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Protests Against Trump's ICE Raids Escalate Across U.S.; Trump Acknowledges Feeling More Emboldened to Send National Guard to L.A. in Second Term; LAPD Chief: At Least 378 Arrested in L.A. Protests Since Saturday; Newsom & CA Confront Trump with a Potential Blueprint for Dems; Sources: Musk Called Trump Monday Night Before Posting Public "Regret"; U.S. and China Reach Agreement on Framework for Trade Deal; Protesters and Federal Agents Clash During ICE Raid in Omaha. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired June 11, 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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[15:00:44]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Attorney General Pam Bondi says the Trump administration is not scared to go further with its response to protests in Los Angeles, as the Pentagon indicates it's ready to send troops to other states as these protests expand beyond California.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Meanwhile, the mass ICE raids that sparked these protests, they continue. The Trump administration is touting one of its largest operations yet, after raiding a meat packing plant in Nebraska.

And we're learning of a behind the scenes effort to mend President Trump and Elon Musk's fractured friendship. We're also following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Happening now, Los Angeles and other cities across the country are bracing for another night of protests against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. This as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is now suggesting troops could be mobilized in other states as well. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Part of it is getting ahead of a problem. So that if in other places, if there are other riots in places where law enforcement officers are threatened, we would have the capability to surge National Guard there if necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: For now, troops remain only in Los Angeles, but you heard the Defense Secretary there talking about the necessity of having them. L.A. officials argue that their presence is not only not needed, but also inflaming tensions on the ground. Let's take you straight to the White House with CNN's Kristen Holmes. Kristen, the administration obviously digging in here. What more are you learning?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, digging in and doubling down on the decision to send those troops into L.A. We've heard them over the last several days, talking about how it was necessary, how L.A. was under siege or was burning to the ground. And we heard as much from the Press Secretary moments ago when she was giving her press briefing, saying that it was a necessity. And, of course, as we've seen, attacking Gov. Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. But a lot of this strategy comes from an emboldened top.

And by that, I mean an emboldened Donald Trump, who essentially said that he believes the last president, President Biden, and that administration has given him somehow more power to do as he pleases in Los Angeles. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm able to do things now that I wouldn't have been able to do because the previous president and presidency was so bad. As an example, I can be stronger on an attack on Los Angeles. Yes, okay, I think bringing in the National Guard four years ago or eight years ago would have been more difficult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: I do want to bring up something that we often talk about with Trump's second term, which is Donald Trump learned a lot from his first term about what he could and couldn't do and how to work around the current systems in place. Essentially, he had people who spent four years trying to come up with systems to work around what was already in place. And that also includes getting the National Guard called.

Now, obviously, there have been legal suits brought against Donald Trump, bringing in both the Marines and the National Guard. But we also know that he feels, Donald Trump, that he learned a lesson from what happened with all the riots in his last presidency and now is seeking to almost rectify this the second time around.

Remember, one of the things he said yesterday was that he was really using Los Angeles as a sort of kind of lesson to teach people, saying that if anyone else in any of these other cities acts out, they will be meet with equal or more force from the Trump administration.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, live for us at the White House, thank you so much.

So, let's get the reality on the ground in Southern California. Let's go to CNN's Stephanie Elam, who's there for us.

So, Stephanie, our National Guard troops, they're helping - paint a picture for us of what you're seeing. STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Boris, they're really only in one part of Downtown Los Angeles. And there's a bus there, but on the other side of it, there is some of the National Guard that is there. And some of the National Guard are standing there as well.

[15:05:02]

What you will see when we go back to that area is that that is where the protesters are collecting. And to the point that you're hearing from the mayors that in this area is that this is only drawing more tension and ire between the protesters because they're there. And so that is part of the concern.

Mayor Karen Bass had a press conference with 30 other mayors from other regional cities to talk about just this issue, about what is happening with these raids happening and what it means to the people here. Take a listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR KAREN BASS (D-L.A.): We started off by hearing the administration wanted to go after violent felons, gang members, drug dealers. But when you raid home depots and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart and you run armored caravans through our streets, you're not trying to keep anyone safe. You're trying to cause fear and panic.

