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Trump Talks Economy, Foreign Policy in Davos Speech; Inside the Federal Crackdown on Undocumented Migrants; Senate to Hold Final Vote on Hegseth's Nomination Today; IDF Shifts Focus to the West Bank. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired January 24, 2025 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll demand that interest rates drop immediately.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump returned to the world stage on Thursday when he addressed the World Economic Forum virtually.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're going to attempt to apprehend on the corner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't come officially through the border. Now the ERO teams, the ICE teams, are trying to take him off the streets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men during its ongoing military operations in the occupied West Bank.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're telling us very clearly we will do on the West Bank what we have done on the Gaza Strip.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Eleni Giokos. It is Friday, January 24th. It's 1 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi, 4 a.m. in Washington, where Donald Trump is laying out his vision for foreign policy and the global economy.
The U.S. president spoke by video link Thursday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and he made it clear the path to better relations with the United States is through investment. He said making products in the U.S. should merit a 15 percent corporate tax rate. Exporting products to the U.S. will get you tariffs. The president also boasted about his avalanche of executive actions during his first few days back to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I imposed a federal hiring freeze. I terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful Green New Deal. Withdrew from the one-sided Paris Climate Accord and ended the insane and costly electric vehicle mandate.
I'll demand that interest rates drop immediately. I'm also taking swift action to stop the invasion at our southern border. I signed an executive order to stop all government censorship. I'm also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP.
My team negotiated a ceasefire agreement in the Middle East. We have the Olympics coming up, which I was instrumental in getting. I'm going to be president during the World Cup.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All more now from CNN's Alayna Treene reporting from the White House.
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ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Donald Trump returned to the world stage on Thursday when he dressed the World Economic Forum virtually as they gathered in Davos. He walked through a number of topics, but some really notable moments. One was when he said that he wanted all NATO nations to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Currently, that agreement has them paying 2 percent of GDP for defense spending.
He also said that he wants to very soon meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He argued that Putin should want to make a deal with Ukraine to end the war between their countries. He said he hopes that they can have a meeting soon.
And he also argued that interest rates should be lowered both in the United States and abroad. Of course, Donald Trump does not have that authority as president to change interest rates. That lays with the Federal Reserve.
But look, Donald Trump also continued with his very fast clip of signing executive orders with a signing ceremony on Thursday in the Oval Office. One of those orders included releasing and declassifying some of the files regarding the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. Again, a big campaign promise for Donald Trump that he had talked about repeatedly throughout his time on the trail.
But we also saw Donald Trump defend what a federal judge called on Thursday something that was blatantly unconstitutional. And the judge was referring to Donald Trump's earlier executive order to end birthright citizenship. When we heard Donald Trump signing some of those executive orders in the Oval Office, he said that his team plans to appeal.
Alayna Treene, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Joining me now from Colchester, England, Natasha Lindstaedt is a professor of government at the University of Essex. Natasha, really good to have you with us.
You know, President Donald Trump coming out and really shaking up the global world order. At the end of the Q&A at the World Economic Forum, he said that good things are going to happen for the world and for the United States, given that, frankly, what he said was filled with a lot of threats. He wants to reindustrialize the United States and move a lot of production locally.
[04:05:00]
How do you think world leaders are assessing the new state of play from the U.S.?
NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Well, I think world leaders were trying to prepare themselves for a second Trump term that that was definitely going to be possible. And they know that they are on their own. He's very transactional.
He does everything unilaterally and that they will have to force them, you know, build up their own militaries. They will have to be really careful about how they deal with the U.S. regarding trade, that these trading relationships can no longer really be counted on.
And this really changes the way the U.S. has led for decades, where it had been a global leader in trying to promote multilateral action, comprehensive engagement and promote mutually beneficial trading relationships.
Donald Trump doesn't like international institutions. He doesn't like having to cooperate. He sees our allies as nuisances, as actors that are draining the U.S. and he tends to cozy up to who have been traditionally U.S. enemies. So he's really upending a lot of the global order.
GIOKOS: Absolutely. I mean, he was talking about NATO, that NATO members need to spend at least five percent of GDP, again, berating the countries that weren't even meeting the two percent. Do you think that that is going to be something that will help sort of fix the relationship between NATO members and the United States and hopefully ensure that that President Trump wants to keep the U.S. in NATO, something he's threatened before?
LINDSTAEDT: Right. So the U.S. Congress had thankfully Trump-proofed, you know, the U.S. leaving NATO. So he cannot unilaterally decide that the U.S. is going to leave NATO. That being said, he could decide that the U.S. is going to provide a lot less funding to NATO and a lot less troops in Europe. And so this definitely pushes European powers to reconsider what they are going to spend on their own militaries.
