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Trump to Sign His Megabill Into Law At Major July 4th Ceremony; Hamas Weighs Latest Ceasefire Proposal With Israel; Comic Book Quake Prediction In Japan Goes Viral; Trump Talks To Zelenskyy After Disappointing Call With Putin; Emergency Hearing On Detainees Trump Administration Wants To Send To South Sudan. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired July 04, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": On this 4th of July, President Trump is ready to sign, seal, and deliver his megabill into law. It's a huge victory for Republicans, one the Democrats say they're ready to use against them. Plus, as the world waits to see if Hamas will agree to a ceasefire with Israel, we're learning more details about what is in that proposal. Also ahead, how a comic book prediction of a mega quake in Japan has gone viral, even scaring off tourists. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN New Central."

Happy 4th of July. I'm Brianna Keilar on what is now signing day for President Trump's mega agenda bill. The president is about to make his prized legislation the law of the land and a lot is riding on this moment. Democrats are pouncing on the Medicaid cuts in the bill and counting budget problems in the bill by the trillions, but Republicans are still taking a victory lap. Before all of the fanfare plays out though, the president earlier today on the phone with Ukraine's President Zelenskyy as Kyiv burned overnight after Russia unleashed a record number of drone attacks.

Let's get right to CNN's Kristen Holmes at the White House. Kristen, what can you share about the call?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we haven't heard anything from the White House. Everything has been coming out of his Zelenskyy's office and out of Ukraine. So, we do know from an aide to Zelenskyy, he called the call very important and meaningful. And part of the reason we believe that this call was scheduled to take place is because this is the first time the two leaders have spoken since the U.S. halted some of those weapon shipments into Ukraine.

And President Zelenskyy put out a statement where he referenced this and kind of a veiled reference that the two of them had talked about this. At one point, he said that we in Ukraine are grateful for all the support provided. He says it helps us protect lives, safeguard our freedom and independence. And then he also says this, he said, we spoke, President Trump and Zelenskyy spoke about opportunities in air defense and agreed that we will work together to strengthen protection of our skies.

Of course, as we have reported, some of the weapons that were halted or paused and going into Ukraine were air missiles. So that seems as though that is a reference there. Interestingly, President Trump has been working the phones with several world leaders. He also spoke to the French President Macron. He spoke to the Italian Prime Minister Meloni. And we also know this is all coming after he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday. Remember, one of the things he said about that call is that he made absolutely no progress at all with Putin when it came to Ukraine. Brianna?

KEILAR: And Kristen, how are we expecting to see the president go about this signing ceremony? It's going to be here in just a few hours for his huge agenda bill.

HOLMES: Yep. They are really making a spectacle of the whole thing. They're going to do it at 5:00 p.m. on the South Lawn of the White House. This is going to be during a pre-planned military picnic that they're having. We had reported earlier that the pilots who actually dropped the missiles on the Iran nuclear sites will be here. There's also going to be a flyover of the B-2 jets, which were the jets that dropped those missiles onto the Iran nuclear facilities during this whole time. So, all of that happening at 5:00. It's going to be part of their big 4th of July celebration. And then President Trump will be there. There'll be lawmakers and then they'll stay and watch the fireworks in Washington.

KEILAR: All right, we'll be looking for that. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much. With us now is Juliegrace Brufke, Congressional Reporter for 24Sight News.

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Also, Jasmine Wright, White House Correspondent for NOTUS and co- author of the NOTUS morning newsletter. And we're also joined by Justin Wolfers, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

So, Jasmine, just first off, it's going to be a big spectacle, as Kristen was outlining there.

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NOTUS: Yes.

KEILAR: What does this legislation in this day mean for the president?

WRIGHT: I mean, Donald Trump is not one known to downplay the theatrics. Obviously, this is something that his administration has been working for, something that they've really been working on for the last several years, even when he was out of office, coming together. So it's an accomplishment for the president, no matter if you don't like his tactics, no matter if you don't like his threats to primary people, even though he used kind of this combination of both honey and vinegar to get this across the line.

The White House believes that this is a legacy defining moment for the president and there, you're going to see a signing that reflects that. They believe that this is really going to be what they call the golden age now, after this bill, because it unleashes so much, it affects so much of the federal government, and how the federal government works and also, the securities and social services that Americans will receive.

KEILAR: You mentioned vinegar.

WRIGHT: Yeah.

KEILAR: And Justin, I -- jumping off of that, I wonder how this is going to age. Will this age like a fine wine or is it going to turn to vinegar? Because right now, you have Republicans making an argument that this CBO projection that this was going to add trillions to the debt should be completely ignored because there's going to be all this economic growth and Americans are going to feel that. Could that be the case?

