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Trump's Problems at 100 Days; Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) is Interviewed about Trump's First 100 Days; White House Briefing. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 29, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Their day-to-day business than they are now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Of course those tariffs won't be gone completely and they will add some cost to the cars domestically is what all the automakers are saying.

On that front, there's some pretty extraordinary reporting coming out of Punchbowl this morning. Again, this is Punchbowl's reporting about something Amazon is going to do. Let me read this to you. "The e- commerce giant will soon show how much Trump's tariffs are adding to the price of each product," that's "according to a person familiar with the plan. The shopping site will display how much of an item's cost is derived from tariffs - right next to the product's total listed price."

Now, again, I suppose it depends on what you're buying on Amazon, what that number will be. But it's going to be something. And I do wonder what the impact on consumers will be.

FOROOHAR: You know, John, I think that you've just laid out the best possible use of the big data that is collected by giant tech firms, like Amazon. You know, show us some real transparency here. I mean I think that that is going to be stunning when we see. And it's actually going to be instructive, not just in terms of what these tariffs are doing, but in terms of, well, how are products made, where are they made, how much do they really cost? What are the margins that some of these companies are taking? I mean, this is fascinating information. It's almost as though you're putting the kind of food labels that we see in a grocery store on products. I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of, you know, data has legs way beyond the Trump tariff debacle.

BERMAN: And, Rana, finally, I want to ask you something about perhaps the impact of the last several weeks, no matter what happens at this point with the trade war, whether the president backs off more or less. I want you to play what Mark Carney, who's the prime minister of Canada, and will continue to be after elections last night, said about who Canada will be willing to negotiate with in the future.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: When I sit down with President Trump, it will be to discuss the future economic and security relationship between two sovereign nations.

And it will be with our full knowledge that we have many, many other options than the United States to build prosperity for all Canadians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Other options than the United States. What happens if more and more countries begin to feel that way?

FOROOHAR: Well, John, it's happening. You know, it's interesting. I know Mark Carney. He's about as opposite from Trump as you could get. This is a guy who is very staid, very sensible, low key, but very serious. And I know that Canada is having talks with the European Union. They're having talks with China. They're, you know, all nations at this moment are looking around and saying, the playing field has changed. And this is - this is the real thing about liberation day and these tariffs. You can't walk it back. You might be able to walk back the tariffs, but you cannot walk back the fact that the U.S. has thrown the entire global chessboard up in the air, and where the pieces land now is not going to be in control completely of the White House.

I think we are headed to a new order. I would not be surprised if the Canadians in particular did a lot more trade with the European Union. I think the European Union is going to become more integrated. The U.S. is not the only game in town, and this is a real pivot point that is going to be generational. We're going to look back historically and remember this as a real change point.

BERMAN: Yes, one way or the other.

Rana Foroohar, thank you very much, as always, for this analysis.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, cardinal controversy just days before the conclave. Why an Italian cardinal says he won't take part in the secret process to elect a new pope.

Plus, President Trump reaching that critical 100 day mark, as we have been telling you. New CNN polling out this morning paints a picture of just how Americans are feeling about the direction of his second term in the White House. Those stories and much more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:39]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Frustrated and angry. That is how Americans say they feel right now about the state of politics and the nation as the president hits his 100th day in office. New CNN polling showing the economy is a major driving force behind those feelings. CNN's Harry Enten is looking at this and more this morning on this 100

days.

Harry, on - after 100 days, let's compare first term, second term, because that's where you wanted to - you were starting to look at. After 100 days in his first term, what did Americans associate with Donald Trump? How does that compare to today?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, it couldn't be more different what they associated Donald Trump with in his first term versus his second term. In his first term, what was the top term Googled with Trump in 100 days in? It was Twitter. That's what they were thinking about when they thought about Donald Trump. They were thinking about something associated with his personality.

What is Donald Trump going to tweet today? What is he tweeting last night in the wee hours of the morning that I might have missed? Versus right now. What's the number one term associated with Donald Trump on Google? It's actually tariffs. So, from the first term what you had was personality and temperament. In the second term what you have is about an actual policy. But again, in some ways, they're sort of similar, right, because what's the new tariff policy going to be today? But again, one was about personality and temperament. That was in term one. And in term two it's all about policy tariffs.

