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U.S. Added Just 22,000 Jobs In August, Continuing Slowdown Amid Trump Tariffs; Two Venezuelan Military Aircraft Flew Near U.S. Navy Vessel; Hundreds Of Workers Detained In Major ICE Raid At U.S. Hyundai Factory; Tesla Offers Elon Musk A Trillion-Dollar Pay Package; Trump Administration Sues Boston Over Sanctuary Policy. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 05, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let's talk about it. And I just want to just --

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Omar is athletic. I think you would like. Let's do a lightsaber see.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Well, hey, that's you. That's all you. You're Yoda impression. I can't promise any Yoda impressions in this next hour, but we've got news. CNN News Central starts now.

BOLDUAN: We have breaking news this morning. The August jobs report is in. And this is what you got, people. Job showing a dramatic slowdown, the impact on the economy as markets open. And I'm standing by to hear at the White House also their reaction as well.

And a big immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. Roughly 450 undocumented migrants apprehended in what marks what has now become one of the largest raids in the 22 history. The 22-year history of ICE.

A cold coat -- a cold case investigation producing a submerged surprise in the Chicago River. More than 90 cars found in the depths of the water. How did they get there? Some of us might not want to know. I'm Kate Bolduan with Omar Jimenez as John and Sara are out. This is CNN News Central.

JIMENEZ: All right. Break in this morning. Just minutes ago, jobs growth slowed to a crawl in August and the unemployment raise rate rose to its highest level in nearly four years. I want to bring in and then Vanessa Yurkevich, who's with me now. So what are these numbers and what do they mean right now Economy?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, and remember under the context that this is the first report that no longer has the previous commissioner --

JIMENEZ: Yes.

YURKEVICH: -- that was kind of overseeing these big jobs reports. But the numbers tell a clear story. The U.S. economy, the jobs market is starting to stall right now. 22,000 jobs added in the month of August. That is the lowest level that we've seen for a while now, really for many, many months.

The unemployment rate also ticking up to 4.3 percent. This was largely expected from economists, but it is the highest unemployment rate since October of 2021. Still relatively low. But just to note kind of where we've come from.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

YURKEVICH: In terms of revisions, this was a big thing in the July jobs report, significant revisions, which is really normal for these jobs report. But we actually saw June revised down. You can see it just right there in the lower hand corner of your screen there.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

YURKEVICH: It was 14,000. Now it is revised down to negative 13,000. So the U.S. economy lost jobs in the month of June. July, a few more jobs were added in that month. But really you can see this kind of very wonky mixed picture starting in May. Of course, May is the month right after President Trump announced those sweeping tariffs. And there was a lot of question about what they would do to the U.S. economy.

A slowdown in jobs was largely expected just because of the pandemic and all the jobs that were added back. So were expecting a slowdown. But ultimately this is a concern maybe for economists about a stall because you want to get into the mind of the employer right now.

What are they thinking as they're making these decisions. There's kind of this no hire, no fire mentality where with workers. And there's this unusual thing going on right now, which we heard the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell talk about, which is that there's both low demand and low supply of workers.

And so you kind of see this little bit of like a slowdown slash stall in the U.S. economy. In terms of sectors, there were jobs added in some sectors. Health care, 31,000 jobs added. Social assistance, 13, excuse me, 16,000 jobs added. Federal government, a loss of 15,000 jobs in the month of August expected because of those DOGE cuts trickling down.

And then in terms of goods producing sector, so wholesale trade, manufacturing, directly related to the manufacturing of goods here in the United States, which President Trump wants manufacturing to come back to the United States, losses of 12,000 in both those categories.

So what does this all mean for the job seeker at home right now where there. Well, there are less jobs, fewer jobs available than people looking for jobs right now. So the jobs market is tighter in terms of what it means for the Federal Reserve. Interest rates, which affects all of us with student loans, car loans, those types of things.

It is really important to note that as you see unemployment tick up and fewer jobs added, that actually gives sort of the go ahead to the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, which may provide some relief for everyday Americans. These are the job openings in July 2, 7.18 million. But there are 7.2 million unemployed Americans looking for jobs.

JIMENEZ: And that rate cut is something President Trump had been pushing for a long time, but maybe didn't want to take this route to get there if he had his way.

