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Xi Says China Not Afraid as Beijing Hits U.S. with 125 Percent Tariff; Global Markets Volatile as U.S.-China Tariff Feud Escalates; Supreme Court Tells Trump Administration to Seek Deported Man's Return. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 11, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

MISTY MARRIS, ATTORNEY: Going to be very consequential in the courtroom, but keep in mind, there's another pathway. So here the judge could decide that they're going to a substantive hearing, which will be next week, the 17th or the 18th and then we're going to get into the nitty gritty about resentencing and what that might look like. And the judge could conclude no, there will be no resentencing. Yet there can be resentencing, but the probation department will make that assessment.

On a parallel path, they're seeking clemency from the governor, so they're already scheduled to go through what's called a risk assessment with the probation department and parole -- and parole board to make a determination about whether or not they are a risk to society and other factors that takes into account.

So there's a dual track here and today is going to be consequential for what we hear in that upcoming resentencing hearing that could take place as early as next week.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's great to have you, Misty. Thank you so much for laying it out.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: China comes out swinging, hitting U.S. imports with tariffs of 125 percent as President Trump slaps China with a 145 percent rate. Chinese President Xi Jinping saying just this morning China is, quote, not afraid and making moves to reach out to U.S. allies.

We are standing by for new inflation numbers this hour. Will the tit for tat escalations have an impact on those?

Plus, the Supreme Court rules the Trump administration must, in their words, facilitate getting a Maryland man back to the United States. This after he was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

Plus, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., claims a new research effort will find the cause of autism in five months time. But experts worry that this research won't be done in good faith.

I'm Jessica Dean, along with Kate Bolduan. This morning, Sara Sidner and John Berman are out. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: The breaking news this morning, China hitting back. We are closely monitoring markets ahead of opening bell next hour. After Beijing boosted its retaliatory tariff on U.S. goods from 84 percent to 125 percent. And Chinese President Xi Jinping, he is speaking up for the first time really and since all of this really started ramping up between the United States and his nation. Xi saying that his country is not afraid and also that, quote, there are no winners in a trade war.

His warning follows a clarification from President Trump yesterday that total U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports would now be up to 145 percent. You can take a live look at where futures are right now. And they're pointing -- they've been consistently pointing up this morning. Let us see where they head.

But we also see what the day holds. Another steep drop happened yesterday. The volatility seems to be the only consistency that we have when it comes to the markets right now.

And there's also in terms of that, a new warning today from Jamie Dimon, the CEO of the nation's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase. He is saying, quote, the economy is facing considerable turbulence.

Certainly. CNN's Kylie Atwood is joining us right now from Washington. She's new reporting that the White House was -- the White House warned not to retaliate.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just hours, Kate, before China announced these retaliatory tariffs, there were private discussions between the Trump administration and Chinese officials, effectively telling them exactly not to do what they did this morning, telling them not to roll out new retaliatory tariffs and also encouraging China's side to request a meeting between -- excuse me, a phone call between President Xi and President Trump.

That is something that the Trump administration, that the Trump team has been telling China now for months. That's according to our reporting, because senior administration officials say that Trump has told them that he's not going to make the first move here. He believes that President Xi should be reaching out to him, just like all leaders around the world have, as they have engaged in this trade war globally.

But that is just not something that the Chinese system is willing to do right now. U.S. officials believe that President Xi doesn't want to be viewed as weak. He obviously has an ego domestically. He has received some support for standing up to the United States in the face of this ongoing trade war.

And then you have to also consider, Kate, the fact that the Chinese system just fundamentally is at odds with how President Trump likes to engage with world leaders. President Trump likes to pick up the phone, likes to engage with them directly.

[08:05:00] The Chinese system likes to prepare President Xi for any phone call that he's going to have in a very, very systematic way. They want to have multiple phone calls with U.S. officials at lower levels before any leader level phone calls happened. And there have been challenges in actually getting that to happen because the Trump administration says they don't want to deal with the foreign minister, Wang Yi of China, who would typically set up those conversations.

So we're really facing a dead end here as both of these sides are unwilling to look for an off-ramp as this trade war continues.

BOLDUAN: They're looking for the off-ramp, but neither one wants to take the step towards that off-ramp first. Kylie let's see what happens today. Thank you so much And welcome back. It's great to see you and have you back on.

