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New Canadian PM Vows Not to Yield to Trump; Trump Departs White House for 100th Day Events in Michigan; Amazon Says It Considered Breaking Out Tariff Charges on Spinoff Site Haul, But Didn't Roll It Out; Trump Spoke to Auto CEOs Before Deciding to Ease Tariffs. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 29, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:55]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": This hour, President Trump heading to Michigan for a victory lap to talk about his accomplishments. But 100 days in, new polling suggests that some of the voters who put Trump in power are increasingly frustrated by what he's doing with it.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And crisis of confidence, a new report shows Americans are growing more worried about the economy and the possibility of a recession. Could fear of an economic downturn actually cause a crisis all on its own? We'll dig in to that possibility. And not backing down, Canada's new prime minister says his country will never yield to President Trump's threats after an election overshadowed by the trade war. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

SANCHEZ: It is day 100 and right now, we're standing by to see and possibly hear from President Trump as he leaves the White House for back-to-back events in Michigan. In just the last few hours, various White House officials have signaled the president will ease tariffs on automakers today with a new executive order. And there's new reporting on a phone call between the president and the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. Sources telling CNN that the president at one point wasn't happy earlier today about a report he saw regarding the online retail giant, Amazon then clarifying their plans.

Let's get the latest from Alayna Treene, who's at the White House for us. And Alayna, you got the scoop about this Trump Bezos call. It all has to do with a certain section of that website potentially showing shoppers how much Trump tariffs might cost them, right?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's exactly right. So essentially, I'll just give you the breakdown of how this played out as it is according to the senior White House officials I spoke with on this. Essentially, there was a story published this morning by Punchbowl News that said Amazon was considering to show the cost of tariffs on Amazon's website next to its prices, to show the breakdown of how much more the tariffs were making these products cost. That was something that then one senior White House official who I spoke with called President Trump about directly to inform him of it. Now, this is what one of those officials told me the response was, they said, "Of course, he was pissed. Why should a multi-billion dollar company pass off costs to consumers?" Then we learned, and this is according to two senior White House officials I spoke with, that the president was so angered by this he called up the founder of Amazon himself, Jeff Bezos, to complain about the potential plans that were being reported on.

We also heard White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt say publicly that they believed that the move was a hostile political act, all to say after all of that, the White House making very clear their position both publicly and privately. Amazon then seemed to backtrack. They had one statement come out from an Amazon spokesperson that essentially said, "It was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing had been implemented on Amazon properties." They said it was only going to be for certain products on its website.

But then when I reached out to Amazon, they sent me a different statement saying it was their latest version of it and essentially, it added and made clear that it was never approved and not going to happen. So, I think it is a pretty remarkable story really of how this all played out. And really, I think the bottom line here is it shows that this White House did not want the tariff prices and the cost of these tariffs being shown. They were also really taking issue with the fact that some of the cost of the tariffs could be passed on from Amazon to consumers.

SANCHEZ: And Alayna, on the auto tariffs and the president's events tonight, what should we expect?

TREENE: Yeah, look, this is something that we heard confirmed this morning from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Essentially, the president is going to be signing a new executive order today.

[14:05:00]

We're told he will sign it onboard Air Force One as he travels to Michigan for his rally to mark his first 100 days in office. And essentially, the order is going to ease some of the tariffs on automakers. Now, I was told in my conversations with White House officials that this came after the president had spoken on multiple occasions with different CEOs of the major automaker companies. And this is something as well we heard Scott Bessent said that they want to try and help these automakers.

They want to encourage them and motivate them to bring manufacturing to the United States. And in order to do that, they might have to soften the impact of some of the tariffs that we're seeing the president rollout. Now, this executive order, some commerce department officials walked through some of the details with reporters. It's very wonky, but I want to give you kind of the 50,000-foot view, Boris.

Essentially, the 25 percent tariff on imported cars still remains and that's going to continue to remain. There's also going to be a new tariff going into effect this week and another 25 percent tariff on parts, auto parts coming into the United States. However, this new order will give the ability for some of these automakers to get reimbursed for some of the 25 percent tariffs. But then also, they really are looking at trying to prevent domestic-made cars in the United States from being tariffed in the same rate that auto cars would be tariffed as well as the foreign parts of different tariffs even in domestically produced cars.

All of that to say it's very complex, but it's clear what they're trying to do here. They're trying to ease the impact that some of these automakers are feeling. And really their bottom-line goal is to encourage manufacturing in the United States. That's the bottom line with what they're trying to do here. And you are seeing the stock market respond kind of favorably to the news of this, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Alayna Treene live for us at a noisy White House, sounds like a plane overhead. Alayna, thank you so much.