BOLDUAN: So, compare the feelings on the twitters and the tariffs.

[08:40:00]

ENTEN: Yes. So, this, I think, is so interesting, right, because you have personality here, you have policy here. But the disapproval, very similar, right? Disapprove of Trump on his Twitter use. It was 67 percent back in 2017. What about tariffs? Sixty-five percent disapprove of his tariffs now in 2025.

So, what you're essentially seeing is, folks are arriving to the same conclusion, but they're getting there via different roads. In term one they disliked Trump's personality. In term two, what they dislike is his policy. Again, the key policy being tariffs. And that, of course, is driving the economic approval rating going down.

BOLDUAN: Then add it all up. What - what do you see in your analysis here?

ENTEN: Right. OK. So, again, if it was about personality in term number one and it's about policy in term number two. But again, all roads lead to the same place. And that comes to this, which is, Trump is out of touch with the concerns of most Americans. In April of 2017, 58 percent of Americans said that Trump was out - was out of touch with the concerns of most Americans. Now it's 60 percent.

Again what this comes to, Kate, is that most Americans think that Trump has taken his eye off of the ball. But again, they're reaching it for different reasons. In term number one it was because he was tweeting out every single gosh darn thing. In term number two, it's because, wait a minute, we don't want anything to do with tariffs. We wanted Trump to bring down inflation. But, in fact, tariffs could bring up prices.

Again, different roads, but it leads to the same ultimate conclusion, and that is a high disapproval for Donald Trump because he is out of touch with the concerns of most Americans.

BOLDUAN: What's unanswerable right now is which one is harder to fix, or easier to fix, the personality or the policy that - we will see.

ENTEN: We will see.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware.

And, Senator, I just want to warn you, we are monitoring Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is about to brief from the White House. If he makes any news from the podium there, we may dip in. So, thank you for your patience on that.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Got it.

BERMAN: I think you were listening to Harry right there and feelings - American's feelings about the economy. There are other ways of looking about that also. In the recent CNN poll we asked about your feelings of the economy, enthusiastic, optimistic, pessimistic, afraid. Twenty- nine percent, pessimistic, 37 percent afraid. So, that's not good.

Obviously, people felt pretty bad during the Biden administration about the economy as well. My question to you now is, what is the Democratic plan now to reverse these feelings?

COONS: So, John, thanks for a chance to be on with you this morning on the 100th day of Trump's presidency. I had a town hall at home in Delaware this weekend. Hundreds of Delawareans came out and they shared their concerns. Their anger at what they see as the chaotic slashing of critical federal programs, their concerns that Republicans here in Congress are going to whack Medicaid and cut some of the vital social programs that they and their families rely on, their concerns about Trump's failure to keep his promises to reduce prices, to solve the war in Ukraine and reach a just peace for Ukraine. Frankly, what I heard from the hundreds of Delawareans who came out was concerns about issues large and small.

Democrats need to be united, need to focus on a few clear and strong issues where there's a sharp contrast between Democrats and what we would do to strengthen manufacturing, bring jobs back to America and strengthen our economy and our position in the world. What we would do to stand by Ukraine. What we would do to push back on the PRC, the Peoples' Republic of China.

What I've heard from small manufacturers and large in Delaware is anxiety and concern about the tariffs. What I've heard from constituents of all backgrounds in my state is alarm that Elon Musk and DOGE has gotten into their personal information, and they're not happy with the impact on Social Security offices and service levels, and the impact on lots of programs that they rely on, whether it's for health care, education or clean water.

BERMAN: You mentioned concerns you're hearing about the Republicans in Congress and Republican leadership. And we've got some new polling on this that I can put up here. If you ask Americans how congressional leaders are handling their jobs, 37 percent approve of the Republican leadership, 62 percent disapprove. But there's kind of an uh-oh for Democrats there.

COONS: Yes.

