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White House Holds Press Briefing; Shoppers Brace For Sticker Shock; Trump Trade War Escalates. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired April 08, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:20]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: There are signs of life on Wall Street. Look at that. After trillions of dollars wiped out in a days-long tariff spiral, U.S. markets are starting to bounce back. But how will new tariffs set to take effect at midnight potentially change that? The White House is set to take questions at any moment.

And, for now, the Supreme Court says the Trump administration can use a law from 1798 to quickly deport alleged gang members. But whether it can be used long-term remains to be decided.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And later: Boris' bracket...

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: ... unlike mine, did not fully bust in the end after the Gators last night clinched their third national championship title.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. I'm Boris Sanchez, alongside Brianna Keilar, in Washington, D.C.

The apparent medicine for markets today is more talk in Washington about possible trade deals with other countries. U.S. stocks are starting to rebound after days of deep losses triggered by uncertainty over President Trump's sweeping tariffs. But is this a quick fix or a lasting cure?

These three words may matter most: negotiations, midnight and China.

KEILAR: Negotiations because President Trump says -- quote -- "Many countries now want to make a deal with him," midnight because that's when Trump's reciprocal tariffs officially kick in, and China because, as Politico puts it today, Beijing is refusing to budge. And this could all get real messy real fast.

Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene, who is in the middle of it all at the White House.

Alayna, the clock ticking towards midnight. What is the latest messaging right now? ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, we have actually

really heard many of the president's top advisers doing kind of a tour of the shows this morning and really trying to emphasize that the president is willing to negotiate on one part, but also how many countries are coming to the White House to try and have negotiations with them.

Take a listen to what some of his top advisers said today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Right now, we're managing a massive number of requests for negotiations. It's actually logistically quite challenging just to go through them.

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY NOMINEE: The negotiations are the result of the massive inflow of inbound calls to come and negotiate. Had nothing to do with the market.

JAMIESON GREER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: We are having negotiations with all kinds of countries at this time. We will have the president's plan go into effect and we're coupling that with immediate negotiations with our partners.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: I think that last quote there from the U.S. trade rep, Jamieson Greer, is really important to note, that even as the president is having these different talks with different world leaders -- we know that he spoke with Japan's prime minister, he spoke with the leader of South Korea, both of which we actually heard the director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, say that the president and his administration will be prioritizing in some of these negotiations.

I think Jamieson Greer's point was really notable, that, even though they're having these talks, these tariffs are still set to go into effect by midnight. And that's been a key question, that if you're going to have these conversations, if it does sound like these different countries are coming to the table with good and potential plans for how they could try to find an off-ramp to these tariffs, would the president perhaps think about holding off on the implementation of these?

But as we have been hearing from his top advisers today, that does not seem to be the plan. And, look, when I have these conversations with White House officials, Trump administration officials about some of the behind-the-scenes on this, they say they really want these different world leaders to bring good plans to the table.

Only then will the president make deals. And so I think we have to see really what those could yield, but many of them saying it won't happen immediately necessarily because he's going to be working them out in these different conversations with different leaders -- Boris, Brianna. SANCHEZ: Alayna Treene, live for us in the Press Briefing Room, we

will come back to you as that briefing gets under way. Thank you so much.

Let's get some perspective now with Paul Krugman. He's an economist and distinguished professor at the City University of New York. He's a Nobel Prize-winning economist who is also the author of the Paul Krugman Substack.

Sir, thank you so much for being with us.

When you hear the administration claim that they have dozens of countries reaching out looking to strike new trade deals, but they will only accept the good ones, what's the likelihood that the administration gets those done quickly enough to try to stabilize markets?

PAUL KRUGMAN, ECONOMIST, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: I don't even think it's a matter of speed.

The question is, what kind of deals are we talking about? The starting point has to be that the whole administration accusation about other countries doing unfair stuff and imposing high tariffs is false. I mean, think about the European Union. The average tariff that the European Union imposes on U.S. products is about 1.7 percent. It's nothing.

[13:05:10]

So, when they say, well they're going to offer us a deal, what are they going to offer? The whole -- the formula that was used to determine those tariff rates bore no relationship to the actual policies of foreign countries.

