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U.S. Economy Added 22,000 Jobs in August; Trump Stand by RFK Jr.; Multiple Republicans Raise Concerns with RFK Jr's Decision. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 05, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: But ultimately, the patient has to be the North Star. So, no matter --

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's the thing about pain.

DR. GUPTA: That's the thing about pain. No matter what your blood pressure or what those probes in the brain show, if the patient says they have pain, they have pain. And you know, we have to listen to the patients, obviously.

BOLDUAN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the one and only and the best. Thank you so much. And take a look at this. You can watch "Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: It Doesn't Have to Hurt" this Sunday, September 7th, 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.

Coming up for us, the August jobs report is about to drop the first report since President Trump fired the top official in charge of collecting and gathering and analyzing those labor stats, what are we going to see? And a million-dollar yacht, I would say a multi, probably million-dollar yacht, sinks minutes after its very first launch. What went wrong?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Americans are more worried about the economy than ever these days. New polling showing that confidence is really slipping. CNN's Harry Enten running the numbers for you on this. Of course, as we're getting ready to take a look at those jobs numbers. Harry, talk to me about what you see.

[08:35:00]

HARRY ENTEN, CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, I would just say this, Donald Trump was hired or rehired to fix the economy, and Americans don't like what's cooking with the economy. They think the economy is weak, weak, weak.

What are we talking about? U.S. economy is getting worse. You go back to November of 2024, it's 42 percent. Look at where this number is now in September of 2025.

BOLDUAN: This is September.

ENTEN: This is September.

BOLDUAN: This is right now.

ENTEN: This is right now. 56 percent. And get this, just 27 percent of Americans think the economy is getting better. 27 is much lower than 56. 56, the clear majority of Americans think the economy is getting worse. This is no bueno.

BOLDUAN: That's the economy. What about jobs specifically?

ENTEN: OK. So, you know, we've been talking about the economy generally, and oftentimes when we're talking about that, recently we've been talking about inflation. But let's talk about jobs. Because jobs is becoming a weak point in the minds of the American public.

On jobs and unemployment, we are on the wrong track or the right track. Back in January, the plurality said right track, 40 percent, wrong track was 32 percent. This is a very worrisome trend, not only for the U.S. economy, but for the White House as well. Look at this. The wrong track leaps up to 48 percent, the right track down, down, down from 40 percent to 33 percent.

Now, the clear plurality of Americans think that we are on the wrong track when it comes to jobs and unemployment. The right track, look at that, going from 40 percent to 33 percent, that is very, very, very bad.

BOLDUAN: Really quickly, the big question is, you know, the president has been trying to push off blame on -- who's to blame when bad economic numbers come in, where -- how do Americans feel Trump is doing?

ENTEN: OK. So, this to me is, if you're in the White House, what a worrisome trend. OK. Net approval of jobs and employment. December of 2024, Joe Biden was underwater, minus eight points. Donald Trump gets in, he goes up plus nine points net approval on jobs and employment. But look at where Donald Trump is now minus 13 points. What is that? That's a 24-point drop since January of 2025. And get this, Donald Trump was hired to fix the economy, but when it comes to jobs and employment, look at that, minus 13, that is worse than Joe Biden was doing a December of 2024. Joe Biden, who, of course, was in the basement, and yet Donald Trump is even lower down than him. You can barely get an elevator that goes to that low, Kate Bolduan.

BOLDUAN: Donald Trump was not going to like that comparison for sure.

ENTEN: No, he's not.

BOLDUAN: But now, we're going to have some new data coming in just now. Let's get over to Omar.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Kate. Breaking moments ago, jobs growth slowed to a crawl last month. I want to bring in CNN's Matt Egan who joins me now. So, what are these numbers? What are we seeing in this?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Omar, look, after years of resilience, the U.S. job market looks increasingly fragile, especially after the latest numbers that just came out. So, this report just moments ago, shows the U.S. economy added 22,000 jobs in August, that is very low. It's also just a fraction of the 77,000 jobs that had been expected.

The unemployment rate went up to 4.3 percent from 4.2 percent. That was expected. But this is notable because this is the highest unemployment rate since October of 2021. And it breaks a stretch where the unemployment rate had kind of stayed in this very low range. Still relatively low, but moving in the wrong direction.

The other big news here though, is what happened as far as revisions. We saw that July was revised a little bit higher, but more important was June. June was revised from a low number of just 14,000 jobs were added to now negative 13,000 jobs. It's not quite showing up on that bar chart, but June is the first month where the U.S. economy lost jobs since December of 2020 during COVID. So, this breaks a nearly five-year stretch of job growth, of uninterrupted job growth in the U.S. economy. That's the second longest stretch in U.S. history, but now, it's over.

