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White House Briefing; Carney Wins in Canada; Gene Sperling is Interviewed about Trump's First 100 Days. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Look like today. 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, Secretary Lutnick, Jamison Greer, all working incredibly hard on this effort 24/7. But tax cuts are coming. And that's key.

And, Mr. Secretary, why don't you talk a little bit about that.

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Yes, so it's really - it's really a three-legged stool in the economic policy. It's trade, it's tax and it's deregulation. So, we are in the midst of addressing, as Karoline said, these long term trade imbalances. The tax bill is going much better than I would have thought when I took office on January 28th. And that's through President Trump's leadership that Speaker Johnson, Leader Thune, are united.

Speaker Johnson, we had a very good meeting yesterday with something called the big six. NSA Director Kevin Hassett, myself, Speaker Johnson, Leader Thune, Committee Chairman Jason Smith and Senator Crapo. And the tax bill is moving forward. It is going to give permanence to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act, which will, back to the question on certainty, it will give American business certainty, it will give American people certainty. And then President Trump is also adding the things for working Americans that is talked about earlier, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, making auto payments deductible. So that will substantially address the affordability crisis.

And the other thing that I would note, and back to data, is that they the vanguard, one of the largest money management firms in America, said that over the past 100 days, 97 percent of Americans haven't done a trade. And in fact, individual investors have held tight while institutional investors have panicked. So, individual investors trust in - individual the investors trust President Trump.

LEAVITT: Megan (ph), in the back.

REPORTER: Thank you both.

Can you detail for us exactly what we should expect as far as relief on the auto tariffs front? And then further, Mr. Secretary, should we expect other industries to also get relief the way we've now seen for auto and tech as well?

BESSENT: I'm not going to go into the details. The - of the auto tariff relief, but I can tell you that it will go substantially toward reshoring American auto manufacturing. And again, the goal here is to bring back the high-quality industrial jobs to the U.S. President Trump is interested in the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past. You know, we don't need to necessarily have a booming textile industry like where I grew up again, but we do want to have precision manufacturing and bring that back.

And, you know, another important, very important function of this that does not get talked about enough is national security. President Trump, his overriding the concern and belief is that economic security is national security. National security is economic security. And we saw during Covid that our supply chains got cut off. And we need to bring back a lot of those supply chains, whether it's in semiconductors, medicines, the steel. And we have to onshore those. So, it's a combination of making trade free and fair and remedying this gaping national security hole that he was left with.

LEAVITT: And if I could, I would just add, Megan, the president will sign the executive order on auto tariffs later today, and we will release it, as we always do.

Go ahead.

REPORTER: Thank you. Secretary, and (INAUDIBLE) based on the negotiation with the European Union, and is it hard to negotiate with the European Union?

BESSENT: Pardon?

REPORTER: Do you have any updates on the - on the negotiation with the European Union?

BESSENT: I'm involved in the Asian negotiations. My observation would be - goes all the way back to Henry Kissinger's statement, when I call Europe, who do I call? So, we're negotiating with a lot of different interests. Some of the European countries have put on an unfair digital service tax on our big internet provider. You know, France and Italy, other countries, Germany and Poland don't have that. So, we want to see that unfair tax of one of America's great industries removed.

So, it's going to be a give and take. So, they have some internal matters to decide before they can engage in an external negotiation.

LEAVITT: Edward.

REPORTER: Yes, thanks, Karoline.

Mr. Secretary, so contacts I have in the business community say that they're - they're basically frozen for long term investment because of the uncertainty around tariffs. How long do you think President Trump has to make a deal before there's damage to the economy?

[09:05:05]

BESSENT: Look, I think that what we're seeing is that business leaders, they've gone into a pause, and I think we're going to give them great certainty on this tax bill. And I think over the next couple of weeks, as I said, we have 18 important trading relationships. We'll put China to the side. Seventeen the - are in motion. And then, as I said yesterday, I think there's a very good chance we're going to get this tax bill done. And the tax bill is going to be very powerful for domestic U.S. investment.

So, what we are going to do, one of the most powerful parts of President Trump's 2017 tax bill was full expensing of equipment. We are going to make that, as President Trump said in his speech to Congress, that will be retroactive to January 20th.

