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EU Pauses Retaliation After Trump's Tariff U-Turn; Trump Reverses Course On Sweeping Tariffs After Market Chaos; Trump Orders DOJ To Investigate Two First Term Critics. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 10, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:48]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking this morning the European Union says it is putting its retaliatory measures against the U.S. on hold after President Trump backed down first and paused his tariff plan for 90 days. The President of the European Commission said the pause is "an important step toward stabilizing the global economy."

European markets all solidly higher this morning -- a lot of green there.

Let's get right to CNN's Melissa Bell live in Paris. And, you know, the EU is basically taking a little bit of a victory lap saying this is what happens when we stick together.'

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and hoping to stay unified on this. And what's interesting about their response to this 90-day pause John is not just that they're pausing what they were planning to do with regard to the reciprocal tariffs, which has been paused, but they're also stopping the rest of their responses.

So, for instance, American tax on steel and aluminum of 25 percent remain on European companies. Europeans agreed yesterday on their response to that. They've decided to pause rolling out that response. American tax on the automobile and auto parts industry remain on Europe.

For now, Europeans are also holding back. So a lot of restraint really being shown by the European Union here. They've really stopped all of the measures, both the ones they'd agreed on and the ones they were considering, for now.

Have a listen to what the Spanish prime minister had to say in response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Nobody wins a trade war. Everybody loses. For this, the measure announced by the U.S. administration, pending review of the exact details, seems like an open door for negotiation and as such to an agreement between countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: So Europeans hopeful that negotiations can be reached and the negotiations can begin on all of these matters. But they also explain that they're going to continue to work together to look at very firm measures on both the automobile tariffs and the so-called reciprocals so that if in 90 days when that period comes to an end should the American ones kick in the Europeans should be ready to respond and to respond very harshly as we discussed yesterday. But for now very much looking to see whether this pause equals the beginning of negotiations.

BERMAN: Yeah, this is very much a case of what happens next.

Melissa Bell in Paris today. Thanks so much for being with us -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And just huge questions around exactly that.

What happens next because as President Trump is also now warning that major tariffs will soon be hitting pharmaceutical imports. This could be his next target. As he's saying that, drug experts across the country are sounding the alarm warning that tariffs could raise already high drug prices even more and make existing drug shortages even worse.

CNN's Meg Tirrell is looking into this one. And Meg, one thing that's been discussed for a very long time is the -- I'll say even the national security risk of how reliant the United States is on other countries like China for many major drug components, and that really is coming to light once again with this.

MEG TIRRELL CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Kate, absolutely. I mean, pharmaceuticals were left out of the original round of tariffs that Trump announced on what he called "Liberation Day" April 2, but he did talk about that issue and why he has pharmaceutical tariffs in his sights.

Here's what he said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States can no longer produce enough antibiotics to treat our sick. We have a tremendous problem. We have to go to foreign countries to treat our sick. If anything ever happened from a war standpoint, we wouldn't be able to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIRRELL: Now this is something pretty much universally agreed upon is a major problem and should be fixed, but experts are telling us that tariffs are actually going to likely make this situation a lot worse before bringing any manufacturing back to the U.S. if they do at all.

And the reason for that is because really, antibiotics are mostly generic medications. These are older medicines that have lost patent protection. They're very inexpensive, which makes them great for their accessibility but it's an incredibly fragile ecosystem for generic medicines. And generic drugs, Kate, make up 92 percent of prescriptions dispensed in the United States.

[07:35:00]

Now, here is how tariffs could cause more shortages of these drugs. There is a very low profit margin on generic medicines. They are sold very close to what they cost to produce.

But there are also limits on how much they can increase prices, both because of group purchasing organization contracts that last for several years but also because of laws that exist that limit raising the price faster than inflation. So you can't really raise the price very much. So if the cost of the ingredients that goes into generic drugs rises that could actually make them unprofitable to produce. And experts are warning that could lead makers of generic drugs just to say we're going to leave the market.

And already Kate we see a lot of shortages across generic drugs. Antibiotics are one of the top five categories where we see shortages. But Kate, we also see shortages in things like cancer chemotherapy drugs, central nervous system drugs. We all know about the ADHD drug shortages. Electrolyte fluids and hormone agents. Those are the top five drug categories where we see shortages. Experts warn those could get worse.

And on branded medicines, Kate, prices possibly could go up and they are already astronomical.

