Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Travelers, TSA Brace for Real Id Requirements; Trump Meets With Canadian PM Amid Historic Tensions; Canadian PM in Oval Office Meeting Says Canada Won't Be for Sale Ever; Ships With Chinese Goods Arrive Half-Full, First Since 145 Percent Tariffs. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 06, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:01:42]

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Not engaged. President Trump's treasury secretary admits the White House isn't talking to China as concerns mount over the consequences from this trade war. But the administration is talking to another major trade partner, Canada's prime minister at the White House this hour for a critical meeting with the president.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And day two of jury selection in the sex trafficking trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs as the court tries to find a pool of 45 men and women who could decide the fate of the media mogul. Also ahead, travelers and the TSA brace for a real headache as new ID requirements take effect tomorrow. How everyone is bracing for real ID. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

HILL: Happening now. A high-stakes meeting at the White House between President Trump and the leader of America's second biggest trading partner, Canada. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney sitting down with the president amid this unprecedented trade war. Inside the Oval Office, just a short time ago, president Trump echoing once again his desire for Canada to become the 51st state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's hard to justify subsidizing Canada to the tune of maybe $200 billion a year. We protect Canada militarily, and we always will. We're going to -- that's not a money thing that's -- but we always will, but it's not fair. But why are we subsidizing Canada $200 billion a year or whatever the number might be? It's a very substantial number and it's hard for the American taxpayer to say, gee, whizz, we love doing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House. So Kristen, there was a really -- a very interesting back and forth one would say between these two leaders over this issue of Canada becoming the 51st state, the prime minister very clear where Canada stands on that. KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and Erica, it was kind of interesting, this evolved over time. I mean, this was roughly four minutes of the two of them answering questions from reporters who were in the room. And originally, Donald Trump was asked about this idea of Canada being the 51st state and he kind of played it off. He said, yes, I want it to be the 51st state, but it takes two to tango. He also added in that they were not going to be talking about that unless of course Carney brought it up.

Carney then saying, it's not for sale. I've talked to the owners of Canada. It's not going to be for sale. But then towards the end, it came up again, and this is where you started to see these kind of friendly, cordial relations appear to dissipate a little bit. You saw Carney start to tense. He seemed like he was trying to interject. And this is when Donald Trump went on somewhat of a longer tangent about subsidizing Canada. He went on to say that Canada needed the United States more than the United States needed Canada.

One of the things, of course, I believe that you just mentioned is the fact that Canada is the number two trade partner of the United States, meaning that they are actually spending billions and billions of dollars on American goods. But still, then you saw him trying to interject and then Donald Trump said, thank you and dismissed the reporters there. So it'd be interesting to see how exactly this plays out behind closed doors. Now one thing that we're waiting to see is, if we hear from Prime Minister Carney after this meeting because, as we said, he was trying to interject there.

[14:05:00]

But one other thing to point out is that he has something to prove to the people who voted for him back at home, or part of the reason that he was voted for was because of his stance on America and on Donald Trump, essentially telling them to cut it out. And he didn't get his chance to say his piece in front of the cameras at the end of this meeting. So we'll be waiting to see how he interprets this, how he puts his own spin on this because, again, people in Canada are going to be watching this saying, why didn't you push back during that last tangent?

HILL: Yeah. Well, certainly interesting. Kristen, really appreciate it. Thank you. Joining us now for more CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich. So Vanessa, we look at this, this is of course a longstanding partnership between the U.S. and Canada, and it has fueled economic success for both countries, right, on both sides of the border. So in terms of maintaining that relationship, how critical is it for both those economies?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: This is as close of trading partners as you can get. The U.S. is Canada's number one trading partner. Canada is the U.S.' number two trading partner. And just by the numbers, the U.S. exported $349 billion worth of goods into Canada in 2024. And more than 75 percent of Canadian exports are sold in the United States. And there are so many supply chains, so many industries that are interconnected between these two countries. You have lumber, aluminum, steel, cars, I could go on and on. But remember, there are tariffs currently in place. The U.S. has placed tariffs on non USMCA products and tariffs on cars, on steel and aluminum, and on auto parts. And then, the Canada has reciprocated and has placed tariffs of 25 percent on more than $44 billion worth of U.S. exports into the United States. But given all of that, there seems to be some discrepancy between the president of the United States and the Prime Minister Mark Carney about just how close we are as trading partners. Here's what played out in the Oval Office just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, PRIME MINISTER, CANADA: We are the largest client of the United States in the totality of all the goods. So we are the largest client of the United States. We have a tremendous auto sector between the two of us and the changes that made have been helpful. 50 percent of the car that comes from Canada is American. That's not like anywhere else in the world.