All right, so let's move from one awesome person, Kylie Atwood, to another awesome person, Zain Asher, who's going to help us understand exactly. I only say that because I require the compliment in return. Of course, Zain, talk to me. We're looking at futures here. But what is the expectation of how this move from China is going to be impacting the already volatile markets?

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So there are two parallel stories we are watching today. One is, of course, this tit for tat escalating trade war between the U.S. and China. And the other is bank earnings. So JPMorgan coming out with better than expected earnings. And that is what is giving the market some solids.

We're seeing Dow futures a little bit higher right now. But you have to remember, these earnings are for the first quarter. So they do not take into consideration Liberation Day at all.

Going forward, in terms of what we're expecting with the markets today, going forward, it is going to be any sort of comments by dissent, by Lutnick, by Navarro, by Trump. That is what is going to move the needle here.

When you think about these numbers, Kate, 145 percent versus 125 percent, these numbers are staggering. Xi Jinping coming out and saying that anything beyond this is meaningless. There's no point retaliating beyond this.

BOLDUAN: I thought that was fascinating when Mark was talking about that, they called it like basically a joke if you continue to push it up.

ASHER: We're locking each other out of the other's markets. And so, yes, we've talked about what this means for American consumers. What does this mean for American farmers who are now essentially going to be priced out of China?

American farmers already have very small profit margins to begin with. We saw what happened in Donald Trump's first term.

BOLDUAN: I was going to say, we've seen this before. ASHER: Yes, and then the bailout, right, $23 dollars. So the hope for the markets right now is any kind of de-escalation. So they're going to watch carefully for any comments from American officials.

BOLDUAN: Wrapped into this and something that is going to be another focus today and should be is the value of the U.S. dollar and its drop, the lowest it's been against the euro in three years.

ASHER: Right. So when you think about what the U.S. dollar traditionally is in terms of how investors see it, they see the U.S. dollar as a safe haven asset. So that means that when the U.S. dollar is strong, that means that investors around the world are looking at America as a sound, stable place to park their money.

When the U.S. dollar is weak, it indicates that there is a crisis of confidence, that a lot of investors are essentially uneasy about the U.S. economy and where it is headed. What's interesting this time is that typically when there is uncertainty around the rest of the world, people would flock to the U.S. dollar.

But the source of the uncertainty this time is the U.S. itself. And not only that, it is entirely self-inflicted. You have a situation here whereby on Monday and Tuesday you have the Senate come out and saying that, listen, we're doubling down on tariffs. It's going to be great for the American economy.

And on Wednesday, there's this dramatic about face saying, you know, this is exactly what we planned all along. So a lot of uncertainty here.

BOLDUAN: Yes, the indication of a lack of confidence is we're going to see that in not in many different places. I think that's what I think we have to keep track of. Thank you, Zain.

ASHER: Of course.

BOLDUAN: Really appreciate it -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, with all of that in mind, joining us now is Josh Lipsky, the senior director of the Atlantic Council's Geoeconomics Center. Josh, thanks so much for being here with us this morning.

We just heard Zain kind of laying it out. I am curious if you can kind of set the scene for everyone watching this morning, trying to kind of metabolize everything that we're getting. What is the current state of play as we look at all of these pieces of information this morning?

JOSH LIPSKY, SENIOR DIRECTOR, ATLANTIC COUNCIL'S GEOECONOMICS CENTER: Well, great to be here. And that's right. The way to look at it at this moment is that the U.S. is in a global trade war primarily, but not only focused on China -- so the world's two largest economies. The United States now has the highest effective tariff rate it's had in over a century. And the problem is because of the way this was sequenced over the past few weeks with Liberation Day, we don't have allies in that trade war. So this could have looked very different if the U.S. and President Trump had tried to bring the Europeans and the Japanese on board to counter China's trade practices. But that's not what happened. We slapped everyone with very high tariffs, retreated from some of them.

No countries want to help us at this moment. And it's China that's reaching out to the EU. President Xi was with Prime Minister Sanchez of Spain today in Beijing.

And that's what you're seeing. China trying to reach out to other countries. And now we're in a very difficult escalatory situation that looks like it's going to get worse before it gets better.

[08:10:04]

DEAN: How much how concerning should it be to Americans that China is now reaching out to some of our closest allies in this way?

LIPSKY: It should be concerning. And it wasn't, you know, that it had to be this way. There were certainly a different path, as I said earlier, that we could have worked with allies and coordinated.

