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American Airlines Jets Bump Wings on Ground at Reagan National Airport; U.S. Markets Falls as Tariffs Whiplash Stokes More Volatility; U.S. Stocks Fall as Trump's Trade War with China Escalates; Tech Donors' Net Worth and Company Valuations on the Decline; Small Business Owner on the Impacts of Tariffs. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 10, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT (D-NY): ... and then another plane sort of like turned and clipped the wings of our plane.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This plane that turned, I mean, can you explain - you think that they would be able to see you. Did you get a sense of perhaps why that happened?

ESPAILLAT: I don't know exactly, but I think - I'm sure that it could have been avoided as we were, you know, pretty much standing still there waiting to, you know, to take off. So, we averted it - a deadly accident, I might say.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: To your point about this being avoided, Congressman, we've heard a lot of headlines coming out of Reagan National Airport recently, not only in January with that deadly collision, but also even as of last week, not only a near miss, but also an air traffic controller that was arrested after a so-called incident. There was allegedly a fight, an assault inside the air traffic control tower. What do you think is going on at Reagan National?

ESPAILLAT: You can't make this up. This is unbelievable. And the FAA has to have greater staffing. I'm appalled that funding is being taken away from it. And this is the kind of results that you get when you don't have an agency working at its optimum capacity.

KEILAR: You - and you have the head of the FAA Air Traffic Organization stepping down early. That's part of the voluntary deferred resignation program. We've heard as well about the hours that these air traffic controllers are working. And there are also a number of other issues that are specific to DCA, Congressman, some that may not be specific to DCA. Are you seeing this as kind of a confluence of a number of different things that we are seeing these incidents?

ESPAILLAT: Well, what I can say is that an agency like the FAA that has everybody's safety within an inch of their hands must be fully funded, vigorously funded to avert any deadly accidents and incidents. And you can't half-step an agency as important as this. They should be fully funded.

SANCHEZ: Congressman, I understand that the group that was on board was bipartisan. I wonder if you had any conversations with some of your colleagues from across the aisle about some congressional action that can come of what you personally just experienced as dysfunction at Reagan National.

ESPAILLAT: Not that kind of conversation. We did talk because, you know, it was a shocking incident, but I'm sure we will do that when we get back.

KEILAR: And what happened when the wings clipped? What was the reaction like inside of the plane? And what did the captain say to you?

ESPAILLAT: You felt it and you saw the wing actually flopping up and down, so you knew there was a strong contact there. So, you felt it really strong and then when I looked out the window, I was right on the other side of the plane. But at the wing level, I saw the wings flopping up and down, yes.

KEILAR: And did the captain get on the intercom and talk to you all about what had happened?

ESPAILLAT: Well, they told us that, you know, they were going to take us back to the gate. We waited a little bit. We saw some emergency vehicles near us, and then they took us back to the gate.

SANCHEZ: Congressman, I want to follow up on something you said previously and get your thoughts on the way that the White House has framed this issue, because the administration has said that there have been no cuts to air traffic controllers, safety personnel or safety- critical positions at the FAA. Do you think that the White House is being dishonest with that?

ESPAILLAT: Their cuts, their downsizing, they want to misguide us about that, but this is an agency that, in particular this airport, has seen already tragic incidents where many people died. They should be beefed up to a level where everybody feels secure.

KEILAR: How do you feel about traveling out of DCA? I think some folks had looked at what had happened with the Army helicopter and the American Airlines jet and what had happened with the rules involving helicopters not being able to traverse the Potomac near the airport there. That gave them a sense of, I guess, security, that things were going to be better with Reagan.

After this has happened today, how are you looking at using this airport?

ESPAILLAT: I mean, I thought about going Amtrak. And I do go Amtrak when the weather is bad. So, yes, this is a kind of dangerous place right here.

[00:05:01]

SANCHEZ: Congressman, I want to make let - sure that our viewers know, I'm sure you do, but many years ago, when Dulles was opened, the plan was for Reagan National ultimately to close, but at least my understanding and speaking to a lot of folks in the area and experts was that it remained open in large part because members of Congress wanted to use it for easy access to travel back to their districts.

I wonder what your thoughts are about limiting the number of flights, maybe not closing Reagan National, but limiting the number of flights that are coming out of there. There's been a lot of pushback from members of Congress to do that.

ESPAILLAT: Well, I don't know who has done that, but, you know, it's a busy airport. Local people use it. They feel comfortable with it. I think there needs to be greater safety measures implemented, and you could only get there if you have full staff.