Back over to you.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. I mean, what you -- your reporting on this is so important. I didn't appreciate kind of the rules in place of how they couldn't raise prices on generic drugs even if they wanted to, which is -- seems like it's on a collision course right now with whatever Donald -- President Trump is planning.

Thank you so much, Meg -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN senior political commentator and Republican strategist David Urban, and Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha.

Let's go over some of the headlines and leads in today's papers. The Washington Post, "Trump blinked." Wall Street Journal opinion, "Trump blinks." The New York Times lead says, "Bond yields caused Mr. Trump to blink." The Financial Times, "Why did Donald Trump buckle?" And just for the sugar on top here, Politico says, "Gettin' yippy with it" and Puck says "Unliberation Day."

So David Urban, blink, blink, buckle. But as Kate Bolduan asked this morning, was this all bungled?

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: No, John, I don't think it was bungled. I think that the markets got a little skittish. I think the House and Senate are working diligently to get a -- you know, get this tax bill get done and get some things pushed through.

I think that if the markets stepped back and just were a bit more patient and paused the administration was getting a lot of good things done. They have a stable coin bill done -- getting done, which is going to really make the U.S. dollar much stronger globally. So I think taken in totality the administration is moving forward in a pretty good direction.

However, the bond market, as you -- as you noted there, really put a scare into the administration I think when the cost of borrowing for the federal government goes way, way up and the U.S. dollar doesn't become the reserve currency, which was -- which is what it looks like when you have a bond market sell-off like was happening. I think that's what caused the pause button to be pushed.

BERMAN: Should they have known that was going to happen?

URBAN: I'm sorry?

BERMAN: Shouldn't they have known that is what was going to happen?

URBAN: Well, John --

BERMAN: I mean, as they say in "Spinal Tap" it's their -- not their job to be (INAUDIBLE).

URBAN: But it --

BERMAN: Go ahead.

URBAN: Yeah. Listen, if anybody could predict the markets like that let me know and I'll go follow them and invest with them.

No. I don't think they could predict how the bond market -- what's going to happen globally with the bond market. I don't think that's predictable. I really don't.

BERMAN: Chuck, what do you think -- well, let me ask you this. What did Democratic politicians see in this retreat this morning?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, BERNIE SANDERS 2016 AND 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS (via Webex by Cisco): They see an issue that they can use in the midterms. What they're -- and the reason all this happened -- we should all be very clear -- is that Republicans have an election in 18 months and the signs that they're seeing -- and nobody can predict an election and we're a long way away. Don't come at me with all of that. I run campaigns for a living. I get it, and it's all true.

But what you don't want is one thing after another. And what you've had is one thing after another. And one day in the stock market is not the whole stock market for the year. But what the American people who don't understand the bond market or

buybacks, or bonds, and all the things -- they just look at their 401k statement every month just like this poor old Mexican redneck does myself. That's what we think about the "market."

And they also look at the price of things. One of the main reasons Donald Trump got elected in the first place is people were reminisce as to go back to the prices of what they were when he was in office. I don't feel like he's addressed that -- what he's done with trade agreements and with the market.

And I think the Republicans in Congress with this budget resolution will just make things worse when there's an election in less than eight months -- 18 months. And I think that's what they are really worried about.

BERMAN: Chuck, how much do you think we'll hear from the president over the next 90 days on tariffs? I mean, this has been everything leading up to what he called "Liberation Day" and since then. Do you think it's going to get swept under the rug a little bit? Do you think he'd rather focus on something else for a while?

ROCHA: Look, this is one of the things that he really believes in so he's going to find a way to do this. He got spooked because of the market and because of the midterm elections.

They're going to try to maybe figure out now what they can do with certain tariffs, I think, in certain countries because he wants the tariffs. He wants to bring them back. There are folks around him who want to have a Republican majority in the midterms who don't want it. So we're going to see who is going to win that battle.

[07:40:08]

BERMAN: David, what do you think China --

URBAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- sees here? Do you think they see this as them being put on an island, which I think is what the White House wants it to seem like this morning, or do you think they look at this and say hey, this is weakness? This guy has backed down now in a trade face-off first with Canada and now with the rest of the world.

URBAN: Hey look, John, I don't -- I don't think President Xi looks at President Trump and sees weakness.

And look, I agree with Chuck. Maybe it's his -- maybe it's his dashing hat that he's wearing there. But, you know, a lot of Americans want to see their costs at home -- they want to see those prices go down. And I think that's what this administration needs to address more directly. They want to view that.