And when you start deploying federalized troops on the heels of these raids, it is a drastic and chaotic escalation and completely unnecessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: So that press conference is still ongoing with the mayors. But now that you have a clean shot here, you can see that the protesters are out there. You see someone waving around the California flag right now outside there. We do know, though, however, with this curfew going into effect for the first time last night, more than 200 people were arrested. The mayor is saying that they do believe that it was actually quite helpful because it got people off the streets. When we got out here overnight, the streets were clear. People were not out here. It'll go back into effect at 8 o'clock tonight. We don't know when this is going to stop, but they do think it is very important. And they also keep making the point that that's all you're going to see of the National Guard in downtown L.A.

We have not seen the Marines. We have heard that they are getting more training, but they're not out here. So, this is being handled by local law enforcement. And that's what they're continuing to say, is that they have the resources, the capability and the ability to continue to do that. And that this is just a distraction that brings more friction between these two groups. Boris and Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Stephanie Elam, live for us in Los Angeles. Thank you so much. Brianna? KEILAR: In addition to the 4,000 National Guardsmen deployed to L.A., 700 Marines have also been mobilized, as you heard Stephanie talking about there. But they're not on the streets. New video shows the troops taking part in what appear to be a training session. We have CNN's Natasha Bertrand with us.

And you have some new - where are they - new details that you have.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so they have yet to actually be called into the streets of Los Angeles to actually participate in crowd control and riot control. And as you can see from these clips that we have, which are pretty remarkable, you can see that the Marines, they are continuing their training in the meantime. They haven't been called in yet. And according to a spokesperson for the Marine Corps, what they've been doing essentially is making good use of their time, because they haven't yet been called in and positioned to maneuver into that space, they are going over additional rules for - the standing rules for the use of force, which is something, of course, they will need a refresher on when it comes to engaging in civilian kind of riot control, and also nonlethal weapons training.

So, they're practicing detaining people. They're practicing kind of trying to de-escalate the situation. And importantly, you know, a Marine Corps spokesperson did tell me that they are authorized in very certain circumstances to, in fact, detain people on the streets. And so that is exactly what they have been practicing for.

And they're only allowed to detain people for a very, you know, limited amount of time until a law enforcement official can actually come and make that arrest. But still, you know, this is obviously not a scenario that these Marines are doing every day. And so, this additional training that they're undergoing, these kind of now over two days of training, is a good refresher for them, to say the least, in an area that is extremely fraught and, of course, has the possibility to escalate and spiral out of control when you have, you know, the military on the streets of Los Angeles engaging with civilians.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. It's really something to see as we look at these videos of them training. Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much. Boris?

SANCHEZ: President Trump has forced Democrats onto politically perilous turf as they look for ways to condemn his actions without tying themselves to some of the violence that we've seen, the chaotic scenes out of Los Angeles, and potentially being drawn into a broader debate over immigration. But California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is not backing down in what could potentially be a blueprint for Democrats. Joining us now is CNN Senior Reporter Isaac Dovere.

Isaac, what did you find in your reporting?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, well, in the story that I have up on the CNN website right now, I talked to people in California, Newsom's orbit, and people in Congress here watching it from all around the country who are looking at this and saying, this is - forget about the politics of it, a new phase of the Trump administration.

[15:10:13]

So, you had Democrats who, for the last couple months, have been talking about standing up to Trump. Newsom is the one who really now is dealing with what it is to navigate standing up to Trump on the streets and what's going on, on social media and in the courts. And if you look at what Pete Hegseth has said in Congress today, it does seem like this is going to be something we are likely to see in other places. Other governors have been checking in. Let's just take a listen to how Newsom himself talked about that in a video he put out last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D) CALIFORNIA: If some of us could be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there. This is about all of us. This is about you.

California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

And there is concern, Isaac, that Democrats may be playing into his hands. I wonder what you've heard from folks on that.

DOVERE: It's certainly something going around here. And look, immigration was an issue that was in Donald Trump's favor in the election last year. There is more resistance and pushback, what we see in polls to the way that the Trump administration has been going about some of these maneuvers. We haven't - we can't see, really, polls on what's going on in this. It's only been a couple of days.

