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Florida Gators Back on Top as NCAA Basketball Champs; Scientists Resurrect Extinct Dire Wolf; Trump's Latest Global Tariffs Set to Take Effect at Midnight; Trump Says Many Countries Want to Make a Deal With U.S. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 08, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF THE MORNING EDITION OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": I can't hold this anymore. Like, I'm so done. And it was still (inaudible). And then I saw it and I was like, well, I guess this is good. This is the real thing. This is real (inaudible).

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Oh my goodness. Well, Sara, we're so proud of you because honestly --

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": So emotional.

KEILAR: We couldn't have done it without you. And without you and the gators, we wouldn't have this beautiful Glizzy Tower. I've never been so happy to lose a bet. Sara, thank you so much for joining us from San Antonio.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Love you, Sara.

SIDNER: Bye. Adios.

KEILAR: Let's make a deal. After days of mixed messaging on tariffs and slipping stocks, the White House says it's officially negotiating new trade agreements and bringing coal back. President Trump is expected to sign an executive order this afternoon aimed at "reinvigorating" the coal industry.

SANCHEZ: And a scientific feat, ala Jurassic Park. Researchers say they've resurrected the extinct dire wolf some 12,000 years after it died out, and they have the pups, the adorable pups to prove it. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

KEILAR: President Trump's global tariffs are now just hours away from officially taking effect. And the White House is talking a lot about deals today. President Trump posting that he has the confines of a deal with South Korea, and he adds that he's "dealing with many other countries," all of whom want to make a deal. And then the deal talk didn't stop there, just listen to Trump's National Economic Council Director.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: But in the end, the president wrote the book, "The Art of The Deal," and it's a great book. I really enjoyed the book and it shows how to get great deals. And that's what he's doing right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Notably not in an apparent deal making mood, China. That nation today digging in on its defiance in the face of Trump's 104 percent cumulative tariff, which the White House says goes into effect at midnight. Let's take you to the White House now. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is standing by. Jeff, the markets so far have responded positively to this deal talk. What more is the White House saying?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And Boris, that is perhaps the underlying point to all of this. When the Treasury Secretary told the president, just in recent days, that the White House needed to be open to more negotiations to send the markets a signal that this was indeed a strategy, not certainly just a dead end path to tariffs for all. That certainly is what the market is seeing here.

But the question here on the 104 percent tariffs for China that go into effect at midnight, this is Exhibit A, the example of the trade war that is underway here, certainly between the U.S. and China. But all of those other deadlines, all the other tariffs that were scheduled to go in effect at midnight, that is still the plan. The White House Press Secretary assured us of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president's message has been simple and consistent from the beginning, to countries around the world, bring us your best offers and he will listen. Deals will only be made if they benefit American workers and address our nation's crippling trade deficits. He's going to use the leverage of our markets and our country to the advantage of the people he was sworn in to represent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So Karoline Leavitt saying the phones are ringing off the hook. Her words, as the administration is fielding, some inquiries from countries trying to make a better deal to push back against some of those suggested tariff that were announced last week by the president. But look, the bottom line to all of this is there are still many questions about the economic wisdom of all this, as prices will be passed along to the consumers for all of these taxes essentially on imports.

KEILAR: And Jeff, the White House was just asked by Alayna Treene, our colleague, about this escalating feud between Elon Musk and Trump's Trade Advisor, Peter Navarro. Tell us what's happening there and about the answer that she got. ZELENY: Look, this has been pretty extraordinary, watching Elon Musk really go after Peter Navarro, who is the top trade advisor here. He's calling him, I said he's dumber than a pile of bricks, et cetera. But our Alayna Treene asked the press secretary if this was a wise strategy in terms of communication. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Boys will be boys. So that is the message from the White House in terms of the fight that has really been very public, kind of like a playground brawl, if you will, between Elon Musk and Peter Navarro. But it really underlined a serious point here that there are deep divisions inside this White House among top advisors of the president about the wisdom of all of these tariffs. Boris and Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Jeff Zeleny at the White House. Thank you so much, Jeff.

[14:05:00]

With us now is Aaron Klein, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Department of Treasury under President Obama. He's now a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. I imagine Aaron, you may have some questions for us. Where did the Glizzy Tower go? It suddenly disappeared --

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: On a serious note --

AARON KLEIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC POLICY, DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY: I was promised a hot dog.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: I guaranty you, there's one just outside.

