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Severe Weather Threatens Fat Tuesday In New Orleans; Trump Slaps 25 Percent Tariffs On Canada And Mexico, 20 Percent On China; Trump Pauses Military Aid To Ukraine After Zelenskyy Clash. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 04, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:31:40]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina MacFarlane. If you are just joining us here are some of the top stories we're following today.

Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress tonight, his fifth such speech as president. Trump is expected to defend the actions of his administration during the first 43 days in office. Elon Musk, a special adviser to the president, will be in attendance.

Linda McMahon has been confirmed as Trump's secretary of education. The Senate voted along party lines to confirm the former CEO of the World Wrestling Entertainment. She also previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term.

And these are live pictures of New Orleans where the threat of severe weather could dampen Fat Tuesday celebrations. The city is expected to get hit with severe thunderstorms and powerful winds with gusts topping 50 miles an hour. The two main parades will roll early and with paired down processions.

Analysts are predicting a weak economy for North America in light of the new tariff war between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Donald Trump announced 25 percent duties on Canadian and Mexican imports. The president says the neighboring countries are taking economic advantage of the U.S., especially in certain industries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would just say this to people in Canada or Mexico if they're going to build car plants. The people that are doing them are much better off building here because we have the market. We're the market where they sell the most. And so I think it's going to be very exciting -- very exciting for the automobile companies.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: And we will have a strong, unequivocal, and proportional response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, tariffs on China are going up from 10 percent to 20 percent. Mr. Trump said Beijing is not doing enough to the -- stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal drugs to the U.S. China is retaliating with 10 to 15 percent tariffs on a long list of American goods.

And we are watching U.S. markets to see if they can recover from Monday's losses due to the tariff announcement. Right now the futures are lower, as you can see there. The Dow, Nasdaq, S&P 500 all in the red. And in Asia, markets are a bit more mixed with the Nikkei down just one percent.

CNN's Marc Stewart is live in Beijing with China's reaction. Good to have you back with us, Marc. So just walk us through these retaliatory tariffs, Marc, and where China is sort of deliberately targeting the U.S.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Christina. If we look at Chinese foreign policy it's very much tit for tat -- you hurt us, we're going to hurt you back -- and so these new tariffs are not that much of a surprise. I mean, I've talked to a number of people in recent days from both the economic sphere and from the diplomatic sphere who said these were coming.

And here is what's interesting. These latest Chinese-imposed tariffs really impact parts of the United States where President Trump saw a lot of support, the Heartland. The middle of America as well as the Midwest. And the two big industries there are farming and agriculture.

So if we look at the list of where these most recent Chinese-imposed tariffs on American goods are hit we're looking at a 15 percent tariff on items such as chicken, wheat, corn, and cotton. And then a 10 percent tariff on products including soybeans, beef, as well as fruits and vegetables -- really hitting the farming community -- farming communities that, again, showed up to support President Trump in 2024.

[05:35:20]

So this is not symbolic. These tariffs are actually quite substantial.

We're also hearing much stronger language from Chinese officials as part of this retaliation. Take a listen to a Chinese government spokesperson from earlier today.

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LIN JIAN, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): I want to reiterate that the Chinese people have never been superstitious or afraid of ghosts and have never accepted bullying or arrogance. Applying pressure, coercion, and threats are not the correct way for others to deal with China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Bullying and arrogance. I mean, those are some of the stronger words that we have not heard on this tariff issue in quite some time.

As far as how America will respond further, we had heard -- the president said that there could be another 20 percent set of tariffs as part of a retaliatory move.

But China, in many ways, has been preparing for all of this, Christina. In recent years -- in recent months we've really seen China expand where it exports -- not just to the United States but also to Southeast Asia, to Latin America, as well as Russia. So the back-and- forth between these two nations from a trade perspective, Christina, is very much on.

MACFARLANE: Yeah. We will wait to see how much and how long this escalates.

Marc Stewart live for us in Beijing. Thanks, Marc.

Canada is also responding with immediate 25 percent tariffs on U.S. imports with plans for more in the next few weeks.