KEILAR: Yes. And so, if they're going to be looking at doing things, I mean, what is your message to other members of Congress who have resisted limiting flights and certainly are very loyal to the idea of using Reagan airport?

ESPAILLAT: I mean, safety should come first. Everybody's safety, obviously, beginning with the general public.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Adriano Espaillat, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon and your experience there at Reagan National with us. We're glad that you and everyone else on board is safe. We hope that you have safe travels heading home.

ESPAILLAT: Thank you. Thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

KEILAR: Reality setting in, President Trump conceding there may be transition problems with his trade plan. On Wall Street, markets falling again, as the White House says its tariffs on China are actually higher than what was first announced.

SANCHEZ: And the House of Representatives taking a critical step in advancing President Trump's agenda after Speaker Johnson wrangles fiscal conservatives to approve a budget blueprint despite major disagreements.

Plus, more than 300 student visas have been revoked as the U.S. government expands its deportation efforts. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar with Boris Sanchez here in Washington.

And right now we are watching the markets, which are, I guess, in their yo-yo era. Stocks seeing a downswing today as President Trump escalates his trade war with China. All of this happening almost exactly 24 hours after Trump's pause on some tariffs triggered a major spike in the market.

And we're looking there. We see the Dow is down almost a thousand points. All the markets are down. This afternoon during a Cabinet meeting, the President said he was not watching the markets closely today. Certainly folks in his administration are, though. But he expressed some new optimism that a tariff deal with China could get done and that was certainly of note, even though China says today they're not backing down.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And the President wouldn't acknowledge whether there have been any discussions with China or not, even though he says that President Xi is a close friend. During his Cabinet meeting, Trump was also asked about trade deals. The White House says it's negotiating right now with other countries. He was specifically asked just how quickly he believes this first deal could get done. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think it's very close. But, you know, we have to have a deal that we like. We don't want a deal that's going to be a bad deal or I could make every deal in one day if I wanted to. I could do this all-in-one day. I could just say, here's what we'll do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's bring in CNN's Matt Egan.

Matt, walk us through the state of these trade wars right now, what it means as we approach this final hour of trading.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris and Brianna, it's almost like everyone on Wall Street woke up and realized that the trade war is not over, right? Not by a long shot. And so that means the risk to the economy, to consumers, all of that still remains. And yes, we're going to continue to see markets bump around. So, you see the Dow is down by a thousand points, 2.6 percent. This comes after those epic gains yesterday of almost 3,000 points. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ are also deeply in the red right now, giving back some, but not all, of yesterday's gains.

What's notable is that, believe it or not, markets are actually well off the worst levels of the day today. At one point, the Dow was down 2,000 points. One thing that may have helped the mood among investors is those comments that you mentioned from President Trump on China, right? Expressing some optimism and saying that we would love to have a deal here. And I think investors would love to have a deal, too, because we're still in a situation where the world's two biggest economies remain in an all-out trade war.

[15:10:06]

And the White House surprised investors today by confirming that U.S. tariffs on China are actually at, at least 145 percent, just unthinkably high levels. And the U.S. is also facing these retaliatory tariffs, of course, from China. And there's all of these concerns about what this is going to do to the economy, right?

And when you think about the kind of volatility that we've seen in markets the last few days, I think this is obvious, but this is not normal, right? It's not normal to see the Dow swing by a thousand or 2,000 or 3,000 points. And I just think that all of this speaks to the underlying uncertainty and fear right now that we're seeing among investors, and we're going to continue to see this volatility in financial markets until there's greater clarity on when this trade war is going to end. Boris and Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Yes, we'll see when we get that clarity. Matt Egan, thank you so much.

We're joined now by Tom Keene. He is the co-host of Bloomberg Surveillance on Bloomberg Radio. Sir, thanks so much for being with us. Even with this pause in place, these are the broadest and biggest tariffs the United States has seen in something like a hundred years, more than a hundred years. There's no indication the U.S. is going to avoid a recession. Do you think that markets yesterday may have overreacted to the news?

TOM KEENE, CO-HOST, BLOOMBERG SURVEILLANCE: Well, the markets are the markets, and the answer is they cleared the bond market out. Thank you, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan and maybe frankly, thank you, Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, and now we went with a big recovery.

And today, there's a new reality. The distinction that we see now, Boris, is it's about China. And my colleague, Anna Wong, our chief economist, said it best today when she said this falls on the American consumer. This drawdown that we're seeing now is a worry about what it means for the American economy, and now singularly the American consumer.