TREENE: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Today, our new CNN poll shows that about two-thirds of Americans are pessimistic or afraid about the economy and that an overwhelming majority believe that a recession in the next year is at least somewhat likely. CNN's Matt Egan joins us now. So Matt, Main Street and Wall Street gripped by recession worries. That could have a real impact on turning those fears into a reality. It could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, Boris, that is definitely the risk here, that we could be willing ourselves into a recession, especially because this is a consumer-led economy. And look, the level of gloom and doom on Main Street is really staggering. As you noted, 69 percent of adults in this new CNN poll think that a U.S. recession in the next year is likely. Just 30 percent say that it's not. Now, it is true that Democrats are more pessimistic than Republicans, right? More than 90 percent of those who voted for Vice President Harris think a recession is likely.

But this poll and others do suggest that there is bipartisan concern here, right? This poll finds that 39 percent of people who voted for President Trump just a few months ago, they also think that a recession is likely. And obviously, this is a political problem for the White House, but it's also an economic problem because yes, there is this risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? If enough people are nervous about a recession, they may decide to hunker down, right? They may decide to spend less money and save more, right? They're not going to book that vacation or go out to dinner.

So, you can have this negative feedback loop where confidence falls and that causes spendings to drop, which leads businesses to lay off workers causing more turbulence on -- in financial markets, and it goes on and on like that. So that of course is the concern. And we are hearing some businesses also sound the alarm of -- the Dallas Fed put out a manufacturing survey earlier this week and there were a number of executives who voiced a lot of worry about trade policy, even though tariffs are supposed to be helping manufacturers. One printing executive said that the trade policy from the administration is "insanity" and it's causing chaos in the industry.

Another executive from a machinery company has expressed support for the tariffs, but said it's causing so much uncertainty that it's basically impossible right now to forecast anything. This executive said, we believe the direction the current administration is leading our country is on target, but the pain to get there may be longer and more intense than originally anticipated. And look, none of this means a recession is inevitable. It's entirely possible that Americans are telling pollsters they hate the economy, but they're going to keep spending anyway.

That's what happened just three years ago. But clearly, the risks are there. And JPMorgan's David Kelly, he told me that unless there's a sharp reversal in tariff policy from this administration, he does think that at least a mild recession is on the way. Boris?

[14:10:00]

SANCHEZ: Matt Egan, thank you so much for the update from markets. Brianna?

KEILAR: Scott Lincicome joins us now. He's the Vice President of General Economics at the Cato Institute. Scott, thank you so much for being with us. You heard Matt's report there. Are vibes enough to push America into a recession? You know, when you have a consumer confidence that is lowest since the early months of COVID and almost seven in 10 adults saying a recession is at least somewhat likely in the next year, can it be a self-fulfilling prophecy?

SCOTT LINCICOME, VICE PRESIDENT OF GENERAL ECONOMICS, CATO INSTITUTE: Well, it certainly can help. I mean, when you have a U.S. economy that's driven in large part by consumer spending, if a lot of those same consumers stay home and don't spend, you're going to have -- that's going to ripple throughout the economy. Whether it's enough to push us over the edge is a difficult thing to project.

But look, with companies also struggling from investment uncertainty, from higher costs because of tariffs, these things can combine and I think that's the more likely thing that might push us into recession.

KEILAR: This Amazon-White House spat over what Amazon is now saying was just this kind of idea that was being discussed to list tariff upcharges on some Amazon Haul products, what do you think just about the idea of this, about letting consumers know what a tariff policy is costing them?

LINCICOME: Well, it's a tough calculation for a giant retailer like Amazon, but if it's doable, it's a fantastic idea. The fact is that tariffs are taxes and they're typically paid by American companies and consumers. Any bit of sunlight that we can shed on that tax would be a good thing because typically tariffs are hidden. They're hidden in the supply chains. They're paid at the border. That's one reason why politicians like tariffs. They're a very seductive tool because consumers don't typically see them. So if we could shed some light on it, that'd be pretty great, but it's not an easy calc. KEILAR: Not so easy. Can we sort of, let's look at this from 30,000 feet, just the economy right now. We're at 100 days of the Trump administration, and it seems right now that the messaging is kind of, as the polls indicate, there is a lot of pain and people are worried that it's short-term pain, but there's going to be long-term gain. How certain can Americans believe that that's the case and that it's actually not just short-term pain, long-term pain?

LINCICOME: Yeah, I don't think they should be confident in that long- term gain at all. Look, if you look at the history of tariffs, if you look at the continued uncertainty, now automotive tariffs are being scaled back, it's really difficult to say that we're going to have a better economic growth after imposing hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes on imports. That just doesn't jive with the economics literature.

The best I think we can hope for is, like JPMorgan was saying, a dramatic reversal in tariff policy. That might not eliminate the damage, but it could at least make it a lot less than I think what's coming.