And Emmanuel Macron of France has already been talking about this, that this is incredibly important that Europe is less dependent on the U.S. for its security and particularly the NATO countries that border the conflict in Ukraine and Russia. They know that they are going to have to increase their own military spending, worried about Russia becoming increasingly aggressive, threatening them. So I would imagine that many of these countries are pursuing this not
just because of Trump's threats, but also because of the growing threat of Russia under Putin. So I imagine that NATO will remain intact. But it's not a show of unity when there are threats to get to this point.
GIOKOS: Absolutely. I mean, OK, so I want to I mean, look, he signed a lot of executive orders. He's pulled out of the World Health Organization, the Paris agreement and so forth.
What is going to be really measured on is the promise to become a unifier and a peacemaker. And we're seeing what's happening with the ceasefire in Gaza. Put that aside.
Do you think that he will be able to put the Russia-Ukraine war to bed? Is it going to be really measured on that action plan?
LINDSTAEDT: I don't think so at all. I know he had said originally he'd solve it in 24 hours and he backtracked on that and said it might take months. He has acknowledged that this is going to be trickier to do.
I mean, his biggest problem is that Vladimir Putin does not want an end to the conflict, even though he's losing, at least in October, Russia was losing 1,500 Russian men per day. The Russian economy is struggling a little bit more now. Finally, they're having to rely on the North Koreans.
But Putin doesn't see an end to this war without Russia controlling all of Ukraine. So it doesn't matter what Trump puts on the table. I know the recent plan that was at least the public was aware about by special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, was that Ukraine would have to capitulate about 20 percent of its territory, promise not to join NATO anytime soon.
And so that was a really big concession that was offered to the Russians. And the Russians have already rejected this before this wasn't even an official proposal.
So I'm not sure what Trump has up his sleeve. I know he talked about trying to lower oil prices, that that would put more pressure on Russia, that he was pressuring the Saudis and OPEC and Russia, of course, part of OPEC plus to lower oil prices, to make a difference. But the end of -- the problem in the end is that Russia will not stop until it has total control of Ukraine.
GIOKOS: Yes.
[04:10:00]
Interestingly, again, during that speech, President Trump was talking about his call with the Saudi Crown Prince and saying that it's been reported that Saudi Arabia is going to invest $600 billion into the United States. But he's hoping that the Crown Prince will round that up to $1 trillion. And it's interesting, not making mention of any other sort of issues, the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East that was discussed, but more importantly, the investment and the transactions that we're seeing. What do you think of that relationship?
LINDSTAEDT: Well, it's really interesting that Trump has prioritized this relationship with Saudi Arabia. He says he has a great relationship with Prince bin Salman. And normally the U.S. president, their first visit is to the U.K. That's part of the special relationship. And Trump's first visit in 2017 was to Saudi Arabia. He said again, his first visit is going to be to Saudi Arabia. His son- in-law, Jared Kushner, had a lot of deals that he was making with Saudi Arabia.
And so he sees it, as I mentioned, as this very transactional relationship, that there's all kinds of benefits to this relationship, some of which may be enriching Trump's family personally or privately. The U.S. has always sold, of course, sold billions and billions of weapons and weapons systems, defense systems to Saudi Arabia, and in exchange, the U.S. purchases a lot of Saudi oil. But he wants to continue this relationship, because I think he sees it as beneficial both to the U.S. and to him personally.
GIOKOS: Right, and Natasha Lindstaedt, great to have you with us. Thank you so much for your insights.
LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.
GIOKOS: Meantime, Mr. Trump's long-promised immigration crackdown is now underway, but a federal judge says his executive order ending birthright citizenship is, quote, blatantly unconstitutional. The judge, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, has now issued a temporary restraining order to block it.
He said, in part, quote: I have been on the bench for over four decades, and I can't remember another case where the question presented was as clear.
But Trump isn't giving up on the matter.
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TRUMP: No, obviously, we'll appeal it. They put it before a certain judge in Seattle, I guess, and there's no surprises with that judge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: CNN's Shimon Prokupecz accompanied federal immigration officers on a mission to apprehend one undocumented migrant in New York.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Good morning, everybody, on this cold New York morning. The first subject that we have is going to be a 22- year-old Ecuadorian male. He was convicted of rape of a minor here in New York City. We're obviously eager to apprehend this guy and get him back into custody. SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): In the predawn darkness of New York City last month, men and women of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement team get briefed on that morning's mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just be safe, guys, and let's go do our job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're going to attempt to apprehend on the corner.
PROKUPECZ: We're now outside a home in Flushing, Queens. We're waiting for an individual to come out with the ERO teams here in Flushing. This is an individual who got into this country was a got away, meaning he didn't come officially through the border. And he has been here in the streets of New York City. He actually was convicted of rape. And now the ERO teams, the ICE teams are trying to take him off the streets.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): ERO stands for enforcement and removal operations. The work takes patience.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You saw that guy across the street in front of you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's not our target.
