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Futures Tumble Amid Global Turmoil; White House Sends Mixed Messages on Tariff Talks; Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY) is Interviewed about Tariff Turmoil; Flooding Batters Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee; Diane Swonk is Interviewed about the Stock Market. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 07, 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]

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does seem like these provocations are continuing.

The council is saying, there is massive economic impact from this as well. This is not just students who are not going to be able to pursue their degrees. There are real impacts to the college community, but the overall student economy and the economy of these local places where the universities are.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And it seems that pulling those visas is ramping up, not slowing down, that's for sure, for one.

PAZMINO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Gloria, for staying on top of it. I really appreciate it.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The clanging of the opening bell starts in less than 30 seconds. And with it, anxiety, as futures are once again tumbling. Thirty minutes, I mean, excuse me. And some markets overseas are faring much worse. The question is, how bad is it going to be today?

It's not just big name investors feeling the pain and -- who are worried. Millions of people having seen their 401(k) shrink with the market chaos. So, what's anyone to do? Some best advice as we start off another week of uncertainty.

And rivers still rising. Millions under flood watches after days of relentless rain that have already killed 19 people across the U.S. Where the storms are shifting now today.

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

BOLDUAN: People are bracing for impact once again. Opening bell on Wall Street 30 minutes out. It has been a rough morning for futures already, and also markets around the world. There's a look at futures at this very moment. This morning, warning after warning is coming in about what Trump's

tariffs could mean for the U.S. and global economies. Billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump supporter Bill Ackman now speaking out, saying, quote, "this is not what we voted for." And also warning that if Donald Trump doesn't change course on his tariff plan, it could lead to a self-induced economic nuclear winter.

Donald Trump is weighing in this morning, it appears, trying to calm fears, talking about oil prices and food prices, and also trying to say, quote, there is no inflation. No amount of reassuring, albeit wishful thinking, can change, though, what has already happened overnight. Asian and European stocks tanking. Hong Kong's main exchange dropped 13 percent. Taiwan's exchange saw its biggest one day drop on record.

CNN's Matt Egan joining us right now.

And, Matt, what are we bracing for now?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, we're bracing for a third straight day of heavy losses. You see U.S. stock futures all down 2 percent across the board. That signals another loss of around 800 points for the Dow at the open.

The good news, if you can call it that, is the market actually was down way, way more overnight when we saw the Dow -

BOLDUAN: That -- that's searching. That's searching for some good news, Matt.

EGAN: It is. It is. It's -- it's -- listen.

But, I mean, honestly, though, it does signal that -

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: There's not quite as much fear in the market as there had been about 12 hours ago. But, still, look, I mean, this is all about concerns about the president's trade plan, right? He announced this plan to skyrocket tariffs to a level that we haven't seen in over a century. And as soon as that happened, we saw markets go dramatically lower. The S&P 500 had its worst two-day losses since Covid. I mean, think about that, right?

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: Then, it was a deadly virus that people didn't know what was going to happen with. Now it's a self-inflicted trade war. And we've seen the trend for the market just go lower and lower. Theres's liberation day, as he described that announcement for tariffs. And since then, sharply lower.

And as you mentioned, Kate, we are now hearing from more and more business leaders, some of whom had been silent up until now about some of the risks here. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, he put out his annual shareholder letter. He said, yes, tariffs, they could make inflation worse. And he also said, whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question but it will slow down growth. America first is fine as long as it doesn't end up being America alone.

The former president of the St. Louis Fed, James Bullard, he went so far this morning as to invoke Smoot-Hawley, the infamous 1930 tariff increase that made the Great Depression worse.

Take a listen to what Bullard said on CNBC this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES BULLARD, FORMER PRESIDENT, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS: This has dramatically raised the risk of a Smoot-Hawley type outcome. So, Smoot-Hawley was 1930. Other countries retaliated. Global trade collapsed. And the Great Depression was on. So, I think that's really what has people worried about this. It doesn't have to work out that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:02]

EGAN: And not just some of the mainstream folks like Bullard and Dimon.

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN: Bill Ackman, who endorsed Donald Trump for president, he had this warning where he's pleading for a time-out in the trade war. And he said, if not, we're headed for this self-induced economic nuclear winter and we should start hunkering down.

