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Stocks Rally After Solid Jobs Report; China Says "Door Is Open" To Begin U.S. Trade Talks; Police: 7 People Dead In Crash Near Yellowstone Natl Park; CPB Pushes Back On Trump Order To End Funding For NPR & PBS; Sources: White House Considering Labeling Suspected Gang, Cartel Members Inside U.S. As "Enemy Combatants." Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 02, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:48]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Just about an hour left in the trading day - the trading week now, it's been quite a wild week, one punctuated by a stronger than expected jobs report today. You see a little bit green there for the Dow this afternoon. There still comes - some concern, though, that despite those positive numbers, the President's trade war, the impact of it hasn't yet fully been felt. We're going to dig into that.

Plus, President Trump ordering the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to end federal funding for the country's two largest public broadcasters. But the question now is whether he even has the authority to do so.

And the criminal trial for Sean "Diddy" Combs set to begin on Monday. This afternoon, new exclusive reporting from CNN on who is expected to take the stand.

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

How's this for your happy Friday for investors? Just about an hour left in the trading day, as I noted. You can see the S&P 500 is up. It's actually on track now for its longest winning streak in some 20 years. This as China appears to be perhaps closer to opening trade talks with the U.S. We're also learning today that Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney says he will now be heading to Washington next week to talk tariffs and more.

And President Trump now touting a stronger-than-expected April jobs report. The tariff turmoil, though, is not entirely gone. That is still a big concern moving forward, especially when it comes to jobs, because remember, this is a backwards-looking report of what's happened in April. Vanessa Yurkevich is standing by with more on the markets and the jobs. Jeff Zeleny also with us. He's at the White House for a check on the trade war status.

So, Jeff, I'm going to go first to you. There's been a lot of almost teasing of, you know, coming up, coming soon of deals that we are going to see from the White House, potentially a little movement, though, when it comes to China. Where do things stand this afternoon?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, as we end another week here at the White House, there does seem to be at least an opening and perhaps a thawing, an early thawing in the trade war between China and the United States. China now is saying it is open to negotiating and discussing the tariff back and forth with the U.S., but only on the condition that the U.S. drop some of its tariffs against China. So, we shall see how that plays out. But certainly, one sign of a thaw, and otherwise, for several weeks, really, China has not blinked in any of this.

But you're right. There is a stronger-than-expected jobs market today, the President exclaiming we're at a transition period, we're just getting started. However, the outcome obviously depends upon these trade deals.

And for all of the suggestions and the talk from one cabinet secretary after another saying that there is going to be a deal coming soon, perhaps from India, perhaps from other countries. We have not seen any specific deals yet. We are told that that's what the President is indeed pushing for. He's pushing his advisers to find one deal, essentially any deal, just to show that they are breaking through this logjam.

His 90-day pause on his reciprocal tariffs, if you will, the clock is running on those July 9th or so is the deadline for that. So, they are really trying to get some of these deals done. But look, the bottom line to all of this is the President is still holding firm on his tariffs, except when he's not. And China appears to be open to some discussion.

So, to be continued into next week, Erica.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Jeff, appreciate it, as always. Thank you.

Vanessa, when we take a look at how the markets are responding to this latest bit of economic data today, so these numbers from the Labor Department - look, green is good, as we know. What are you hearing, though, from folks in terms of - a sense of how long the rally could last?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, you have the S&P on that nine-day winning streak. So, they clearly have had sustained optimism over the course of the last week and a half or so. And as it stands right now, the S&P is on track to erase all of the losses that it has seen since that April 2nd announcement of these high tariffs.

[15:05:07]

So clearly, investors feeling encouraged about the communication that's going on between China and the United States, that there may be talks, but also, as Jeff was saying, on that jobs report, because you had economists projecting 137,000 jobs added in the month of April. The number was much higher. It was 177,000 jobs. You have the unemployment rate holding steady and still historically low.

So, there's been really a really strong streak of labor growth over the past several years since the pandemic. And you have ads in sectors like health care and social services, leisure and hospitality, as we've seen in many reports that people are still going out to eat and still paying for experiences. Some declines, though, in manufacturing and government, federal government in particular, which were expected because of these DOGE cuts. And the federal government has seen losses of about 26,000 jobs since the beginning of the year.