BERMAN: Voters feel even worse about you guys, Senator. So, why is that? If they're so concerned about the Republicans, why are they even more concerned about you?

COONS: Frankly, Democrats are concerned that we lost the election last November and are looking for clear and strong voices to guide us forward. Sunday morning I joined Hakeem Jeffries and Cory Booker, the senator from New Jersey and the minority leader from New York, on the steps of the Capitol as they launched a 12-hour live conversation with the American people.

[08:45:03]

Millions of people listened or joined. Lots of members of Congress came and joined them on the steps because what's happening here in the next couple of weeks, John, is Republicans keep grinding forward with their bill to slash tens of billions of dollars out of Medicaid.

I think if we can mount a successful challenge here in Congress to these cuts to Medicaid, the American people will be reassured that we have the ability to change the course of what happens here in Congress in Trump's presidency.

I'll also remind you that in more than 100 cases, federal courts have ruled that what President Trump has done is illegal or unconstitutional. At the town hall I did this weekend, our state attorney general joined us, the congressional delegation and governor, and she's leading several of these cases to challenge illegal and unconstitutional actions taken by the Trump administration so far in just 100 days.

BERMAN: I know you're very forward looking now, Senator, and that's understandable, but there are books coming out over these few weeks about the Biden presidency and the end of the Biden presidency. There's an excerpt from a book from Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes fighting the fight inside the wildness (ph) battle for the White House that references you and your feelings as you were watching President Biden in the debate. It says, he, you, could see what they saw, even if you wouldn't say it. This is awful. He, this being you, Senator Coons, thought as the debate hit the halfway mark, damn, this is really not picking up. The back half wasn't as bad, he convinced himself, but it was hardly good. He knew he would be a lead member of the clean-up crew. And while Democrats peed their pants, peeing their pants was nothing new, they were right that the president had s-ed the bed.

Now, there are some people who've written on this, including Jim Geraghty of the Wall Street - "The National Review," who say, if you felt that way, maybe you shouldn't have criticized Democrats for their reservations about President Biden at the time. Do you wish you had done things differently at this point?

COONS: Well, John, obviously, if I had any idea that President Biden was going to perform as poorly as he did at that debate, I would have been advising him differently and advocating differently. That debate performance was the first time I saw anything like that out of President Biden. He had been and was a strong and capable president, and he still had strong public performances, interviews, and just the next day went to North Carolina and spoke forcefully at a rally.

But I was shocked. I was genuinely surprised by that performance that evening -

BERMAN: Senator -

COONS: And was wrestling with what it meant for our path forward.

BERMAN: Senator, thank you. And I hate to cut you off, especially during that answer, but we're going to go to the White House and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Thank you, Senator.

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Over the next few weeks. Many of them have already come to Washington. What President Trump is referring to is the ability for tariff revenue to give income tax relief. And I think there's a very good chance that we will see this in the upcoming tax bill. The president campaigned on no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime and the restoring interest deductibility for autos - for American made autos. So, tariff income could be used for tax relief on all of those immediately.

REPORTER: So, you think that there is a role for significant tariff revenue in U.S. fiscal policy?

BESSENT: I think that it is something that got put away a long time ago, and I think that tariffs will bring back American manufacturing and generate substantial revenues.

REPORTER: On manufacturing, we've seen some pretty grisly surveys this month from the Philly Fed, which saw the biggest drop since May of 2020, and the Dallas Fed, similar plunging outlook, poor shipping orders. What are American manufacturers not understanding about your push for onshoring in the U.S.?

BESSENT: Well, I think - I was in the investment business 35 years and I learned to ignore the survey data and look for the surveys, look at the actual data. And the actual data has been quite good. The job data is good. Americans keep spending. And as Karoline said, we have these incredible commitments to bring manufacturing back onshore with record investment by domestic corporations and foreigners who want to come into the U.S.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Weja (ph).

REPORTER: Thank you so much, Karoline. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

The Chinese continue to say that the U.S. and China are not engaged in any consultation or negotiation on tariffs. You recently said you've talked to your counterpart, but more about, quote, "traditional things," like financial stability. So, can you clarify, is the administration talking to Beijing specifically about tariffs or not?

