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Trump Downplays Possible Tariff-Caused Price Increases; Sources: Israel Approves New Plan For War In Gaza, Aid System; Soon: Jury Selection Begins In Sean Combs Federal Criminal Trial. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 05, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:35]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, during the interview released Sunday, President Trump had said that he is not looking at running for a third term despite lots of comments to the contrary, and his own recent statements, and his own organization selling hats that say "Trump 2028."

Setting aside the constitutional questions or barriers around all of this, CNN's Harry Enten is looking at it this morning for you on where the American people actually stand on this now. So what are Americans saying about the possibility of him running for a third term?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yeah. I think there's a reason why Donald Trump is backtracking or saying no, I won't actually do this because this idea is about as popular as new Coke was back in the mid-1980s.

I mean, should Trump run for a third term? Seventy-six percent of Americans say no, no, no, no compared to just 21 percent who say yes, including only 16 percent of Independents. This is one of the least popular ideas I have ever seen. And when you get three-quarters of the American people agreeing on anything and it's in the no, you know it's 999. This is one of the most unpopular ideas I have seen in polling in a long period of time, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Nine, nine, nine reference in there. Wow, impressive.

OK, that's Independents you have right there, but what about by party? Like, how do Republicans feel about this?

ENTEN: Yeah, I think this is the key question, right -- how do Republicans feel about this? Because, of course, he has to win a primary. And, you know, 88 percent of Republicans hold a favorable view of Donald Trump.

Yet, the GOP on Trump running for a third term -- get this -- a majority of Republicans say no -- 53 percent compared to 44 percent who say that he should. Now that is a sizable number there, but when a majority of Republicans are disagreeing with the idea of Trump doing something you know that this is an unpopular idea. And it's literally half the level who say he should run for a third term that actually have a favorable view of him.

The bottom line is it would be difficult at this point to see Donald Trump sailing away in a Republican primary if, in fact, he decided to run. He would face some real competition there given that 53 percent -- the majority of Republicans -- are even against the idea of Donald Trump running for a third term.

BOLDUAN: How does that compare in the past? You're looking at it in comparison to 2021.

ENTEN: Right. OK, so you remember 2021. It was after January 6. Donald Trump was kind of right there in the trough of his political popularity, right? So get this. GOP who say that Trump should run for another term -- in May of 2021 -- for a second term -- 66 percent -- the clear majority of Republicans said yes, he should run for a second term. Compare that to now where it's just 44 percent who say he should run for a third term.

This is, simply put, just not a popular idea. When you're getting this fight back from the Republican base to a degree that we, simply put, have never seen before, you get the idea of why Donald Trump came out yesterday with his most forceful comment to date saying you know what, really, it's two terms for me. Because even on this particular issue he does not have the Republican base with him.

And when it comes to the overall population, I'm going to end the same way I started. It is about as popular as the idea of new Coke was in the mid-1980s. Simply put, nobody wants this.

BOLDUAN: OK, enough said.

It's good to see you, Harry. Thank you so much.

ENTEN: Nice to see you.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Which says nothing about Tab, by the way. People feel very different --

ENTEN: I loved Tab. Can we bring that back?

BOLDUAN: He, of course, loves Tab.

BERMAN: People feel differently about Tab.

ENTEN: I want -- I want Tab. Izzy Povich wants Tab. Karen Bronzo wants Tab. These are people who work here. Bring the Tab back, Coca-Cola, please. I'm begging you.

BERMAN: Wow, bespoke news service by Harry Enten --

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: -- naming names of viewers.

All right. This morning President Trump rejecting concerns that his tariff policies will lead to higher prices in a new interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN WELKER, MODERATOR, NBC "MEET THE PRESS": Are you saying that your tariffs will cause some prices to go up?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No. I think that tariffs are going to be great for us because it's going to make us rich.

WELKER: But you said some dolls are going to cost more. Isn't that an acknowledgment that some prices will go up?

TRUMP: I don't think children -- I don't think that -- I don't think a beautiful baby girl needs -- that's 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls. Because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable.

I'm just saying they don't need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, with us now Democratic strategist and former Biden White House director of message planning Meghan Hays. And former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short.