So, yes, everybody's calling and say, how do we get out of this? But it's not -- the administration hasn't left them any actual actionable stuff. They haven't given them anything -- hasn't given other countries anything they can do to bring those tariffs off. So what is supposed to be happening here?

I think this is all just trying to somehow talk up the markets for a day or two.

SANCHEZ: So you're not persuaded by any of the talk from the administration that they're looking to address non-tariff trade barriers, things like restrictions on -- you're shaking your head. You don't buy the arguments from them?

KRUGMAN: No, it's -- when we talk -- again, I like to talk about the European Union, because that's the biggest other economy out there. China is a different story.

But the European Union, they -- there's no hidden trade barriers. European Union is absolutely as transparent as we are. We know what they do. There's no secret quotas. There's no hidden tariffs. There's no hidden subsidies. The administration says, well, value-added taxes, which the European Union has, but those are not protectionist.

And those are a fundamental revenue source, and they're not going to give it up. So this is all taking place in a kind of fantasy world in which other countries -- in which they -- the many countries that are part of the European Union are all part of some hidden conspiracy to keep out U.S. products. And that's just not happening.

SANCHEZ: Well, you say China is a different story. I wonder how you then, if you were advising the administration, would address their bending or ignoring of some of the rules of trade, their currency manipulation, et cetera? Would tariffs be the answer there?

KRUGMAN: No, tariffs are -- there's a lot of reasons to say that we need to take a -- we need to treat China as a problem. China is a -- among other things, they're a potential -- they're not our friends, and we don't want to be dependent for them on strategic goods.

But that's a case for targeting. It's a case for subsidies to strategic industries. It's a case actually for things like the CHIPS Act, which was the Biden administration initiative. There's no reason why we should want to put a blanket tariff. We don't want to switch production of low-wage, second -- downstream industries like clothing from China to the United States.

And, by the way, if we are -- want to have an effective policy against China, we don't want to alienate the whole rest of the world. We don't want to take countries that are doing nothing wrong and were our allies until three months ago and make them the enemy and prevent any kind of unified front against China.

SANCHEZ: So what would you say to folks, for example, in the Rust Belt, who over the last 40 years have seen their communities completely gutted by factories moving overseas to produce that kind of low-skill labor, the clothes and the very simple sort of plastic things that the U.S. has imported now for decades from China?

What do you say to folks who argue that bringing some of that manufacturing back would revitalize their communities?

KRUGMAN: Look, we had a policy. The -- if you look at the CHIPS Act, at the Inflation Reduction Act, both of those were -- had a lot of buy-American provisions. They actually subsidized manufacturing and were specifically aimed to help build manufacturing in left-behind regions of the United States, and were actually getting a fair bit of traction.

We have had record investment in manufacturing in the last couple of years. So this is how you actually do it. This is not a kind of throw a tariff that just kind of randomly creates jobs, but won't do any -- won't do remotely enough to bring back these communities.

You want to actually have a policy that is aimed at doing the goal. And so -- and some things, we probably shouldn't be doing, but we can get other things. And there was a lot of successful industrial policy in the United States in the last couple of years. And this tariff is just not going to do the trick. SANCHEZ: What is going to be the effect long term, do you think, of

these tariffs on alliances between the United States and other countries, as you suggested, doing potential harm to our friends?

KRUGMAN: Well, it's a tremendously destructive thing. We have -- the fact -- it matters that the tariffs are all based upon untrue claims about what our friends are doing.

[13:10:06]

If you're going to say that to Europe, to Canada that you are villains, when they know perfectly well that they're not doing any of the things they're being accused of, then, are they still going to be our allies?

I mean, the United States has very quickly, in a matter of months, turned itself into one of the biggest rogue actors on the international scene. We are not going to be considered to be part of the free world by our erstwhile allies. We're certainly not part of the set of countries you can deal with.

Among other things, Trump is tearing up a lot of trade agreements, including some of the agreements that he himself signed during his first term in office. So, if the United States is a country that accuses you of -- makes false accusations, and then rips up its agreements on the basis of those false claims, who wants to deal with us?

SANCHEZ: That's a huge question.

Paul Krugman, thank you so much for the analysis.