The other thing that we are looking to add is full expensing for factories. So, bring your factory back. You can fully expense the equipment and the building. We will couple that with deregulation cheap energy and regulatory certainty. And that will continue to make the U.S. the greatest destination for domestic and foreign investment.

REPORTER: Mr. President, if I could follow - just, the president said that - that a world leaders would like to meet with him in Rome - in Vatican City, I'm sorry, about trade. Other than President Zelenskyy, who did the president meet with and - about trade, and when could we get some of those deals?

LEAVITT: The president met with President Zelenskyy, as you know, which we talked about. And the president continues to be engaged with his fellow foreign leaders - his fellow leaders around the world in the European Union. You've seen many of them visit the White House.

I want to harp on, in closing, the point the secretary just made. On the campaign trail, the president promised the American public that he was going to make America the best country in the world to do business again. The lowest taxes, lowest regulation, lowest energy costs of anywhere in the world. And if you do business in the United States, you won't pay a tariff. You won't pay a price. That's not just good for companies around the world, but it's good for the American worker. That's what this team has focused so hard on every day.

We have work to do. The golden age of America is underway. But as I pointed out in the beginning, there's a lot of reason for the American consumer, the American CEO, the American small business owner to be confident and optimistic about this president and where we're headed.

So, you will hear more from the president himself. Later this evening he is traveling to Michigan, as you all know. He'll make a stop at the Air Force base with Governor Whitmer, and then we will head to a rally tonight where you'll hear more from him directly. So, we'll see you in Michigan. Thank you, guys.

REPORTER: Thank you, Karoline.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you've been listening to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Welcome back after top of the hour right now. We've been watching this news conference, which was scheduled, I think, to tout what they consider to be the president's accomplishments, economic accomplishments for the first 100 days.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. They're doing it all week.

BERMAN: Yesterday was immigration. Today, the economy. No deals were announced today. No trade deals. I think its possible investors had been waiting or anticipating something might be announced from the podium today, but that did not happen.

The one fairly big piece of news that did happen, though, was that the Treasury secretary was asked about a report in Punchbowl News that Amazon is going to start posting on its site the additional cost to each product that comes from the president's tariffs, right by the price of that product. If you're paying two bucks for something, it would say, x amount is coming from the tariffs. Punchbowl said that Amazon is going to do that.

Now, when a question was asked about that at the briefing, the Treasury secretary deferred to Karoline Leavitt, who went to kind of 11 on a scale of 1 to 10 and said she had spoken to the president, who called it a hostile and political act from Amazon.

Let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst Rana Foroohar.

That was fairly remarkable, that answer. And it tells you, I think, a little bit about the concern that the White House has over how these tariffs are playing.

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: One hundred percent, John. You know, I was waiting and wondering when some of the big tech CEOs were going to raise their heads above the parapet and really question and call out the president, excuse me, and I think what Amazon has done, first of all, is a very good one of the -

BOLDUAN: Rana, hold on just one second. We're going to dip back into this Briefing Room right now.

FOROOHAR: Sure.

BOLDUAN: Because I think Kaitlan - I think Kaitlan Collins is - Kaitlan Collins is standing by in the Briefing Room. Let's go there right now.

Kaitlan, there you are. Thank you so much.

What's your big take after being in there and hearing what Scott Bessent and Karoline Leavitt just laid out?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, one just what you were just talking about there, this new policy from Amazon that Punchbowl News reported on this morning, that they are going to start listing the price difference because of President Trump's tariffs when someone is checking out so they can see, here's what the price would be without these tariffs. Here's what it is now with these tariffs. It was remarkable that Karoline Leavitt said she had just gotten off the phone with President Trump.

[09:10:01]

She often speaks to him before these briefings happen to make sure, obviously, that she's in line with whatever he is thinking. And it was an incredibly aggressive response. The White House saying they believe that that is a hostile move by Amazon to do that and to list those prices and reflect basically what the impact of the president's tariffs are going to be.

And it's made all the more notable because of the relationship that the president has with Jeff Bezos. If I had told you this was the response from the White House eight years ago, you might not have been as surprised. That was when the president was openly feuding with Jeff Bezos, was highly critical of "The Washington Post" and its coverage of him.