And when we're digging into some of the sectors here, a couple things stand out. We're seeing a number of the goods producing sectors in the U.S. economy lose jobs, right? We're talking about construction, lost 6,000 jobs in August. Mining and logging, also lost jobs. Manufacturing lost jobs as well. 12,000 jobs for manufacturing, which is, I think, pretty notable because one of the issues in this economy is all the uncertainty over trade policy, right?

Tariffs are supposed to be supporting the manufacturing industry. But instead, the manufacturing industry is actually losing jobs for four months in a row. This is the unemployment rate going back to 2020. You see that massive spike on the left side of the screen of course, that was COVID. It came down dramatically. Stayed at historically low levels. But now, on the right side of your screen, you can see it is starting to tick higher.

So, I think you got to put all of this into the bigger picture, right? We've gotten a number of different indicators showing that this job market really is starting to stall out and you're looking at U.S. markets reacting U.S. -- the Dow futures were down a little bit before this. They actually came up just a tiny bit from where they were, not a major reaction I think from investors. I think that's because, in a lot of ways this report, it probably seals the deal on an interest rate cut later this month from the Federal Reserve.

[08:40:00]

Wall Street was already thinking it was basically slam dunk. And I think that this latest weakness, including the fact that the unemployment rate is up to a nearly four-year high. I think that's probably going to seal the deal on a rate cut from the Fed, which is obviously something the White House has been calling for. Of course, they wanted a cut because of low inflation. That's probably not the reason, right? The reason would be because of low hiring.

JIMENEZ: And of course, this is the first jobs report since -- I mean, the controversy over the regular reporting of jobs numbers last month. And so, even these numbers could get revised in the future, but as you just laid out in June, the numbers could also get revised down?

EGAN: Right. Absolutely, absolutely. Look, revisions are normal. It happens, right, as the BLS gets new survey responses in from the businesses they talk to. They're going to update their numbers, just like a meteorologist who updates their hurricane forecast when they get new data. Unfortunately, these updates though, they've been mostly coming into the downside, and again, showing that hiring has really stalled out here.

JIMENEZ: And it's negative in June. It's just the floor of that graph is zero.

EGAN: Negative, exactly.

JIMENEZ: I mean, we can't see it.

EGAN: Yes.

JIMENEZ: Matt Egan --

EGAN: Thanks so much.

JIMENEZ: -- appreciate being on the Breaking News as always.

EGAN: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Let's work through this and keep that wall moment up, if you will, guys, especially with the revisions because that was something that we -- that I know that Matt and I were talking about earlier. As we bring in now CNN Global Economic Analyst Rana Faroohar. She's also the global business columnist and associate editor of the Financial Times. Rana, just, Matt laid out the numbers as they come in. Before we dive in, just your overall take. What sticks out to you?

RANA FAROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST AND GLOBAL BUSINESS COLUMNIST AND ASSOCIATE EDTIRO, FINANCIAL TIMES: Yes, it doesn't surprise me. I've been thinking for some time that we were due for weakness, even possibly a recession. You know, a couple of things that are notable, those manufacturing numbers that really belies the idea that these tariffs are going to somehow bring back jobs. Jobs and manufacturing are increasingly being done by technology.

You know, I think also that interest rate cut that Matt was talking about, we are probably going to see that in the fall, and that may keep the stock market up for a while, but ultimately, the market does connect with the real economy. And if you continue to see a slowdown, you're probably going to see a market correction at some point too.

BOLDUAN: Adding all -- adding this -- you have to kind of add it all up in into -- there's a lot, right? You've got the data that you're working through, and then you've got layered on top of it a whole lot of politics. Revisions were the huge story last month led to Trump blaming and firing the head of BLS for it, accusing her of intentionally cooking the books without evidence. What do you see in the revisions and the uncertainty that is kind of being sewn around just the gathering of this data now?

FAROOHAR: Yes, really good questions, Kate. The revisions, again, don't surprise me. We often see big revisions. It's about getting more data, parsing it through. It's really about being more accurate. This is almost always the case. So, not surprising at all.

In terms of the politicization of the Fed, of the BLS, what's going on with Lisa Cook, of anything we've spoken about, in some ways, that's the most worrisome thing because you've got to let the data folks do their job. You've got to have clean data. You've got to let investors, both at home and abroad, know that they can trust the data, that the U.S. is not some kind of, you know, the third world country where central bankers just get fired or BLS data collectors get fired because the president doesn't like it. You know, we know what happens in those countries. They have major financial crises. Turkey's a perfect example.

So, I am really hoping, frankly, that if we do get a rate cut for good reasons, based on what we've just seen that maybe that'll take a little bit of the pressure off of Lisa Cook and put Trump back in his box for a while.