TRUMP: We don't really want cars from Canada. We really don't want Canadian steel and we don't want Canadian aluminum and various other things because we want to be able to do it ourself. And we -- because of past thinking of people, we have a tremendous deficit with candidate. In other words, they have a surplus with us, and there's no reason for us to be subsidizing Canada.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: So the question here is, where do we get the most amount of auto parts and steel? Well, it's Canada, and I've spoke to many sources in the auto industry and in the steel industry about what it would mean to actually bring that manufacturing back to the United States in order to sort of please President Trump in terms of what he's trying to do with these tariffs. And what I've gotten time and time again from experts, from economists, from sources in these industries is that it cannot be done overnight.

We do not have the infrastructure and the manufacturing for just let's talk about steel in that sense. And so for many experts out there, they see the intention behind what President Trump is trying to do. But the reality of it is so much more difficult and complex. The two countries at this point, need each other in terms of trade, just in order to function as economies separately and in order to produce what U.S. consumers want every single day, from cars to homes and everything in between, Erica.

HILL: Yeah, that's such important clarification there. I did also want to ask you quickly about, so we're seeing, or hearing rather, the first cargo ships arriving into the Port of Los Angeles since these 145 percent tariffs were imposed, we're talking about Chinese goods here, what are we anticipating that impact will be?

YURKEVICH: Well, we heard from the director of the Port of Los Angeles, Gene Seroka, who told us this week, they're expecting a 35 percent drop in the volume of imports coming in from China. And they're already seeing cancellations for May and June. Essentially, retailers saying it's too expensive to bring these products in at a 145 percent tariff. And that becomes problematic, Erica, because retailers just have a couple weeks left of pre-tariff inventory.

And if they're not bringing new inventory in from China, they're going to have to look elsewhere, Erica. But trade experts have told me there is simply not enough manufacturing in other countries right now to make up for the loss of product that is coming from China. That's where you end up seeing higher prices and empty shelves. Folks from the ports are warning if something doesn't turn around soon, it's only going to get worse, unfortunately, Erica.

HILL: Yeah. All beginning to feel very, very real, Vanessa, appreciate it. Thank you Brianna?

[14:10:00]

KEILAR: CNN Senior Reporter Daniel Dale is with us now. Daniel, you are of course our fact checker as always, but sort of a bonus perspective in this moment is that you are as well Canadian.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes.

KEILAR: So, I wonder what stood out to you from this meeting?

DALE: Well, I'll start as a fact checker. President Trump did not repeat a lot of the lies about Canada that I've been fact checking for months. I counted at least 11 false claims from the president about Canada in 2025. He told two of them by my count, during this meeting, so better than usual. But it's worth fact checking those two. So first of all, let's listen to a figure he used when talking about the U.S.- Canada trade relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's hard to justify subsidizing Canada to the tune of maybe $200 billion a year. It's not fair. But why are we subsidizing Canada $200 billion a year or whatever the number might be?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DALE: So, this $200 billion figure he used -- uses to describe the trade deficit with Canada and it's imaginary. The trade deficit with Canada is not even close to that high. It was about $36 billion, not $200 billion last year. Even if you only count goods trade, ignore the services trade at which the U.S. excels, about $71 billion, so just wrong. I also want to listen to something he said about the importance of Canada to the U.S. as a trading partner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We don't do much business with Canada from our standpoint. They do a lot of business with us. We're at like 4 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DALE: So that 4 percent figure is wildly inaccurate again. About 17 percent of U.S. exports go to Canada. I can't definitively fact check this claim that we don't do much business with Canada, but Canada was the number one buyer of U.S. exports in 2024, again through March this year. The number three source of U.S. imports. So I think by any reasonable standard, Brianna, Canada is a major business partner, trading partner of the United States.

KEILAR: And as I mentioned, you are a Canadian. It's very interesting to see how Prime Minister Carney is approaching this, right? His opponent in this election was ousted from his parliamentary seat and he's given him this olive branch in to get back into parliament, right? He's very much trying to unify Canadians as he goes into this fight with Donald Trump. How are Canadians feeling about it?

DALE: So I think, I won't pretend my personal circle is wholly representative, but I think there's relief in Canada today that the prime minister didn't get Zelenskyy-ed. You know, we saw the social media post from President Trump minutes before this meeting. We thought, well, he might be kind of on the war path here, might be setting up for an ambush. Instead, it was pretty conciliatory, even though he did repeat some of those 51st state rhetoric.

He complimented the prime minister on the campaign in which the prime minister essentially ran against Donald Trump, so he didn't have to compliment him on him on that. I also thought it was interesting how the prime minister decided to approach the president. It seemed pretty strategic. Number one, flattery started calling him, you're a transformational president. You're here to tighten the border and improve the economy, so kind of buttering him up.