BESSENT: Well, we're not going to talk about who's talking to whom. But I think that, you know, over time we will see that the Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China.

[08:50:06]

I saw - I've seen some very large numbers over the past few days to show if these numbers stay on, Chinese could lose 10 million jobs very quickly. And even if there is a drop in the tariffs, that they close lose 5 million jobs. So, remember that we are the deficit country. They sell almost five times more goods to us than we sell to them. So, the onus will be on them to the - take off these tariffs. They're unsustainable for them.

REPORTER: And they are saying you guys are not talking about it. So, is that true?

BESSENT: Look, they have a different form of government. They're playing to a different audience. So, I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty again of who's talking to whom. But as I said, I believe for the Chinese these tariffs are unsustainable.

REPORTER: And very quickly, two days ago, you said you didn't know if President Trump had spoken to Xi Jinping. Do you know now?

BESSENT: Again, I would say, Karoline and I have a lot of jobs around the White House. Running the switchboard isn't one of them.

LEAVITT: Bloomberg, go ahead.

REPORTER: Secretary Bessent, thank you so much for being here this morning.

You've talked about the importance of giving investors certainty when it comes to the market, yet the Trump administration is continuing - is continuing to negotiate several complex trade deals in a very sort of compressed time frame.

When do you - when do you expect you'll be able to give the market some certainty around those deals? Do you have a deadline? Is it the 90-day pause? What are we looking at here? BESSENT: Good question. And I think one thing that has been a little

disconcerting for the markets is, you know, President Trump creates what I would call strategic uncertainty in the negotiations. So, he is more concerned about getting the best possible trade deals for the American people. You know, we had four years of bad deals for decades the - of unfair trading. And we are going to - the - unwind those and make them fair.

What we are doing is we've created a process, I think the aperture of uncertainty will be narrowing, and as we start moving forward, announcing deals, then there will be certainty. But, you know, certainty is not necessarily a good thing in negotiating.

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, last night there were - there were reports on the administration sort of walking back a little bit on the auto tariffs. Can you sort of just elaborate on that decision there and what we can expect doing - going forward and why sort of the shift in those auto tariffs?

BESSENT: Well, President Trump has had meetings with both domestic and foreign - excuse me, foreign auto producers. And he's committed to bringing back auto production to the U.S. So, we want to give the automakers a path to do that quickly, efficiently and create as many jobs as possible.

LEAVITT: Jasmine.

REPORTER: Thank you so much, Karoline.

Thank you, Secretary.

Back on China. Does the administration anticipate - anticipate supply chain shocks or supply shocks coming now that cargo shipments from China are significantly down? And if so, are there being plans or are there plans in the process of how to address that?

BESSENT: I wouldn't think that we would have supply chain shocks. And I think retailers, they have managed their inventory in front of this. You know, I speak to dozens of companies, sometimes daily, but definitely weekly, and they know that President Trump is committed to fair trade and have planned accordingly.

REPORTER: And, second question, can you outline the timeline for when you think some of these deals, particularly with your Asian countries, like India, Japan, South Korea, you may have an announcement?

BESSENT: I'm glad you brought up our Asian trading partners and allies. They have been the most forthcoming in terms of doing the deals. As I mentioned, Vice President Vance was in India last week. I think that he and Modi made some very good progress. So, I could see some announcements on India. I could see the contours of a deal with the Republic of Korea coming together. And then we've had substantial talks with the Japanese.

LEAVITT: Andrea. REPORTER: Secretary Bessent, just continuing on the path of the - sort of like progress. You said last - or yesterday, I think, that it was - it could happen as early as this week or possibly next week. Can you give us a bit of a timetable? And then I wanted to ask about South Korea specifically. They've said that they probably won't be able to make a comprehensive deal until early July because of their elections. Japan also has elections.

And to what extent are domestic factors complicating your efforts? Canada just had an election. You know, are you - are you seeing that you might have to think about delaying the 90 days?