But again, what President Trump is doing here and trying to do, and this administration is trying to do isn't tariffs-for-tariffs sake. You heard the -- in the previous segment talking about pharmaceuticals

being made offshore. We need to make more things in America. I'm sure Chuck will agree, and you'll agree American manufacturing needs to come back. We need to make pharmaceuticals, widgets, shoes, clothing, all those things that went away in the '70s and '80s.

Remember Ross Perot's giant sucking sound, right? He was talking about American jobs going overseas. We need to bring those back.

And so this administration, by their policies -- deregulation, tax cuts, and these tariffs -- that's what they're trying to do. And so the American economy -- you know, underlying, it's pretty healthy.

But you can't tell that to -- as Chuck said, the people are looking at their 401ks. Those are working-class people and if they don't have jobs to go to because American manufacturing continues to flee overseas for differently places, cheaper cost of labor and things because of -- because of their tariffs, that's not healthy for the long run in America.

So we need to fix that structurally and that's what the Trump administration is trying to do; not -- tariffs are -- the president doesn't just has an affixation with tariffs; he has fixation with American jobs. With American workers returning to work. That's what these tariffs are trying to accomplish.

BERMAN: Was he making that case though, Chuck, successfully given that -- and I don't have the numbers to show you here but in the latest Quinnipiac poll a vast majority -- more than 70 percent said that the tariffs were going to cause short-term pain. More than half said they were going to cause long-term pain. In other words, maybe not worth even what David is saying might be the ultimate goal here.

ROCHA: John, what you bring up is the absolute political risk. The risk of how much pain can you take to do what David is talking about? And every American would agree and it's great messaging from the Republicans. It drives an old Democrat like me crazy because that's my messaging of why I joined the Democratic Party was to bring my manufacturing job -- I will remind everybody at home my job back in the '90s went to China. I made small radial pasture tires (INAUDIBLE) --

URBAN: Well, come back. Come back, Chuck. Come back to the party, Chuck. We'll have you.

ROCHA: That's what I'm saying is that we've got to figure out how and how much pain -- they are trying to figure out -- the White House -- can the American public take. He couldn't take the pain for a few weeks with these tariffs and the stock markets before you could actually bring jobs back to America. That's what he's really got to figure out. The American people weren't for it right now.

BERMAN: David, I just want to ask you a quick question on this executive order ordering the Justice Department to investigate Miles Taylor and also Chris Krebs. And I don't know if you know Chris Krebs. But in the executive order itself it says that one of the reasons that

the president wants him investigated is because he vouched for the security of the 2020 election.

Inside the language of the order it says, "Because Krebs promoted the censorship of election information, including known risks associated with certain voting practices" -- and this line -- "and falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen."

That's a presidential executive order, David.

Do you think that Chris Krebs should be investigated for saying the 2020 election wasn't rigged?

URBAN: No, I don't, John. I think Chris Krebs is a good man. I think he's an honorable person that did the best job he could for America in that situation.

And I -- look, if this president wants to have an investigation of that let him have an investigation. I think it's been looked at by a lot of courts in a lot of different places and one more investigation -- let's have it.

Chris Krebs is a good American and I think he'll be exonerated.

BERMAN: David Urban, Chuck Rocha, thanks so much for being here this morning. Appreciate your time -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So the pimento cheese sandwiches -- they're ready. The azalea cocktails -- they're flowing. I mean, I don't know, it's 7:40. Maybe they are flowing -- yeah.

Day one of the Masters starts today in Augusta, so let's go there. CNN's Andy Scholes is on the ground. The quest for the green jacket begins.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: It certainly does, Kate. And how does 75 and sunny sound here in Augusta because that's what we're going to have today. It's going to be a beautiful day. The excitement is building for this year's Masters.

More on that in a moment, but first, it was a very special night last night in Dallas as Luka Doncic made his return for the first time since that shocking trade. Ever since February 2 those Mavs fan had last night circled on their calendars, and Luke did not disappoint.

[07:45:00]

Now, they played a very long, emotional tribute video for Luka highlighting his six years there in Dallas and that had Luka just in tears before the game. But somehow, he shook that off and went out and just had an epic performance. He scored 31 in the first half and finished with 45 as the Lakers won 112-97.

Lakers coach JJ Redick calling Luka's performance "super human."