[09:05:01]

YURKEVICH: Yes, it's an unusual situation where not great jobs numbers, but maybe that rate cut that he was looking for.

JIMENEZ: Vanessa Yurkevich, appreciate it. Kate.

BOLDUAN: And joining us right now is Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire with much more on this. Senator, thanks for being here. Just 22,000 jobs added last month, the first report since Trump fired the head of BLS.

And notably, you've got this downward revision in June which showed that the U.S. economy lost 13,000 jobs that month instead of a gain of 14k. It's the first negative employment month since December 2020. What's your reaction to this report?

SEN. MAGGIE HASSAN (D) NEW HAMPSHIRE: Look, this report is really concerning. President Trump's economic policies aren't working. Prices are up, manufacturing is contracting. This is a result of, among other things, the president's reckless tariffs.

What I hear from businesses and consumers is that there's so much uncertainty in the economy, prices are going up. The tariffs are like a sales tax for everyday Americans. And so businesses don't know whether to invest or hire because there's so much uncertainty. And it's a direct result of what Donald Trump and his administration are doing.

BOLDUAN: The president last night was asked about it and he basically said, like, if he'll believe it, believe the numbers today. And he essentially said, we'll see. But in a year, that's when the real numbers are going to show. The real numbers are going to show, I don't know, real numbering.

If the president, the White House, Republicans on the Hill, if they say, and I'm waiting for reaction right now, Senator, if they say they don't believe these numbers, given how the president and the accusation the president made against the head of BLS before firing them, firing her last month, what do you say to that?

HASSAN: Look, numbers are numbers. Math is math. And this is an administration, whether it is President Trump talking about the economy or whether it's Secretary Kennedy talking about health care and vaccines, they just don't want to accept numbers and evidence.

And there are lots of us, both sides of the aisle, who have worked in good faith in the past, sharing data, trying to understand it together and trying to come together to move the country forward. And what's really concerning now is when you have a bunch of people who just deny facts and data leading our country, it makes it very difficult to have that kind of bipartisan work to really bring Americans together and do what we need to do to grow our economy, lower costs and make sure the economy works for everybody.

BOLDUAN: And Senator, I'm not even thinking about it. I mean, that feeds directly into the hearing that you were part of yesterday. I mean, you sit on Senate Finance.

HASSAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Robert Kennedy, the health secretary, he testified yesterday in wildly contentious hearing. We've played a lot of sound from it. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a man I love and trust. And watching it in his fairness, he put it, basically, he said that if people were watching yesterday, they were assaulted with -- assaulted with misinformation coming from the secretary.

I mean, he accused you of lying about people not being able to access COVID shots after he's changed the policy at one point. I want to play for everyone, just part of your line of questioning with the secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASSAN: Now, parents who decide that they do want their children.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HHS SECRETARY: You just making stuff up. You just making stuff up.

HASSAN: You know, sometimes when you make an accusation, it's kind of a confession, Mr. Kennedy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Senator, after sleeping on it and talking colleagues, are you hearing from any Republicans, even behind the scenes, that this changed anything, that they are going to push for him to resign or to be fired after this?

HASSAN: Look, what we saw from Secretary Kennedy yesterday was lies, obfuscation, spin. He really poses a danger to Americans health and safety. That's why I voted against his confirmation. That's why he should resign. And what you saw yesterday is every time we tried to bring up facts or evidence and get him to deal with it and have a conversation about it, he just would accuse us of lying.

And what I was saying there is he generally -- he lies when he is confronted with his own bad decisions. And the way he deals with that is to accuse us of doing what he's doing. And that's what I was really trying to get at in terms of my Republican colleagues.

What you saw was especially the two Republican senators, two of the Republican senators who are medical doctors really challenging Secretary Kennedy because they're getting information from their fellow doctors and patients on the ground about how difficult it already is now to get the new COVID booster.

I've heard directly from people already in other states about how difficult it is for them to get a COVID shot, even if they want it.

[09:10:06]

And what we know is that, you know, in New Hampshire, with a live free or die state, we believe individual freedom. We also believe in common sense. We want all our kids to be able to be free to go to school. That means that kids who have a health care condition, which means they can't get the shot, are protected when kids who are healthy do get the shot. And that's where decades of public health policy has kept our kids safe and eradicated disease. And Secretary Kennedy's reversing that.