But Jeff Bezos came to the president's inauguration. He was seated there among him. He has had dinner with him. He's been here at the White House since then. And so it is remarkable to hear what the White House's response to that was.

I didn't have a chance to ask a question, but, obviously, the next natural response to that is, is the president planning on calling Jeff Bezos about this new policy that Amazon is implementing and what that looks like because they do have that direct personal relationship. And so, overall, that certainly is a big takeaway.

But also just hearing from the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, on where this stands, especially in light of that polling that we saw from CNN last night where the president is doing not well with the economy in voters' minds. When you look at a majority of them that believe a recession in the next year is somewhat likely. Typically this is an area that he does very well with voters in. He believes he came into the White House on that vow to bring down prices for voters. And so now that some of his policies are threatening to potentially bring them up in the meantime, that is a real question.

We may get a chance to see President Trump later, because he is expected to sign that executive order, the White House confirmed, on exempting some of those automakers from tariffs, essentially so they're not stacking on top of one another. If they're paying one of the tariffs, they don't have to also pay the steel and aluminum tariffs. That's certainly a huge relief to these automakers who have been so worried about this.

But, of course, it raises questions about the uncertainty of this matter. You know, small businesses not getting the exemptions that these big automakers and big tech are getting right now. And just really the state of this trade war, as we're waiting to hear about any of the trade deals that the Treasury secretary said they were actively negotiating behind the scenes.

BERMAN: All right, Kaitlan Collins in the White House Briefing Room. Kaitlan, thank you very much.

Rana Foroohar, thank you for sticking around with us right now. Kaitlan was just giving us some of the context there.

You were talking to us again about this complicated relationship that Amazon has with the White House. And also just again, why the White House might be concerned if consumers see the cost of a tariff right next to a product that they're buying.

FOROOHAR: Well, let's just think about a nutritional label on a product. I mean many of us look at those labels when we go in. We're looking at the calories. We're looking at how much protein something has. Imagine if you could have that kind of transparency when you're buying your phone or buying your car or buying avocados. That's powerful. First of all, it's an amazing use of the incredible amounts of big data that these companies have. I mean this is a great use of it. It's also - it is very political, I would say. I mean the president - or Karoline Leavitt, channeling the president, called it a hostile and political act, which - which did sound very threatening in terms of what the president was channeling to Jeff Bezos there.

I think it's also very interesting in terms of where big tech and where some of the largest and most powerful CEOs in the country stand in relation to Trump. And I was wondering when this penny was going to drop because, yes, you - you know, you saw, as Kaitlan said, them all sitting in the front row at the inauguration. It was this sort of parade of American oligarchs.

On the other hand, boy, have their businesses been hit by liberation day. Confidence is down. You know, we've seen consumers very worried about the economy, about spending. That has huge potential economic impact. And it has political impact, too.

I think we're going to see this - this, I won't call it a war, but this conflict, perhaps, between Amazon and the president really resonate both economically and politically. I imagine that Republicans and Democrats alike are thinking about what to make of this right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Rana, I do want to quickly ask you about, we heard Bessent saying that there were 18 deals that were in motion. But then he said, well, 17, we're going to put China to the side. And also said, when asked whether President Trump had spoken to Xi Jinping, he didn't answer the question. So, I think that was pretty clear.

He was also asked whether he had talked to China, not about other things, but specifically about tariffs. Again, didn't answer the question, saying he was sort of going to move on. What do you make of all of that? And what does that mean for the American consumer?

FOROOHAR: So, I thought when liberation day came that the Chinese were not going to take this lying down. And that has been the case. In fact, not only have they struck back and taken a real hard line with the U.S., they've said to other countries, to Europe, to countries in the emerging world, hey, if you make deals with the U.S., you may not be making deals with us.

[09:15:06]

There may be retribution. Bessent said, look, we're the deficit nation. China sends five times as many products to the U.S. as we do to them. They're weaker. But that is discounting something very powerful about the Chinese. And I've been to China many times. They are prepared to take a lot of pain. And they are a very nationalistic country. They have a lot of pride. And it will be politically terrible for Xi Jinping if he is perceived to be rolling over and doing what Trump says. So, that is all in play right now. And I think that this is going to drag on for a long time.