So three dolls, five pencils, Marc. What do you think about that messaging?

[07:35:00]

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE, BOARD CHAIRMAN, ADVANCING AMERICAN FREEDOM: I think it's really damaging messaging. It's a little bit of them let them eat cake moment I think for the president. I think everybody understands he's very financially wealthy but beginning to tell the American people how many dolls or how many pencils they can have I think suggests a little bit of an elitism perspective.

And I think that, you know -- I do think this overall messaging overall has greater concerns coming forward because this is the week that the ports in Los Angeles on the West Coast are beginning to expect really to see a lot less goods coming into the United States. And that's going to have an impact on workers in the ports. It's going to have an impact on truckers.

It's going to have ultimately potentially impact in stores because the expectation is that stores can run through the inventory they have accumulated for the next four or five weeks, but that's going to begin to fall off. I think that's an image that really should concern the White House is if there's actually supply disruptions coming forward.

BERMAN: Just one more piece of this, Meghan. The president was talking or asked about the price of strollers going up as well. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: All costs are down. Everything is down other than, as Kristen said, the thing that you carry the babies around in. But that's up three percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: "The thing that you carry the babies around in."

Meghan, first, just specifically on that messaging.

MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION CONSULTANT: Yeah. I mean, I don't think he's probably ever pushed a strolled in his life. I don't think that he probably even knows what this. That's very much of the -- you know, going to the grocery store and not knowing how much things cost, sort of what Marc was saying. He seems really disconnected from the average American here and how much things cost.

But I think to Marc's point this is going to become a real supply issue and a real disruption issue. And I think that this is going to actually increase people's bottom lines $3,000-$4,000 over the course of the year. Many economists have said that. And I think that he's -- the messaging here -- he needs to get ahold of it because he is losing on the economy, and that is what is going to really impact the midterms coming up in '26.

BERMAN: So both of you actually use interesting phraseology here. Meghan, you were saying it's going to start affecting people in their wallets. And Marc noted before that this is the week where there will start being some disruption at the ports.

To an extent, the last four weeks, or six weeks, or eight weeks, depending on how you count the beginning of where Donald Trump was talking about all this, people have been saying -- economists saying well, this will have an impact on the economy. We will start seeing this. But we haven't yet exactly. We continue to have strong employment figures. You continue to see the inflation numbers relatively strong, Meghan.

So does this provide an opportunity, do you think, for the administration?

HAYS: I think that people have been going back and forth, and the stock market definitely has seen a drop in this chaos economy that he is creating.

So I think that what people are saying is this won't start impacting the money that you're spending at the grocery store or on goods that you buy every day in your household until sort of the supply disruption happens and until these tariffs go into effect. And he kept putting these 90-day pauses on, so I think that's why you hear that sort of language from all of us.

But I do think people are starting to see this. People aren't spending money. People are hold back. I have friends saying oh, I'm not going to book my vacation or I'm not going to buy that because I don't know where the economy is going to be. And these are people who are fairly well off and that -- I think that's concerning when people are not spending money.

BERMAN: But has it happened yet, Marc?

SHORT: Well look, I think that the president does deserve credit that we have significantly lower energy prices. I think it is a departure from the previous administration's energy policy. I think the numbers that you said last week were better than expected on the jobs front. But I think there's also an expectation a lot of people frontloaded their purchases to try to avoid the tariffs and that kind of time is running out.

I think the administration would be better off if they had a more concerted effort to tell the American people -- hey, look, we are asking the world to be united here because we're trying to take on China. I think in the first Trump administration much of the tariff policy was for that focus.

But I think the messaging has been greatly mixed. In some cases they've said it's to focus on China. In some cases they've said we're trying to lower trade barriers across the globe. And they've talked about Canada and Mexico, and European allies as enemies. In some cases it's been to say we're trying to address fentanyl, and in some cases it's been to say we're going to get rid of trade deficits across every trading partner we have.

And so the messaging hasn't really been concerted, John. And I think if you begin getting to the point that people now expect some of these economic disruptions, I think a lot of Americans are going to say well, what is the intended purpose here of why we're -- why we're being limited to the number of dolls or a number of pencils we can buy?

