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Interview With Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH); Trump Facing Historically Low Poll Numbers; Trump's Tariff Math Faulty?; Trump Administration Deports Three American Children. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired April 28, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:38]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Running the country and the world, that is President Trump talking about how he sees his job on his 99th day in office. But, while the White House is celebrating its accomplishments, new polling shows many Americans are not as thrilled with how the president is doing.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, President Trump floating a new idea: no more taxes. He's suggesting that his tariffs could end income tax for most Americans, though economists, they're not so sure about the math. They say it may not be possible. And they're warning the real- world impact of tariffs maybe right around the corner.

Plus, life coming to a standstill for millions of people as a power outage hits Spain and Portugal, one mayor calling for the military to help preserve order.

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

KEILAR: Ninety-nine days into the Trump administration, and the White House is taking a victory lap on immigration, today touting nearly 140,000 deportations.

And, soon, President Trump is set to sign a new executive order that targets sanctuary cities. Between Florida and Colorado alone, officials say nearly 1,000 migrants were detained in the last few days, and cases involving three children and their deported mothers are stirring new outrage today. All of the kids were American citizens born in the United States, one of them a 4-year-old said to be battling cancer.

But, today, they are now in Honduras. Advocacy groups say the mothers were detained during a routine meeting and then they were later deported. Advocacy groups argue the cases highlight a lack of due process for these young American citizens.

President Trump's border czar is pushing back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: What we did is remove children with their mothers who requested the children depart with them. This was a parental decision, parental 1 -- parenting 101. The mothers made that choice.

When a parent says, I want my 2-year-old baby to go with me, we made that happen. They weren't deported. We don't deport U.S. citizens. The parents made that decision, not the United States government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN senior White House producer Betsy Klein is standing by at the White House.

Betsy, immigration obviously a top issue for the president's agenda. And in the case of what Tom Homan said, there is a case of parents differing on this issue of whether the child should go with the mother. There are two parents and at least one of these cases, and the father had wanted the child to stay, but the child went with the mother.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: That's exactly right.

And, Brianna, all of this comes as we are starting to get a clearer picture of how Americans are viewing President Trump's first 100 days of his second term in office. We are getting brand-new CNN polling; 41 percent approve of the job he is doing so far, compared to 59 percent disapprove.

These are the lowest numbers of a president in the first 100 days since the Eisenhower administration. But he is seeing a negative trend on almost every issue, foreign affairs down three points, the economy down five points, inflation down a whopping nine points just from last month.

But he is even losing ground on these topics that the White House believes are winning issues, including that of immigration; 45 percent of Americans in the CNN poll approve of his handling of immigration, compared with 51 percent in March.

And as we are seeing that negative polling trend, the White House here trying to change the narrative and celebrate some of its accomplishments. You can see the signage behind me as they are highlighting some of their efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, 139,000 of them so far, according to border czar Tom Homan.

The president and his team acutely aware of the stagecraft, as they have placed these signs right behind where reporters do their television broadcasts. But we are also seeing these significant crackdowns that you mentioned, the -- in cities like Colorado Springs, also in Florida overnight.

And another notable moment, as Homan was challenged on what he said is local -- record low border crossings and why the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border should still be considered an emergency. Homan says that it will be an emergency until the cartels are wiped off the face of the earth.

[13:05:02]

Of course, that could be a very long time. We also know that the president was asked about the possibility in a new "Atlantic" interview that his administration, in its aggressive efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, could target the wrong people, potentially legal residents, as well as U.S. citizens, as we saw with those three children.

He said -- quote -- "Let me tell you, nothing will ever be perfect in this world," Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, we are certainly seeing that.

Betsy Klein, thank you -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss some of the legal battles facing this administration over the immigration crackdown with CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

Elie, great to see you, as always.

Let's start on these three young U.S. citizens, all of them children. Lawyers and advocacy groups say they were deported with their mothers last week. The administration, as you heard a moment ago from Tom Homan, points to this as a parenting decision, their mothers deciding to take them. Is it as simple as that?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: No, it's not, Boris. There's much more to it.

