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From Summer School to English Classes, Education Department Freezes Funding; Voices in So-Called Manosphere Expressing Frustration With Trump; Inside a Family's Move to Self-Deport from the U.S. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 16, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The Trump administration's funding freeze of various Education Department programs is causing real problems for parents now and educators. They're scrambling to salvage summer and afterschool programs that expected to receive the money at the beginning of July. The Trump administration's plan to review the programs as it works to dismantle the Department of Education, but the lack of funding is expected to affect some of our country's poorest children.

CNN Washington Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty is joining us now. What can you tell us a about all of this and the impact of this money that is sitting there frozen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. This is a very sudden freeze and it has an immediate impact for many programs and many kids across the country, and there's little answers, frankly, as to why. OMB saying that the money was used in some of the programs, they're alleging here that some of this money was being money used, and this is a, quote, here to promote a radical left-wing agenda, but gave very little explanation after that as to why and what program specifically they're taking issue with.

And important to note here, this is a blanket freeze. This is a massive amount of money through many grant programs that this affects for issues with one or two programs that the OMB has. And I spent some time at one of those programs that's part of this blanket freeze. They are a nonprofit afterschool and summer camp program, and they primarily serve low income families, whose kids are learning English as a second language. And they're frankly in a very bad situation right now. They had their funds that they were anticipating to receive on July 1. They had those funds frozen. And now they're facing big questions. Will they be able to stay open for the rest of the summer? Will they importantly be able to stay open in the school year?

And I spoke with one mother from the program. Her son is learning English in the program. He has access to a safe place in the summer and also warm meals, importantly, and she started crying twice over the conversation saying that she does not know what she will do if she lose a loses access to the program. If they have to close their doors, that means she will not have childcare for her child. She's a janitor. She's working to make ends meet for their family. And she said, put simply, she stays up at night crying over what will happen.

And this is just a slice, Sara, 1 program out of the nearly 10,000 programs that serves low income families, aftercare and afterschool and summer camps that are facing a very dire situation this summer. And it potentially only gets worse there when we're looking into the fall school year.

SIDNER: Yes, it sounds like it's a really heavy burden on families who can least afford it. Is there any indication that this freeze could potentially be lifted?

SERFATY: Well, there is a potential -- there is a lawsuit. Over 20 Democratic-leading states have sued over this. And they say that they want these fronts to be dispersed. They want that -- they say these funds have already been approved by Congress. It was passed in a C.R. earlier this year, so many of the programs made their budgets relying on these programs.

So, their hope is that there will be an injunction to at least free up some of the, funds for this summer, but, obviously, it's a big question mark heading into the school year.

SIDNER: Yes. Meantime, parents are just sort of left in a lurch wondering what's going to happen next.

Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much, great reporting from you this morning. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The man wrongfully deported to El Salvador could be released from federal custody as soon as today. What we know about the court hearing that will decide the future for Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

And a plane forced to turn back after takeoff when flames were seen shooting out of its engine. What passengers are saying about what clearly was a terrifying experience, we have that ahead.

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[08:40:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, President Trump and the manosphere may be hitting a bit of a rough patch. Man under 50 played a key role in getting the president elected in November. Thanks, in large part, to the support from male dominated podcasts and influencer. Now, those same voices so critical to his campaign might be showing signs they could be losing faith as the midterms inch closer.

Let's get right to Florida man, Steve Contorno, for the very latest on this. Steve, what have you found?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: John, these podcasters and comedians who were so crucial to Trump's reelection efforts in 2024, he sat down for lengthy interviews with him, some of them endorsed him, and some of them even actually appeared as VIPs at his inauguration. Well, now, there is a growing sense of discontent from these very same figures whose massive audiences helped Trump connect with the under 35-year-old crowd. Take a listen to what they're saying lately.

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ANDREW SCHULZ, PODCASTER AND COMEDIAN: I voted for none of this. He's doing the exact opposite of everything I voted for. I want him to stop the war. He's funding them. I want him to shrink spending, reduce the budget. He's increasing it.