KEILAR: There's 12 for you.

SANCHEZ: On a serious note, you have the administration saying that dozens of countries are approaching the White House trying to broker deals. You have the markets seeming to rebound. How much of that is a dead cat bounce and how much of that is confidence that we might actually see a deal soon come to fruition?

KLEIN: Yeah. So I mean, whenever you see a massive sell-off, like what we had over the last few days, there becomes pressure in the market structurally to have a little bit of a rally. A lot of people buy to cover things that they'd shorted. People are out of shorts and they're closing down and winding out positions. So it's very dangerous to read too much into any one-day swing on the market left to right. What the markets are saying in both stocks and in bonds and in interest rates is if Trump goes through with these tariffs, he risks pushing the U.S. into a recession and the entire world into a recession, and there'll be massive economic consequences.

KEILAR: This is a lot to deal with, all of these deals that need to be, I guess, unilaterally brokered, right? And there's only so much manpower in the White House. So with that in mind, how can the White House actually avert some kind of crisis with this many deals that need to be done?

KLEIN: So it seems that averting a crisis is not the goal; the goal is to cause a crisis. The goal is to put Trump front and center. The goal is to promote his book and his image as a deal maker and do these bilateral calls. The problem that the White House has is its end gain seems to be trade neutrality with each individual country. If you look at their tariff formula, it's based on the trading goods with each individual country.

So the U.S. can't -- is forced in their intellectual construct to tariff a country the minute that country sells more to us than we sell to them in just goods alone, which just is not an economically feasible outcome. So at some point, the White House is going to have to pivot from their nonsensical tariff formula, declare victory, and move forward. And the question is how long will that take and what will their definition of victory look like.

SANCHEZ: They've started to sort of contour what victory might look like, talking about non-tariff trade barriers. How realistic is it that we'll see other countries move around the rules and regulations to allow the U.S. to export their goods? Things like poultry and agricultural goods.

KLEIN: Yeah, I mean that's possible. Keep in mind, Trump had four years as president to make these deals and to address those points. He declared victory on those with Canada, with Mexico, with many of the countries he's going after. One of the big problems I have here is he is turning our allies into our enemies. So you see Japan and South Korea starting to negotiate their own trade deals with China. Those are countries that have historically been key allies to us politically and economically, and import a lot of American food.

KEILAR: There's also a question about how these tariffs affect different places differently, right? You know, you have a piece, a really interesting one in the Nevada Current where you're looking specifically at Las Vegas, right? And you're looking at the idea that Trump could cause a recession in Vegas. As you looked at this, what did you find and what makes you think that this is on the horizon?

KLEIN: Yeah, so we talk a lot about travel and tourism. When foreigners come to America, that's considered an export, that lowers our trade deficit. We're exporting Las Vegas around the world. And what I found that was shocking is not just that 5 million people come from around the world to Las Vegas every year, but the number one country that comes is Canada. 1.3 million visitors a year. Canadian air travel to America is down 70 percent for bookings for this summer. If that translates through, that would be 1 million fewer Canadians alone.

Next biggest country is Mexico, England. These are all countries. You look at other cities, not just Las Vegas, but New Orleans or Orlando, that have massive foreign tourist markets. And Trump's war of words is already hurting their economy. And unlike tariffs where he can make a deal, once you've angered a nation like what he's done, belittling the nation of Canada, these folks are going to go elsewhere. So it could be a structural problem.

SANCHEZ: I also wonder about these tariffs hitting some of our allies, including Australia. Senator Mark Warner asked the Trade Rep about tariffs on Australia. Greer highlighted that they got the lowest level of tariffs, 10 percent. I want to play a portion of that exchange now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK WARNER, (D-VA) FINANCE COMMITTEE: We already have a free trade agreement. We have a trade surplus, so getting the least bad, why did they get whacked in the first place?

JAMIESON GREER, UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: We're addressing the $1.2 trillion deficit, the largest in human history that President Biden left us with. We should be running up the score on Australia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Running up the score on Australia.

KLEIN: So that makes absolutely no sense because if you want to get a better trade, bilateral trade with Australia, have more Australians come to America as tourists.

[14:10:00]

They spend weeks here when they come. They spend tens of thousands of dollars. They're one of the countries that sends a fair number of tourists here. And yet, we're tariffing their goods. We're trash talking them as a nation. That's the reason the Island of Penguins that has gotten so much press, because that's technically part of Australia, and got a 10 percent tariff. He's not making any sense.