So, first of all, if a parent simply decides to leave the United States on his or her own with the children, that's a parenting decision. But we're talking about unique scenarios here where the parent is here illegally, but the child is a U.S. citizen.

That has to go through the courts. As Brianna said earlier, you could have all sorts of complicating factors. You could have two different parents who want two different things for the child who's a U.S. citizen. It could be that the parents want the child who's a U.S. citizen to remain here with, let's say, an aunt or an uncle or a grandparent who is a U.S. citizen.

So the problem here, as we have seen throughout these cases, Boris, is the administration, ICE and others in the executive branch just deciding unilaterally and skipping over the courts. And that's why the courts so far, including a Trump-appointed conservative judge, said, hang on, you have to come through the court system. We will give you your due process.

This may well be the result, that the child goes with the parents, but we need to run it through due process. We need to make sure.

SANCHEZ: Well, in at least one case, the administration is saying that a mom had a handwritten note declaring that she wanted to take her daughter with her. Her lawyer is disputing that, arguing that they didn't receive due process. How does that note play into all of this?

HONIG: It's a perfect example of why we have due process. We do not make major legal decisions in this country based on handwritten notes that someone may or may not have.

If it's the parents' wishes that the child go with the parents, fine. God bless. Go into court and establish that. But it sounds like there is at least some level of factual dispute here. And this is why you can't just rely on somebody says there's a note. Go into court. Ask the parent. Have an affidavit submitted. Get testimony.

If we do it through those official processes, and the end result is the parent wants to take the child, by all means. But that's why we have to go through the process in the first place.

SANCHEZ: And just to clarify the law, Elie, do the undocumented parents of legal U.S. citizens have a right to stay in the United States?

HONIG: So I'm glad you ask that, Boris, because there is a very common misperception here that has led to this derogatory term around what some people call anchor babies.

That is not the way the law works. It is not the law that if a child -- it is the law that if a child is born in the United States, he or she automatically becomes a citizen. That's what we call birthright citizenship. But it is not the law that therefore the parent automatically becomes a citizen or gets any legal status, green card, legal permanent resident, anything like that.

There may be circumstances where, if a parent is trying to get legal permanent resident status or citizenship status, it might help the case to say that there's a baby born here. But none of that is automatic. It is a wide misperception.

SANCHEZ: And you mentioned birthright citizenship. Obviously, the backdrop of all of this is the Supreme Court's looming decision that involves birthright citizenship, whether it's built into the Constitution.

You and I have discussed this a few times. Do you have any indication on how that argument before the court might impact these day-to-day decisions?

HONIG: Yes, so these are great examples of why birthright citizenship is so important.

So this is the notion that comes from the 14th Amendment of the Constitution that any child born or naturalized in the United States automatically becomes a citizen. The Trump administration is trying to change that, essentially undo that.

Now, they have failed at every level of the court so far, but the U.S. Supreme Court is going to hear some argument on this on May 15, so two weeks and change from now. It's not entirely clear whether the U.S. Supreme Court will be deciding a procedural issue around that or the actual birthright citizenship question.

I think, ultimately, the Supreme Court will reject Donald Trump's effort to undermine or to undo birthright citizenship. I think the constitutional argument for birthright, as we have long understood it in this country, is pretty darn straightforward.

[13:10:01]

But what better examples than these cases here, Boris? The fact that the children get automatic citizenship status makes all the difference in the world. I do think, ultimately, though, Trump's effort to gut birthright will be rejected by the courts.

SANCHEZ: Elie Honig, always appreciate the expertise. Thanks for joining us.

HONIG: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Brianna.

KEILAR: Ninety-nine days? A trade deal is a problem that -- or a solution that President Trump does not have. The White House has announced exactly zero trade agreements so far in President Trump's new term, zero even trade sort of scaffolding of agreements.

And since he put that 90-day pause on his so-called reciprocal tariffs earlier this month, despite the lack of deals, today, the White House claimed that there's -- quote -- "no holdup" and that it's working around the clock. Well, the clock is really ticking loudly at this point.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier today that one of the first trade deals that Trump could sign could be with India, coming after Vice President J.D. Vance met with India's prime minister last week. In the meantime, his economic experts sound the alarm that Trump's tariffs could quickly bring higher prices and empty shelves. The president is doubling down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to be taking in a tremendous amount of money. We're going to be taking in a lot of jobs, a lot of plants and factories. They're already coming. I mean, you see it.