PROKUPECZ: But finally --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's walking toward the corner with a backpack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There he is, right there.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): At the ICE offices in Manhattan, Reynaldo Analuisa is processed and fingerprinted. He chose not to speak to CNN.
Despite the seemingly successful operation, Ken Genalo, the head of ICE New York City, is frustrated.
KENNETH GENALO, DIRECTOR, ICE NEW YORK CITY FIELD OFFICE: We were able to take him down with no issue.
PROKUPECZ: This is the way you would prefer it to be done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there anybody in front of me?
GENALO: Actually, I would prefer to take custody of the individual from NYPD or the Department of Corrections.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): New York City has sanctuary laws that limit local law enforcements ability to coordinate with federal immigration authorities, even in certain cases involving convicted felons in the country illegally. Analuisa pleaded guilty to rape and was released after serving his sentence of 273 days.
GENALO: If NYPD, or even in this case, the New York City Department of Corrections, had just reached out to us, if we had interest in this individual, we would have taken them immediately from them or from right from Riker's Island.
PROKUPECZ: And it avoids having --
GENALO: And it avoids this whole scenario that were working on right now.
[04:15:00]
Cases could take weeks, months, sometimes, and sometimes even longer, because we don't know where the individual is at.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Even New York City's mayor is advocating for a change.
ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Those who are committing crimes in our city must be addressed, and we should change the current sanctuary city law to address that issue.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Genalo emphasized that ICE's focus is on those who pose a threat to the communities they are in.
GENALO: That's why I get disgusted and disappointed when I hear these false narratives about ICE is out doing sweeps. ICE is out doing raids. Once ICE is done, going after criminals within like 3 to 4 months, they'll be going after and targeting abuela.
I mean, in my lifetime, I don't know what planet these people live on, but it's going to take us a lot longer than three months, especially here in New York City and the other largest cities, to arrest the criminals that are at large in our communities.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): But Trump's border czar stresses that others could be deported as well.
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: There's going to be more collateral arrests in sanctuary cities because they forced us to go into community and find -- and find the guy we're looking for. When we go find our priority target, which is a criminal alien. If he's with others in the United States illegally, we're going to take enforcement action against him.
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GIOKOS: Meanwhile, Senate Republicans will try to push some of Mr. Trump's cabinet nominations over the finish line today, and they include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing a string of controversies, including an accusation of sexual assault, which he denies.
Other votes on the docket include Kristi Noem, who is nominated for Homeland Security Secretary. She's expected to easily get enough support to block an ongoing filibuster.
And Scott Bessent, who is Mr. Trump's pick to be the next Treasury Secretary. Republican leaders are threatening to push the votes into the weekend if they're not held today. But Hegseth is going into today's vote after barely getting through a
key procedural hurdle and after new revelations about a payment he made to his accuser. Manu Raju has the details for us.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In just a matter of hours, Pete Hegseth is expected to be confirmed by the United States Senate as late as Friday night after a furious battle, partisan battle, over the last several weeks after Donald Trump chose him to this position. Really blindsided people on both sides of the aisle by picking Pete Hegseth, someone who is a Fox News host. He was a military veteran, but someone who was never seen as a potential defense secretary among people within the defense establishment, certainly here on Capitol Hill.
But after he made his pick known, a number of Republican senators were uncertain about whether they could back him, concerned about past allegations of misconduct, concerned about whether he had the temperament or experience to do the job. But behind the scenes, he had worked to try to shore up support and push back against allegations of misconduct, including allegations of sexual assault from 2017. Now, we have learned that he and the accuser of that sexual assault claim settled to the tune of $50,000.
Now, that is according to documents provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee. We learned that just in the aftermath of that critical vote that occurred. But his attorney is saying that he is not -- they provided that money because if they were not to settle that amount, it would have cost a lot more to battle this out in court.
Hegseth has said he signed a nondisclosure agreement with that woman because he did not want her to go public and try to tarnish his image as he was a Fox News host. Now, this vote came down mostly along party lines, but two Republicans voted with Democrats to try to block it. It was a 51-49 vote.
Those two Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, both of whom questioned his temperament, his judgment, his character, his expertise. And Murkowski in particular questioned his character, did not think he was the right fit for the job.
But most Republicans did not side with that. Most Republicans thought he would shake up the Defense Department, he was the right person in the mold of Donald Trump for the job. And they deferred to the president over his choice to lead one of the nation's most critical agencies. But given that the Republicans control of the Senate by a 53-47 majority, they can afford to get their nominees confirmed, assuming they don't lose more than three Republican votes on any party line vote.