JOE ROGAN, PODCASTER: There's two things that are insane. One is the targeting of migrant workers, not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers, just construction workers showing up in construction sites, raiding them, gardeners.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ROGAN: Like really?

THEO VON, COMEDIAN AND PODCASTER: It was supposed to be America first. Like we're focusing on like, what are we doing to get things back into America, right?

Now that we're caught up here and it feels like we are just working for Israel, I don't know.

You just really start to feel very disillusioned pretty quickly.

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CONTORNO: Now that last voice you heard was Theo Von. He's a comedian. And I actually attended his show in Detroit on Saturday where I talked to some of his fans. And you can hear the same discontent from his audience, as you've heard from those podcasters. Some of them are expressing displeasure with the price tag of Trump's, quote, big, beautiful Bill. One person telling me that Trump is breaking his promise on no new wars, calling it, quote, a big lie to my face. And we are seeing this discontent across the broader under 35-year-old electorate. Take a look at how they've shifted since February, 54 percent disapproved of Trump back then, now it is up to 60 percent.

One of the areas where they're especially dissatisfied is his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. 65 percent said that they were disappointed with the information that has come out such so far. That's much higher than the general population.

And, John, I actually talked to someone at this Theo Von standup events, where they said that Trump's handling of this case, and the lack of information so far is actually one reason he is reconsidering his vote from last November.

BERMAN: Look, you know, Steve Bannon says if 10 percent of some of these voters stay home, that could be enough to swing the midterms. It really is remarkable sort of the persistence that this issue has.

Steve Contorno, great reporting. Thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Also happening today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man that the Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador, really became the central figure in the fight against Trump's deportation policies. Well, he will appear in court in Tennessee. The hearing on whether he should remain in jail while awaiting trial for smuggling charges.

A senior ICE official recently testified that the agency has not yet decided where Abrego Garcia would be deported to if he is released from criminal custody, potentially as soon as today. And what happened to Abrego Garcia is leading some families to make drastic decisions choosing to voluntarily leave the United States out of fear.

[08:45:01]

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has one family's story.

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SASHA MENDOZA, U.S. CITIZEN: These are the main pictures from our house that we didn't want to just throw away.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sasha Mendoza has the impossible task of packing up her family's life in Pittsburgh into a handful of suitcases.

S. MENDOZA: It's really hard to tell a four-year-old that they can't bring their toys or their stuffed animal. There's just not enough room. We can't put a stuffed animal and then have no pants.

I've literally never felt anxiety the way that I have in the last few years here.

ALVAREZ: So you are saying bye to the U.S. for good?

JULIO MENDOZA, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT: For good, yes. Yes, for good.

ALVAREZ: Fearful of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, Sasha, her husband, Julio, and their three kids are leaving behind the life they built together.

S. MENDOZA: What are you the most excited for in Mexico?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pool.

S. MENDOZA: The pool?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the beach.

S. MENDOZA: The beach?

ALVAREZ: Julio is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. Sasha and their three children are all U.S. citizens. They decided to make the move together only moments after Trump took office. J. MENDOZA: It was an executive order being signed, and that was her call first said, like, what do you think about moving to Mexico? And I said, honestly, at this point, yes, let's do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to move to Mexico.

S. MENDOZA: We're going to move to Mexico, not today.

ALVAREZ: And with that, the family began to wind down their lives, sifting through keepsakes and moving out of their home.

S. MENDOZA: Say bye to the house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bye, house. I'll miss you.

ALVAREZ: When you were dating, did your status as being undocumented come up at all?

S. MENDOZA: In our first date, we kind of like were mentioning it without mentioning it. And at one point, he ordered a drink and he asked for extra ice and I said, no, we don't do ice here. And he was like, hmm. That was like the only thing we needed to say.

J. MENDOZA: So, by the way --

ALVAREZ: Julio crossed the U.S. southern border when he was 11 years old, and he's lived in Pittsburgh ever since.