BESSENT: Well, I - I would actually take the opposite tack, that I think the - from our talks, that these governments actually want to have the framework of a trade deal done before they go into elections to show that they have successfully negotiated with the United States.

[08:55:16]

So, we are finding that they are actually much more keen to come to the table, get this done, and then go home and campaign on it.

LEAVITT: Sean.

REPORTER: Was there - I'm sorry, did you have a comment on whether - whether it's going to - something could happen this week or next week?

BESSENT: For?

REPORTER: For a deal. Say, you know, you said yesterday -

BESSENT: Again, I think that we are very close on India and India, you know, just a little inside baseball. India, in a funny way, is easier to negotiate with than many other countries because they have very high tariffs and lots of tariffs. So, it's much easier to confront the direct tariffs when - as we go through these unfair trade deals that have been put in over decades, that the non-tariff trade barriers can be much more insidious and also harder to detect. So, a country like India, which has the, you know, posted and ready tariffs, it's much easier to negotiate with them.

So, you know, I think the India negotiations are moving well.

LEAVITT: Sean, go ahead.

REPORTER: Hi, Mr. Secretary. So, it was reported this morning that Amazon will soon display a little number next to the price of each product that shows how much the Trump tariffs are adding to the cost of each product. So, isn't that a perfect, crystal-clear demonstration that it's the American consumer and not China who is going to have to pay for these policies?

LEAVITT: I will take this, since I just got off the phone with the president about Amazon's announcement.

This is a hostile and political act by Amazon. Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years? And I would also add that it's not a surprise because, as Reuters recently wrote, Amazon has partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm. So, this is another reason why Americans should buy American. It's another reason why we are onshoring critical supply chains here at home to shore up our own critical supply chain and boost our own manufacturing here.

REPORTER: Is Jeff Bezos still a Trump supporter?

LEAVITT: Look, I will not speak to the president's relationships with Jeff Bezos, but I will tell you that this is certainly a hostile and political action by Amazon.

And, Secretary, if you have anything to add.

BESSENT: Yes, I would also add that the - bringing down the terrible Biden inflation has been a priority for the first 100 days of the Trump administration. And President Trump has done a great job of leading that since January 20th. Interest rates, mortgage rates are down. Gasoline and energy prices are down. We're expecting the further decreases. And as Karoline said, the big tax on consumers that goes unnoticed is deregulation or regulation. And we are deregulating and bringing that down.

So, you know, from a household income point of view, we would expect real purchasing increases that we've seen them over the first 100 days, and we would expect that to accelerate.

We - we are doing peace deals, trade deals, tax deals and deregulating. And the deregulation is a longer lead time. But I think by the third and fourth quarters that's really going to kick in.

LEAVITT: (INAUDIBLE), go ahead.

REPORTER: Thank you, Karoline.

A question for you and Secretary Bessent. We talk a lot about volatility and uncertainty in the marketplace. And the president has stated all along that he's more concerned about mainstream America, the American worker.

You just talked about deregulation and this entire fair trade and reciprocals. What is your message to the American people in terms of letting them get through this disturbance and the outcome being greater, at a greater good for the American worker, the American people, the American families.

LEAVITT: I would say, trust in President Trump. There is a reason he was re-elected to this office. It's because of the historic success of his economic formula in the first term. And as I laid out at the beginning of the briefing, and the secretary has talked about, and the president talks about every day, there's a proven formula that works. Massive deregulation, energy independence and tax cuts, which are coming in. And the secretary is working very hard on that with our counterparts on Capitol Hill. If you want to talk about that, that's a huge deal to put more money back into the pockets of hardworking Americans.

As for the fair trade deals the president is trying to negotiate, he's not just writing the wrong of the mess that he inherited from the past four years of the Biden administration. This is a mess that has been created for the past four decades, that has sold out the middle class, that has moved jobs overseas. You think about our heartland, middle America, what towns used to look like, what they look like today.

[09:00:01]

President Trump wants to restore the golden age, and it's a process to do that. And that process is underway. But he's put together a fantastic trade team. Secretary Bessent,