And that's what happened here. Just two Republicans broke ranks, which means that Hegseth is poised to get the job as soon as Friday night.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Now, to extreme weather. A so-called bomb cyclone is making its way across Ireland and parts of the U.K. with hurricane force winds. Officials are warning Storm Eowyn may seriously disrupt transport and power supplies, and there will be dangerous conditions outdoors as well. We'll bring you more later in the program.
And still ahead, with a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel shifts focus to the occupied West Bank.
[04:20:00]
Palestinian officials say they're worried Israel wants to do to the West Bank what it did to Gaza.
Plus, after 10 harrowing months of Israeli detention, one Palestinian journalist now reunited with her family is speaking out about the abuse and humiliation, she says, she and many others endured in Israeli custody.
And later, delegates to the World Economic Forum share with CNN the words they think will best describe the next four years. Stay tuned to hear what they are.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Welcome back. Now, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men during its ongoing military operations in the occupied West Bank.
Video shows the building where the men were killed in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops now reduced to rubble. The two are suspected of carrying out a shooting attack that killed three Israelis and injured multiple people earlier this month. Israel claims they were terrorists affiliated with Islamic Jihad, a militant group linked to Hamas.
The deadly operation comes after Israel's prime minister on Tuesday declared the start of a, quote, large-scale military operation, targeting so-called terrorists in the West Bank. Palestinian officials warn Israel is trying to replicate its Gaza offensive in the occupied territory.
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VARSEN AGHABEKIAN, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: They're telling us very clearly, we're done with Gaza for the time being, now it a time on the West Bank and we will do on the West Bank what we have done on the Gaza Strip.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, over the past few days, Israel's expanded operations in the West Bank have killed at least 10 people. Palestinian officials say it has displaced thousands. It began shortly after the start of the delicate ceasefire process in Gaza.
The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders for alleged gender-based crimes.
Afghan women and girls have been living under the Taliban's repressive rules since the group rose back to power more than three years ago. But as CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports, the ICC is cracking down on women's rights in Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It gives us hope that our voices are not forgotten. That's what one woman inside Afghanistan told me after the ICC said that it is seeking arrest warrants for the supreme leader of the Taliban and the chief justice of the group for alleged gender-based crimes that could amount to crimes against humanity.
Now, since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the group has slowly but surely been erasing women and girls from public life.
Girls can't go to university, can't go to secondary school, can't step out of their homes without a full veil, can't even sing in public. In fact, the latest edict from the Taliban says that women should not be seen from windows.
[04:25:00]
Now, this is still one step away from an official arrest warrant from the Hague-based court. That would have to be approved by a judge. The chief prosecutor of the ICC also indicated that he may pursue arrest warrants for other Taliban officials. Human Rights Watch, which has closely been following these violations against women and girls in Afghanistan, welcomed the news and said they hope that it leads to concrete action on the ground.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: A French woman who was blamed for her divorce because she didn't have sex with her husband has had that blame removed on appeal. The judgment concerned a fault-based divorce case and the concept of marital duties in French law. But the European Court of Human Rights reversed the decision as a violation of, quote, the right to respect for private and family life.
The woman identified as H.W. brought the case in 2021 after nearly a decade of seeking justice in French courts. This is what her lawyer said after the decision.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LILIA MHISSEN, LAWYER FOR THE APPELLANT H.W. (through translator): This is a major victory for women because what the European court tells them through this decision is that you have the right to freely have your body at your disposal and you have the right to consent or not to consent to sexual relations. In no way does the fact of being married constitute a constraint or an obligation for a woman to satisfy her husband. (END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: The case further emphasizes the concept of consent in light of the high-profile case, Gisele Pelicot drugging and mass rape convictions.
And this could be the final legal chapter in the Amanda Knox saga. She is the American who was jailed in Italy and later acquitted of the 2007 murder of her British roommate. And now Italy's high court is upholding the remaining slander conviction against her. Knox was convicted of falsely accusing her former boss, Patrick Lumumba, of murdering Meredith Kercher. Knox had signed two police prepared statements making the accusation but later requested her claims.
According to Reuters news agency, Lumumba said he was very satisfied with the ruling. And for her part, Knox was not at the hearing, but did react on social media saying: It's a surreal day. I've just been found guilty yet again of a crime I didn't commit.
Knox does not face any additional jail time.
Marco Rubio hits the road next week on his inaugural foreign trip as the new U.S. Secretary of State. His destination supposedly tell a lot about the Trump administration's priorities. That story is up ahead.
Plus, TikTok's future with American users is still in limbo. Now billionaire Elon Musk, YouTube influencer MrBeast and others may be close to sealing a deal to buy the popular social media site.