BERMAN: You know, one place the United States does not have a trade deficit -- it's in movies. It's in the film industry. I think I was reading this morning we have a trade surplus literally with every country when it comes to entertainment exports here. And the president, overnight, said he's going to put 100 percent tariffs on foreign-made films.

We'll talk about, sort of, the specific economic implications of that, Meghan. But the bigger implication is if you start a trade war on services -- we've been talking about specific goods -- placing tariffs on that. But once you get into services the balance shifts here.

[07:40:00]

Is this opening Pandora's box to an extent?

HAYS: Yeah, absolutely. But this is also just more -- creating more chaos for people not to understand what's going on and to be sort of bamboozled of, like, not being able to buy dolls or not having things in the supply chain. He talks about everything but actually fixing the economy and lowering

the price of goods and lowering the cost of housing. And it's just -- it's all smoke and mirrors. So when you start doing these individual things it creates more chaos and more confusion for the American people.

BERMAN: Yeah. Again, we see tariffs on foreign films we don't know exactly what that means. I'm not sure we're talking about, like, French-speaking films necessarily or talking about films shot overseas. So a movie like "The Avengers" perhaps -- we don't know -- could be considered a foreign film. Mon dieu, as they say.

Meghan Hays, Marc Short, our thanks to both of you.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right.

Breaking overnight, Israel's security cabinet has approved plans to expand military operations in Gaza and possibly resume humanitarian aid. You will remember that Israel stopped allowing aid into Gaza in March after the first phase of a ceasefire and hostage release deal concluded.

One Israeli official telling CNN the plan involves a "conquest of the territory and remaining there."

CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem for us. Jeremy, what are you learning about this? I know there have been some huge protests actually against Netanyahu in some of his plans in Gaza. What are you learning about this -- these new comments that have come out?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli cabinet has, indeed, now voted to expand Israeli military operations in Gaza. They are going to do so gradually. But the end game here for Israel is going to be something unlike what we have seen in previous Israeli ground operations inside the Gaza Strip. And that's because an Israeli official as told us that this newly approved plan for military operations in Gaza will involve the "conquest of territory and remaining there."

So whereas in the past the Israeli military has gone into certain areas, carried out operations, cleared the area of Hamas or Hamas has fled from those areas, Israeli forces have then pulled back. Instead, here the idea would be to stay in those areas, setting up a potentially months' or even years' long occupation of significant portions of the Gaza Strip.

The reason why the Israeli government has chosen to make this a gradual expansion rather than a kind of all-out expansion of this war effort is, they say, to allow some more time and space for Israel and Hamas to reach some kind of a ceasefire and hostage release deal on terms more favorable to Israel with this new added pressure.

But there is enormous conflict and resistance to this idea from the families of the hostages and from so many Israelis. As we have seen, a majority of Israelis in recent polls have said that they want to see an end to the war and a deal to free all the remaining hostages. And the hostages' forum today is saying that this latest plan from the

Israeli prime minister makes clear what he said last week, which was that the war -- the fight against Hamas is the supreme goal, over even freeing the hostages. They believe that he is prioritizing these war goals over the hostages.

And meanwhile, there is this effort to try and get humanitarian aid into Gaza. The Israelis and the U.S. now working on a new mechanism that they say will try and avoid aid from being diverted to Hamas. But humanitarian aid agencies say Israel should just open up the crossings and let the aid in. The process in the past has worked and Gazans are days away from potential starvation and famine -- Sara.

SIDNER: Yeah. I do want to ask you this because one of the issues here on what's going on is that the Western media has not been allowed in. You wrote a powerful op-ed along with some other reporters that was in The Guardian and in Haaretz. Tell me what you said and why it was so important for you to say it.

DIAMOND: Well listen, it has been nearly 19 months of war now and 19 months during which the Israeli government has prevented international journalists from getting into Gaza to report freely and firsthand on what is happening inside the Gaza Strip. Yes, they have allowed a few -- you know, a few military embeds to each outlet. I have been in Gaza about five times with the Israeli military.

But those are no substitute for being able to freely enter the Gaza Strip to report there firsthand. And that has been impossible for us for 19 months because of Israel's active decision to block this, which is unprecedented. We have never seen the Israeli military in previous conflicts not allow in journalists for as long as we are seeing now.

