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Chicago Braces for Trump's Federal Immigration Crackdown; Trump Escalates Criticism of Illinois Gov & Chicago Mayor as Launch of Admin's Federal, Immigration Operation Looms; Noem: "More Resources" Headed to Chicago for Immigration Crackdown; Chicago Braces for Trump's Federal Immigration Crackdown; Parents Navigate ICE, Federal Crackdown as D.C. Schools Start; Schools Try to Combat Students' Fears of Immigration Crackdown; Xi Jinping Outlines China's Ambition to Reshape Global Order. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 01, 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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[15:00:30]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: President Donald Trump shifting his focus to Chicago as the city braces for an immigration crackdown. What a deployment of federal resources may look like just ahead.

Plus, as the President pushes America First foreign policies, China's Xi Jinping is moving closer to Russia and India. What this could mean for the global world order.

And so you're saying there's a chance the Powerball Jackpot topping a billion dollars. Do you know what to do if somehow you wind up winning?

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Thank you so much for sharing your Labor Day with us. I'm Boris Sanchez. My colleague, Brianna Keilar, has the day off.

We begin this hour with President Trump's immigration crackdown. Today, Chicago is bracing for a planned federal operation that could bring hundreds of federal agents to the streets by the end of the week, with National Guard members prepared to join if needed. Just this morning, the President taking a new swipe at Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who yesterday described the plan as an invasion. CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, is with us now.

Jeff, what is the President saying?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, President Trump and many other politicians have long had Chicago in their sights, particularly talking about crime. But President Trump, this morning, starting the day off, talking directly about the crime in Chicago, effectively giving a crime report and going after, of course, the Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker. The President writing this on social media, he's saying six people

were killed, 24 people were shot in Chicago last weekend, and J.B. Pritzker, the weak and pathetic governor of Illinois in the President's words, just said he doesn't need help in preventing crime. He's crazy. He better straighten it out, fast, or we're coming.

Of course, the President not mincing any words there, but also not effectively hiding what he's doing. So, there's no doubt that the U.S. government is preparing to step up its resources in Chicago. The Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, said this about their plans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Well, we've already had ongoing operations with ICE in Chicago and throughout Illinois and other states, making sure that we're upholding our laws. But we do intend to add more resources to those operations. I won't speak to the specifics of the operations that are planned in other cities, but I do know that L.A. wouldn't be standing today if President Trump hadn't taken action. A:nd that city would have burned down if left to the devices of the mayor and the governor of that state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And you heard Secretary Noem there talking about Los Angeles. There's no evidence to show that Los Angeles would have burned. But Boris, it is a metaphor for what the President and his administration is doing, targeting these blue cities. And - but what's sort of being missed here is a lot of blue cities in red states also have higher crime rates than Washington, D.C. and Chicago, and very little is being done there.

So, the bottom line, by the end of the week here, there may be more federal forces there, perhaps national troops as well. But these are largely viewed as ICE facilities and the ICE raids that are happening. So, yes, it's about law and order and the shooting, and there is crime in Chicago, of course, but it's also very focused on immigration.

SANCHEZ: Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much for the reporting.

ZELENY: Sure.

SANCHEZ: Let's go to Whitney Wild now, who's live for us in Chicago.

How are officials there responding, Whitney?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Boris, they admit that there is not much they can do ahead of time to stop this effort, but they are controlling what they can. So for example, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed executive orders over the weekend to reaffirm that the Chicago Police Department will not partake in any of this, to direct city officials to look for legal and legislative ways that they can try to stop this or react to this in a formal way. It also urges federal law enforcement not to wear a mask, to wear a body camera.

And then, finally, you know, demands that the President abandon this effort altogether. We know the latter two things are unlikely to happen, but I think it is important to drill down on the crime here because people can make data say what they want.

So, you know, for example, leaders here are pointing to Chicago crime drops as a major win. They say that crime here is a success story because there are double-digit drops in major categories, homicides, shootings, robberies, car thefts. However, as the President points out, this was a violent weekend. Fifty-two people were shot over the weekend. Seven people died, Boris.