SANCHEZ: I do wonder where you think this winds up with China. Do you see a deal on the horizon where Beijing relinquishes some of its aspirations in terms of dominating the U.S. market?

KEENE: I'd go back to the Chinese you read at Syracuse University. I read the same books, Boris, and the answer is China doesn't do deals. They're going to do it their way. And the key determination here, Boris, and this goes to the CNN world, you've got President Trump now, maybe the GOP Republicans, the House, I should say, now looking out a year and a half. China's looking out three years, five years, 10 years. They're on a different timeline.

I do wonder specifically on the approach from the administration when it comes to trying to offset some of the pain that you talked about consumers feeling with the broad tax cuts that are being promised, not only an extension of the 2017 tax cuts, but things like ending taxes on tips, on Social Security. Is that enough to alleviate some of the pain?

KEENE: No, absolutely not. Every - you had a chart up in the last hour I was watching, and you had a chart up from the budget lab at Yale University. Ernie Tedeschi told me from Yale yesterday that that tax shenanigans of President Trump is completely separate from helping Americans. What's critical here is he will help the farmers. It's a backstory, Boris. I know it's off the CNN radar, but soybeans are front and center. President Trump is going to help the soybean farmers of the Midwest, because they got to get reelected out there in 2026.

SANCHEZ: Respectfully, Tom, it is very much on our radar. We've talked to soybean farmers and all kinds of farmers ...

KEENE: Great.

SANCHEZ: ... about what they felt back in 2018, 2019 and whether the administration could actually keep up with the size of the bailout that might be required now. I do want to ask you about inflation, because it hit a six-month low. You heard Cabinet officials touting that economic news. I wonder what your inflation predictions are, given the inflationary nature of tariffs.

KEENE: Well, inflation is very, very hard to predict. Politicians can look at the media scene. If they see a good number, like we saw today, was a good number, they can cheer about it. We don't know where that's going. What I would say is perhaps house - inflation today was dampened by a good housing report, what's called OER, very obscure, but the answer is maybe it was housing to the rescue.

I would bring it, Boris, over to jobs. I'm focused on May 2nd. That's the first Trump unemployment report. Our Anna Wong today modeled 5.3 percent unemployment out there in 2026. That's a lot of joblessness in America.

SANCHEZ: Tom Keene, very much appreciate your analysis. Thank you for coming on, and go Syracuse Orange.

[15:15:00]

Still to come, these tech giants donated big money to President Trump. Now they are out billions of dollars because of the President's trade policies.

Plus, how small businesses are reacting to the 90-day pause on most reciprocal tariffs. For many, what happens next could make or break their companies.

And later, former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is speaking out for the first time since President Trump launched a trade war. That and much more, coming up next.

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[15:19:49]

SANCHEZ: From donations to President Trump's campaign or inaugural funds to Mar-a-Lago visits, Silicon Valley tech giants try to win Trump's favor, and now their wallets are taking a hit from his policies.

KEILAR: The companies founded or run by Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos have collectively lost nearly $1.8 trillion in value since the start of the year. CNN business writer Clare Duffy is with us now on this story.

That's a lot of money, Clare.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: It is a lot of money, and it's interesting, right? Because these five leaders in particular, they sat front and center at the inauguration. As Boris said, they donated to Trump's inaugural fund or his campaign, either personally or through their companies, all presumably because they were hoping for some policies that would benefit their businesses, bottom line. But that is not what we have seen, at least in these first three months of Trump's presidency.

Instead, these companies collectively have lost, even after the market rally yesterday. In the case of Meta, tens of billions of dollars in market value. In the case of the other companies, hundreds of billions of dollars in market value since the start of this year.

And of course, a lot of that has to do with the uncertainty around this tariff policy. And the decline in share price and market value of these companies is also taking a hit to these leaders' personal wealth, and none more so than Elon Musk. He donated at least $290 million to Trump's campaign. He has now lost at least $107 billion in net worth since the start of this year.

So, it is really striking that these leaders who have supported Trump are now seeing a hit to both their company's valuation and their personal wealth. And we are starting to hear some of these companies speak up in particular about the tariff policy. Elon Musk warning that it could have a significant impact on Tesla. And just this morning, Amazon's CEO warned that consumers could see prices go up because of these tariff policies if they remain in place.