KRUGMAN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: So, we are just hours away from President Trump's tariffs going into effect, and shoppers are bracing for sticker shock. Prices are expected to rise for many products Americans buy every day at grocery stores, produce, coffee, cheese, my beloved cheese, sugar, seafood, and the list goes on.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is live at a grocery store in New York.

Vanessa, how are stores and shoppers planning to handle these higher prices?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, Brianna, one of the first places that Americans are expected to feel these tariff impacts and higher prices is right here at the grocery store, especially on perishable items.

These are things that come across the border every single day. Morton Williams, this grocery store, says that they have not raised prices yet, but they are bracing. Think about things like bananas, right? These only keep for a few days. These bananas came in from Costa Rica. These bananas here come in from Ecuador.

And those countries now have a 10 percent tariff in place. Those 10 percent universal tariffs went into effect on Saturday. We're going to take you to the seafood section, because this is the place where a lot of these higher reciprocal tariffs that are expected to take effect at midnight will have an impact on seafood.

Take a look at the shrimp over here. So, Morton Williams gets its shrimp from Indonesia and Vietnam. Indonesia is facing a 32 percent tariff and Vietnam is expecting a 46 percent tariff. And then just swing over here. Let's look at the salmon. They get their salmon from Norway, Norway facing a 15 percent tariff.

I want to take a walk over to the coffee section. But, as I do, I want to talk to you about what shoppers have been telling me. A lot of people have been stockpiling on nonperishable items to try to beat the tariffs. And we have heard a lot of people in the store saying that they're going to start budgeting because they just don't know what to expect.

Just how much more expensive will things get? We're here in the coffee section right now. Coffee's been interesting, because coffee's already hit record prices because of bad growing conditions, bad weather, bad climate in Africa and Central America. So we can expect, because of those record prices and now 10 percent tariffs on key countries that we get coffee from like Brazil and Ethiopia, that's likely going to trickle down to coffee prices here in the grocery store.

Guys, one thing I will add is that some companies have been able to stockpile on nonperishable items. So you may not see those prices hit immediately, but eventually these tariffs and these prices are unfortunately going to catch up with everyday consumers -- Brianna, Boris.

KEILAR: That really puts it into perspective when you're pointing out all of those prices, all those products that will be hit.

Vanessa, thank you for the report.

We have much more coverage on the impact of these tariffs that are set to take effect at midnight. Ahead, we will be speaking to a small business owner who made the tough decision to shut down.

And the Supreme Court giving the Trump administration a temporary win on immigration, saying it can use the Alien Enemies Act for deporting suspected gang members. That's not the end of the legal fight, though. We will explain.

SANCHEZ: Plus, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he will tell the CDC to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water.

You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We will discuss the implications when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:49]

SANCHEZ: Let's go straight to the White House and the Press Briefing Room, where Karoline Leavitt is taking questions from reporters.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: ... revenue to the United States. And this is twofold. The president wants to onshore jobs here to the United States of America. He wants to boost our manufacturing industry.

He also wants to tackle these crippling deficits with almost every single country around the world.

Jacqui.

QUESTION: Thanks, Karoline.

The Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, warned that some of these negotiations might take up to months, that we could be doing this through April, May and into June. And then you had Kevin Hassett say it's going to take a lot for the president to put his signature on the lines. He wants to make sure there's a good deal for America.

Is the president operating on any sort of a timeline or deadline where he wants this completed by?

LEAVITT: Well, we always move at Trump speed here at the White House, which is incredibly fast. I know you all know that from covering this White House day to day. The president likes to get things done.

But he's very much focused on ensuring that these deals are good for the American worker, they are good for American manufacturing and, again, that they tackle these crippling deficits with these countries. All options are on the table for each country. But, again, these are going to be tailor-made deals. They are not going to be off-the-rack deals, as the president has called it.

[13:20:02]

And he has directed his entire trade team to be part of this effort. So that includes Secretary Bessent and our national economic director, Kevin Hassett. It also includes Secretary Lutnick, Peter Navarro, the entire trade team, Jamieson Greer, who was on the Hill today.

Everybody who is involved in this incredible, fair, reciprocal trade agenda will continue to be involved in negotiating these deals.