SIDNER: Wow. All right, Rana Foroohar, thank you so much for your analysis as we're coming out of hearing a lot of interesting news, especially the news about Amazon being a hostile and political act by putting that stuff out.

BERMAN: All right, just a few minutes now until the markets actually open. Let's take a look at where stock futures are. You know, the Dow especially had been up quite a bit before the Treasury secretary started speaking. Now you can see futures flat - a hair down. Unclear if investors are reacting to what they heard.

Stay with us. Our live coverage continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:45]

SIDNER: Breaking overnight, Canada will never yield to President Trump and the U.S. That is the message from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as he declared victory in the country's federal elections. It was a stunning comeback for Carney, seen here celebrating, and his liberal party as well. And Trump played a decisive role. Just months ago, Carney was heading for a potentially landslide defeat. That all changed.

CNN's Paula Newton is in Ottawa for us.

Just give us some sense of how big of a shift this is for Canada and where it was going, and then when Trump started talking about the 51st state, where it ended up.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, Sara, liberal members, the cabinet ministers themselves have said that their party was left for dead not 100 days ago. The 100-day mark consequential not just for Donald Trump but for Canada as well.

If you want to use the shorthand, Sara, Donald Trump got Mark Carney elected. How and why? All of those threats to be a 51st state, to break Canada economically, meant many Canadians turned to Mark Carney. He's the man of the moment. A renowned global economist. Really, Canada looking to him to strike a hard bargain in the Oval Office and elsewhere.

So, what happens now, Sara? They have not begun to negotiate. I want top of mind for everyone what is at stake right now. Canada remains the largest market, the largest buyer of American exports, and its second largest trading partner. How this negotiation goes down certainly will set the trend, not just for Canada, but for other countries around the world, and will materially affect Americans.

It is not clear what Mark Carney's strategy is here. He believes that he can drive a hard bargain, and he says he will pivot to trade with other countries if he needs to. Top of mind though again, Sara, keep in mind Michigan. The state of Michigan. A lot on the line as it remains one of Canada's leading partners in trade.

Sara.

SIDNER: That is right. There's so much to dig into with this relationship. And we'll see how it goes over time.

Paula Newton, it's always a pleasure. Thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now is CNN chief national correspondent John King.

John, it's great to see you.

You know, normally we talk to you about your journeys all over the U.S. map, but you went to Canada too about a month ago, if I remember correctly. And if people saw your story, they could have seen this coming. The president's words have just had a real impact there.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Two trips over the past couple of months. One out west to British Columbia and one to Ontario, which is Toronto and the greater Toronto area. You move up, giant swath of land in Canada.

And look, as Paula just noted, President Trump essentially created a wave of Canadian nationalism. He's the America first president he likes to say. Well, that was a Canada first election. And you had voters all over the map, forgive me, even, you know, green party voters saying I'm not going to vote for my preferred choice, the green party, because I need whoever wins to have a big majority. The greens won't get enough seats in the parliament to elect the prime minister therefore I'm going to vote liberal. You had conservatives saying, I'm going to vote for the conservatives. But the most important thing is for Canadians to realize, we now have a threat. We don't have a neighbor anymore. We have somebody being nasty to us, threatening us in trade, threatening to take over our country, insulting our political leadership. Really a crossroads moment.

It was so striking, John. Canadians of all political persuasions saying, we need to spend more on defense. We need to look around the world for new markets. We need to give up, stop being so dependent on the United States and be more independent in the world economy and politically.

The question is going to be, Paula raised the point about trade just with Michigan. So much of this trade was easy. It was such a great friendship for so long. If Canada does find all those markets, there are a lot of products that the United States gets from Canada that we need for our economy, whether it's the home building industry, whether it's the energy industry, what happens if Canadians find new markets for those products and the United States needs them and Canada says, too bad.

BERMAN: Yes. No, it could have a real impact. And if people watch your stories, it was palpable. I mean, the way people were talking, it was palpable the disappointment they had in the president.

John, I want to play a moment from the White House briefing that happened just moments ago.