KEILAR: So, what comes out of this in the end? Just a really interesting chapter in economics textbook, or how do you see it?

LINCICOME: Yeah, well, we're going to get some great economics research out of this, right? This is -- we haven't had tariffs this high since the Smoot-Hawley era. So in that sense, economists are pretty excited. But yeah, I mean, we're really flying blind and in part because of the way the tariffs were implemented. Doing this all unilaterally, doing it in such a short amount of time, doing it without business input, like automakers talking about their supply chains, all of that has created just chaos in the market. And with that level of uncertainty, we're going to be learning a lot about how that weighs on investment in the real world, I think, in the months ahead.

KEILAR: Yeah, it might make for a very interesting college lecture, but ouch for everyone out there as they're feeling it. Scott Lincicome, thank you so much for being with us.

LINCICOME: My pleasure.

KEILAR: Still to come, Republicans on Capitol Hill moving fast on a spending plan for President Trump's agenda, but some are questioning how exactly they're going to push it across the finish line. And new developments ahead of the conclave to pick the Pope's successor, a cardinal drops out because of his criminal history. More of that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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[14:19:25]

SANCHEZ: House Speaker Mike Johnson says the next few weeks on Capitol Hill will be critical as Republicans look to advance President Trump's legislative agenda. The House has been tasked with trimming $1.5 trillion from the federal budget. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set a July 4th deadline to have a spending bill on the President's desk. But today, Speaker Johnson is upping the ante. Listen to this.

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REP. MIKE JOHNSON, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We're going to get it done by Memorial Day. Send it over there. They take a couple few weeks to work through that. We merge this together. We get it to the president's desk quickly for a signature. Secretary Bessent said yesterday, a big celebration by July 4th.

[14:20:00]

I hope it happens much sooner than that and we're going to keep pressing aggressively in the House to make sure that it happens.

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SANCHEZ: Let's take you live to Capitol Hill with CNN's Manu Raju. Manu, Republicans do have control of both chambers. Is this Memorial Day deadline to get it out of the House realistic?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is very -- there are lots of skepticism on Capitol Hill from Republicans, really in both the House and the Senate, just because of the enormous scope of this legislation. There are so many details that have yet to be drafted, yet to be agreed upon, including sprawling overhaul of the United States Tax Code, where to come up with those roughly $1.5 trillion in spending cuts and so many other details underneath that.

And there's not even an agreement between House Republicans and Senate Republicans about how much to go, how far to go on some spending cuts. There are some members of the Senate who believe that the level that was laid out by the House in its plan is just too much, too deep and others in the House side to say they need to go much further. And that's just one aspect of the overall effort to get to a deal here.

But I spent the day also talking to a number of House Republicans about that plan to try to push ahead with those $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. And some Republicans, including Congressman Don Bacon, indicated he's concerned about how they're ultimately going to get the number laid out to essentially achieve those results. Listen.

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RAJU: How concerned are you about the cuts that you're hearing about that they're going to push on the reconciliation?

REP. DON BACON, (R-NE): Yeah, well, we're in the middle of that. Like for Medicare or Medicaid, me and a group of like-minded individuals, we can find $500 billion that don't hurt Medicaid, the care that you're giving over at hospitals. They're going to have a hard time getting from $500 billion to $880 billion. But I don't want to have a closed mind. REP. RICH MCCORMICK, (R-GA): We've made our line in the sand, you know, saving $1.5 trillion over 10 years, that's about a half a year of deficit spending. It's not a big ass, as matter of fact, it's not aggressive enough in my opinion.

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RAJU: But today, they're moving ahead with other aspects that Republicans do agree with as part of the larger agenda, including roughly $150 billion in spending for new defense programs as well as tens of billions of dollars in dealing with security at the southern border. That'll be just a piece of that larger push, try to get this bill through the House and the Senate. But with so many details yet to be resolved and the narrowness of majorities in the House and Senate, any one or two Republicans could be enough to essentially force the Speaker to slow down his timeframe if he or she were to object to any of the policy details in this plan, which is why there's a lot of skepticism and concern that they can get there in time.

One big thing to watch though, they want to raise the national debt limit as part of this big huge proposal and if there's concerns about a debt default looming, that may increase that timeline, make it a little faster to try to get this over the finish line. Boris?

KEILAR: All right, Manu Raju, thank you so much for that live for us from the Hill. There is a new CNN poll that's out today and it shows Americans' growing concerns about how Congress is dealing with President Trump's first 100 days. 56 percent of those surveyed say lawmakers are not doing enough to push back on the president's aggressive use of executive power.

SANCHEZ: And that same poll found 58 percent believe Republicans being in charge of both Capitol Hill and the White House is bad for the country. Here with us now is Brad Dayspring. He's a Political Analyst and Communication Strategist. Brad, thank you so much for being with us. How fazed should this White House be, should President Trump be by what appear to be numbers that are not really thrilled about his first a hundred days?