And her was Luka afterwards on his return.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUKA DONCIC, GUARD, LOS ANGELES LAKERS: So many emotions. I can't even explain it. It brought tears to my eyes. Like I said, I came here as a young kid at 18. I did not know what to expect from the NBA. And, you know, they made me feel like home. And it's just a lot of great, great memories.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Meanwhile here in Augusta, the Masters getting underway just moments ago. And all eyes, once again, are going to be on Scottie Scheffler as he tries to go back-to-back and win three out of the last four Masters tournaments. He tees off at 10:15 this morning.

Another big storyline here in Augusta this year is will this finally be the year that Rory McIlroy breaks through and wins the Masters to complete the career grand slam. Rory has been playing great coming in, but he has not won a major since the 2014 PGA Championship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RORY MCILROY, 4-TIME MAJOR WINNER: I need to treat this tournament like all the other tournaments that I play throughout the year. And yeah, look, I understand the narrative and the noise and there's a lot of anticipation and buildup and coming into this tournament each and every year, but I just have to keep my head down and focus on my job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. We'll see if Rory can finally get it done. He tees off at 1:12 Eastern this afternoon. But whether he wins or not it's already been a great Masters for the McIlroy family. Rory's daughter Poppy with the shot of the par 3 tournament. A perfect touch here on the putt on it rolls 25 feet and it goes in, Kate. Shane Lowry and his daughter were just going nuts. Poppy was kind of just in disbelief.

BOLDUAN: Oh my God.

SCHOLES: How about that though, Kate? Four years old and has already made a putt better than I have in my entire life.

BOLDUAN: Right. I mean, you and me combined. She's so cute. She has the biggest dimples. Oh my gosh is she adorable. That is so much fun. What a fun memory --

SCHOLES: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- for all of them. Oh my goodness. Four years old and killing it.

Great to see you, Andy. Congrats on the weather.

SCHOLES: Yeah. BOLDUAN: I am jealous.

SCHOLES: All right.

BOLDUAN: All right. So tonight -- let's do this. Coming up for us -- coming up for us -- we're just going to wing it, guys. This morning there is a new Ken-bassador in town. A basketball great already considered a king is now the first pro male athlete to earn the glory of becoming a Barbie.

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[07:52:20]

BOLDUAN: New this morning the Supreme Court will decide if it will take up Karen Read's petition to drop several of the charges that she's facing in her murder retrial now. Read is accused of hitting her police office boyfriend with her car in 2022 leaving him to die. Her first trial, you'll remember, ended in a hung jury. Now, Read has asked the court to dismiss two of the three charges against her in this retrial on the grounds of double jeopardy.

Now, take a look at this. It was a wild moment that was captured on a Minnesota highway -- a semi turning off of the highway onto a train track and right into the path of the oncoming train. We're going to show it to you at some point. And then what you will be able to see is what happened next, which is the train then hits the -- we're going to show it. We won't show it to you. I'm going to make you guess. The train then hits the truck, splitting it in half and grain spilling across the road.

Here's the important aspect of this. Remarkably no one was killed. Two rail workers and the truck driver were treated on the scene for minor injuries.

And here is the view you have been waiting for to see exactly how scary and what a close call that was to absolute disaster. Thankfully no one killed.

Then there is this. NBA superstar LeBron James making history again. The king is now the first male pro athlete to have his very own Ken doll. Toymaker Mattel has named James as their first Ken-bassador.

Feast your eyes, friends, clad in a varsity jacket and Nike Terminator High sneakers, Beats headphones, sunglasses. There's even a fanny pack involved which, I don't know -- it's called a crossbody actually. He's also likely giving the original Ken a bit of complex because LeBron -- the LeBron version is an inch taller.

Here's LeBron checking it out for the first time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, NBA SUPERSTAR: Oh, he's dope. Oh, that's so cool. He might need to do a little lifting. His legs look a little skinny. A little frail little fellow. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Barbie LeBron goes on sale Monday. It will cost $75.00 -- John.

BERMAN: There's still room to be the first journalist depicted as a Ken doll.

BOLDUAN: But not frail legs.

BERMAN: Just saying.

BOLDUAN: But not frail legs.

BERMAN: Just saying. No, the legs would be enormous.

All right. This morning President Trump is threatening to use the power of the Justice Department to target two former officials from his first administration. The president signed an executive order Wednesday targeting Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs removing any security clearance they may still hold and ordering the Justice Department to investigate them. The president did not specify any alleged crimes but made clear he thinks he knows what the results should be.

Let's get to CNN national security reporter Zach Cohen for the latest on this. Good morning, Zach.