S. MENDOZA: One of his first concerns when we talked about moving is like, how am I going to watch those Steeler games?

ALVAREZ: You're a Pittsburgh native for all intents and purposes?

S. MENDOZA: Oh my God. Yes.

J. MENDOZA: Yes.

ALVAREZ: What made Trump a second term more nerve-wracking for you, that to come to a decision that you had to leave the country?

J. MENDOZA: There are no limits. There are no limits on being a target. The only main concern is like, he looks brown, he looks different, he doesn't speak English. He's the one. It doesn't matter.

ANDREW COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: That's where things stand tonight in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

ALVAREZ: They were confronted with their worst nightmare when Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador.

S. MENDOZA: I can see myself in that, and I don't want us to wait until we're in the same situation.

ALVAREZ: There are people who will say, you came to the U.S. illegally, why didn't you do it the right way? What do you say to people?

J. MENDOZA: If you were to be put in my situation at my age to tell me do it the right way, the whole process pretty much takes about 15 to 20 years. By that time, I don't think my kids or anyone's kids who are starving or in a dangerous situation can wait 15, 20 years for you to come here and start working.

S. MENDOZA: What did we say that we could get when we get there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A PS5?

S. MENDOZA: No, we did not say that.

ALVAREZ: How did you approach the conversation with your kids?

S. MENDOZA: They know the realistic part of it, which is that it will be very difficult for them to adapt to, especially mostly language- wise. That's like our biggest thing. They're not anywhere near fluent. And they are going to be going into a school that is Spanish-speaking.

Who's that? That's you.

ALVAREZ: For Sasha, leaving the U.S. also means saying goodbye to the places she's called home.

You grew up at this house. What is it like for you to leave this house and what it represents to you?

S. MENDOZA: It is definitely hard because, yes, there's a lot of good memories. This has always been like the kind of comeback place. As far as we know, we won't be able to do that. We've kind of all decided that today's most likely the last time that we'll all be like in the same place at the same time.

ALVAREZ: Hours of research behind them, the Mendoza family spent their final days in Pittsburgh saying goodbye to family and friends.

J. MENDOZA: Stay in touch. I love you until (INAUDIBLE). Stay safe. Stay safe.

ALVAREZ: It's a decision not taken lightly, but for Julio, no other choice.

J. MENDOZA: Rolling the dice will be staying here. That will be rolling the dice, playing with my life, playing with my kids' life, playing with my wife's life. That would be a gamble. I would say, it's taken again while I'm taking a certain win on this one, for sure.

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ALVAREZ (on camera): Now, Sasha and Julio are now settling in Mexico, but they join a newly emerging community of people who have chosen to voluntarily depart the United States. Those are known as self- deportations, and it's something that senior Trump officials have touted often. They're also taking to the airwaves and multimillion dollar ads telling people to, quote, leave now and offering financial incentives like a one-way ticket to the country where they have legal status and a $1,000 exit bonus when they arrive.

[08:50:05]

Now, Sasha and Julio opted not to take those financial incentives, instead, for them, what is happening in the U.S. and the immigration crackdown was enough to push them to leave. But what we also learned over the course of this reporting is it's not just undocumented immigrants who are leaving, but also the U.S. citizen spouses and the U.S. citizen children, as was the case with Sasha and Julio.

BOLDUAN: Priscilla, thank you so much for bringing us their story. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Still ahead new signs the U.S. is falling behind China in the clean energy race. What the consequences could be. That story more ahead.

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SIDNER: All right. This morning, as a desperate search for the missing continues in Central Texas following deadly flash flooding, those impacted are getting a visit from some adorable four-legged therapists. The dogs are with Angel PAWS, a special ministry of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston. The dogs are providing comfort, smiles, lots of licks, look at that cutie, to first responders and to survivors.

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DEBBIE BENNINGFIELD, ANGEL PAWS, CHAMPION FOREST BAPTIST CHURCH: Just to see the reaction of their faces and just that moment where they're just calm, where they're happy and they're there to comfort. That's what their job is, it's to comfort. And these dogs know their job very well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: (INAUDIBLE) just said at first, they didn't have a plan. They just knew they had to show up and do something for those who were suffering.