So, we are starting to hear from them, but not all of them, about their concerns around this policy.

KEILAR: All right. Clare, thank you so much for that. We appreciate it.

Tech giants, they're not the only ones suffering from President Trump's tariff policies. Small businesses are also feeling the heat. The 90-day pause on all reciprocal tariffs for countries except for China is a much-needed break for many companies to assess what they need to do to survive.

With us now is Cason Crane, the founder of Explorer Cold Brew. Cason, thank you so much for being with us. And just to let our viewers know, you just launched Explorer Cold Brew at Whole Foods nationwide. That's a really big milestone for you. Tell us how these tariffs are affecting you now that there is a pause, but there's still a 145 percent cumulative tariff on China.

CASON CRANE, FOUNDER & CEO, EXPLORER COLD BREW: Thanks, Brianna. Yes, I mean, look, for a small business like mine, launching in Whole Foods nationwide is like the highest of highs. It's a make-or-break opportunity. And to have just weeks later this news around tariffs and immediately seeing, hearing from suppliers about how things are going to impact our prices, it goes from a make to a break for a business like mine. So, it's been quite a tumultuous month. And even with the 90-day pause, I mean, the reciprocal tariffs are paused, but for a small business, you know, it's one thing for the big businesses you - that were mentioned, Apple and the others, that they're complaining. If they're complaining, it's a hundred times worse for small businesses. We can't fly in six plane loads of iPhones to beat the tariffs. We can't actually even raise prices because we're already - you know, think about the small businesses you support, it's all subscale production, so we're already priced on the high end of the set. So it's a very, very challenging situation for us.

KEILAR: Okay. So, explain this to us because on the coffee side of things, it sounds like things could have been a lot worse if there hadn't been this pause, right? But I wonder if still with that even not quite a day ...

CRANE: Yeah.

KEILAR: ... of the reciprocal tariffs being in effect, how that impacted you. But also you get your glass bottles from China, so what are you doing with that?

CRANE: Yes. Well, so on the coffee front, first of all, coffee has been exempt from tariffs since the 1800s. So, even a 10 percent tariff is a new development for us. And it's definitely better than, you know, for example, Vietnam. Vietnam is the second largest producer of coffee in the world. They were facing, I think, 46 percent tariffs.

So for my peers in the industry who runs, you know, some amazing Vietnamese coffee brands, I'm glad for them that that's been held back. But across the board, whether it's glass bottles or coffee, the 90-day period is - you know, it's a good initial step, I guess, but it doesn't really give enough time for small businesses to make the adjustments we need.

Ultimately, China is not the only place to make glass bottles or to buy glass bottles. But I don't have the, you know, widespread capabilities in the supply chain to immediately move my procurement of those products to a different place.

[15:25:00]

Big businesses might have that. Big businesses have the resources and access to capital to wait it out, to, you know, wait for American manufacturing to come back. But a small business like mine will be out of business before the end of the year if things continue on this path.

KEILAR: So, one of your company's investors is Bill Ackman, who was describing Trump's tariff approach as sort of like a nuclear winter. I think I may be paraphrasing, but I don't think by much. And he's a Trump supporter who has somewhat broken with the President, certainly on this issue of tariffs. What have your conversations been like with investors like Ackman?

CRANE: Well, I'm very grateful to have Bill and a wonderful group of supportive investors beyond Bill, in part because too often, small businesses like mine don't get this opportunity to speak up and be heard. And ultimately, you know, I think we are actually the ones who are most hurt.

There are millions of small businesses across the United States. Ninety-nine percent of businesses in the U.S. are small businesses. So, I'm very grateful to Bill for shining a spotlight on our story. And we are just one of many.

I think the conversations, you know, they reflect, this isn't about politics, really. The administration is pursuing broad trade goals that, you know, I'm not a trade policy expert. But I would also say that every American can do something. It's a tough economic climate. Inflation has been a problem, but please go buy from American small businesses. That's something that everyone can do, whether it's buying Explorer Cold Brew and Whole Foods or whatever your favorite local small business is, support them because really everyone is struggling right now.

KEILAR: Yes. And we're learning how much American small businesses are, in a way, they're global businesses.

Cason, sorry that we are talking under these circumstances, but I will say it's been really interesting to speak with you and so many entrepreneurs about what you're doing. So, thank you so much for being with us.

CRANE: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: Coming up, the White House is expanding its immigration crackdown on college campuses. More than 300 student visas already revoked so far. We'll have the latest after a quick break.

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