[07:55:00]

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, John, Donald Trump once again trying to use the power of the presidency to go after people he believes have wronged him in the past. And this executive order that he signed yesterday namechecks to former officials who Trump appointed to serve in senior roles during his first administration.

The first is Miles Taylor. Miles Taylor served at the Department of Homeland Security. He wrote that 2018 op-ed -- that scathing op-ed and then subsequent book really criticizing Donald Trump and giving a firsthand account of his decision-making.

Now, Donald Trump has in the past insisted he doesn't remember Taylor from his time during the first Trump term but take a listen to what Donald Trump said yesterday when he was signing this executive order.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's time to find out whether or not somebody can do that. Can they write a book about very confidential meetings and -- you know, because they happen to be one of a lot of people in a room? Can they go out and write a book -- and worse than that, call it anonymous like it's a big deal? And everybody say who is it? Who is it? Who is it? Then it was found out who he was a long time later.

I think it's a very important case and I think he's guilty of treason if you want to know the truth, but we'll find out. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Pretty remarkable comments to hear from a sitting president.

The other individual named in this -- in this executive order is Chris Krebs as you mentioned. He served as a top official at the cyber -- the cyber -- he was a top cyber official at the Department of Homeland Security during Trump's first term.

Chris Krebs really got sideways of Donald Trump when he refused to support Donald Trump's claim that the 2020 election was stolen. In fact, he called it at the time the safest election in history. Donald Trump, yesterday, though repeating what we've heard from him since the 2020 election claiming it was rigged without providing any evidence.

But look, this executive order is just the latest in a series of moves by Donald Trump to retaliate against those people, again, who have criticized him or contradicted him in the past. Really remarkable in part because this executive order effectively brands two individuals as subjects of a criminal investigation.

BERMAN: And again, the Attorney General Pam Bondi in her confirmation hearing said she was against the weaponization of the Justice Department.

Zach Cohen, nice reporting. Thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And joining us right now is CNN senior legal analyst, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Elie Honig.

Elie, this is quite something. I mean, what exactly do you think the president is saying there that he wants to do or will do with respect to these two men?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Well Kate, the retribution tour has now moved on from multibillion-dollar law firms and universities and media outlets, and now it's targeting private individual citizens.

If you look at these proclamations issued on formal letterhead yesterday by the White House, essentially what it does is a couple of things.

First of all, it strips security clearances not only from the targeted individuals, Krebs and Taylor, but also from the places where they work. Krebs works for a private cybersecurity firm. Miles Taylor works at the University of Pennsylvania. So it really threatens their livelihood.

But the far more important thing that Donald Trump has done here is specifically ordered the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation based on scattershot accusations of things that are not, in fact, crimes. And I think that's what really makes this particularly unusual and particularly dangerous.

BOLDUAN: The next move is then it's up to the Attorney General Pam Bondi. I mean --

HONIG: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- is it appropriate for her to even -- to open a criminal investigation given what you just said?

HONIG: So longstanding DOJ policy and practice going back decades says that prosecutors should not and cannot open an investigation for no reason or certainly not for political or personal reasons. You have to have something called predication, which just means basically a kernel of information on which to believe some crime might have been committed.

And again, you can look through those proclamations. You can listen to the president's public statements. He said Chris Krebs is a "wise guy." The last time I checked not a federal crime. He says that they are both dishonest actors and wrote anonymous books. Are troublemakers essentially. None of that's a federal crime.

So this, I think, will be another test of the attorney general's independence. The right thing to do here is just ignore this. I mean, Bill Barr, who I have criticized quite aggressively, did, in fact, ignore Donald Trump at times when he called for political prosecutions of is enemies.

So we'll see what Pam Bondi does here. She has not shown any real meaningful independence thus far. This will be another test.

BOLDUAN: What can Krebs and Taylor do? I mean, is there anything they can do to stop this?

HONIG: So with regard to the security clearance part of it they can go to court and challenge that. In fact, several law firms have had success in courts --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

HONIG: -- challenging those suspension of security clearances.

But on the topic of the criminal investigations unfortunately there's nothing you can do. You can't go to a judge and ask a judge to prevent DOJ or the FBI from investigating. If criminal charges do result here, of course they'll have the full ability to defend themselves.

And I do want to say this. They will have a very good case of what we call selective prosecution, which can get a case dismissed if they can show that they were singled out for improper or political purposes here.

[08:00:00]