CNN's Paula Newton has the story.

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Canada says it is ready to retaliate against those tariffs and says that they will be reciprocal and proportional, $155 billion worth.

But at issue now is what Canada says is an effort at the border to do what the American president wants and that is to stem the curb of fentanyl but also migrants.

But what's really happening here is Donald Trump has decided that he has no use for the Canadian economy, and the Canadian government has gotten that message loud and clear. The government here is deciding that they need to stand up to the American president. They are warning Canadians that this will hurt the Canadian economy and likely pull it into a recession.

But they say they are ready to make deals with other countries and look for other trading partners, but most of all try and convince Americans and clearly, American consumers, American Republican lawmakers that this is a relationship that should not be broken and that, in fact, Americans gain as much as Canadians from continuing with this trade relationship.

But at this point in time though Canadian officials do not feel that there is any way to get out of at least an initial tariff war happening, and that will happen on Tuesday.

Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: The Trump administration says it will send its special envoy Steve Witkoff to the Middle East in the coming days to try and end the impasse over Gaza where a fragile ceasefire is on the verge of collapsing. The first phase of this three-part truce between Israel and Hamas officially expired over the weekend.

On Sunday, Israel blocked all humanitarian aid into Gaza after Hamas rejected a proposal to temporarily extend phase one through Ramadan and Passover. Hamas says Israel's aid blockage is cheap blackmail and a war crime. They're demanding Israel move to the second phase of the deal, which hasn't been negotiated yet.

Turning now to Germany where a car-ramming killed two people and injured 11 others on Monday. This happened in the city of Mannheim. Authorities have since confirmed the attack was deliberate. That the driver purposefully targeted and struck people at high speed. The police do not believe the suspect, a 40-year-old German national, had any political or religious motivations. While the investigation is ongoing prosecutors say there's concrete evidence that the attacker suffered from psychological illness.

Thousands of troops and firefighters are fighting Japan's biggest wildfire in decades, and authorities warn it's likely to get even bigger. The fire has burned about 2,100 hectares of forest in the city of Ofunato since it started on Wednesday. More than 1,000 people have been forced to take refuge in school gymnasiums and other shelters. The region has just seen its driest winter since data collection began nearly 80 years ago.

Meanwhile, floodwaters are washing out large areas of northern Peru following a heavy rainfall over the weekend. The government issued a red alert after the Tumbes River nearly doubled threatening neighboring areas and farmlands. About 150,000 people have been impacted according to local reports.

[05:40:10]

All right. Still to come, more on President Donald Trump's decision to pause military aid in Ukraine and how it will affect the war with Russia.

And later a rare painting by Banksy hits the auction block. Details on the edgy artwork and the cause it's going to benefit.

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[05:45:05]

MACFARLANE: Despite the recent tensions between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents, Donald Trump says he does not think the rare earth minerals deal in Ukraine is dead. He -- but he would need to see certain goodwill from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in order to restart the negotiations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, I just think he should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin. We've given them much more than Europe. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: It was after those comments on Monday that President Trump announced he was halting military aid to Ukraine. A White House official says it's a direct result of President Zelenskyy's disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday, and that the pause will remain in place until President Trump believes Mr. Zelenskyy is committed to seeking peace talks with Russia.

All of this now has the Kremlin claiming the U.S. is becoming more closely aligned with Russia, something that the U.S. House Speaker flatly rejected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We are not aligned with Russia, and I don't believe any Russian propaganda. We have to bring an end to the war. What the president is doing is trying to set the table for that peace agreement to be made, and I'm very grateful that he's doing it. I encourage, as I did over the weekend, President Zelenskyy to come back to the table and accept the deal that was proposed because that is the solution to get us out of this mess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, CNN's Clare Sebastian is following developments and joins me now with the latest. Clare, I mean, despite those comments from the House Speaker there, there is little doubt I think that this is a win for Vladimir Putin and for Russia. It's going to have an impact not just on the battlefield for Ukraine but on any ongoing negotiations as well.