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Those numbers are alarming. And so, there is a really split view on what the answer to crime is. Although, leaders here say that they would welcome federal help but not in the form of the National Guard. And they say that the fact that they have heard nothing from the White House is proof that this is not a collaborative effort, it is not sincere, it is not an honest effort to try to curb crime, but instead amounts to authoritarianism. Here's more from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON (D) CHICAGO: We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: The Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has made very clear the moment he thinks there is enough to file a lawsuit, he plans to do so. There have been lawsuits filed against the National Guard deployment in California. That is something that Illinois officials are watching very closely, Boris. Back to you.

SANCHEZ: Whitney Wild, thank you so much.

For more on what this could mean for the President politically, we're joined now by Larry Sabato. He's the Director for the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia. His new book is "Campaign of Chaos: Trump, Biden, Harris, and the 2024 American Election."

Larry, thanks so much for being with us, especially on Labor Day.

\Do you think that this crime crackdown is going to be a successful midterm sales pitch for Trump?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Oh, it's a plus for Trump and Republicans. If you have a sense of history, you already know that, because consistently the crime issue, law and order, has been a plus for Republicans since Richard Nixon first put the emphasis on it in 1968 and had a famous TV ad on that subject.

Look, elections are about a lot of things. Democrats are not going to win this argument. They never win the argument. In fact, partly because, correctly, they're worried about due process and what's happening to the cities and whether it's improving the situation or not. That isn't a winning argument. They're much better off changing the subject and talking about prices. Nobody ever wants to give up an argument, but sometimes you have to do it. \

SANCHEZ: I do wonder how Democrats can do that if we wind up seeing the National Guard deployed in Chicago. I mean, it - don't they have to focus on that as something that is unprecedented in U.S. history?

SABATO: Sure, they can complain about it. They can point out the weaknesses in it and the dangers of it. But as we learned in 2024, a large portion of the American population, in fact, nearly a majority, doesn't particularly care about the democracy argument or fear of authoritarianism. Their fear of crime, even if the statistics don't support their fear of crime, their fear of crime is greater than the fear of authoritarianism.

You can say they're wrong, but I don't think MAGA cares. I don't think Republicans generally, even beyond the MAGA base, care. And if Democrats are going to win the midterm election in 2026, they have to focus on what helps them and also what's true. And prices have certainly not come down, as Donald Trump said they would. If anything, the prices of many staples have gone up.

So that's a winning issue. Crime in the cities or not, most people outside central cities love to hate the central cities, except when they go in to have a good time. They hate the central cities, the evils of the big city, and they're on display when you have these sorts of stories dominating the headlines day after day. I mean, I know that's not the message that Democrats want to hear, but it's the truth. And I've been around a long time and watched Democrats lose plenty of elections by focusing on the wrong things.

SANCHEZ: It's a really interesting point. I do want to ask you about the difference between what's happening here in the nation's capital and what could potentially happen in Chicago. The administration - because there's no governor here in D.C., has - because D.C. is not a state, has far more wide-ranging options when it comes to deploying the National Guard and federalizing troops and that sort of thing.

In Chicago, this is being framed as a backup to immigration enforcement. They want to bolster immigration officials' efforts to deport folks, punishing Chicago, according to some administration officials, for being a sanctuary city. I wonder whether you think voters see a difference.

SABATO: I doubt it. Most people don't focus on the details, although that is an argument they'll undoubtedly make, not just in the political realm but also in the courts. But that doesn't matter particularly. This is an unusual administration, Boris, from almost every respect.

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And one of those respects is a lack of respect for the rules and the traditions of American politics. They will do what they want to do, whether the law permits it or not. And they will obey court decisions after they first disobey them. They stretch it out for as long as possible and end up being, and frequently at least, on the popular side of the issue, being cheered by MAGA, being cheered by other Republicans.

So, again, it's an argument you can win in rational terms, but it's an argument that Democrats won't win in emotional terms because fear rules.