QUESTION: And then, yesterday, Goldman Sachs put out a research note. It put the odds of a recession at 45 percent within the next 12 months, up from 35 percent.

But Peter Navarro guaranteed last night no recession. Does the president agree with him on that? I know the president in the past has been leery of making definitive statements on that.

LEAVITT: I can speak for the president and I can speak for the optimism that he sees in our economy every day, again, when you talk about the massive deregulatory efforts that are happening across the board, when you talk about how oil prices are down, gas prices are down, egg prices are down.

We're cutting costs for the American worker, for the American consumer. We also see trillions of dollars of investments pouring into this country every day, and we're working hard now on the tariff side of the president's economic agenda.

But don't forget, the next side of this is tax cuts, and we're counting on Capitol Hill to get those done, the largest tax cuts in history.

QUESTION: Does that mean that without that, those tax cuts coming through, that the likelihood of a recession is greater?

LEAVITT: No, that's not what I said. I'm just saying be mindful of the whole-of-government economic approach that this administration is taking every day.

Sure. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you, Karoline.

You just said that one of the reason these tariffs are going into effect is that some countries have been ripping off the United States. But some of the tariffs target countries like Madagascar, Bangladesh, with very high levels of property.

So, can you explain how the president wants to correct the deficit with those countries? Is there a plan, for example, to onshore the textile industry that these countries are known because -- and just like, can you be specific about those, like, low-income countries?

LEAVITT: Sure.

Well, first of all, the reciprocal tariff rates that were implemented by country were focused on the monetary tariff that those countries have imposed on the United States, but also the nonmonetary tariff barriers and the regulations, if you will, that have been put into effect over the years, making it harder for America to export to these countries.

These were very carefully crafted numbers. There was also a 10 percent baseline tariff across the board as well, as you know. Moving forward, the president will talk to any country that picks up the phone to call. And I can tell you the phones have been ringing off the hook wanting to talk to this administration, this president and his trade team to try to strike a deal.

And it's because the world knows that they need the United States of America. They need our markets. They need our consumer. The president has a lot of leverage on his side because he has the best economy and the best country in the world that he leads, and he knows that. And it's about dang time we finally have a president who uses that economic leverage to benefit American workers.

And that's what the president is trying to do.

Maggie.

QUESTION: Karoline, thanks.

Does the president endorse something that Howard Lutnick said on television this weekend, which was that the army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones, that that kind of thing is going to be moving to the U.S.? Is that how the president envisions manufacturing shifting?

And, if so, how long would that take roughly?

LEAVITT: The president wants to increase manufacturing jobs here in the United States of America, but he's also looking at advanced technologies. He's also looking at A.I. and emerging fields that are growing around the world that the United States needs to be a leader in as well.

So there's an array of diverse jobs, more traditional manufacturing jobs, as you discussed, but also jobs in advanced technologies. The president is looking at all of those. He wants them to come back home.

QUESTION: But iPhones specifically, is that something that he thinks is the kind of technology that can move to the U.S.?

LEAVITT: Absolutely. He believes we have the labor, we have the work force, we have the resources to do it. And, as you know, Apple has invested $500 billion here in the United States. So if Apple didn't think the United States could do it, they probably wouldn't have put up that big chunk of change.

Alayna.

TREENE: Hi, Karoline.

It's clear the president has gotten the world's attention with these tariffs. Is there -- is he considering at all potentially holding off on imposing some of them before the deadline or maybe later reversing them because he's having these negotiations and having these good talks with other leaders?

LEAVITT: The president was asked and answered this yesterday. He said he's not considering an extension or a delay. I spoke to him before this briefing. That was not his mind-set. He expects that these tariffs are going to go into effect.

And you said something very important, Alayna, in your question. You said the president has captivated the attention of the world. Absolutely, he has. And it's about time we have a president in the Oval Office who is putting the world on notice and is putting the American people first and, again, is using the leverage of the United States to negotiate good trade deals.

TREENE: And just a quick follow-up.

LEAVITT: Sure.

TREENE: There's been some public sparring between Elon Musk and the president's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, on some of these tariffs. Musk actually referred to Navarro today as being -- quote -- "dumber than a stack of bricks."

[13:25:00]

Are you at all or is the administration and the president at all concerned that this is maybe impacting the public's understanding of these tariffs? It might be messing with the message on it?