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS & PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: No. So, it's not just the Congressional Budget Office, which is where the real nonpartisan experts rest. It's also think tanks up and down (inaudible), both from the left and the right. Every single one of them says, there's two big things this bill is going to do. Without question, it is going to increase our national debt quite substantially. It'll blow up what is already a very high deficit to be even larger.

Someone's going to pay the bill sometime. And that I think is a very important point. President Trump says that he has cut taxes, but he hasn't. All he's done, because he's left most spending alone, is he has deferred who's going to pay taxes. That's not a tax cut at all. And then the other thing that's -- that I think people are going to wake up to, particularly come tax time, is that all told, the real tax cuts are for the wealthy and in fact working middle and even upper middle-class Americans end up slightly worse off as a result of this bill.

KEILAR: Juliegrace, how are Republicans going to approach this politically? Are they going to spend their summer selling this or are they going to be running from it?

JULIEGRACE BRUFKE, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, 24SIGHT NEWS: No, it's going to be interesting to watch and I think it's going to depend on the district. I talked to a number of moderates in swing districts that were really torn over whether they could vote for this bill, particularly over the Medicaid provision. So how they navigate that, I think they probably try and sell it as a major tax cut and bring up the no tax on tips. And I think that's going to be a large part of their messaging moving forward.

And all of those members that were kind of, they had reservations, the Speaker kind of assured them that he plans to bring up another Reconciliation Bill in the fall. So they're hoping to be able to address some of those concerns then.

KEILAR: And Jasmine, Democrats think they have a political gold mine here. WRIGHT: Yeah.

KEILAR: Is that the case? Are Republicans worried that they do?

WRIGHT: I mean, Democrats certainly think that they do. And I think after the last six plus months where you've seen Democrats kind of stumbling around in the darkness, they feel that they have really launched onto something that has meat to it when we're talking about the cuts to Medicaid, the cuts to SNAP and other issues within this bill that they see. Now, when I've been talking to folks at the White House, they're basically downplaying all of Democrats messaging. They're calling them liars, saying that they are misrepresenting what's in the bill for their own political gain.

And the fact is, is that the way that this bill is structured, you're going to see some of those taxes, those most -- the more populist issues like no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime. Those are going to kick in immediately, when President Trump signs it. But some of the more negative consequences like Medicaid, those are not happening for a certain amount of years. And so, the White House basically believes that people are going to get all of the sugar of the bill. And so when some of those other things happen, not only will it allow states to absorb and adjust, they said on a press call yesterday, but it will allow, if there is potentially some backlash from it, Donald Trump may be out of office when it happens.

KEILAR: That's really interesting. So Justin, I wonder because you hear predictions from mainstream economists that were so dire when Trump was launching his tariff campaign, a huge tariff induced inflation spike, but it hasn't materialized, at least not at this point. And I wonder, if Americans look at that and they say like, we were bracing for the high prices, haven't seen them. Could they sort of take that thinking and then see what Jasmine just outlined, sort of the sugar coming first and the cost to them really coming later, and just kind of tune out some of these warnings? How should they be thinking about it?

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WOLFERS: I think tariffs are very much on people's mind. And this is where it helps to know a little bit of economics and a little bit about what the tariffs have been. So, these tariffs have been on again, off again, and many of them were delayed. Much of the data that we have so far that says not much has happened is somewhat backward looking. And so, if you actually go back and you look at the serious Wall Street economists, when they said we would get the effect of tariffs on inflation, we're not even there yet.

So, far too early to conclude that there's nothing going on, and it's even simpler than that. Look, the tariffs impose a cost. Someone is going to bear it. I can't imagine our trading partners want to, which either means it's got to be American people or the companies that they're buying from. And once they start collecting bigger and bigger tariffs, we're going to see that in the stickers we see at the store.

KEILAR: Yeah. So, we're only partway through the stream on that at this point. Juliegrace, if you look sort of at the past, anytime you have a big landmark bill go through Congress, the majority party ends up paying the price politically in the midterm elections. It's just what happens. Could this be different?

BRUFKE: I mean, never say never. I feel like a lot of people have predicted the past few elections to turn out differently. Now that being said, it's going to be interesting, especially with some of these members that had a lot of reservations about voting for this bill, what the retirements are going to look like in some of these swing districts. I mean, we've already seen Don Bacon who, prior to this bill coming up, announced his retirement which is going to be a tough hold for Republicans. And there could potentially be some other seats of that nature where Democrats could see some pickups depending on how they manage their messaging on this.