SANCHEZ: That's kind of a dark notion, Larry.

SABATO: Yes.

SANCHEZ: I want to get your thoughts on Trump praising D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser this morning. He says that she's worked with the administration, that her popularity ratings have gone up, as some of these Democratic governors of Illinois, Maryland and California, he essentially calls them weak as they try to, in his words, justify violent crime. I wonder what you make of the calculation of some of these state and city-level Democratic leaders on how they respond to the President here.

SABATO: Well, it's an old tactic in politics in life. You get your opponents arguing among themselves. There are plenty of Democrats unhappy with Mayor Bowser because she has been so accommodationist with the Trump administration, but she really doesn't have a choice because the District of Columbia, in my view, unfortunately, is a - essentially a protectorate of the federal government.

The federal government can do a lot of things in D.C. that they can't do in an independent state, especially a state that has a Democratic governor backing a Democratic city. But, again, what is - the distinction? What's the difference? I don't think most people are going to make that distinction or difference because they don't know the difference between D.C. and a city in a large state.

SANCHEZ: Also, Larry, we've heard from some Democrats, as they've tried to message around the deployment of National Guard troops, that this is all largely a distraction from the Jeffrey Epstein files. We've heard congressional Democrats say that, whether it's the cost of living or Medicaid cuts, they argue that the President is looking for a way to change the conversation himself.

Do you think that on their own, something like the Epstein files is enough to sway voters?

SABATO: Absolutely not. We've already had enough polling research into this to see that Republicans or MAGA people who are upset about the Epstein files and are, to some degree, holding Republicans accountable, aren't upset enough to abandon Trump or the Republican agenda. So, in the end, maybe they aren't as enthusiastic, but they will end up voting Republican. It certainly isn't going to change anything on the Democratic side. You pick issues that are going to enthuse your base and win a sizable number of independents. That's why I stress prices in the economy, and particularly prices. This particular issue is an issue that is banked against the Democrats

and has been since 1968. I don't think we're going to be changing the parameters of American politics, particularly given the fact that Republicans run everything.

SANCHEZ: Larry Sabato, great to get your point of view. Thanks for joining us, Larry.

You can also check out his book ...

SABATO: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: ... of course, "Campaign of Chaos: Trump, Biden, Harris, and the 2024 American Election," I look forward to reading that.

Still to come, the Trump immigration crackdown as families on edge, as children return to the classroom, what parents are saying.

And Rudy Giuliani recovering from injuries suffered in a car accident this weekend. We have details.

And later, tennis star Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka facing off at the U.S. Open, a spot in the quarterfinals on the line. That and much more coming your way.

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SANCHEZ: There is a new kind of fear and anxiety as kids return to school in the nation's capital. They're back in class in the midst of President Trump's crime and immigration crackdown. One mom says she feels compelled to carry her passport, while others wonder what would happen if agents began targeting schools. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is here with the details.

And Sunlen, the people you're hearing from are U.S. citizens, but they still have some anxiety about this.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and I think that really speaks to how anxious of a moment this is, that people feel compelled to take these extraordinary measures, just sending their kids to school. And we spoke with many teachers and parents in schools about this tense environment in D.C., about this moment of kids going back to school.

And it was interesting that schools are really taking some small but significant steps to try to combat this anxiety. Many schools are posting teachers both on campuses, but throughout the neighborhoods as well, should they be there if anyone needs them to help. Others are setting up these more formalized chaperone systems where teachers and parents are meeting kids at the public transportation, walking them to school. They don't want them to get in any situation where they could be meeting a National Guard member and not know how to respond. And actually, one other school, they're even pulling money from their annual budget. They're chartering a private bus to help some of their kids get to school. So again, this speaks to this anxiety of the moment.

And I spent some time last week at a Spanish immersion program in northwest D.C. They have 90 percent of their staffers are immigrants, all of legal status. But they said that at the back-to-school night, two main questions came up.