One of the things that is so self-defeating about Trump's trade agenda is that he's so narrowly looking at goods when the U.S. export services like tourism. And his demeanor of attacking our allies like Australia, like Canada, drives people away from America, which fundamentally in the long run will hurt cities like Las Vegas, will hurt working people in the travel and tourism industry, which is one of the largest industries in America and will widen our trade deficit. International tourism was almost 10 percent of U.S. exports in 2019.

SANCHEZ: Yikes. Aaron Klein, appreciate the analysis as always. Thanks so much.

KLEIN: Thank you. SANCHEZ: Today, Republican Senator Thom Tillis warned there would be serious political consequences if the economy isn't fixed by next February. He told CNN "Business people think long-term, make long-term investments. The American people think every two years and they generally reward an administration in Congress that gets us on the right track."

KEILAR: Tillis was one of seven Republicans who signed off on a bipartisan bill aimed at reigning in presidential tariff authority. Joining us now, Pollster and Communication Strategist Frank Luntz, to talk a little bit about this. So, Frank, President Trump is delivering on his campaign promise to impose tariffs, perhaps overdelivering as we talk to some of his supporters who are feeling this in a way that perhaps they didn't expect. How are voters seeing it?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIST: Let's take a look and I have to work backwards from Election Day because Senator Tillis is onto something. It's not just what happens on Election Day, it's before that, The average voter makes up their mind who they're going to support around Labor Day. It's as though they have a lunch or dinner with friends. They sit around the table, they talk about politics, economics, culture, and they make that decision.

So Donald Trump definitely has time. There's a big but here, which is we've not seen a collapse in the market like this. We've not seen anything so clearly tied to a policy decision. The last time we saw anything like this was COVID, and that is clearly not what this is about. So in the end, are you more safe and secure today than you were three months ago? Do you believe the future is going to be better than the past?

Are you going to have more money in your pocket tomorrow than you do today? All these questions which were being answered yes on Inauguration Day are being answered no right now. And so, Donald Trump's numbers have suffered. And one last point, it's not Republicans because they back him no matter what he does, and it's not Democrats because they oppose him no matter what he does. We're looking at independents and by better than two-to-one independents do not like this policy because they think that it is too much, too harsh, too fast, and that it's not being well received.

That does not mean this takes down Donald Trump's agenda. It does mean that people are taking a pause and they're asking questions. Is this helping America?

SANCHEZ: Patience also kind of plays into this, or at least the White House is hoping that it does, Frank, when the president urges Americans to be patient. He's saying, "Don't be weak, don't be stupid." I mean, at some point, that patience must wear thin if the economy isn't trending in the right direction, How much patience do you think these voters will have?

LUNTZ: So I need to ask you a question. Did he actually say, don't be stupid? Was that his language, his rhetoric?

SANCHEZ: It was a quote from the president. LUNTZ: Then, that is a very bad thing to say. Voters do not like being told that they're stupid. If the president said, don't rush, be patient, good things happen in the long term, the public would've said, I'll accept that, I'll embrace that. You know I'm a language person. When he's saying, don't be stupid, there will be a lot of voters in the center that will regard that as a criticism, an undeserved criticism.

Make no mistake, the language of tariffs, the public has still not made up their minds whether this is good or bad. They don't like the opening, but there's still time to recover if the language is proper. Number one, are we on a level playing field? Number two, does the American workforce get every opportunity that other workers get to sell their goods and sell their services? Number three, does it raise or lower the prices that the average American pays for the average items?

[14:15:00]

And number four, and potentially most important, what does this mean for my bottom line, not just now, but six months, a year and two years from now? If you were to ask those questions and answer them favorably, then these tariff policies would have public support. But the administration is doing a lousy job communicating this policy, and that's one of the reasons why the public has turned against it.

KEILAR: So, and Frank, look at what his advisors are doing, right? They're sending mixed messages about whether this is a negotiating tactic or whether this is the long haul. But then, you have like Elon Musk calling Peter Navarro a moron, and the White House press secretary saying, boys will be boys. I mean, I guess, at least she acknowledged they're behaving like children. I guess we could say that if boys will be boys here.

But what's the effect on people who are looking at the president's advisors saying all of these different, and insulting at times, things?