And there are allies that have significant concerns about China's manufacturing overcapacity. This is longstanding. And think about the dynamics that are created now, because we have put up 145 percent tariffs on China.

That means that their products are going to go to other places in the world and flood those markets, including Europe and the global south. They will be frustrated by that. China will then try to use transshipment and look at the low tariff levels relatively in Vietnam and Thailand at 10 percent and try to reroute some of their goods.

So the strategy wasn't coordinated. The strategy wasn't thought through. There was a way to do it. But this wasn't the most effective way if you really want to take on China's unfair trade practices.

DEAN: And for some Americans, they're listening to all of this and they're thinking, OK, I hear what you're saying about the global economy and how it all works. But practically for Americans here at home, what might all of this mean? What should people be expecting?

LIPSKY: Yes, so the way to think about this is that everything from AirPods to Air Jordans are going to get more expensive for Americans if this continues. And that could mean anything from a $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 more for the average American's pocketbook at the end of the year. But your consumer electronics, your video games, your toys, so much of what we import from China, daily living, it's going to change supply chains. We remember the pandemic. You're going to be waiting on packages longer.

So things are going to get very real in terms of Americans live very quickly. First, you see it in food prices and then you see it in consumer goods. But by the summer, if these tariffs stay on, we're going to see significant impacts all across the United States and all across the world. DEAN: It's anybody's guess at this point exactly how long these tariffs stay on and how this plays out. But as someone who tracks all of this, what do you see is the likely next moves here?

LIPSKY: Well, there's no clear off-ramp at the moment, and that's what's so concerning. After President Trump took off the highest reciprocal tariffs earlier this week, I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But yesterday we recognized that we're in a trade war with the two largest economies and you don't see a way where China feels like they can get out of it.

You saw the statement today from President Xi that they are not afraid. It's obviously not something that President Trump is going to back off on. China is his primary focus.

And you have to remember that tariffs are a core policy conviction of President Trump going back to the 1980s. And Peter Navarro, his top trade adviser, is focused on President Trump. So I don't see a quick way out of this situation.

I think it's going to persist at least for several months. And it's only when both economies, the U.S. and China, start feeling the economic pain and each try to weather the storm where we might see some kind of step down and hopefully some kind of resolution to the ongoing trade war.

DEAN: Yes, it could be a long journey. Josh Lipsky, thank you so much for being here with us. We appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us this hour, a sightseeing tour ends in tragedy. The FAA and NTSB are now investigating and trying to find the answer to why a sightseeing helicopter just dropped from the sky into the Hudson River, killing six people on board. And the Supreme Court is now stepping in to bring a Maryland man home after he was mistakenly deported and sent to a prison in El Salvador. Why both sides in this case, though, are declaring victory.

And we are also taking you back to the green in Augusta this morning where the Masters is in full swing. Who is leading the board heading into day two of the tournament?

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BOLDUAN: A major ruling coming from the nation's highest court, the Supreme Court on Thursday, largely siding with the Maryland man wrongly deported last month to a notorious prison in El Salvador. In the ruling, the high court instructed the U.S. government needs to take steps to return the migrant to the United States. It's a decision that, though, has both the attorneys for the deported man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and also the Trump administration claiming victory over.

So the justices did say the U.S. government needs to, quote, facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. But the court did not make clear exactly how that's supposed to happen and also did not set a deadline. Joining us right now is CNN legal analyst and criminal defense

attorney Joey Jackson on this one.

This is interesting, Joey, because both the man's legal team and the Justice Department seem to be happy today. Let me read just the statements from both sides. DOJ saying: As the Supreme Court correctly recognized, it is the exclusive prerogative of the president to conduct foreign policy -- sorry -- foreign affairs -- is coming from the Justice Department spokesperson. By directly noting the deference owed to the executive branch. This ruling once again illustrates that activist judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of the president's authority to conduct foreign policy.

But then the man's attorney in a portion of it said tonight the rule of law prevailed.

Are they both right?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Not really and here's why. Kate, good morning to you.

[08:20:00]

Now, this is what I would call political spin on the part of the administration. And here's why. The court is concerned because, yes, it is the prerogative of the executive, that is the president, to conduct foreign affairs. The court said that.