All right, on our radar this morning, a federal indictment just revealed new details about the man accused in the shooting of two Minnesota lawmakers and two others. Vance Boelter is accused of killing Melissa Hortman and her husband and shooting and seriously injuring Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife.

Authorities say he spent months planning the attacks. They also found a handwritten letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel. And inside a car, the suspect abandoned. In it, police say, they say, Boelter confessed to shooting both couples. Boelter faces six charges, at least two of which carry the possibility of the death penalty.

Now, the FAA is investigating after a Sun Country flight from Los Angeles, look at this, it's going to Minneapolis and then it's forced to return to L.A. after flames began shooting out of the engine of the Boeing 737 on Monday. A passenger said it sounded like lightning struck the plane or something exploded, terrifying view there for those passengers.

The airline said the pilot had to declare an emergency for the flight due to a, quote, issue after takeoff. I'll say, the plane and all 166 people on board landed safely. There is no word yet on exactly what caused that to happen.

And the nominations for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards finally released.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You find yourself here, it's because you chose to come back.

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SIDNER: And that one, Severance on Apple TV+, leads the pack with 27 nominations, including for outstanding drama series and for lead actor and actress.

But one of the biggest snubs, the final season of Handmaid's Tale, it only received one nod. And that was for best actress. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, new signs the U.S. is falling behind China in the clean energy race. In one single year, China installed more wind and solar power than all the renewable energy here in the United States, period. And the new tax and spending law just passed by Congress could slow this down here even more.

CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir is with us now. That's just a huge difference.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: If we think about this like an Olympic race, China is laps ahead and the United States athlete is basically sitting down after this big, beautiful bill. The most stunning statistic is that China installed more solar and wind in one year than we have in the entire United States.

Look at this, 1,400 gigawatts. So, one gigawatt John is equivalent to one nuclear power plant, utility-sized, big, the sort of thing that powers entire communities. United States only has about 273 gigawatts of solar and wind right now, but you can see China so far ahead and they're on pace to install another 500, just as the new Republican spending bill kneecaps incentives that would the solar and wind industries here in the United States and consumers who want to make that switch as well.

BERMAN: How is this specifically benefiting China when you talk about this?

WEIR: Oh, it's massive. They're going to own the post-carbon economy. The idea that they won't have to worry about foreign wars or pipelines or exploration to get their fuel, it will deliver itself to these solar and wind farms, and their battery technology is getting better and better. There are reports they're pulling some of that back, so they want to keep these new ideas on how to store that clean energy to themselves.

Meanwhile, in the United States, prices will go up for everybody and every state because the cleanest forms of energy are now being taken off the grid and have to be replaced with more expensive gas and coal.

BERMAN: I was going to ask you, is it clear what happens here now that this bill has passed and how it will impact whatever innovation and implementation has been going on?

WEIR: Look, it leads to everything from a brain drain of the brilliant engineers who love this stuff, or new companies that are looking for abundant energy to set up an A.I. center or something that commands a lot of electricity. They look at the United States and say, wait a minute, you guys are turning your nose up at the cheapest, most plentiful forms, you're forcing us to burn fuels that heat up the planet on top of that, but it just doesn't make any sense economically.

Right now, you walk around -- you go to Beijing these days, it's hard to find a gas-powered car.

[09:00:00]

I don't think we understand the capacity how fast the world's largest economy, the biggest country in the world is switching and leaving this country well behind.

BERMAN: And in terms of other countries turning to China for this technology, are we seeing that too?

WEIR: Absolutely, absolutely. If they're the most obvious partner in this new energy economy, we're seeing that in so many ways. It is -- I've talked to so many heartbroken folks in industry who thought this was promised, who thought that Congress had mandated these grants and now being pulled away right now. It is really the biggest self-own in human history when it comes to energy.

BERMAN: All right. Bill Weir, thank you for this report.

A brand new hour of CNN New Central starts right now.