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Trump Touts Historic Change and Divisive Agenda; Adoration and Disgust for Trump on Display During Speech; Canada Responds to Trump with Retaliatory Tariffs. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired March 05, 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]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers, joining us from all around the world and here in the U.S. I'm Rahel Solomon, live in New York, just ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To my fellow citizens, America is back.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Donald Trump addressing Congress for the first time since returning to office, a far-reaching speech celebrating DOGE, defending his trade war, and vowing to press on with his unrelenting agenda.

Good morning, our top story this hour, the U.S. president's combative defiant address to Congress that laid bare the country's deep division. Six weeks after his return to the White House, Donald Trump repeatedly congratulated himself and his administration and ticked off a list of what he claimed were tremendous achievements. The president insisting that voters gave him a, quote, mandate for bold and profound change and declared that the golden age of America has only just begun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency, it's our presidency, is the most successful in the history of our nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: President Trump then flooding the zone with lots of numbers and some false accusations. He claimed that his Department of Government Efficiency has already found hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud but has provided no evidence of that. He also took swipes at his predecessor, Joe Biden, whom he called the worst president in American history.

He also accused Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department to viciously prosecute him. Another falsehood.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: In recent years, our justice system has been turned upside down by radical left lunatics. Many jurisdictions virtually seized enforcing the law against dangerous repeat offenders while weaponizing law enforcement against political opponents like me. My administration has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law, starting at the FBI and the DOJ.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: As for the Democrats, some top Democrats didn't bother to show up. Others held signs as you just saw their reading. This is not normal, liar and false.

One House Democrat was escorted out of the room. Some just walked out. The Democrats lackluster response highlighting the party's apparent lack of strategy in dealing with the second Trump term.

And CNN's Julia Benbrook breaks down some of the other big moments from the president's speech.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Donald Trump delivering his first speech to a joint session of Congress since retaking the White House.

TRUMP: We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started.

BENBROOK (voice-over): While Democrats mostly waved signs in protest, a disruption came early in the night with Speaker Mike Johnson ordering the removal of Democratic lawmaker Al Green from the House chamber.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: Remove this gentleman from the chamber.

BENBROOK (voice-over): The speech comes the same day. Trump enacted 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada and doubled his tariff on Chinese goods to 20 percent, sparking concerns of a trade war.

TRUMP: Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. It'll be a little disturbance, but we're OK with that.

BENBROOK (voice-over): Trump has made a whirlwind of moves since his inauguration, including firing thousands of federal workers in an effort to reduce the size of the federal government.

TRUMP: We'll be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars. And to that end, I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency, which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.

BENBROOK (voice-over): Several of those fired federal workers attended the speech as guests of Democratic lawmakers.

[04:05:00]

Their party's rebuttal delivered by Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin.

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): America wants change, but there's a responsible way to make change and a reckless way. And we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country.

BENBROOK (voice-over): In Washington, I'm Julia Benbrook.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: All right, joining us now to discuss this, Thomas Gift, director of the Center on U.S. Politics at University College London. Thomas, great to have you this morning. Just your first takeaways from what we heard from the American president last night.

What did you think?

THOMAS GIFT, DIRECTOR, CENTER ON U.S. POLITICS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Well, thanks so much for having me, Rahel. It's great to be with you. This was certainly a combative no apologies speech.

There's no other way to spin it. Trump doubled down on every single policy item, tariffs, deportations, DOGE calling for a negotiated peace in Ukraine. We definitely know that Trump's first month and a half in office has come at a breakneck speed.

And this was Trump trying to defend that unrelenting agenda. There was no conciliation, no outreach to Democrats on domestic policy. Trump signaled that he's going to continue to give Democrats whiplash.

And on foreign policy, he really doubled down on his transactional America first doctrine that emphasizes brokering deals by exerting U.S. power. This is really sort of the flood the zone approach of Trump. His former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, which just throws policy change kind of a million miles a minute in hopes that Democrats can't keep up.

SOLOMON: Yes, certainly no indication last night that he plans to slow down his speed. How do you think his speech is being viewed internationally? Obviously, we've only had a few hours since his speech. But how do you think this is going to be viewed around the world this morning?

GIFT: Well, I think Trump essentially articulated a vision for exerting of American power that is much more transactional than it is values based. And I don't think that that's going to be news for world leaders around the world. I mean, Donald Trump has shown time and time again that he wants to throw America's weight around. But he places much less of a premium on allies, longstanding relationships, including here in the U.K. So I think for many European leaders, they may have wanted to hear something a little bit different, but they weren't expecting it and they certainly didn't get it.

SOLOMON: Yes, I thought it was interesting to see on the one hand, Trump spent a lot of time boasting about how much he's done in the last six weeks, but also somehow still continue to talk about and fixate on his predecessor, Joe Biden, how, according to Trump, he was the worst president in American history. He continues to blame economic woes on Biden. How much longer do you think he has?