But there is this question of how Democrats talk about immigration and talk about pushing back on this, not just as immigration, but this is the military in the streets of an American city that has sort of sidestepped the Insurrection Act and other things and sidestepped the governor usually being asked to let the National Guard be federalized.

Those are things that the Trump administration is just doing on its own, and that's how people are looking at this.

SANCHEZ: You sort of saw that with Newsom, especially in that clip, making this about due process, not necessarily immigration policy more broadly. Isaac Dovere, thanks so much for the report.

DOVERE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still plenty more news to come this afternoon. Elon Musk backing off his attacks on President Trump, saying he regrets some of those tweets we saw over the weekend. We're learning what's behind this about face.

Plus, an immigration raid at a Nebraska meat plant turns confrontational as dozens of people are arrested, the Trump administration touting it as one of the largest worksite enforcement operations yet.

And leading scientists say a network of ocean currents that keep the climate stable are closer to collapse than initially believed. And once that happens, we could see some devastating effects. Those stories and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: CNN has just learned that Elon Musk called President Trump on Monday night before following up with today's public message of regret after his very public war of words with the President. The wealthiest man on the planet writing on his social media platform X, quote, "I regret some of my posts about President Trump last week. They went too far." CNN's Alayna Treene has this brand-new reporting.

Alayna, what are your sources telling you about this phone call between the President and Musk?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Yes, it happened on Monday night and we're told it lasted only a few moments. But at that point, we actually had already seen Elon Musk begin to kind of back away and deescalate from the harshest criticism that he was lobbying last week, which really, you know, we saw him over the weekend delete some of the most inflammatory posts about the President, including one that suggested he was in the Epstein files. Another one that showed him agreeing that he should be impeached.

And so, you know, it's still, of course, a very fragile moment for these two men and such a far, you know, point from where they've come. But some other news as well, Boris, is that that call comes after on Friday we were told that Vice President J.D. Vance and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles had a phone call with Musk as well.

And that's really what I'm told from my sources who are familiar with this discussion that kind of got the ball rolling on a lot of this, that they wanted to deescalate what was going on between Musk and Trump, partly because, you know, they thought that this was bad for both of them. They both have been so close for so long. They know a lot about each other. They can do a lot of damage. They're both very famous figures. I mean, the list goes on of why this is problematic, but also, of course, how they believe it could potentially jeopardize the big budget bill that this White House is working furiously behind the scenes to try and get through.

And I'm told as well that Vance, someone who's very close with Elon Musk personally as well, he also asked President Donald Trump last week how he should be addressing the Musk feud personally, especially because he went on a podcast interview later that day. The President, I'm told, told him to be diplomatic about it. And that's really how we're seeing the President and what he's been telling advisers behind closed door trying to handle this as well, be more diplomatic and not as, you know, harsh in his rhetoric toward Musk.

SANCHEZ: So interesting. Alayna Treene, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: And new today, the U.S. and China agreeing on a framework for a trade deal after talks in London to ease tensions between the two countries. President Trump posted that the deal with China is done, quote, subject to final approval with President Xi and me. And he says any necessary rare earths will be supplied up front by China, which was a key U.S. demand.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifying today that the huge tariffs the President unveiled in April, most of which are currently on hold, will likely be delayed yet again for some countries.

[15:20:08]

With us now is Gavin Bade. He's a trade and economic policy reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

Gavin, thank you so much for being with us ...

GAVIN BADE, TRADE AND ECONOMIC POLICY REPORTED, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Of course.

KEILAR: ... to explain all of this to us. What Secretary Bessent said there that there's this highly likely extension of these reciprocal tariff of pause. Is that what you were expecting? Is that what Wall Street was expecting? Are they breathing a sigh of relief?

BADE: I think a number of people expected there would be some sort of extension. There's a couple of things at play here. First of all, they - we were promised 90 deals in 90 days when they put these reciprocal tariffs on pause on a few - you know, in early April. And that just hasn't materialized. They've had a lot harder time getting to these trade deals with a number of countries to date. We only have one framework other than the Chinese one, which is with the U.K.