And we're going to make a lot of money and we're going to cut taxes for the people of this country. It'll take a little while before we do that, but we're going to be cutting taxes. And it's possible we will do a complete tax cut, because I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Matt Egan is with us now.

We just heard the president there saying tariffs could eliminate almost all income tax. Fact-check that for us.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Brianna, that does not seem like it is doable. There is a math problem here, a big one.

Now look, no one likes to have a big chunk of their paycheck go to the federal government. So, sure, getting rid of the income tax sounds great. But in order to do that, you would have to lift tariffs very high, extremely high, much higher than they are already.

Consider that the U.S. brought in about $3 trillion in income tax revenue in the most recent fiscal year. So, in order to replace all of that, you would have to put a 100 percent tariff on all $3 trillion of U.S. imports. That's about four times higher than current tariffs.

And that would increase prices on imports of everything from toys and sneakers to cars. And the problem, of course, is, when you increase prices that much, it would destroy demand. So people would just stop buying some imported goods, and that would shrink the tariff revenue.

So, Torsten Slok, the chief economist over at Apollo Global Management, he estimates that you would actually need to increase tariffs to 200 percent, essentially quadrupling prices from current levels. Another idea that the president has floated is that perhaps they could just get rid of the income tax for people who are making under $200,000 a year.

Now, that might sound more doable, but the federal government brought in $675 billion of revenue just from people who are making $200,000 or less. And that is much, much larger, that's about four times the amount of money that would be brought in by the president's planned tariffs this year.

You can see it on that chart. It really pales in comparison. Erica York from the Tax Foundation, she told me it's mathematically impossible to do this. She said it's not even close to adding up. One last point here, Brianna, this is not just something that you can announce. This, of course, would take an act of Congress, and it does not seem like anything is imminent on that front.

KEILAR: There's also some really alarming survey data that we're seeing, Matt. Talk to us about this, because it's showing that a growing number of Americans are taking out loans to pay for their groceries.

EGAN: Yes, Brianna, this looks like another sign that some consumers are feeling stressed financially.

This comes from LendingTree, which found that one in four buy-now/pay- later borrowers have used these short-term loans to pay for groceries. That is up from about 14 percent a year ago. Now, remember, these are short-term loans. They have exploded in popularity because, one, they don't generally charge interest. And, two, they're really convenient. They're a way for people to break up their payments in installments.

But the fact that some people are essentially using borrowed money to pay for everyday essentials is a concerning sign. Of course, it comes at a time when prices are very high and interest rates are high as well. I do think that, Brianna, this is another reminder that behind all of these relatively solid national economic numbers, when you think about low unemployment and pretty solid consumer spending, there are clearly some yellow lights flashing in this economy.

[13:15:03]

KEILAR: Yes, that is one of them.

Matt Egan, thank you very much.

Ahead: lawmakers facing hostile town hall crowds, as President Trump's approval rating dips to the lowest of any president in their first 100 days in at least seven decades. We will talk to a Republican congressman.

Plus, an unexplained power outage shutting down most of Spain and Portugal, as well as parts of France. But we're learning electricity is beginning to return in some areas.

And then later: an astonishing rebuke, as "60 Minutes" host Scott Pelley calls out the show's parent company, the parent company of CBS. What he said, why he felt the need to speak out.

Stay with CNN. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: There are new poll numbers out as President Trump is nearing 100 days in office, and they show he's approaching that benchmark moment with historically low approval numbers.

[13:20:02]

Our latest CNN poll shows his rating has dropped to 41 percent. That's the lowest for any president at the same point in their term in seven decades going all the way back to Dwight Eisenhower.

The growing voter discontent with the Trump administration has been front and center at town halls across the country, as some Republican lawmakers are greeted by hostile crowds. This was New York Congressman Mike Lawler's event last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you doing to stand in opposition to this administration? And what specifically are you doing that warrants the label moderate?