How much of a one runway do you think he has to continue to blame Biden for current issues?

GIFT: Well, you would certainly think that that has a shelf life at some point. Biden really was a scapegoat that Trump couldn't stop talking about. He blamed him for everything from high inflation to a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, to being weak on China, to woke policies that Trump says are dividing America. Trump seems to have conveniently forgotten his promise that if he were elected, he'd turn around the country on day one, he would end the war in Europe on day one. But true to form, Trump really sounded like he was giving a stump speech at a primary rather than delivering a presidential address before Congress.

Of course, that's really Trump's comfort zone. He's never been one to give lofty, aspirational speeches. He's not one to try to elevate the level of discourse in politics. But yes, for Donald Trump, certainly the case that Joe Biden is the gift that keeps on giving.

SOLOMON: Yes, also, I mean, it wasn't just the drama at the podium, but there was obviously a lot of drama within the lawmakers. I mean, Representative Green being escorted out was perhaps the most dramatic moment.

We learned shortly after in media interviews, because you couldn't quite understand what he was shouting. But we learned after he walked out, after he was escorted out, that he was shouting that Trump does not have a mandate amid his concerns about cuts to Medicaid.

What was your reaction watching that? And what do you think that signals about what the next four years could be like?

GIFT: It was certainly a raucous crowd, and it was exemplified by the statements of Al Green. I think Democrats can certainly say that Donald Trump doesn't have a mandate. And if you just look at the national popular vote, it certainly was close.

Trump only beat Kamala Harris by about 2.3 million votes. At the same time, Trump was the first Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years. Eighty-nine percent of counties shifted to the right in 2024 compared to 2020, which is enormous.

Trump also secured a greater share of the Latino, Black, and youth vote than he did four years ago. So I think Democrats can focus on the fact that this wasn't a landslide. I don't think that it was a landslide, but I think it could be more productive by kind of reassessing how they can better court working-class voters, including by talking about kitchen table issues like the economy, like inflation.

But certainly right that this portends a lot of confrontation over the next four years.

SOLOMON: Yes, it makes you wonder when the Democrats might sort of coalesce around a unified message in terms of how to respond to Trump over the next four years. As we've learned, there was clearly a lot of division and disagreement about what the best strategy is.

[04:10:00]

Thomas Gift, appreciate you being here this morning. Thank you.

GIFT: Thank you.

SOLOMON: All right. And still ahead for us, much more on President Trump's address. Still ahead, including his lengthy defense of tariffs, even though some reports suggest that they may be short- lived.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLOMON: Welcome back. President Donald Trump says that dollar for dollar across the board tariffs are coming on April 2nd. Although his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says that the president could announce a deal to end or scale back the new tariffs on Canada and Mexico later today.

[04:15:00]

On Tuesday, Trump slapped 25 percent levies on Canada and Mexico and doubled tariffs on China from 10 percent to 20 percent. That covers about $1.4 trillion in imports. Now among the items expected to cost more for American consumers, everything from fruits and vegetables to lumber, cars and trucks, electronics. President Trump says that Americans may have to endure some short-term pain in order to achieve long-term prosperity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again and it's happening and it will happen rather quickly. There'll be a little disturbance, but we're OK with that. It won't be much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: U.S. financial markets meantime not on board with the Trump tariffs. The Dow fell more than 600 points for a second day on Tuesday. Although this morning U.S. futures are higher and this appears to be on the back of that news from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that we may in fact see a pause to the tariffs.

You can see Dow futures are up about 228 points. Nasdaq up about 8 tenths of a percent. The S&P up about let's call it 7 tenths of a percent on the back of this news. Perhaps some tariff reprieve investors seem to like.

But also rattling markets on the other hand is China hitting back at the U.S. with tariffs on a long list of American products.

Let's now bring in CNN's Steven Jiang who is in Beijing for us. Steven, great to have you this morning. Talk to us about the reaction coming out of China. What are you hearing?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Rahel, on Wednesday Chinese officials reiterated what they said earlier about these new China tariffs from the Trump administration saying if the Americans insist on harming Chinese interests, China will fight till the end. And of course accompanying these feisty words is a package of countermeasures announced by Beijing including an additional 10 to 15 percent tariffs targeting a whole range of American products as you mentioned including a lot of agricultural products.

But also slapping multiple U.S. companies although no major household names just yet on that list with new export control restrictions not to mention suspending imports of American logs and soybeans. Now it's worth noting that a lot of these measures actually target American farmers who of course are a major constituency for not only Mr. Trump but also the Republican Party.

Remember that's a group that got a shout out from the president during his address how he said they really are going to benefit greatly from the tariffs and how they love the tariffs but according to many experts that's simply not the case as shown by these Chinese countermeasures.