[15:20:05]

How organic - are your snacks organic? And two, what is your ICE policy?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

SERFATY: And the director I spoke to, she said, we never had an ICE policy in the past, but this just speaks to that moment. They spent the summer going through employee records. They wrote that ICE policy. They've been advising teachers to keep their passports and papers on them at all times. Here's what she said to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNINE PIACENZA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COMMUNIKIDS PRESCHOOL: I couldn't imagine in a million years that we would have to carry our passports in the United States of America. I never would have thought - I've been an educator for over 30 years. I was born and raised in this country, and I never thought that I would see the National Guard patrolling a city, that there are not riots going on, that there is not unrest occurring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And many parents and teachers, Boris, said that exact same thing, that they're just worried about this moment. They know that there's not necessarily anything they're doing wrong. They are U.S. citizens. They're here legally. But they're worried essentially about getting caught up in all the politics of this moment. Here's what one parent told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARLA MARRERO SANTOS, PARENT OF A D.C. PRESCHOOLER: I'm afraid of speaking my language, and I'm sticking to English just to feel safe, especially when I'm with my daughter outside. So, never ever thought in my life I would be in this position.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And school administrators that we spoke to trying to present a sense of calm to start off the school year. No indication, of course, that ICE has been showing up to any schools, but certainly this is on the minds of teachers and parents as they're sending their kids back to school, and it certainly has cast a shadow over the kickoff of the school year.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much.

SERFATY: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, Chinese President Xi Jinping, alongside Vladimir Putin, outlining his vision for a new world order, vowing to taking - to take on, quote, "bullying practices." That's next.

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SANCHEZ: China's Xi Jinping is casting himself as a new leader of world governance at a time when President Trump's America First foreign policy is upending the globe. The Chinese president today made a thinly veiled swipe at the U.S. as he criticize bullying practices during an address to more than 20 world leaders, including Russian Xi - Putin, I should say, and Indian Prime Minister Modi.

There are two - there are images of the two holding hands as they walk toward Xi at the summit. China has emerged as a major ally of Putin during the course of Russia's war in Ukraine. Joining us now to discuss is Gen. Wesley Clark. He's a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, and now founder of Renew America Together

General Clark, thanks so much for being with us. What stands out to you about this summit, and how should the West view this?

Gen. Wesley Clark: Well, it's certainly not good news for the United States or the West, because what we would like to have is - are countries like India on the United States' side standing for democracy, freedom, the rules-based international order. So when they go to the summit in Beijing for this Shanghai Cooperation council, it's not necessarily good news for the United States.

SANCHEZ: When you hear Vladimir Putin talking about his August meeting with President Trump in Alaska, describing it as an understanding that he reach with Trump that opens the way to peace in Ukraine, he had said that he had already informed President Xi in detail about those negotiations. What do you hear in Putin's words there, and what role could Xi play in somehow brokering peace?

CLARK: We don't really know what was said between President Trump and President Putin in the limousine. But we do know that looking at the body language afterwards, and the body language of our cabinet secretaries as they came out of the three-hour meeting, there were no medals given, no awards given to Mr. Putin. So, my guess is that what he told President - and it's just a guess. So, what he told President Trump is that they - he'll have his ceasefire when he, Mr. Putin, has his objectives obtained. And that objective is, at the minimum, to seize the rest of Ukraine.

Now, he's got his offensive underway. He's got his forces staging. He has, according to some reports, Chinese observers in several of the command posts in Ukraine. So, China is not a neutral party. And when China says that it will assist with a peacekeeping force, President Zelenskyy has rightly rejected that. But the point is that this conflict is unlikely to be stopped until Mr. Putin believes he won't attain his objectives. And that means we've got to supply military equipment, more of it to Ukraine, and it's time for the President to put those sanctions on he's been talking about.

SANCHEZ: The President did put some form of sanction or punishment, you could say, on India as a result of their importing Russian oil and gas.

[15:30:03]

That was last month. This is the first visit for Prime Minister Modi ...