And as a judge cannot tell the president what to do. And there were these words, right? Instead of effectuate the release, the district court can say you can facilitate the release, right? And so the reality is, is that at the end of the day, what the court is saying is that this was wrong and should not have happened.

Take a step back for one second, Kate, and just think about this, no matter your stance on immigration or what have you. You have a person who is lawfully here based on a 2019 opinion that says, after an evidentiary hearing -- right, that's where evidence and facts and everything is heard. And the judge says you can stay in the United States.

Thereafter, six years later, having committed no crimes, having done nothing wrong, he is detained, arrested without a warrant. Subsequently taken to a detained facility in Maryland. Then he's taken to Texas, then Louisiana, then sent to a supermax prison.

And then the government says, oh, we made a mistake. And by the way, we can't get it back. He's out of our jurisdiction.

How long before you do that to someone who is a United States citizen and then just say, you know what? He's no longer in our jurisdiction. There's nothing to see here. Too bad. Get yourself back if you can, because the government may not release you.

And so ultimately, no matter how you parse this politically, I think this is a win for the rule of law. Yes, there's a separation of the branches of government that needs to be recognized. And district court judges cannot tell the president what to do. But at the same time, you have an administration that clearly, clearly exceeded the bounds of the law.

They're being told so. And he absolutely Garcia needs to be returned forthwith.

BOLDUAN: So forthwith, of course. Thank you for adding the forthwith, always. The lower court judge has now ordered the Justice Department to provide a way.

It's being described as a sworn statement by 9:30 a.m. today from an individual with, quote unquote, with personal knowledge of the steps that the government has or is planning to take to secure his return. I mean, what are the options here?

JACKSON: So what happens is, is the administration has always taken the position that once he's out of our jurisdiction, it is Garcia or really it could be applied to anyone because these cases, it's not only about the individual. It's about the precedent it sets for others.

And so the administration's position is he's in El Salvador. He's out of our control. He's out of our jurisdiction. We don't have the ability really to get him back.

I just think that that's not an argument that carries today. The United States as a world power can make a phone call and say, hey, you know what, get him back here, put him on a plane. He needs to be returned.

And so to suggest or to argue that he's not in the jurisdiction, you can't do anything about it, I think, is a false premise. And so what the judge is doing is not, right, telling the president what to do or his administration, but simply facilitating and wanting to know the specific steps that are being taken to bring him back.

And think about this, Kate, the actual lawyer for the Justice Department who argued this originally in front of the judge, judges have tough questions. And when you're in front of a judge, they want to know what you're doing, how this happened to begin with, right? Who allowed this to occur? What authority?

And the attorney couldn't answer questions. So the attorney essentially said, look, I tried to find out and I don't know what the basis was. That attorney has been put on administrative leave for telling the truth.

We're in a tough, difficult time, but ultimately they the government has to provide to the judge's satisfaction the appropriate steps that they're taking to comply with the rule of law. That is to get him home.

BOLDUAN: I'm very interested to see what the response is today to what the judge is asking for. It's great to see you, Joey, forthwith, as always. We'll see you soon. Happy Friday, friend. JACKSON: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us still this hour, the investigation into what happened in the Hudson River, a helicopter carrying six people, including three of a whole family and three children was seen crashing into the Hudson River on Thursday, killing everyone on board. There's new details that we are hearing from eyewitnesses who watched that tragedy play out.

And also a new report finds that President Trump's tariffs will cost American families thousands of dollars per year. Some of those that could be hit the hardest, especially when it comes to China -- soybean farmers. A soybean farmer joins us coming up.

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DEAN: This morning, the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating what caused a tourist helicopter to break apart midair and crash into the Hudson River, killing all six people on board. They were a family of five visiting New York from Spain and the pilot as well.

The tragic final moments caught on camera. I do want to warn you, this video is very disturbing to watch. Bystanders took the video and they watched in horror as that helicopter began to spin out of control. You see the body of the aircraft falling first. This was about 17 minutes into that flight.

I'm joined now by Avi Rakesh. Avi witnessed this horrific incident firsthand. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. I know you were sitting at your desk. You said you were taking a phone call and then what happened?

AVI RAKESH, EYEWITNESS TO DEADLY HELICOPTER CRASH: Yes, I was looking outside while I was on the call. I usually do that just because it's kind of nice to look outside, especially when I'm not on a video call. But out of the blue, I see like a helicopter disintegrate in midair.

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