At the end of the day Sara, our most basic task as journalists is to report freely and to report firsthand what we can see and hear with our own eyes to tell people what we are witnessing. To be able to investigate conflicting claims that are happening on the ground.

None of this, of course, takes away from the heroic work of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza who have braved unfathomable danger to be able to report and to show the world what is the reality of the situation in Gaza.

[07:45:00]

But after nearly 19 months of war it is long past time for the Israeli government to let us in and that is exactly what my colleagues and I on the Foreign Press Association board here have now called for. We also are urging the Israeli Supreme Court, before which we have a hearing later this month, to grant our request for access to Gaza to show the world what is happening and to be able to investigate all claims on the ground -- Sara.

SIDNER: Yeah, and the Palestinian journalists that live there in Gaza dealing with all sorts of madness as some of their homes and families being impacted too.

Kudos to you and all of the reporters that are asking for that. Thank you so much, Jeremy Diamond for all your reporting on this -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us, today the federal trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs begins. Jury selection will be getting underway shortly. And remember, Combs faces serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. We'll take you there live.

And the father of a cryptocurrency entrepreneur is rescued after he was kidnapped by masked men demanding millions in ransom. There are new details from police coming out this morning.

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[07:50:50]

BOLDUAN: And some of the headlines we're watching this morning.

Investigators in Cincinnati are looking into two deadly incidents that police now say are connected. It started Thursday when police shot and killed 18-year-old Ryan Hinton as he tried to flee arrest. The police department says that officer who shot him said it looked like the man's gun was pointed at the officer. But the officer's body camera footage does not clearly show the teen pointing the gun.

Then the next day investigators say the man's father, 38-year-old Rodney Hinton Jr., hit and killed a longtime sheriff's deputy with his car while he was directing traffic. Hinton, the father, is now charged with aggravated murder.

Lady Gaga has set a new record for a female artist drawing more than two million people to Rio's Copacabana Beach Saturday night for a free concert. But authorities there say it all could have ended in tragedy.

Brazilian police say they prevented a planned bomb attack targeting the concern. Two people were arrested for trying to recruit people online, including teenagers, to carry out a coordinated attack using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails. Authorities say their goal was to target LGBTQ+ people and make a name for themselves on social media. The plot was foiled, and the concert went on without disruption -- John.

BERMAN: All right, wow.

All right, happening now, we are standing by for jury selection in the federal criminal trial of Sean Combs. He pleaded not guilty to charges that include sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. He turned down a plea deal offered by prosecutors. If convicted he could face life in prison.

Let's get right to CNN's Leigh Waldman who is outside the courthouse this morning. What do we expect to happen shortly, Leigh?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, you're right. We're about 40 minutes away from when that jury selection process is expected to start. That list of potential jurors will be asked questions by Sean "Diddy" Combs' defense, as well as federal prosecutors. Those questions are going to surround a number of topics trying to gauge the juror -- potential juror's views on things like drugs, sex with multiple partners, and the hip-hop industry as a whole.

Now, this jury selection process could be a challenging one. Experts say it's going to be a tough task to try and find an impartial jury who can weigh the facts of this case without viewing Combs as a music mogul but rather as a defendant himself.

There's also two different types of dismissals that we're expecting to hear from today. The "for cause" dismissals and the "preemptory strikes." Now, those strikes can be used strategically by both the prosecution and by the defense. And those "for cause" dismissals -- the judge will weigh in if they're going to dismiss the jurors for those "for cause" dismissals.

Now, the jurors are also being asked if they're available for the next eight to 10 weeks in this case. That doesn't necessarily mean the case is going to last that long. But we're hoping to get a jury sat this week so we can have those opening statements happen by Monday.

BERMAN: All right, Leigh Waldman outside the courthouse. A lot going on today. Great to have you down there for the beginning. Thank you -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, John.

Joining me now to discuss is defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, Shan Wu. Thank you so much for being here, Shan Wu. It's good to see you.

How difficult is it going to be to pick a jury when this is perhaps one of the most well-known cases that we've seen come to court in a while?

SHAN WU, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR (via Webex by Cisco): Well, it's going to be difficult as in any high-profile case when you have a very well-known defendant or very well-publicized.