But, Erica, we know that there is still concern amongst the business community about these tariffs, especially small businesses. You had the U.S. Chamber of Commerce just the other day sending a letter to the administration asking them to exempt small businesses from these tariffs, because they say it will do irreparable - it will do harm that they cannot sort of come back from.

So, we know that there's still concern. But, of course, these numbers, backwards looking, but still show a strong economy heading into the uncertainty of how these tariffs will play out.

HILL: Yes. Vanessa, really appreciate it. Thank you.

Joining me now to discuss Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who served as chief economist on President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. He's also the President of The American Action Forum. And Justin Wolfer, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan.

It's good to have both of you here.

You know, as we look at just picking up where Vanessa actually teed us up, which I appreciate, when we look at these numbers for April, they are backward looking, yes, we know that. But they were so much stronger than anticipated. So, I believe the expected was 135,000 jobs added. We got 177,000 unemployment remain steady. But also in that report, Douglas, is the fact that both February and March were resized - revised downward, not unheard of, but fairly significantly.

When you look at these April numbers, do you believe that they will hold when we move forward and get the final numbers in?

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, WH COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS UNDER PRESIDENT G. W. BUSH: Well, I think the most important thing to recognize is these numbers were collected the very week after the announcement on April 2nd. And so, there was not a lot of time for the business community to react to the level of tariffs that the President announced. These data are relatively, as a result, unaffected by the actual imposition of tariffs.

There's some modest suggestion that like some of the other reports, the anticipation of tariffs influenced these numbers. We saw that big jump in transportation and warehousing. That matches up with the big surge in imports that businesses were putting into warehouses in anticipation of the tariffs. So, these are good numbers. In the absence of tariffs, we'd look at this report and say very solid, no reason for the Fed to ease its fight against inflation, no reason for it to cut. It can hold steady. In the presence of the tariffs, there's just a lot of unease that this won't persist. And when we get to May, we'll have a much weaker report.

HILL: Justin, to that point, it's that consistent unease, right? It's the one certain that we have right now is all of this uncertainty and how it continues to play in the market and how difficult it is to plan for. With that in mind, Justin, what are you watching in these next coming weeks as we wait for those reports?

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Look, the way we think about recessions might have been shaped a little bit too much by our recent history. The COVID recession was the most sudden onset of a recession in history. The recession before that, the Great Recession, which began with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, also was an unusually rapid collapse of the financial system.

Usually, things build for a little while and that's pretty much what we're worried about, which is, is this building towards ships not arriving, workers not being employed to unload those ships, people being upset, worried, fearful by all the uncertainty that's out there. Firms are only going to learn all that once work, once buyers don't turn up at the store and don't buy their stuff.

So, we're all being a little impatient right now. These numbers don't tell us the economy's bad. They don't tell us that the worst fears aren't true either. They just don't tell us very much at all.

HILL: Yes, it's - I mean, it's just - again, here we are, so much uncertainty and waiting to see what happens.

Doug, when we look at this, too, we have, you know, today the President after looking to distance himself from those GDP numbers, blaming things on former President Biden, the President really embracing this jobs report today and also, once again, calling on the Fed to lower rates.

Is this - are those comments from the President, Doug? Do they still have an impact at this point, given the back and forth that we had seen, given the fairly strong comments from Chair Powell just in the last week or so?

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Is this sort of now just noise or is that still being figured in, in some way when the President makes those kinds of comments?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: I don't think it has a great influence at all, to be honest. You know, there's a long history of White Houses lobbying the Fed to change their policies. It's not usually public, but they're always lobbying and the Fed ignores it. And so, I think the Fed's going to ignore this and it's going to continue to evaluate based on the data.

And as Justin said, we just didn't learn a lot from these data. So, you know, they'll be on hold next week and they'll be watching to see if the really near-term indicators of deterioration show up. The thing that I would watch would be initial claims for unemployment. Does it look like finally employers are laying people off? There's no evidence of that so far.

But if those claims start jumping up, then you start wondering what's going on out there in the supply chains that are going to be affected.