One last point, Kate, look at where the market is under Trump since he took office. The S&P 500 is off to its worst start to any presidential term since the S&P 500 launched in the 1950s. It is just staggering. And again, the losses just kind of go straight down for now, all about the trade war.

BOLDUAN: That is quite a picture that that is painting there when you look back across administrations.

All right, stand by.

Thank you so much, Matt.

EGAN: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, we are just now, this minute, getting a new post by the president on social media. And he's telling people, and I'm quoting, don't be weak, don't be stupid, don't be a panicking (ph), whatever that means. Adding to the confusion this morning, the mixed messages from President Trump and his team about those tariffs. Are they permanent? Are they open to negotiations? And how much pain in the market is the White House willing to tolerate? The president on Air Force One last night sent this message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do want to solve the deficit problem that we have with China, with the European Union and other nations, and they're going to have to do that. And if they want to talk about that, I'm open to talking. But otherwise, why would I want to talk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That tune very different from what we heard from many of his top advisers just hours before. According to some of them, there will be no negotiations, no delays and no wiggle room.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House for us this morning.

All right, there is new information, Donald Trump putting out just as we were speaking. What are you reading and what is he saying?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he's essentially saying not to panic. He used the word panickin, and that's a quote, on trying to tell people to calm down.

We actually heard similar rhetoric this morning from the White House director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett. He was speaking on Fox News. And he was responding to actually some of the criticism we heard from Trump supporters, like hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. I know Matt just walked you through what he said, referring to a nuclear winter. Hassett said that he finds that rhetoric irresponsible.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Even if you think -- and I think a lot of us at the White House think that these are -- these economic responses are exaggerated by critics. Even if you think that there will be some negative effect from the trade side, that's still a small share of GDP. That's -- the idea that it's going to be a nuclear winter or something like that is completely irresponsible rhetoric.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Sara, look, all of this comes, of course, as the key question is, where do we go from here. As you mentioned as well, we're about to see the market open. How are they reacting today? People's 401(k)s are dwindling. A lot of Americans are very concerned about the state of the economy.

All of this as we've been hearing from the president himself and others that they are committed to these tariffs, that they really want to see them have a long term, lasting impact to reorder the way that trade is done globally. Now, at the same time, though, I do think there is a belief going on

in conversations happening among Trump advisors that they do need to create some sort of hope for these Americans who are so concerned about what's happening to their wallets, to their pockets.

But look, I think a key test of that is going to be, you know, whether or not the president -- we're going to see him greet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later today. He's actually -- the P.M. is over at Blair House right now across the street. I think, you know, a key thing is whether or not they will have a discussion on this, if some sort of deal could be worked out, that would really signal something to the rest of the world about how willing the president is to do deal making right now.

SIDNER: All right, Alayna Treene, thank you so much.

Now over to you, Kate. Just hearing from the president telling Americans not to be weak, stupid or a panickin. You rarely hear that from someone talking to their constituents, but there it is.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now to talk more about it is Democratic Congressman Greg Meeks of New York. He is the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

I list that out, Congressman, because I want to ask you, first and foremost, about what other countries are saying and doing, because the White House said that more than 50 countries have already reached out to try to negotiate over the new tariffs. As the top Democrat on House Foreign Affairs, what are you hearing from other nations on this?

REP. GREG MEEKS (D-NY): The White House lies. The White House lies. They are all very concerned about what's taking place and looking for other alternatives. Even if he tries to negotiate, et cetera, they're looking for other alternatives no longer depending upon the United States of America because they feel that the uncertainty that this president has created will continue. Is this crisis now and another crisis next, particularly with our friends and allies, because he's been treating our allies as if they're our adversaries and treating our adversaries as if they're our allies.

[09:10:04]

Even with these tariffs, one country did not -- is not receiving any tariffs. You know what that is? Russia.

BOLDUAN: I want to actually play an exchange on that in just a moment. But to this point, are you hearing from world leaders they believe that the Trump administration is lying to them?

MEEKS: Well, yes. Well, look, we're not saying that he's lying -- Trump is lying to the American people and to the world. He has a formula that makes no sense as far as trade is concerned. And basically he said this is something that is a respiratory. There's nothing about that in that regards. So, therefore, the -- what he is trying to tell the American people is not the truth. And when you're not telling the truth, that is translated to say it is a lie.