LEAVITT: No, look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys. And we will let their public sparring continue.

And you guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history. And I think it also speaks to the president's willingness to hear from all sides, that he has people at the highest levels of this government and this White House who have very diverse opinions on very diverse issues.

But the president takes all opinions in mind and then he makes the best decision based on the best interests of the American public.

Tiana (ph).

QUESTION: Thanks, Karoline.

On TRUTH Social today, Trump was talking about one-stop shopping talks with foreign leaders, bringing leaders to the U.S. to Washington and talking to them about tariffs...

LEAVITT: Yes.

QUESTION: ... but also other topics. So is that part of his strategy, to bring the leaders to Washington and trying to get deals outside of tariffs on foreign policy issues as well?

LEAVITT: I think the president, again, is going to have a custom, tailor-made approach to each in every country. And if that means discussions of foreign aid, of our military presence in these countries, how those troops are paid for, come to the table, that could be part of the negotiation in these economic negotiations.

But it's the president's economic team who will be leading these, that these are tariff and trade negotiations. And, yes, they will be one- stop shopping for each and every country. They will be, as the president said again, tailor-made, not off the rack, to each and every country based on America's needs.

(CROSSTALK) QUESTION: Karoline, how are you? (OFF-MIKE)

LEAVITT: Good.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) So President Trump has designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization and deported its members, while also moving to restrict Venezuela's oil exports.

Is the administration preparing additional military or economic actions against Venezuela and the Maduro regime? And my second question is about Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Does the administration have a comment on her decision to go with the liberals and go actually with the Tren de Araguas?

This is the same justice that actually sided against January 6 hostages last year. So does the administration have a comment? Are they disappointed in Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett?

LEAVITT: To your first question, I don't have any actions to read out in terms of Venezuela. The president has imposed secondary tariffs on the Maduro -- Maduro regime and on Venezuela in the form of oil, which is obviously going to have a crippling effect on the Maduro regime.

And that's the intended effect of this administration. As for the justice you mentioned, as for the Supreme Court, we have made our feelings very clear. We believe this was a massive victory. Certainly, we wish this was a 9-0 decision because we firmly believe that the president was well within his constitutional authority, and the Supreme Court made that very clear last night.

And they put Judge Boasberg in his place. We called on the Supreme Court to rein in these judges who are acting as judicial activists, not real arbiters of the truth and the law. And that's exactly what we saw the Supreme Court do yesterday.

QUESTION: Thank you.

LEAVITT: Christian (ph).

SANCHEZ: We have been listening to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt from the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House.

She's taking questions on an array of issues, mostly focused on global trade, this trade war launched by President Trump, with this midnight deadline looming. She was asked specifically if Trump was considering some kind of extension or delay, specifically with countries that had approached the White House to try to negotiate some kind of restructuring of a trade deal, which administration officials, at least some of them, made clear was the intent of the installation of these tariffs.

She said the president is not considering that. Notably, she was asked by Maggie Haberman of "The New York Times" whether he wanted to see iPhones manufactured here in the United States, something that the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, had mentioned previously. Apparently, that's what Trump wants to see, even though experts have made clear that if iPhones were manufactured in the United States, they would be exorbitantly expensive.

KEILAR: Yes, and she tried to pivot to also say he wants to see -- because that was a question about the army of people who were basically screwing in the screws on iPhones.

SANCHEZ: Right.

KEILAR: And she sort of tried to pivot to say he also wants to look at advanced technology.

We have also been witnessing just this very strange sparring, maybe not strange for this administration, but pretty unusual between Elon Musk and Peter Navarro...

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: ... who is one of the president's top trade advisers.

Musk called Navarro a moron today.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: And she said in response to a question about that, that boys will be boys. So they're going to let them continue to play out that spat online, whether you want to enjoy that or not.

But she was also asked by a conservative in the Briefing Room about Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who had sided with liberals in this immigration decision. She did not take that whack at Justice Barrett.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: She said she would like -- they'd like to see, obviously, a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court. But that was really interesting.

We have a lot more on this, obviously a lot going on today with immigration and also tariffs.

So, we will take a quick break. We will be right back with much more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)