HILL: We're also, of course, watching to see if a deal might be announced, as I was just discussing, I don't know if you heard with my colleague, Jeff Zeleny, our chief national affairs correspondent. The White House really wants to have something to announce, understandably here. There's a little bit of movement, right, in the reporting on China, maybe open to things at this point.

Justin, if there is even one deal, how much could that impact sentiment, do you think?

WOLFERS: Not much at all. Not much at all.

Right now, the deal they're talking about is India. India is a lovely country, wonderful people, delicious food, great place to visit. And it's our 12th largest trading partner. It accounts for two and a half percent of U.S. trade. That means 97 and a half percent of U.S. trade would remain with punitively high tariffs and with no obvious pathway forward out of this.

Remember, six weeks ago, before any of this nonsense started, the U.S. had zero or close to zero tariffs with almost every country around the world. Our trading partners knew where we stood. They could make investments. Businesses in America could move forward, understanding they could get the inputs that they needed at a reasonably competitive rate and themselves be competitive in the global economy.

Making a deal with our 12th biggest trading partner, that's not going to calm anyone.

HILL: Justin, I really appreciate your insight. It's great to have both of you here. Thank you.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Thank you.

WOLFERS: Pleasure.

HILL: Still ahead here, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting pushing back after President Trump signed an executive order seeking to end federal funding for NPR and PBS.

Plus, sources say the Trump administration is considering labeling some suspected cartel and gang members as enemy combatants. How that could change the way the government arrests and prosecutes them.

And later, a conversation about menopause. How can media and Samantha Bee is taking on the stigma surrounding this change in life? That and much more ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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HILL: And we are back with breaking news out of Idaho, where state police say seven people are dead after a car crash or a crash rather near Yellowstone National Park. CNN's Veronica Miracle is following these developments for us.

So, do we know yet what happened? What led to this crash?

Veronica Miracle: Erica, investigators are saying right now that the cause is still under investigation. But they can tell us that a pickup truck and a tourist van carrying 14 people collided and that's when this tragedy unfolded. The pickup truck driver died, as well as six people from that 14-passenger van died. There were survivors, but we don't know the extent of their injuries at this point. They were taken to nearby hospitals.

Both of those vehicles caught fire after the crash and that's what you see in this video here. And that's what nearby resident Roger Merrill came upon, according to the AP. He says that he came upon this crash. He saw the smoke billowing. He saw people trying to console the surviving victims. And he also notes that this is an extremely busy and dangerous highway as it leads right into Yellowstone National Park. This happened just west of Yellowstone National Park.

He also said it took an unnervingly long time for help to arrive just because of the location. Erica, this is located in a remote part of Idaho. Back to you.

HILL: Yes. Wow. All right, Veronica, really appreciate it. Thank you.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is responding now to President Trump's overnight executive order demanding it end all federal funding to NPR and PBS. The corporation's president and CEO noting that the CPB is not a federal executive agency and it is not subject to the President's authority. Going on to say Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.

So, what does it do? Well, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting disperses more than 500 million dollars to some 300 public TV stations and about a thousand radio stations. The money also supports programming for popular kids shows, you may know, in addition to news broadcasts and, of course, emergency alerts. CNN's Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter is joining me now.

So, when we look at this executive order, there is going to be a little back and forth, of course, as to whether or not he even has the authority to do this. If he were to be successful in killing that funding, though, talk to me about the practical impact on a number of these local stations, which are key in so many areas around the country. BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, in smaller news markets and in rural areas, publicly funded media are some of the only sources with boots on the ground. This is especially true in Republican strongholds. So, cutbacks would have the effect of causing these so- called news deserts to become even thirstier. I spoke with leaders in Maine and New Hampshire and Alaska who said it's the smaller stations that would suffer the most.

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But as you said, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is being very clear that Trump doesn't have any authority in this matter. The 1970 - the 1967 law creating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is very clear that no president should be able to intervene. So, this is going to become a court fight. But that's probably exactly what President Trump wants. We've heard from the NPR CEO today, Katherine Maher, who is indicating this is an affront to the First Amendment.