And so, you know, look, we haven't had this since the pandemic. We had this virus that was going on, and the virus caused the economy to tank. Well, guess what? We now have a virus again. Except it is created by the president of the United States of America with the uncertainty that he's putting into our economy, causing it to -- causing us to look at -- and all of the economic -- the economists are saying the possibility of a recession continues to rise.

And who suffers? The individual, the hardworking American. Look at the 401(k)s. Look at the devastation he's done to jobs, particularly with reference to the federal government. They are the ones that are going to pay the cost. And the inflation rising, moving up, and all the predictions about how the prices for almost every goods, whether it's clothes, whether it's food, whether it's gas, all going up, from a man who, obviously, lied to the American people because when he ran, he said on day one prices would be going down. All he's been doing is prices have been going up and trying to figure out how he can still give a tax cut to his rich friends.

BOLDUAN: The question then becomes, what can Congress do about it? Because last week the Senate passed a resolution to stop Donald Trump's ability to impose tariffs on Canada. You were trying to push the same in the House. But where do things stand? Because everything I'm reading says that it's -- there's practically no chance of that passing in the Republican-controlled house.

MEEKS: Well, look, I intend -- and you're right, Kate. What I put up before was very similar to what passed in the Senate. We want a vote. There should be an up/down vote. And the president and -- does not have the authority to just do tariffs on his own. The tariffs is a responsibility of the Congress.

And so, we have this procedure called a privileged resolution, which once introduced 15 days, it should go to a vote for the floor. So, what I did previously was put that privileged resolution up. And Speaker Johnson added something in the continuing resolution to say that a day is not a day. So, those 15 days would not run for the next year, which is ridiculous. But now this is another ones -- these tariffs that he just put up recently, I intend on introducing another privileged resolution. The American people need the transparency. They need to know how their members of Congress will vote. Let them -- let us vote on the floor.

So, I would hope that these gimmicks that the speaker continues to try to come up with, let's vote on it. And I think that you'll see, and I hope that many of my Republican colleagues now would stand up because our entire economy is at danger. We need to take care of and do our jobs, which is overseeing and oversight of what the president is, and not just give him what he wants. We've not seen this kind of situation since the 1930s.

BOLDUAN: You mentioned what -- that Russia is not -- has not -- Russia is not having any of these tariffs imposed on it. Russia is one of the few countries that he's not doing this to. Kevin Hassett, one of his top advisers and aides, he was asked about why that is by George Stephanopoulos. I want to play for you what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: There's obviously an ongoing negotiation with Russia and Ukraine. And I think the president made the decision not to conflate the two issues. It doesn't mean that Russia, in the fullness of time, is going to be treated wildly different than every other country.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Why Russia cutting (ph) -

HASSETT: Would you -- would you -- would you literally advise that you go in and put a whole bunch of new things on the table in the middle of a negotiation that affects so many American and -- Ukrainian and Russian lives. You wouldn't. You wouldn't.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Negotiators do that -- negotiators do that all the time.

HASSETT: No. No. It's not appropriate to -- to throw -- to throw --

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that -- but it achieve -

HASSETT: To throw a new thing into these negotiations right in the middle of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Does that make sense to you in the midst of these negotiations to end the war in Ukraine?

MEEKS: Absolutely not. It's just insane what he said and the president's position.

[09:15:01]

Look, he's not asked anything of Russia. Even in the negotiations. What have he asked Russia to do? All of the burden was placed on Ukraine. All of the -- anything that was supposed to be given up is given up by Ukraine. Nothing. What has he ever asked of Russia? He's given Russia a -- a lot of number of our national intelligence. You know, some of the secret, secret information in the White House, in his first term. He's asked nothing of him. He's taken the side of Russia with reference to intelligence.