(CHEERING)

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): So, again, my record speaks for itself. I have been...

(LAUGHTER)

LAWLER: I have been raided the fourth most bipartisan for a reason.

(BOOING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Ohio Republican Congressman Warren Davidson is with us now. He's a member of the House Financial Services and Foreign Affairs committees and he's also a former Army Ranger.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.

That was, of course, Congressman Lawler's event. A lot of Republicans chose not to have them over the recess. And I certainly understand that these town halls put the GOP in a tough spot. But there are Trump supporters, people who have voted for you and other Republican members, who do have these concerns about the direction of some of these policies who'd like to talk to their representatives.

Do you and your colleagues perhaps run the risk of not hearing from them when you don't hold events that you usually would?

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): Hey, Brianna.

Yes, it's really nice to hear from my constituents. I spent the last two weeks back home. My constituents were very energized, albeit there were some Democrats that wanted to have their own gathering and basically vent their frustrations with the Trump administration.

There are people that don't like what's going on. But I will tell you, my district, which voted for President Trump overwhelmingly, they're excited. I mean, in the first 100 days, we have got a secure border, a focused military, America respected abroad, DOGE finding the money, education focused on teaching kids, instead of indoctrinating them, criminals being locked up, illegals being deported.

I mean, so far, this is the best sequel ever.

KEILAR: Did you have a town hall?

DAVIDSON: No, I don't normally host town halls. Every once in a while during COVID, I started hosting my own events because people weren't doing the invites.

But, normally, we have more invitations than we can actually fit in. So I was invited to a lot of events, and I met with groups that invited me to attend. Obviously, some of those invitations, I declined, because we -- either scheduling, or in the case of the -- one of my county Democrat parties, they hosted an event wanted me to come to.

KEILAR: Yes.

DAVIDSON: And we declined that invitation.

KEILAR: Yes, they hosted one of the empty chair events and invited you, and you declined. DAVIDSON: Yes.

KEILAR: And you responded to that on Twitter, or, pardon me, X.

I do want to ask you, did you hear from concerned constituents? Because we do see and we hear anecdotally, we see in the polls there are Republicans -- and, albeit, we talk about this approval number -- Republicans, by and large, are pretty happy, but there are still a significant minority that are having issues with the policies.

There are a lot of independents who are having issues with policies. What are those folks telling you and what are you saying to them?

DAVIDSON: Well, I think one of the more constructive meetings I had was with businesses that are concerned about the tariffs.

And, look, our district, I mean, Middletown, Ohio, J.D. Vance's hometown growing up, it is focused on trade. I was in manufacturing before I was in Congress, and we have been competing against China, not other companies, but against a foreign country.

So, President Trump's message and actions on trade are long overdue. I mean, with the benefit of hindsight, clearly, Ross Perot was more right than Bill Clinton or George Bush on whether there would be a giant sucking sound of jobs and trade flowing out of our country.

So the idea that it's being addressed is broadly supported, in my district anyway, but there are people that are concerned because it is disrupting them. So, automotive supply chains aren't incredibly flexible. Once you have qualified a steel supplier, you can't just switch to another one. Same with aviation and aerospace.

And those are the two biggest manufacturing sectors. The other big sector in my state and overall and certainly in my district is ag And we have benefited from a lot of exports that have been disrupted due to near-term pain from tariffs.

I was able to talk to President Trump about that in March, and it was very encouraging. And I think that's where people are in my district. They feel concerned about the disruption, but optimistic about the direction.

KEILAR: And Trump needs a trade deal or an agreement on some kind of trade deal. The ones that he may be closest on are not necessarily the industries that you're talking about impacting your constituents the most.

We should be clear about that, when you're talking about ag and you're talking about auto. But how close do you think he is to coming to an agreement or a trade deal?

[13:25:10]

DAVIDSON: Yes, I think it'll be country by country.

And, to your point, where are we at with Canada and Mexico, I think we won't make progress with Canada until after their parliamentary elections are done and their government is structured. They will probably begin to negotiate in earnest. They have already been proactive in reaching out, frankly, from both the Conservative Party and from the prime minister's -- the acting prime minister's party right now.