BOLDUAN: But I mean, the president even suggested last night essentially that he's not even sure that he is going to trust the data, or at least, you know, how he's going to play it publicly. Let me just remind everyone what the president said last night ahead of this report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The real numbers that I'm talking about are going to be whatever it is. But we'll be in a year from now when these monstrous huge, beautiful places, the palaces of genius, and when they start opening up, you're seeing -- I think you'll see job numbers that are going to be absolutely incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: I mean, he's like, I don't know, let's talk about it in a year. I mean, but you are getting at what's important, which when you get all this data and then you've got people looking to the Fed what's going to happen, why would people want to invest in the United States when a president is saying, I don't know, maybe you trust our economic data, maybe not? I mean, because it has been the gold standard.

FAROOHAR: They wouldn't, Kate, and that's why, in fact, every single time, since 2016 when Trump was first elected, every single time the U.S. has done a treasury auction, there's been fewer and fewer foreign buyers.

[08:45:00]

Overseas folks don't want our treasuries anymore. That's why they're going into gold. That's why gold prices are now at a new record and probably going to go higher. Crypto companies are buying treasuries. Don't know if that makes anybody feel good. It doesn't make me feel great. But yes, these are serious issues.

BOLDUAN: I was like -- I'm trying to look at your face. I was like, so what's Rana saying on this one? Good, bad or bad. What'd you talk about? It's good to see you, Rana. Thank you very much. Much to -- much more to parse through with this. Omar.

JIMENEZ: Yes, a lot to talk about here. Joining us now, CNN, political commentator Kate Bedingfield. Also with us this morning, Republican strategist Neil Chatterjee as well. Good to see you both. All right. So, let's start on the jobs numbers. Neil, I'll start with you. What's your initial reaction to what we're seeing here? Neil, if you can hear me?

NEIL CHATTERJEE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND FORMER CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION (FERC): Yes, look, I mean, it's going to take time. The president was elected to be a change agent. And some of the steps he's taking on the trade front, on energy, on pushing A.I. and data centers, it will take time for this to be reflected in the economy in jobs reports. So, disappointing numbers for sure, but I think it's just a data point at this juncture. Let's give it some time. Let's -- let these policies sink in. Let's see the economic impacts of the tax cut legislation that was signed into the law last month. Let's give these policies some time to come into play, and I think we'll start to see the economy pick up as a result.

JIMENEZ: Kate, do you see it as a data point or as a symptom?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Look, I got to say that as a political matter, the argument, let's give it time doesn't land well with people. And I say that as somebody who sat in the Biden White House and who watched throughout the 2024 campaign as Democrats tried to make the argument that some of the economic pieces that Biden had put into place would yield benefit over time, and they may well. But as an immediate political matter, that's not a great argument.

And as we see, the data shows people are feeling less and less confident about the economy as you have Trump doing things like firing the head of the BLS and making -- bringing less credibility to government data. It just continues to create this sense that things are not on the right track economically, and I think this is going to be a political problem for him. And these numbers reinforce what people are feeling in their communities all across the country.

JIMENEZ: And, Neil, you know, on that point, you know, the midterms get ever closer. But to Kate's point, I mean, you look at employment metrics shown that first time claims for unemployment benefits rose to an 11-week high, that was going into today. Private sector businesses reigning in their hiring. We've got a downward revision in June into losing jobs essentially. Does that worry you? Yes, take time, yes, have faith in the president, but does that worry you at all in the eyes of voters come midterms that they'll take out their frustrations at the ballot box?

CHATTERJEE: Look, I mean, history has shown us that the party in power has struggled in the midterm election after an election of a president. But I think when you look at the broader landscape, you look at the opportunities, right, like we haven't really fully grasped what A.I. and data centers will mean for the economy, will mean for growth. We haven't fully yet seen the impacts of some of the changes to trade policy that will lead to a boom in domestic manufacturing in this country.

Look, these numbers, while certainly not great, could lead to a rate cut, which could, you know, unleash the economy. And I think we're seeing markets respond to that. So, I'm not worried. We're sitting here. It's September of 2025. The elections are more than a year away. I'm not going to panic at this juncture based on this data point.

JACKSON: You know, Kate, I want to ask about a different topic, because obviously we saw the hearing RFK Jr., HHS secretary, yesterday. And what was interesting is you actually saw Democrats bring up Operation Warp Speed as a great Trump achievement and verbally putting that out there over the course of the hearing. But between that and, let's say, Medicaid, obviously we have the economy that what will be factoring into voters' sort of outlooks on the president and Republicans, how much do you expect healthcare and conversations around health to be motivating factors for Democrats and even for independent voters who may have put their faith in Trump previously?