You know, it -- it's time for the American people, I think, to say, enough is enough. And that's why you saw just yesterday, or Saturday, Americans and people all around the world hitting the streets in protest of what this individual has done to our country and to our friends and our allies around the world. It is enough. And it is time for us, when I say us, all Americans, you know, Democrats and Republicans. I would hope that my Republican colleagues, if they really believe in what they say, as far as the country is concerned, they should stand up with Democrats. Or if they believe what Donald Trump says, then let's vote on it. Let's have a vote in the House so that people will know who stands for what. So, therefore, when they go back to the polls, they will know who to vote for, what -- who really wants to work with the working class of individuals making a difference for average, everyday Americans, and who's only caring about the ultra-rich.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, let us see what happens, well, in a few minutes from now when the markets open, first and foremost. There's a lot of questions, though, of what Congress is going to do, can do and what Democrats are going to do to push -- to push an actual cohesive message against Donald Trump on this one. We'll see what happens.

Thank you very much, Congressman.

MEEKS: We just need three Republicans to vote with us.

Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Congressman, for your time.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, coming up, violent storms ripping through the heart of America, leaving at least 19 people dead. And we've seen tornadoes. Now we're seeing flooding. And the worst may not be over yet.

Also, Wall Street on edge this hour, as you might imagine. And that is why overseas markets as well, plunging. U.S. futures, you see them there, tumbling. And President Trump brushing off the backlash as another wave of tariffs kick in.

Those stories and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:54]

SIDNER: This morning, the heavy rains and storms that have battered so much of the central U.S. and caused huge devastation. And those rains subsiding at this hour. But the danger from flooding, still there. Officials are warning people to keep their guard up as rain-swollen rivers are still rising. Days of storms, including tornadoes, have killed at least 19 people in seven states.

Let's go to CNN's Derek Van Dam at the weather center for the very latest for us.

These pictures are breathtakingly bad. And it's not over yet.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Yes, Sara, unfortunately, this is a slow moving disaster, right? So, we've got all the rain that fell through the past week through the weekend. Now we have to worry about the cresting of the rivers and the streams as this water piles up into the tributaries and some of the larger rivers surrounding this area. So, you're looking at Frankfurt and Monterey areas. This is coming out

of northwestern Kentucky. Look at how some of these homes have been inundated by this flood water. The rivers and creeks, they are over spilling their banks, unfortunately impacting so many people's lives and transforming them just in a matter of moments. This is going to take days to really start to recede.

Look at this area here with some of these homes, these manufactured homes. They're completely cut off from its surrounding area. So that just shows you the extent of some of the flooding that is still ongoing and will continue in the days to come.

So, look at this wide swathe. We're talking over 800 miles of rainfall that has fallen over -- over a foot in some locations. Just impressive rainfall totals. This is causing rivers to reach at or near record heights. Some areas, according to one of the Hardin County sheriffs, had never flooded before and he had saw flooding in homes and businesses that had never been inundated by water.

This is the storm system responsible for it. The hardest hit areas now starting to clear out. But again, it will be a slow moving disaster, Sara, as these flood waters continue to crest downstream in the days to come. So, lots of cleanup efforts for these residents.

SIDNER: Yes, and keeping your guard up is the -- is the operative words.

Thank you so much. Derek Van Dam there.

All right, ahead, we are just minutes away now from the opening bell on Wall Street. Can you feel the anxiety? Stock markets in Europe and Asia already tumbling. All while President Trump is defending his tariff moves this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:54]

SIDNER: We are just seconds now away from the opening bell on Wall Street. We will get our first look at the markets today as the country and the world reacts to President Trump's sweeping tariffs. We have already seen what some of the world has done. The Hang Seng down by 13 percent.

But let's get right to Diane Swonk. She is the Chief Economist at KPMG.

Thank you so much for being here. It is a busy time. I know your eyes are on the market. We are looking at the futures right now. They are tumbling and getting worse by the hour. What is the market saying, screaming, if you will?

DIANE SWONK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, KPMG: Well, basically, the administration sees tariffs as a silver bullet to cure much of what ails us. And the markets are saying, no, they fail on all fronts. And I think that is very important to take into account. What the markets are worried about now is that we not only have a recession, but we could have stagflation with tariffs. That is the nature of tariffs. They are so large that they both force layoffs because firms can't absorb all of the costs, but they also force them to pass along some of those costs to consumers.

[09:30:03]

And the Federal Reserve is trying to weigh all of those things because we learned in the 1970s, if you cut rates too soon