And particularly in this case because of the sort of pop media popularity involved it's a little bit challenging when you're assessing the answers of the jurors as to whether they've formed an opinion or whether they're impartial. I mean, theoretically, that's what everyone wants -- it is the impartial jury. In reality, what you're looking for as a lawyer is a partial jury. You want them to be partial to your view of the facts. And actually where the science and the art comes in is in probing these questions to figure out who will be more sympathetic rather than impartial to either the prosecution or to the defense.

[05:55:00]

SIDNER: All right. So there are some issues in this case -- some video that the public has already seen that was widely distributed. It's that surveillance video that CNN got ahold of first of Combs striking and dragging his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. That will be shown to the jury. Now, Combs apologized publicly after that was shown.

How impactful might that be in this case, and how might it be used? WU: That's going to be explosive evidence in the case and both sides

are going to have to deal with that very, very carefully. So it seems like it would be great for the prosecution to indicate that this is a person who has engaged in force and part of his attitude towards women, but the prosecution has to be very careful not to overplay the video. In other words, they can't just say look, because he did this --

SIDNER: Right.

WU: -- you know, terrible violence that therefore he must be guilty of everything else in the case. That's where they have to be very careful. They have to use it very strategically for very certain purposes that the judge allows.

Conversely, of course, on the defense side a huge problem that the defendant is seen doing this. He's already apologized for it. Very hard for them to navigate that. And if there is a conviction, Sara, on appeal this will be the number one issue on the appeal is whether it was too prejudicial for the jury to see this. Clearly probative. That's the balance. It is more prejudicial than probative?

SIDNER: Right, because his girlfriend is not part of the prosecution's case. This is to show his personality, et cetera, et cetera.

I am curious just in the end what is at stake here for Sean Combs as he's looking at how many potential years if he is convicted.

WU: Oh, everything is at stake for him. A couple of these charges -- the racketeering by force, the sex trafficking by force -- carry a potential life imprisonment. There's a mandatory minimum, if convicted, of 15 years, not to mention the trafficking and the prostitution. Each by themselves could carry up to 10 years.

So if he is convicted it's really and certainly the end of his professional livelihood because he'll be old by the time he gets out. And really, as for anybody else, much less a performer, that kind of a harsh, long sentence really means the end of your functional life.

SIDNER: Shan Wu, thank you so much for your great analysis there this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: This morning police in France are investigating a string of violent kidnappings. The targets, people who have made fortunes from cryptocurrency. The father of a crypto entrepreneur was actually kidnapped off the streets of Paris last week in broad daylight. Police have now rescued him -- but also one of his fingers was severed.

CNN's Melissa Bell is in Paris following all of this. The details are really terrifying here, Melissa. What is going on?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Horrifying. This is man, we understand, in his 50s who was kept for several days by this group of relatively young, armed people. We understand they were between 23 and 27. They picked him up, as you said, in broad daylight off the streets of Paris, held him in captivity, and cut off his finger to try and extract a ransom from his millionaire cryptocurrency leader son.

And this is just the very latest, as you say. He's not been liberated safe and sound, minus that injury. But it's very similar to what happened just a few weeks ago again here in France to David Balland who is the founder of the cryptocurrency wallet company Ledger -- co- founder, rather, who was kidnapped with his wife. Similarly, his finger was cut in an attempt to extort a ransom from his business partner.

And this is the very latest in a string of such incidents that have all involved the families of either crypto influencers or the founder of cryptocurrency. Wealthy people they believe they could get money from either in France or in Belgium where a great deal of harm was done to these people as they tried to get their hands on the money.

For now police are saying they don't know if there's any connection between any of these cases but certainly, they're investigating it and trying to figure out, Kate, what more they can do to try and stop further such horrifying incidents from taking place.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Melissa, thank you so much for the update. Let's see what happens here. I really appreciate it.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, "I don't know." The President of the United States seemingly unsure about whether it is his responsibility to uphold the Constitution.

This morning millions of Americans afraid about what could happen to their paychecks as the federal government restarts the collection of student loans in default today.

And a multimillion-dollar yacht sinks in Miami. Dozens rescued. Now police are investigating why it happened.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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