BOLDUAN: Senator, he testified before the committee. He accused you of lying. One of the former top CDC officials who actually resigned last week in response to the CDC director being fired did some fact checking on CNN last night.

I mean, this is a man who was just there and said the things coming that the secretary was saying, said he was stunned at the number of myths, truths that he said and quote, he did not tell the truth. He lied to Congress. Does the committee, can Congress do something about that? Do you expect that?

HASSAN: Congress can do something about that if it chooses to. We are trying to make sure that the American people understand that Secretary Kennedy is not accurate, deliberately, at times, misleads people about the safety of vaccines, about what the president's big, ugly bill did.

I mean, our nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said millions and millions of Americans will lose their health insurance coverage and have less access to health care because of the cuts to Medicaid, among other things, in that big terrible bill that they passed. And Secretary Kennedy said that wasn't true yesterday.

So what I want Americans to understand is that Secretary Kennedy is not interested in data. He is not interested in any data or science or math unless it agrees with his vaccine cynicism, I'll say, unless it makes him look like he's right.

And so, I am focused on right now is working with my colleagues, working with the health care providers, with insurance companies to make sure people can continue to get the health care they need and I hope reverse some of the actions that the Secretary has taken and that my Republican colleagues took in that bill they passed last, just last month.

BOLDUAN: There will be long fallout from what happened yesterday in that committee hearing. Senator, thank you for your time. Omar.

JIMENEZ: Well, breaking overnight, a new escalation in the already heightened tensions between the United States and Venezuela. Just two days after a deadly U.S. strike on a suspected drug boat the Trump administration says was linked to a Venezuelan gang.

Now, two Venezuelan military aircraft were spotted flying near a U.S. navy ship. CNN Zach Cohen joins us now. So, Zach, what do we know about this so far?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Omar. The Pentagon calling this move by the Venezuelan military, quote, highly provocative and warning the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolas Maduro not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with the ongoing U.S. Military operation really intended to stem the flow of drugs from Latin America into the United States.

And now, look, we've heard Nicolas Maduro publicly voice his opposition to this buildup of U.S. military assets near Venezuela. But this is really the first time we've seen him use his own military to sort of voice that displeasure and send a message to U.S. forces that are now in the region.

Look, our understanding is that two fighter jets, Venezuelan fighter jets, were spotted flying near one of the U.S. Navy warships that's currently in the waters near Venezuela.

We don't know how close it came to the ship and we frankly don't know if any maneuvers had to be put into place to avoid any sort of conflict there. But this does raise a lot of questions about what might happen next if the U.S. conducts another strike like the one that we saw earlier this week on alleged drug smugglers international waters.

Nicolas Maduro making clear here that he does intend to respond if the U.S. continues to operate sort of unilaterally in this capacity.

JIMENEZ: Zach Cohen, appreciate the reporting.

Coming up for us, the world's richest person could get even richer. The Tesla pay package that could make Elon Musk the first ever trillionaire.

Plus, a major immigration raid at a car plant in Georgia. Hundreds of people reportedly taken into custody. We'll have the details on that and so much more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:28]

JIMENEZ: This morning, we're following a massive ICE raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. It's the latest example of the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented workers at sites across the country. Now officials say roughly 450 people were apprehended in Thursday's raid.

Multiple state and federal law enforcement agencies, including Ice, the FBI, and the Georgia State Patrol, took part. I want to bring in CNN's Isabel Rosales, who's been monitoring this. Isabel, what is the latest that we know on this? ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Omar, good morning. With around 450

people detained there at that battery plant that's under construction.

[09:20:05]

This marks what appears to be one of the largest ICE raids at a single site in the 22-year history of the agency. Now, according to the Associated Press, this raid stopped construction of that factory that's being built to produce batteries for electric vehicles. The same facility that was once touted by governor here of Georgia, Brian Kemp as being the largest economic development site in the state's history.