And so, I think we were seeing them have some difficulty getting there. And then these tariffs are also under some legal jeopardy as well. We saw the Court of International Trade throw out the legal authority for the tariffs. That decision has now been appealed. And the appeals court set a date of July 31st for the next hearing in that case.

So, you may see the administration want to get some clarity over whether this specific tariff authority is actually legal before they think about playing that card with reimposing the reciprocal tariffs.

KEILAR: Yes, that's a really interesting point. And then this China agreement that we learned about overnight, what's new here?

BADE: Not very much. We're kind of running fast to stand still here. At the end of the day, we're basically going back to the terms of the deal that the U.S. and China agreed to in Geneva at the beginning of May. And that was a pause on the highest tariffs. We took down, you know, the 145 percent to 30 percent, added to the ones that were already in place from Trump's first term.

Since then, there have been some tensions on both sides. The Chinese were restricting exports of rare earth magnets that are essential for many U.S. industries. The U.S. responded with export controls of their own. And so, you saw the tensions get ratcheted up again. That Geneva deal was really under risk there.

And so, they kind of came together for like 48 hours in London this week and said, cooler heads should prevail. Let's go back to that earlier deal and we'll keep talking about how we can move forward.

KEILAR: You have some really interesting reporting on just how clutch that issue was and how much it really mattered in these discussions. How much of an upper hand did China have because of it?

BADE: Well, I think each side has some pain points for the other here. You know, China needs our jet engines for their commercial airliners. So, when they started to cut off rare earth minerals, we responded with our export controls on those and other technologies that they need from us. So, I think - you see both sides kind of testing the vulnerabilities of the other and demonstrating to each other that they have leverage here. And at the end of the day, they decided maybe we should just keep talking and let our economies keep operating for a few months longer.

We'll see if cooler heads will continue to prevail, though. I mean, there's a lot of irritants that can kind of flare up at any point in this relationship.

KEILAR: The rare earth minerals are so important that you almost see American officials getting to this point where they don't really want Americans to feel the effects of what it would be like for there to be a shortage. Why is that? What would that look like for people?

BADE: Yes, I think a good example is what could happen to the automotive industry. Detroit automakers were in the White House this year almost daily over the last month saying if we don't start getting some export licenses from China approved, we may need to shut down production at American plants.

So, they're talking about widespread pandemic style stoppages to these plants. You know, Trump loves his cars. He loves the U.S. auto industry. That really kind of spurred the U.S. into action here, both on retaliation and then coming to the table to try to ratchet the tensions back down.

But going forward, I think we're going to see this cycle again, you know, ratcheting up of tensions and then a little bit of a detente. There's a lot of other tariffs in the pipeline that they're talking about outside of the reciprocal tariffs, the Trump administration is. We could see that increase the tensions in this relationship again.

KEILAR: Oh, we'll stay tuned for that. Gavin Bade, thank you so much. Great reporting. We really appreciate you sharing it with us. And a Nebraska County commissioner suddenly leaving a meeting after learning in real time of an ICE raid in his community. He's going to join us right after this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER GARCIA, NEBRASKA COUNTY COMMISSIONER: I have to depart at this point. My community is being terrorized by immigration raids at this moment as we speak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[15:28:55]

The Trump administration is touting an ICE raid in Nebraska as one of its largest operations yet. DHS says more than 70 undocumented immigrants were detained at an Omaha meatpacking plant. The raid caused confusion both inside and outside the plant and spark clashes between law enforcement and protesters.

Watch this video taken during the raid that shows men in U.S. Marshals vests attempting to drive past protesters who then jump on the vehicle's front bumper. The SUV pushes forward and then stops, sending the demonstrators out onto the ground as you'll see in just a moment before it moved forward again.

A supervisor at the plant described exactly how this raid went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ESTAFANIA FAVILLA, SUPERVISOR, GLENN VALLEY FOODS: And then we just heard - Homeland security just banging on the door, banging on the door and - well, they just came in and said that it was a raid and we had to get everybody out of production. And I just went inside production and told everybody, hey, immigration is here, start running.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:30:00]

SANCHEZ: The President of the Glenn Valley Foods plant told the Associated Press the company does everything by the book. He claims that when he told ICE agents that his company used the federal E- Verify ...