Then interjecting, whenever he brought up the 51st state thing, that was a key part of the prime minister's campaign. He knows that for his own voters, he can't let that go. But then letting a bunch of other things go, not engaging in a constant back and forth that would get the president's back up and maybe cause an outburst.

KEILAR: He got a lot of compliments too from the president. It was really interesting.

DALE: Yeah.

KEILAR: Daniel Dale, thank you so much. We do appreciate it.

DALE: Thank you.

KEILAR: We have CNN Political and National Security Analyst David Sanger with us now to talk a little bit more about this meeting. What did you think about how it went, David?

DAVID SANGER, HAVE CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, could have been a lot worse, right? It wasn't Zelenskyy, and it wasn't the 1830s when the U.S. and Canada had a terrible border dispute, and the Canadians I think ran one of our ships over Niagara Falls and so, could have been a lot worse. That said, it was pretty clear that these two men do not have a whole lot they're agreeing on and have no interest in giving in to the other side. And I think that President Trump probably had an expectation that Canada, China, others would fold much more quickly.

And now, he's trying to figure out what you do. As Daniel just said, it's 17 percent of our exports. That's not nothing. And of course, the supply chains are deeply integrated. There's one other thing that I think the president, if he didn't say it falsely, certainly exaggerated. He said, we don't need anything from Canada and we defend them. Well, the fact of the matter is they also defend us. Probably the most integrated defense system we have is defending the whole northern part of the continent. We do it in a completely interoperable way. There's really nothing like it anywhere else in the world. And I think relationships like that are being threatened here.

KEILAR: Yeah, listen, you go to any service academy in the U.S. and a number of military installations, and you will find visiting members of the Canadian military.

[14:15:00]

There is a lot of integration in training and even education. I also thought it was really interesting, and I wonder what you thought about this, David, of how Carney brought up during this Oval Office availability and also before the visit, the Head of State is King Charles, right, who he now has coming to open Parliament in Canada at the end of the month, which is something that has not been done by the Monarch in almost 50 years.

We know how Donald Trump feels about the royal family. He has been flattered recently by an invitation from King Charles to go over to the U.K. for -- to be hosted. That's not an accident that he's saying, Hey, by the way, look who our dad is or something akin to that.

SANGER: Yeah, it's a tricky thing for Canadians because, of course, their own relationship with Britain and its long history is a little bit fraught there. But, to your larger point here, when you begin to turn on your allies, the allies begin to look at each other and they begin to look at new relationships. So, what has the United States been trying to do with Europe, Canada, other major allies, Australia, New Zealand, they've been trying to get a common strategy versus China, and that's going to be really hard to do in a condition in which the president has made the tariffs be the dominant issue in our foreign relationships with each of these countries.

Even though we have a lot of other issues, not only with the Canadians, but certainly with China, certainly with Europe, and there are a lot of European leaders who are meeting right now in Washington, and I was with some of them this morning, and there's very much an attitude of, if the United States is going to create a vacuum here, we're going to have to find alternatives.

KEILAR: David Sanger, always great to speak with you, and what an interesting moment this is today in Washington to discuss. Thank you.

SANGER: It really is. Thanks so much. KEILAR: Certainly is. We do have some breaking news out of the Supreme Court. The court will allow the Trump administration to begin enforcing a ban on transgender service members. The justices were however divided on this. Let's go to CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid. Paula, tell us what the court decided here.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, this is a big victory for the Trump administration. As you may remember, this ban, it's one of the first policies that President Trump put forth during the early days of his administration, but it has been tied up like many of his policies in the lower courts. But as lawyers kept telling me that they were confident if they could get this policy and many others before the conservative super majority at the Supreme Court, that they would be allowed to proceed.

And here the Supreme Court is allowing the administration to move forward with a ban on transgender individuals in military service. Now, under this ban, service members who have a current diagnosis or history consistent with gender dysmorphia will be processed for separation from military service. The Pentagon will also not allow transgender Americans to join any branch of the military. Now, as you noted, the three liberal justices dissented from the decision, but did not explain, their position.

But again, a very notable victory for the administration because the long game that they are playing here is to try to get all of these policies before the Supreme Court in the hope that most, if not all of them, will ultimately be upheld.

KEILAR: Very busy time for the Supreme Court indeed, as the court allows the Trump administration to begin enforcing the ban on transgender service members. Paula, thank you for the latest on that.

And still to come, we do have some details from inside the courtroom on day two of jury selection in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs. Stay with "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:24:00]

KEILAR: Day two of jury selection in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs and the two sides found six candidates today who are expected to advance to the next round of questioning. The goal here is to ultimately have a pool of 45 total prospective jurors. The media mogul is facing life in prison after a federal grand jury indicted him on racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking, and other charges. CNN Correspondent Kara Scannell is live force outside of court in New York.