Have we had any response yet from the Kremlin to this move?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Christina, this is probably the biggest prize that there is for the Kremlin. They have long been arguing that U.S. military aid in particular prolongs the crisis, criticizing the U.S. for this and finding all methods possible to try to break the Western resolve to keep supplying it. You saw that recently with the Russian effort to try to undercut the U.S. mineral deals with Ukraine by essentially offering up their own.

So look, this morning we heard from Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, and he clearly is sort of trying to be reserved and holding fire a little bit, saying we don't really know what's happening yet. We're waiting to see the impact on the front lines. But also very clearly endorsing the U.S. approach.

This is his comment. He says, "If this is true, then this is a decision that could really push the Kyiv regime towards a peace process." So essentially saying that Donald Trump is taking the right approach here and this is what will bring all parties to the table.

I think -- look, clearly, this is something where the Kremlin is getting so much of what they want so quickly that there's almost a sense of disbelief. But clearly, this is a major win for the Kremlin. And I think we have to look really closely to see if they try to exploit any points of weakness as a result of this on the front lines or even by stepping up the aerial attacks, which have already, I should note, been accelerating in recent weeks.

MACFARLANE: And the big question now Clare, I guess, is how far can Europe go to filling that gap left by the United States. We know there have been significant discussions -- preliminary discussions, really, about that earlier, which was the end of last week over the weekend.

What reaction have we seen from European officials?

SEBASTIAN: So I think this is more evidence to Europe -- even if it ends up being reversed, frankly, this is more evidence that they need to step up and take responsibility for their own security.

We're hearing those comments on that note from Ukraine. A -- one of the Ukrainian brigades on their telegram feed said this morning, "In the future, much will depend on our European allies. They will have to leave the comfort zone of social media support. We cannot stand alone."

And I think, look, you're getting that from some Europeans. The Czech prime minister posting on X this morning. He said, "The era of relying on others to address fundamental international challenges on our behalf is over."

It does also I think make the balancing act that some European countries are undertaking a little bit more complicated. Keir Starmer, for example, saying in Parliament yesterday -- the U.K. prime minister -- that he's not going to choose between either side of the Atlantic, making the point that he really truly believes that Donald Trump is committed to peace. He may be about to take more political heat for that.

But I think Europe really does have to match this with action now. And we are going to see a major European summit on Thursday. The EU Commission president came out this morning and announced new measures to boost Europe's defense industry. So the onus really does shift to Europe even as, by the way, Ukraine continues to argue this morning correctly that its own defense industry has increased in size dramatically since the start of the way.

MACFARLANE: All right, Clare. Thank you for now.

All right. Still to come, Serena Williams prepares to take another sport by storm. We'll tell you what's next for the tennis great.

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[05:54:20]

MACFARLANE: Welcome back.

A rare hand-painted artwork by street artist Banksy is heading to auction today and could fetch more than $6 million. This 2005 reimagining of the painting by late Scottish artist Jack Vettriano is named "Crude Oil." It shows workers in hazmat suits trying to remove toxic waste from the beach. Its owner, Mark Hoppus, who is co-founder of the band blink-182, says part of the proceeds from the sale will go to the California Wildfire Foundation and medical charities.

[05:55:00]

Tennis legend Serena Williams is taking on the world of professional basketball -- not necessarily to play. Williams says she will now be a joint owner of the WNBA's Toronto Tempo, an expansion franchise set to make its debut in 2026. She'll also be involved in jersey design and merchandise collaborations. Williams says she is excited to showcase the value of potential female athletes. The Tempo will join the -- an unnamed franchise in Portland, Oregon as the newest teams in the WNBA line up. Love that.

Meanwhile, on basketball, LeBron James is poised to make NBA history tonight. The Lakers star is expected to become basketball's first player ever to reach 50,000 career points. Los Angeles hosts the New Orleans Pelicans and James needs just one point in the game to hit this historic high point. That's on top of his milestone from the Lakers' win over the L.A. Clippers on Monday when James became just the fourth NBA player to reach 1,000 career wins, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Parish, and Tim Duncan. And we look forward to seeing that.

Thank you for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina MacFarlane in London. Stay with us. More news after this quick break.

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