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, I do think this is going to be a significant piece of the conversation leading into the midterm. Certainly, Democrats are going to work to try to make it a significant piece of the conversation.

[08:50:00]

If you look at the vaccine argument, you see that the very -- the most kind of aggressive loyal MAGA cohort is supportive of where RFK Jr. is on vaccines. And the COVID vaccine, no doubt is politically -- you see is politically divisive. But across the board, more broadly, vaccine requirements for children to attend school, for example, have enormous bipartisan support. And I think, for example, what happened in Florida a couple of days ago with an attempt to eradicate vaccine requirements for children coming into school, I think there's going to be enormous blowback for the Republicans on this.

And I think that, you know, suburban moms, in particular, suburban voters who were persuaded by some of the -- you know, the economic arguments that they heard from Trump in 2024, I think are going to be incredibly turned off by this. And so, you know, watching Republicans kind of coalesce around Robert Kennedy this week as he makes these incredibly, frankly, dangerous and, you know, long sense debunked arguments about vaccines, I think this is going to be a huge political problem for them. JIMENEZ: I have to leave it there, unfortunately, Neil. We'll have to get your response in last -- next time, TV time, people. Sorry about that. Kate Bedingfield, Neil Chatterjee, good to see you both.

Now, coming up, could Elon Musk become the world's first trillionaire? Why that's now even in discussion? The new pay package that could make it happen.

And it's probably one of the most famous fight scenes of all time, Darth Vader taking on Luke Skywalker in an epic lightsaber battle. And now, that very lightsaber has a new home after a record-breaking auction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as all Obi-Wan did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:55:00]

BOLDUAN: So, each year an estimated 250,000 animals are hoarded in homes across the United States, often kept in truly horrific conditions. This week's CNN Hero is trying to change that, offering them a new start in life. Meet Tim Woodward.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM WOODWARD: We see animals living in conditions that I would've never imagined before doing this.

Got a little dog down here in this crate. Hi, mama.

Their physical condition is incredibly debilitated. It can be very gruesome. Your average shelter is used to taking animals in one or two at a time. We pull in large numbers of animals from a crisis situation. We will work with law enforcement. They will designate us as an agent of law enforcement to go onto the scene to seize those animals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are OK. See.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at that smile. Yes.

WOODWARD: We bring a very tight trained team, including a state licensed forensic vet, vet techs, as well as an intake team, and of course our trained handlers.

They're in five different popups. We'll split them up two, two and two.

We're kind of the midway point between where they came from and where they will find their forever home. We can get you all fixed up.

So, for the time that they're in our care, we try to make sure that they are becoming healthier.

What are you doing, huh?

And we try as best we can to prepare them for life in a home.

Yes, you --

The change in the animals is always remarkable. They come out of situations where they have no trust, and then with time and attention, they begin to literally blossom.

You're getting out of here.

We've rescued well over 10,000 animals.

Where is that tail at?

My hope is that they have the best life possible and forget all about where they came from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: To find out more about Tim's organization and how they're helping animals in need, go to cnn.com/heroes. Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. A dramatic rescue caught on camera in Texas. U.S. Customs and Border Protections, air and Marine operations rescued a hiker in El Paso. This happened near a popular hiking spot in the Franklin Mountains. A helicopter crew pulled the hiker up 180 feet before safely bringing them into the aircraft. Six crew members were then hoisted back up. Officials say it was the fourth air rescue mission in August alone. What's going on in August?

Dramatic video shows the moment a luxury yacht tipped over and sank the brand-new $1 million yacht launched off the coast of Turkey just minutes before you can see it literally tipping over there onto its side and into the water. Local reports say the sinking may have been caused by a stabilization issue. The yachts owner, captain, and two crew members were on board at the time. All of them escaped safely.

Now, from a galaxy far, far away. Darth Vader's lightsaber -- was that a Yoda impression?

BOLDUAN: I don't know what that was.

JIMENEZ: All right. Yes, we'll come back to you later. It scored big during a live auction. The prop used in both "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" sold for more than three and a half million dollars. Scratched and scuffed from Epic fight scenes that you already know, the unforgettable I am your father scene between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

Now, the most valuable item "Star Wars" has ever sold, as it should be. I just watched Andor (INAUDIBLE) to "Rogue One." Recommend that.

BOLDUAN: If you had that cast, you would totally buy that. You were definitely but it, yes.

JIMENEZ: Yes, I would. Are you kidding me? That -- whoever bought that, you need to come here. Let's talk about it. And I just want to just --

BOLDUAN: Omar is athletic. I think you would like be like, let's do a light saber seat.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Well, hey, that's you. That's all you, with your Yoda.

[09:00:00]