Here's a part of her quote. She says, "This isn't about balancing the federal budget. The appropriation for NPR and PBS and all the rest of public media represents less than 0.0001 percent of the budget." She says, "The President's order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR," and all those local stations.

There's also an effort underway from the White House to try to claw back funding that Congress has already budgeted for NPR and PBS. So it seems to me Trump wants to have this fight. It's one of these battles he's choosing whether he ultimately wins or not, Erica.

HILL: Yes. Can we also talk about this directive for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., to look into employee discrimination? What is that about and why was this given to Secretary Kennedy?

STELTER: I've inquired and I have not had the answer to that. I suspect it might have to do with vaccine mandates. But it's another example of Trump signing an executive order, trying to direct his agencies to punish his perceived enemies or foes. He views NPR, PBS, et cetera, as an enemy of his.

And we've seen this with other media outlets as well. Unprecedented use of government power against media outlets. You know, it was about six weeks ago that Trump signed an order stripping away funding from U.S.-funded international broadcasters like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. Some of those journalists, they want to get back to work and they filed lawsuits trying to get back to work. And in many cases, they have prevailed. There's been a number of lawsuits where they have received favorable rulings from judges. But the Trump administration keeps appealing.

And as a result, these journalists are laid off. These stations are shut down, even if they ultimately win in the courts. Today, for example, Radio Free Asia laid off most of its staff and shut down half of its local languages stations across Asia. They said, we want to keep fighting in court. We want to get our money that's appropriated by Congress, but we can't survive in the meantime. And that might be part of the strategy here to cut, cut, cut and then see what the courts do later.

Ultimately, though, Erica, this all comes down to checks and balances and the idea of the judicial branch and the legislative branch being able to be co-equal branches of government. Honestly, I think this country needs a reminder, a civics lesson about how this is supposed to work, because so much of what Trump is doing is outside the norms of the executive branch as he continues to try to take legislative and judicial branch power.

HILL: Yes, maybe it's time for a nationwide viewing of Schoolhouse Rock, Brian. That, I think, is in everyone's best interest.

STELTER: Exactly.

HILL: Thank you.

Just ahead here, the stock market rallying on a stronger than expected jobs report and where the China may be open to U.S. trade talks. More on that next.

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HILL: Turning now to the latest on President Trump's immigration crackdown. Multiple sources telling CNN the White House is looking into whether it can label some suspected cartel and gang members inside the United States as being, quote, "enemy combatants." That designation could make them easier to detain. It would also give them the same designation as war on terror suspects who were captured and sent to Guantanamo Bay after 9/11. CNN's Natasha Bertrand helped to break this story and has more of these details for us.

So, there is this push. I guess the question, too, that follows is, is this even possible?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is the big question that legal experts raised to us when we were asking them about these discussions, because if you'll recall, this was a designation that the U.S. applied to people who were suspected of being members of al-Qaeda or of the Taliban following 9/11. And it was used by the Bush administration at the time to justify, essentially, their indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay without charge, trial or any kind of due process.

Well, now the administration, we're told, has been looking at whether that label can be applied to migrants in the United States who have been deemed as part of terrorist organizations. Because if you'll recall, the Trump administration designated eight foreign cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. And so now the administration is trying to determine whether migrants who fall into that category, who may be in the United States, can also be given that enemy combatant designation.

But legal experts say that there is a lot wrong with that idea. For one thing, the enemy combatant designation has a very specific meaning. It has only been used to apply to people who are associated with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. It also is only really used in a context of a war. And legal experts told us that there is no rational, reasonable argument the Trump administration could make that the courts would agree with that the U.S. is currently in an active conflict with these cartels and gangs on U.S. soil, so a lot of complications here.

And I should note that the Pentagon lawyers here, they are also pretty concerned about this. And we were told that it is not clear at this time where Secretary of Defense Hegseth would fall on this because an enemy combatant designation would result in a migrant being held in military custody, but that DOD lawyers would actively oppose this just because there are so many questions about its legality in the first place, Erica.

HILL: Yes, it is fascinating. Natasha, I also just wanted to weigh in with something that's just coming into us here at CNN, that the White House is now confirming a military parade is going to be held in Washington next month in honor of the Army's birthday.

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