LUNTZ: The average individual doesn't see the difference. The average individual doesn't compare what the Secretary of the Treasury says versus the Secretary of Commerce, or does not really pay attention when Elon Musk attacks the person responsible for trade. What they do see is a level of insecurity, a level of instability. And frankly, this time, the stock market matters because so many Americans are using the stock market as the barometer of what Americans think and what the world thinks. And if it continues to crater, that in itself will be the biggest hurdle for this administration to overcome.

KEILAR: Frank Luntz, thank you so much for your perspective, as always. Still to come, President Trump says the U.S. is holding nuclear talks directly with Iran. But what we know about that surprise announcement is Iran is saying that they are indirect.

SANCHEZ: And later, sources tell CNN the Trump administration is planning a military parade in D.C. to commemorate the Army's 250th anniversary, a date which happens to fall on the President's birthday. These stories and more coming your way on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:21:35]

SANCHEZ: Just minutes ago, the White House repeated President Trump's warning to Iran, strike a deal or there will be hell to pay. And they insisted that the talks with Tehran will be direct. That's echoing President Trump's remarks during his Oval Office meeting yesterday with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yesterday, Iran confirmed that negotiations between the U.S. and Iran will take place Saturday in Oman.

KEILAR: But the Iranian foreign Minister disputes calling the talks on a nuclear deal direct, describing them as indirect and also high level. The U.S. and Iran have not had direct talks since 2015. CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Alex Marquardt is here. And Alex, you're learning that Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff will be leading these talks.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: He is, which means that his portfolio is ever expanding. He was named the Middle East Envoy, so that meant a lot to do on Gaza, Saudi normalization. And then he kind of got the Russia portfolio. He's been in Russia twice to meet with Vladimir Putin. He is helping negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. And now, you have him essentially taking over the Iran file, which is an extraordinarily complex portfolio to have.

I think this announcement about these talks this weekend took a lot of people by surprise, not least of whom were the Israelis who were sitting right there in the room. And even as late as last night, we didn't know, the Trump administration didn't know who would be attending these talks in Oman. We now know that they are taking place on Saturday, but there's still this question over direct or indirect. The Trump administration continuing to say that they are direct talks, which means the two sides speak directly with each other, and the Iranians are insisting, no, they're indirect. They're actually going to go through the mediators, the Omanis.

And the reason that the Iranians appear to be insisting on this is because of a lack of trust, because of this bellicose language that they hear coming from the Trump administration. We've actually heard directly from the Iranian who's going to be there on Saturday, the foreign minister. He wrote in The Washington Post, so for all of Washington to see, and I want to read a little bit of his op-ed. He wrote, 'We face a significant wall of mistrust and harbor serious doubts about the sincerity of intentions, made worse by U.S. insistence on resuming the maximum pressure policy to any diplomatic interaction. To move forward today, we need first to agree that there can be no military option, let alone a military solution.'

Now, what's interesting guys is, yesterday, in front of Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Trump was asked specifically whether military action was on the table. And he didn't say yes. He spoke quite aggressively and issued warnings, but he didn't say that he was ready to bomb Iran. Here's a little bit more of what he told reporters in the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the United States under your leadership ready to take military action to destroy the Iranian nuclear program and remove this threat?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think if the talks aren't successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger. And I hate to say it, great danger, because they can't have a nuclear weapon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So is that a yes?

TRUMP: You know, it's not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That's all there is. And if the talks aren't successful, I actually think it'll be a very bad day for Iran if that's the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Now, it's a very fine line between a very bad day for Iran and a military strike. But it is a line nonetheless. And that was certainly disappointing for Netanyahu to hear because I think he would like the U.S. to sign on to a military strike with the Israelis.

[14:25:00]

But what is clear from what we heard from Trump yesterday is that he wants a deal with Iran. And this meeting on Saturday is a significant step, so we'll be watching that closely.

SANCHEZ: Alex Marquardt, thank you so much for the reporting.

Still ahead, President Trump promised to deliver the cleanest air and water, but in just about 30 minutes, he's going to sign an executive order aimed at reinvigorating the coal industry. We're going to take a look at what this could mean for the environment and for your health.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Minutes from now, President Trump is expected to sign an executive order that is aimed at revitalizing the U.S. coal industry. The White House says the move is critical to achieve American energy and A.I. dominance. Trump has long promised to boost U.S. production of coal. It's an industry that's been in decline now for decades. In his --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)