KEILAR: Yeah, that's a really interesting point. Everyone, thank you so much. Really appreciate the conversation as we sort of wrap our heads around this big bill. Appreciate it. Still to come, President Trump says he expects Hamas to respond to the ceasefire proposal with Israel within hours. We'll have details on that just ahead. And then, evacuations and water rescues triggered by deadly flash flooding in Texas. We're tracking where the storms are today, on this 4th of July. We'll have that a much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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KEILAR: Right now, an emergency hearing is about to resume in D.C. federal court over whether immigration detainees who have been held at a U.S. military base in Djibouti can be sent to South Sudan. The Supreme Court last night cleared the way for the Trump Administration to send the men onto that African nation, a country that most of them have no ties to. CNN's Katelyn Polantz is here with details on this. What can you tell us, Katelyn?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, it's another constitutional law fight on the 4th of July, no less here, an emergency hearing today before a judge in Washington, D.C., a trial level judge. It's these eight men that were held in that shipping container or are still being held in a shipping container at a U.S. Naval Base in Djibouti. They've been stuck there because the Trump Administration wanted to send them on to South Sudan and the courts stepped in.

It went up to the Supreme Court now twice, including with a resolution yesterday. At first, the Supreme Court said to the administration, yes, you can send someone to a third country, not their home country and not the U.S., a third country like South Sudan, if the administration wants to. That's what they were trying to do with these detainees. And then, there was a bit of a bungle in court over whether these eight men in the shipping container in Djibouti, on the ground, whether that previous Supreme Court decision applied to them.

And so, what the Supreme Court did last night was said, yes, these guys too, these eight men from other countries, Laos, Mexico, they can also be sent to South Sudan. But these men have lawyers. Their lawyers rushed to the court in Washington, D.C., put in this petition and said, wait a minute, we want to create a new claiming court and say there should be more constitutional protections around us because the Trump Administration is trying to punish us even more than we deserve, to send us to South Sudan place where we could be tortured.

What they wrote in that petition and what the judge was compelled to step in this morning and say, I want to have an emergency hearing. The plane is not moving. Keep them in Djibouti as of right now. Don't send them to South Sudan just yet. What they wrote was, the government seeks to inflict a second severe punishment on petitioners for their criminal convictions previously by removing them to South Sudan now, where they know and intend that they may be arbitrarily imprisoned, tortured, killed, or severely harmed.

So we have now, this before a judge in Washington, D.C. He's going to decide whether he can even do something here and what happens to those eight men still in the country of Djibouti, whether they will be taken on by the administration towards South Sudan and released there. Where the Supreme Court is on this, think of it more as an overlay, the question of can the administration do these things? The Supreme Court's saying, yes, but what happens exactly to these eight men, it's still hung up in court. And we are going to wait and see what the judge does right now.

KEILAR: Really interesting. We'll be looking for that. Katelyn, we know you're watching. Thank you so much.

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It is a waiting game right now in the Middle East as President Trump says, we should know within hours how Hamas will respond to the latest ceasefire for hostages proposal with Israel. It's an announcement coming as Trump prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. We're joined now by Aaron David Miller. He is a former Middle East Negotiator for the State Department, and also Kirsten Fontenrose, a former Senior Director for the Gulf at the White House National Security Council. So Aaron, Trump is expecting a response from Hamas on this ceasefire and hostage proposal within hours. Is that what you expect? Is that realistic?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR, STATE DEPARTMENT: I think, Brianna, thanks for having me. Happy 4th of July. Look, the chances of concluding another in interim agreement are better now than any time since the ceasefire was signed on January 18th. Netanyahu's room for maneuver because of the Iran strikes has increased. President Trump's leverage over Netanyahu has increased as a consequence of his strikes on Fordow and the other two facilities.

And I think Hamas now understands that their survival depends on a respite, two months, surging humanitarian assistance in Gaza for badly needed for long-suffering Palestinian population and some redeployment of Israeli military forces from strategic points in Gaza. But let's be very clear, this is not -- repeat, this is not an end to the war. It's another incremental deal, which will be great for Palestinians in Gaza and for the host -- some of the hostages and their families. But we're a long way away from calling Gaza done.

KEILAR: Yeah. I mean, Kirsten, what do you think about the chance of a deal before this Netanyahu visit to the White House next week? And how are you seeing -- is it different how you're seeing Netanyahu's calculus of how he's prioritizing the release of hostages compared to his main war objective, which has been defeating Hamas?

KIRSTEN FONTENROSE, FORMER SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR THE GULF, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Benjamin Netanyahu understands that the Israeli population is really putting pressure on him, demanding the release of the hostages. And there's concern that Hamas may see them as their last card in the hand they play at this table. They've lost their benefactors in Iran. They're really under pressure. They're resorting to things like trying to sneak people into steal aid from some of the distribution points to take back into the tunnels. Hamas is under a lot of pressure.

