reach them or how quickly it was rising?

WARD: I think yes, I think basically surprised the water -- surprised the water came so fast and didn't think it would get to them because it, you know, I've seen homes underwater that have never had water and I don't think people were ready. People didn't expect just because it's never happened before.

BOLDUAN: Well, how long do you think that before the river starts receding and families can start getting back in there and start cleaning up?

WARD: It's going to be a few days and they're going to have a mess to deal with it. We've had, you know, because I've seen the devastation from floods before and it, you know, your house has to be -- there's a lot of work that's going to have to go into everyone's home that gets destroyed.

But, you know, the main thing about it is these homes can be replaced. One thing that we're very thankful for we've not lost any lives as a result of this flood as of yet.

And, you know, we can we can replace homes and personal property, but you can't you can't replace a life. So, we're very, very fortunate for that. We've had a lot of issues with barriers, just barriers to block roads.

It's, you know, we've never had to block as many roads as that had been blocked as during this event. And the State Highway Department, County Road Department, and the cities had run out of barriers, which the Kentucky Department of Transportation located 250 barriers in Chicago and had them brought into Elizabethtown. And they've been used here in Hardin County.

It's an unbelievable event. It's something that I've never seen in my over 40 year career in law enforcement.

BOLDUAN: Wow. Yes, that's a, I mean, maybe people would think a small example, but a perfect example of how unprecedented this is, is that you all have run out of barriers to even block the roads because there are so many roads now submerged and the danger is so widespread.

Well, Sheriff, we know that you have a very tough, very busy few, many days ahead of you. So, thank you so much for jumping on this morning to speak with us. And good luck to you. Thank you so much.

WARD: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

[08:25:00]

Coming up for us, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now advocating for the measles vaccine after spending, well, years trying to undermine the proven science of that very same vaccine. Is it enough at this point with that outbreak still exploding?

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heading to the White House today. He will be the first foreign leader to meet face to face with President Trump as Israel is seeking relief from Donald Trump's tariffs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: This morning, hoping for relief from President Trump's tariffs, the White House claims the phones are ringing off the hook with world leaders eager to cut a deal. Perhaps the first to try to do so in person is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two are expected to meet today at the White House after Trump imposed a 17 percent tariff on imports from Israel.

Of course, the major issue of the devastating war in Gaza also on the table.

[08:30:00]