BRAD DAYSPRING, POLITICAL ANALYST AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIST President Trump tends to be very attuned to polls, but he doesn't tend to be very reactive to polls. And so I have no doubt that inside the White House, they're paying very keen attention to what those polling levels show, but they don't react to them. It's sort of like going to a doctor, getting a series of checkups and getting a series of tests run. But if you don't react to them, the tests really don't tell you a lot.

So, Trump's first 100 days really has been defined by the executive order, been defined by a rather imperial presidency. Phase II is going to be defined by what happens on Capitol Hill, as Manu was just talking about. So what does that legislation look like? There's a lot of balls in the air right now. You have tariffs up in the air, you have uncertainty driven by tariffs, you have reconciliation, you have the tax bill. What does that look like? You have the debt limit coming up. So really, how those -- that's a lot of balls in the air, a lot of planes to be landed. How the president does that in coordination with Congress is really going to go a long way to defining his legacy as the second term president.

KEILAR: So are we going to -- I mean, there's a lot hanging on that. Are we going to be seeing it really shift from like the months of the executive order to the months of Trump's legislative actions? Is that how this is going to look and what should we be looking for specifically?

DAYSPRING: I think one of the characteristics of President Trump is that chaos comes with him, right? So, I think there's going to be a lot of activity on Capitol Hill. There absolutely needs to be. He's also going to continue with executive orders on things like immigration, on things like pressure testing the court systems.

[14:25:00]

But it's really going to be how he works with Congress to define the specifics that are going in that reconciliation bill that are really going to determine what the economic outlook feels like, what consumer sentiment feels like, and the things that are going to go a long way to define his ability to hold the House, which is going to define his legacy.

SANCHEZ: To that point, how likely is it that Republicans will get enough consensus to pass something that will allow them to keep control of the House? Because history proves that the incumbent party in a midterm always loses.

DAYSPRING: Well, when you have such a small majority, you better get consensus. You pretty much have to bat a thousand, right? And so, Mike Johnson has a tough job. Now, the benefit that he has is that Republicans are largely lined up behind President Trump. And even though his approval ratings are a little bit low, you look at those numbers among Republican voters, they're sitting at around 90 percent.

So, Republican members of Congress largely are aligned with the president, but the devil is always going to be in the details, on things like Medicaid cuts. A lot of MAGA is on Medicaid. So what does that really look like? How does that apply itself? What does it look like on the tax numbers? The president made a lot of campaign promises, taxes on tips, for example. Salt is a big issue for a lot of Republicans in swing districts. What does that look like in practicality, and can they get that over the finish line and can they largely do it before summer recess?

If I'm a member of Congress, I do not want the reconciliation bill sitting out there when I go home for summer recess in August.

KEILAR: Back in the day, you were up as a top aide in Republican leadership in the House, way back when I was covering Capitol Hill.

DAYSPRING: And it was a simpler time, Brianna.

KEILAR: It sure was.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: It was a while ago. But Obama was in power and Republicans had a pretty, I would say, clear idea of how they were going to be in opposition. So I wonder, as you're looking at Democrats right now and moving into the rest of the year and next year, how you think they are doing at this point in time.

DAYSPRING: I think they've done a fantastic job at protesting Trump. And I think ultimately, at the ballot box, it means very little. And so, what I think Democrats are going to have to do is define an alternative. What is their position on taxes? What is their position on tariffs? And just screaming no to everything Trump does isn't going to work. You remember it very well when I was up on Capitol Hill with Leader Canner (ph), we were defined as the party of no for a long time. And that didn't go very far.

It wasn't until we started defining our own agenda, our own alternatives to big initiatives like Obamacare. And even though those weren't going to pass the House of Representatives, it did give voters a clear choice and a clear alternative when it came to the ballot box. Historically, the president in the midterms is going to lose seats. Republicans don't have a lot of ground to lose there.

So do Democrats, how are they going to pivot off things like tariffs? How are they going to pivot off of taxes? How are they going to pivot off of growing global uncertainty with our allies and strategic adversaries alike to provide voters with an alternative? And the alternative really can't be a continuation of the Biden-Harris policies that failed. So really, what are they going to do? And who is going to be the voice? I think one thing Democrats really need to establish is who the voice of 2026 and 2028 is going to be. What are -- who are the new round of faces that voters are going to see as an alternative?

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Some big questions to answer pretty soon. Brad Dayspring, appreciate the perspective.

DAYSPRING: Appreciate it being here. Thank you both.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Still to come, Canadian voters sending a resounding message to the White House. We'll look at how President Trump helped Kerry -- helped an underdog candidate, I should say, come out on top. Much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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