And what does that mean? It means that these hostages may be there -- they may be willing to do about anything. They haven't taken offers of golden parachutes. So, what does that mean? Should we expect them to stage something sort of last and brutal? Or do we think they might actually accept a ceasefire deal? And Netanyahu is worried about that as well because he knows probably more than ever, the hostages lives are on the line. And he understands that for President Trump, this ceasefire is a necessity.

Trump came directly to him, right after Israel and Iran signed their ceasefire, after their exchange of strikes and said, it's time for you to go back to the negotiating table on Gaza. So, we are expecting him to be here to try to make sure that America understands that Israel's request for guarantees of security still are not met by what is being discussed in the ceasefire. And that a 60-day negotiating timeframe to try to answer some of their demands may not be long enough. But if they sense that Hamas is using delay diplomacy, trying to drag it out while re-arming, all bets may be off for Israel.

So, he's going to try to convince the U.S. Hey, we're willing to go into this. We're willing to accept the current ceasefire deal of 60 days, but there are still, during that 60 days, items that need to be worked out.

KEILAR: Yeah. And Aaron, let's talk a little bit about how the hostage release, how it's staggered over those 60 days. There are, at this point, the Israeli government says about 50 hostages still in Gaza, at least 20 of them are believed to be alive. And over the course of this 60-day ceasefire, you would be looking at the -- 10 of 20 living hostages being released, the last two of those 10 being released on day 50. What do you think about this timeline?

MILLER: I mean, it's structured on both parties' accounts in order to ensure that there's negotiating environment in which there's no trust. I mean, the fact is, Brianna, you could do an entire deal, all for all, all of the hostages living and dead for an end of the war. That's what Hamas wants, for obvious reasons. It wants to survive and withdraw all the Israeli forces from Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu right now, is waging a political war. Most of Israel's military objectives, hollowing out of Hamas, the killing of its senior leadership.

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They basically hollowed out its rocket capacity. And the reality is Benjamin Netanyahu cannot end this war given the current constraints of his coalition. So instead of all for all, instead of declaring an end to the war, which would then allow you to get onto some sort of rational end game, day after in Gaza, bringing Arab states in, boots on the ground, Palestinian police, a transitional authority, you have this sort of drip by drip approach and for the hostages, their families, for the population of Gaza, it's a tragedy.

Look, the reality is Benjamin Netanyahu is more interested in avenging the dead than redeeming the living. And at some point, whether it's this -- after this incremental deal or the final one, he's going to have to choose between Donald Trump on one hand and his domestic political realities on the other. And I think I'm pretty certain which choice he's going to make.

KEILAR: Kirsten, we should note that, humanitarian aid, the plan would be with this ceasefire, for it to immediately begin flowing into Gaza from the U.N., from other aid organizations. I mean, let's talk about where things are right now and how critical that is. And is that a lever for Hamas to agree to this?

FONTENROSE: It is. Hamas is asking for increased humanitarian assistance to flow as part of the ceasefire. Israel has no problem with that from what we're hearing from them. But what they're saying is that Hamas is intentionally disrupting aid distribution to either steal it to then sell on a black market or to provide the aid for themselves or parts of the population where they maintain control. So, you have differing narratives over the aid distribution.

What a lot of groups are saying is there are 400 aid distribution spots in Gaza that could be reopened. Israel says we can't reopen those because we can't guarantee that those convoys will get through. There's so many attacks by criminal networks on those convoys when they try to distribute aid, that people just wind up getting hurt and the aid winds up being stolen, instead of distributed to the people who need it.

So now, you have the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distributing aid. And this is a problem for many who would otherwise like to be involved in aid distribution. But on the Israeli side, they say, look, we have to worry about security first. If there's no security and the people delivering the aid and the people distributing it are murdered in the trucks, then no aid gets out anyway. So, this will definitely be a point of contention during these negotiations.

How many points will be reopened? Who will be authorized to distribute? There are talks about international firms being brought in to potentially secure the distribution points, but you can guarantee that if Hamas is not part of either the distribution or the securing, then they will be a spoiler for it.

KEILAR: Kirsten Fontenrose, Aaron David Miller, thank you for the conversation at such a critical time. We appreciate it.

MILLER: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: And still to come. The recent immigration raids by federal agents have taken a toll on some businesses in Southern California. We'll look at why some of them have shut down. And a graphic novel has people in Japan worried that a huge earthquake will hit on July 5th. That and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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