We're seeing video right now of this raid where you can see masked and armed agents. They were giving out orders to workers and hard hats and safety vests, a few of them lining up there as these officials executed a search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

And the DHS says that what they're looking into is, quote, allegations of unlawful employment practices that they're taking very seriously. Here's a special agent in charge. What he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN SCHRANK, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATION ATLANTA: We are making many arrests of undocumented individuals. We have encountered many lawful employees working here, United States citizens and lawful permanent residents. And they are of course being released.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And now Hyundai says it is cooperating with law enforcement, saying this, we are committed to abiding by all labor and immigration regulations. And Omar here, in about an hour or so we're expecting an updated press conference from DHS where hopefully we'll learn more details about what happened here.

And also briefly, I'll leave you with this, Omar. About 100 miles on the same day, 100 miles away in upstate New York, there was another large raid at a work site. This time a nutrition bar plant where the work -- the owner of that plant described this raid as overkill, telling the New York Times that his workers had legal documentation to work in the US. And in that raid, one of our local affiliates there says around 60 people were detained.

JIMENEZ: All right, we'll look for more details as the day gets going. Isabel Rosales, appreciate the reporting, Kate.

BOLDUAN: New this morning, Elon Musk could be on track to become the world's first trillionaire. How and why? A new shareholder proposal. It could give Musk 423.7 million additional shares of Tesla stock. CNN's Hadas Gold has the details on this. Hadas, how does Musk go about obtaining this? HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, these are a lot of

conditions, but if improved, this would be the biggest pay package ever in corporate history. It would make him potentially the first trillionaire. So first, what the pay package includes is, as you said, about 423.7 million shares. The possible value of those shares if he meets those conditions is about 900 billion. He's already worth about 400 billion.

BOLDUAN: Do the math.

GOLD: So that will put him the trillionaire mark. But there are certain conditions that he has to do. First of all, he would have to increase Tesla's value to 8.5 trillion. That is an eightfold increase of its current value.

BOLDUAN: And context is it has gone down.

GOLD: Yes, Context has been a kind of a hard year for Tesla.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GOLD: They've struggled the sales. The stocks have slumped as well. He also needs to stay with Tesla for 7 1/2 years to cash out any of these shares. 10 years to cash out all of them.

BOLDUAN: OK.

GOLD: He needs to deliver 20 million Teslas. He needs to get 1 million robo taxis out there and 1 million of those autonomous automotive optimist robots out there. So there's a lot of conditions or some other conditions as well that he has to meet in order to get this massive pay package.

What's most notable to me, though, there's no restrictions on this, on his other outside activities, really do other businesses.

BOLDUAN: Really? What about going back into government?

GOLD: There's nothing about politics. He could get into politics if he wants to. There's no restrictions in this pay package about outside activity. Some investors had been begging for that because of what had happened to Tesla over the last year, his involvement with the Trump administration. People weren't buying Tesla as the stock was going down. No conditions there.

But the chair of Tesla's board has defended this package, saying that they essentially just really needed Elon Musk in order for Tesla to succeed. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBYN DENHOLM, CHAIR, TESLA BOARD OF DIRECTORS: The plan is super ambitious and that is what motivates Elon. So in coming up with a plan that will incent, motivate, have his time, focus and attention on Tesla, we needed to come up with a plan that was super ambitious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLD: Now, what's really interesting is that in their letter to shareholders, they said that Musk had raised the possibility that if he didn't get this type of package, he may pursue other interests that may afford him greater influence. So obviously he had a little bit of a push there, saying, you got to give me what I want. But shareholders will get a chance to vote on this pay package on November six.

BOLDUAN: This is really the back and forth here on. This is really interesting. Thanks for the reporting. It's good to see you, Hadas.

So the Department of Justice is now suing the city of Boston over its sanctuary city policies and the Boston mayor calling it an unconstitutional attack. So what happens now?

And we're minutes away from the opening bell on Wall Street after that jobs report just dropped showing that the labor market is stalling futures up right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:29:40]

JIMENEZ: This morning, Boston's mayor is responding after the Justice Department sued her and the city over its so called sanctuary policies.

Attorney General Pam Bondi saying this about Boston and its mayor, quote, they explicitly enforce policies designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice, to use her words.

[09:30:00]

Mayor Michelle Wu called the lawsuit an unconstitutional attack. And here's what she said last month when the Trump administration threatened to prosecute local officials.