So I feel optimistic we will address some of the things that went unaddressed between Canada and Mexico. And a big part of the whole thing around -- people are like, oh, why are we doing this to our friends and allies? The reality is, they won't help with China.

I mean, to be part of the World Trade Organization, China said that they would be a market economy. They're clearly not behaving like a market economy. And they're still claiming that they're a developing economy. And they clearly are not a developing economy.

So we need our friends and allies to basically participate in treating China appropriately. We want to have a friendly trade relationship with China, but we shouldn't be exploited by them. Their government is using their intelligence services to steal intellectual property, not just from America, but from Germany and Canada and everyone else.

So we need to target China's bad behavior, get them to treat everyone fairly. And then how do you argue against the reciprocal tariffs? So, if somebody's got a 40 percent tariff on you, we put 40 percent on them. If you got 4 percent, we will go to 4 percent. And Israel's leading the way, saying, we want no tariffs.

And so maybe we can lock those kinds of deals in with everybody. Low trade barriers benefit everyone in the market. And so, hopefully, we will get there.

KEILAR: Yes.

DAVIDSON: There are a handful of things we need to address with Defense Production Act that deal with critical resources. We need to be able to make our own steel. We need to be able to make our own pharmaceuticals and so on.

So we need to be very strategic about that.

KEILAR: Yes, we're not really seeing progress in China, which, of course, is the big deal here that has to be dealt with, for sure.

I want to ask you while I have you. In an interview with "The Atlantic" magazine, the president was asked about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who, of course, has been involved in a couple controversies now. And the president said he thinks that Hegseth will get it together.

Implicit in that is that he doesn't have it together right now. Is that what our nation's fighting men and women deserve right now in a secretary of defense?

DAVIDSON: Pete Hegseth is the secretary of defense our fighting men and women deserve and the one they have wanted. If you look at the -- the recruiting numbers speak for themselves. We

have got a strong and focused military. They're focused on why people join the military, which is defending our country, not some woke ideology, not some empire building excursion all over the world, but focused on America first and foremost.

That's what inspires people. I enlisted in the Army after high school. Of course, the Cold War was going on then. It was a long time ago. And then I ultimately got the chance to go to West Point and become an Army officer, serve in Ranger Regiment and other great things.

I didn't do those things to help build an empire. I did them to defend my country. And when you see Pete Hegseth's leadership focusing our military on those things, people are responding, and they're energized by his focus.

KEILAR: Credit on recruiting potentially could be to President Trump. It's certainly hard to see the difference there. Some of it, of course, was early commitments from last year, but there is no doubt there is an increase in recruitment.

But, to be clear, that -- is that the only thing to sort of attribute as the main accomplishment of Pete Hegseth at this moment?

DAVIDSON: No, I think he's done a nice job reorganizing. He's pushed out the DEI, climate agenda. You won't ever see Pete Hegseth say the biggest threat to national security is the climate, because that's not what Department of Defense is supposed to focus on.

Regardless of where the climate is, DOD isn't the arsenal of climate change. They're the arsenal of democracy. They're supposed to impose our will if they need to. And because they're strong and focused, that gives Secretary Rubio a much better platform for negotiating.

We want the State Department to be able to always keep us at peace. That's clearly been President Trump's focus in his first administration. And he's been very focused on trying to secure peace around the world in his second administration.

Pete Hegseth's a vital part of that. And if you look at the Houthis -- in one of President Trump's interviews where people keep trying to get him to attack Pete Hegseth, he goes, ask the Houthis how he's doing. They're getting smoked.

And all they have to do is stop trying to engage in piracy and targeting our ships and others as they just engage in commerce traveling through the Red Sea, so straits -- the straits there. So I think Pete Hegseth's doing a nice job. I think his leadership's going to continue to improve as he tackles things like contracting and working with DOD on the Defense Production Act, for example.

There are things like that, that he will build the right team around him. There's still confirmations we're waiting on, for example, the undersecretary for personnel and readiness. Hopefully, we will get that confirmation soon.