[09:25:01]

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were asked about a report that Amazon is going to start listing the costs of their tariffs on their site next to products. Let's listen to that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You spent a lot of time in that briefing room, John. When you hear a press secretary loaded for bear like that, she came out with that response, a hostile and political act, it belies a little bit of the concern that the administration might have about how consumers might feel if they know how much the tariffs are actually costing.

KING: Right. It is the fear of transparency. It is the fear of having Amazon, likely to be followed by other tech companies and other corporate people doing business online, to post. Your costs are going up. We just want to explain to you why. Here's where this is coming from.

Inflation was a global economic phenomenon. Yes, it punished the American people. These tariffs are a Trump decision. A Trump decision. And so Jeff Bezos is trying to protect his business, trying to steer the anger away from him and say, look, it's not my fault these prices are going up. Here's where it is.

But, John, that whole briefing and what you talked about, the market futures, it's - it's the 100-day giant problem for President Trump. And it's kind of a triple whammy. They've lost the confidence of Wall Street on the economy, which doesn't trust anything they say. My apologies to the Treasury secretary, but they've gone back and forth so many times on tariffs, they're on, they're off, they're on, they're off, we have a deal, we don't have a deal, that they've lost the faith there. They've lost the faith in the corporate boardrooms around America. Whether it's the big three automakers in Detroit or companies all around the country who are trying to plan past tomorrow in their businesses and they simply say they can't because of all this on again, off again yo-yo rhetoric from the president on tariffs.

Most importantly, you've been through our polls the last few days, John, I know, they've lost the confidence of the American people. This was the president's biggest strength, that they trusted him on the economy.

BERMAN: Yes.

KING: Even voters who don't like him personally, don't like his character, said, I trust him to lower prices and get the economy back on track. And look at our numbers, they're devastating. He has lost that faith, too. So, it's kind of a triple whammy against the president at the 100-day mark on what was his strength that is now a big weakness.

BERMAN: Yes, feelings about the economy, you can see, 29 percent pessimistic, 37 percent afraid.

KING: Right.

BERMAN: That's a bad combination when you add up that math.

And, John, when you do travel in the U.S., and I know you just went to Arizona. How much have the tariffs seeped in to everyday conversation?

KING: Sometimes tariffs come up specifically because people understand their costs are not going down. Sometimes it's just more general. People know their costs are not going down. And look, this is just a statement of fact, that the president often says things that are not true, right. He's Daniel Dale's greatest job security here at CNN in terms of the fact check business.

But you can say a lot of things in Washington that take a while to reach the American people. But when the president says the price of eggs is down and it is not down, people know that, John. They go to the grocery store once or twice a week. When he says things about the economy that aren't are true, that's the problem there. So, there's a confidence and a credibility question for the president, even among some of his own voters. I have been struck in my travels, including that recent trip to Arizona, where a number of Trump voters who say, I'm still with him, but that add - then add a long list of buts about what they're doing.

And so, the second hundred days, I would argue, are incredibly important for this president because his - he's underwater in his approval rating, underwater on the economy, even underwater on immigration now, which is a reflection that people just don't think he's doing a good job at the moment, so your ratings go down everywhere. Remember when that happened to Joe Biden after Afghanistan and people

- he never recovered. David Axelrod made this point last night, that he thinks Trump could be at - potentially at one of those points, that the American people just say, we elected you to do something. We don't see you doing it. Never mind.

If that happens, the president will struggle, his numbers will stay low. And they're historically low (ph) right now. But the bigger question is what happens to his Republican Party as we head into the midterm year.

BERMAN: Yes, for the president it could be a long three years. But for Republicans in Congress, it comes much, much more quickly.

John King, great to see you. Thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Joining us right now is Gene Sperling, a former Senior Adviser to President Biden. Also is the director of the National Economic Council under Presidents Clinton and Obama.

Gene, thank you for being here.

GENE SPERLING, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk - let's run through some of what we heard from the Treasury Secretary, from Scott Bessent, starting with this reporting on Amazon that John - John and John were just talking about, that Amazon - reports that Amazon is going to begin displaying the cost of tariffs on products on the site near the total listed price, and the White House calling it a hostile and political act.

[09:30:00]

Karoline Leavitt said she just heard that and spoke with the president right beforehand.

What do you think both of the move by Amazon and the reaction from the White House?