Kara, you're seeing most of the possible jurors and what they know about this case. What are they saying?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we are now up to nine potential new jurors in this case, of course, this is the first round of questioning of this batch. So there are nine that have qualified so far and there will be a subsequent round of questioning before the day is out. So, we'll see where this number finally lands. But as you say, a number of these jurors have heard about this case and a number of them have actually seen the video from the hotel surveillance cameras that captured Sean "Diddy" Combs kicking and dragging his then girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.

[14:25:00]

That video is an important piece of evidence in this case. So, the judge is very careful in the questioning that he's asking jurors about it to get their impressions, to see if they've already formed opinions and can be fair and impartial. Now, some jurors have been excused, others are still part of this pool, including one man who said that he had seen the video and he said that Combs appeared angry (ph), like an angry hostile person who is entitled. But he said he had an open mind and he would be fair and impartial. So, the judge and the parties agreed to let him continue because the lawyers do have an opportunity to have a say here, and they will ultimately, if this juror continues through the process.

Another female juror had said that she found the video disturbing, but she said she didn't know the facts and so she also could keep an open mind. So we're seeing this video come up a lot. A lot of people have heard news reports about the case, but the judge really trying to focus their questions and their answers to whether or not they can set aside what they think they saw and what evidence they will hear in this case. So, this questioning will continue now until they get to a pool where then both sides, defense and the prosecution, can use their strikes ultimately narrowing this down to 12 jurors and several alternates. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Kara, thank you for that update. Erica?

HILL: Joining me now is Attorney Robert Hirschhorn. He is a jury and trial consultant. Robert, good to have you here. As Kara just laid out, so now nine potential jurors have qualified. They ultimately want to get to a pool of 45 to then whittle that down to their jury and the alternates. And she noted that among those who qualified were a couple of people who said yes, they'd seen the video. One man who said he thought it was, as she laid out, an angry hostile person who's entitled, but he thought he could be impartial. And he also noted in his estimation, mostly everybody had seen the video.

How difficult is that in terms of seating a jury for this case when one of the key pieces of evidence has had so much attention in the media leading up to it?

ROBERT HIRSCHHORN, JURY AND TRIAL CONSULTANT & ATTORNEY: Yeah, Erica, thanks for having me. I'm not convinced it's a key piece of evidence. It's a terrible piece of evidence. It's proof of domestic violence, but Diddy is not charged with domestic violence. Because if he was, he'd have to plead guilty because everybody knows he's guilty of that. But what Diddy is charged with is trafficking. He's charged with RICO. And while that is evidence in the government's theory of what his state of mind is, I just don't think it's going to be a really big piece of evidence in terms of the trafficking charge and the RICO charge.

HILL: Well, the potential jurors have also been asked about, they have to review this binder before they go in with a list of people and places, and some really well-known people are on that list. The actor Michael B. Jordan, Kanye West, Mike Myers, Kid Cudi. So, it doesn't necessarily mean that any of those people are going to show up as witnesses or that they are -- will have a significant role here in any of the testimony that's going to be laid out. So, what are they looking for in having potential jurors review this giant binder?

HIRSCHHORN: Well, again, you want to see if anybody has a connection or opinion about any witness in the case. But look, this would be O. J. Simpson II if it were in state court. All right? This would be a massive media event trial. It would be the trial of the century. But because we're in federal court and you don't have cameras in the courtroom, it's not going to be that big a trial. It's going to be big because it's Diddy and he's a celebrity.

This is case is about drug sex and rock and roll or rap, and it -- but it's not going to have that kind of momentum like O.J. I don't think the nation's going to be enthralled by it. And we're seeing that from the jurors because there's a lot of people that are saying, yeah, I know who Diddy is. Yeah, I know these witnesses. Yes, I've seen the video, but I can keep an open mind. That's all encouraging for Diddy. The problem is he's got to find the jurors that can separate out that monster that appeared on the video versus the charges of -- and he was, I mean, that was terrible conduct, but this is about trafficking, sex trafficking. And the argument is that what he is, is he's a swinger, not a trafficker. That when it comes to sex, he does freako, but he's not RICO.

And look, I'm not trying to be cute here. The point I'm trying to make is two things. One, we got to presume him -- he's got to be presumed not guilty at this point. So please let's -- everybody, let's keep an open mind until we can hear the evidence, number one. Number two, I think this is very well a case about the government, the United States government overcharging Diddy in this particular case, and we'll see if it pans out that way.

HILL: It will be interesting to see, to your point, how it all plays out, how it plays out in court. I will say, having covered a few of these, it doesn't always matter if the cameras aren't in court because the information does make it out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)