But experts also say so far the Chinese reactions seem to be relatively restrained leaving some wiggle room for further negotiations because the assessment from Beijing is Trump is still in a deal-making mode and they think he still wants to reach a broader trade deal with Beijing.

So it is against this backdrop of escalating trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies that makes the newly revealed growth target for the Chinese economy all the more noteworthy.

On Wednesday morning Chinese officials actually announced their GDP growth target for 2025 is around 5 percent. That is very ambitious given the strong economic headwinds they're facing both at home but also of course increasingly externally given the new tariffs. But that really in a way is a defiant show of confidence.

But that's also why, Rahel, China has now raised its budget deficit to its highest levels in decades around 4 percent of its GDP as they just announced. Obviously a sign that they're ready to ramp up spending to really mitigate the implications of any new Trump tariffs on Chinese goods -- Rahel.

SOLOMON: Yes, really interesting point about the growth target of 5 percent considering some of the challenges that China has had these last few years. Steven Jiang in Beijing, we appreciate you. Thank you.

And a source tells CNN that Donald Trump will speak by phone with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLOMON: Welcome back. As we mentioned just before the break, a source tells CNN that Donald Trump will speak by phone with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today. Mr. Trudeau and Canadian officials have already announced 25 percent retaliatory tariffs against U.S. imports with threats of further action. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, meantime, says that she will announce her country's response to the U.S. tariffs this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM, MEXICAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have therefore decided to respond with tariff and non-tariff measures, which I shall announce publicly next Sunday. It is no way our purpose to initiate an economic or commercial confrontation, which unfortunately and regrettably is the opposite of what we should be doing.

Nobody wins with this decision. On the contrary, it affects the people we represent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Canada, meantime, also promising to file claims at the World Trade Organization over the new U.S. tariffs. And Ontario Premier Doug Ford says that he is, quote, ripping up a high-speed Internet deal with Elon Musk's Starlink. CNN's Paula Newton has more reaction from Ottawa.

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As promised, Justin Trudeau, Canada's Prime Minister, decided he would immediately retaliate. And those retaliatory measures will continue in the coming weeks, 25 percent on so many goods that are exported from the United States into Canada.

[04:25:03]

But he was clear that escalation would continue as long as what he called a trade war continued with the United States. And he spoke directly to Donald Trump, calling him Donald and saying, look, you're a smart person, but this is a very dumb thing. Here in Canada, economic experts say, look, there will be likely a recession, perhaps a deep one here in Canada with hundreds of thousands of jobs lost. But there is political unity. I want you to listen now to Canada's foreign affairs minister as she explains what Canada must do. Listen.

MELANIE JOLY, CANADIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: We will be united and we will fight back and we will win. And that's why today we announced $155 billion worth of tariffs against American merchandise coming to Canada. We're targeting products from the U.S. that are linked to our friends within the Republican Party that can make pressure to the Trump administration. And we don't want to do this. We want this to be over. But at the same time, we are under an existential threat.

NEWTON: An existential threat. That's what she calls it. That is because Donald Trump continues to talk about Canada as the 51st state. And Canadians have come to the conclusion that the president would like to break the Canadian economy so that Canadians have no choice but to join the United States.

Now, Trudeau also had a warning for allies here saying, look, Donald Trump continues to try, in his words, align himself with Russia, a dictator, as opposed to really aligning himself with people, with countries that had one time been allies.

This is definitely going to escalate in the coming weeks. And the Canadian government sees no sign that the U.S. government will negotiate.

Paul Newton, CNN, Ottawa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: To the Middle East now, the Trump administration is rejecting a long-awaited plan for post-war Gaza that was proposed and endorsed by Arab leaders. A spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council says that President Trump stands by his vision and they look forward to further talks. Officials from Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE unveiled their proposal on Tuesday.

And under their plan, Gaza's two million Palestinians would be allowed to stay, while President Trump's plan would expel them from the enclave. The U.S. president touched on the war in Gaza during his speech to Congress. And CNN's Paula Hancocks has the details from Abu Dhabi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: U.S. President Donald Trump gave a very brief mention of a region that he has been talking about and dealing with significantly over the past six weeks. President Trump called the Middle East a rough neighborhood, also saying we are bringing back our hostages from Gaza. Now, that's all he mentioned about the hostages, bearing in mind the realities on the ground.

That ceasefire hostage deal is very much on hold at this point. Israel wanting to extend phase one of a three-phase deal that had been agreed upon to try and secure more hostage releases. Hamas wanting to go back to the agreed deal so that Israel has to pull its military out of Gaza and also there's a permanent ceasefire.

The reality on the ground in Gaza is that no humanitarian aid has gone in since Sunday, as Israel has halted that until Hamas agrees to its demands.

Now, what the U.S. president did was to look to the Abraham Accords. These are the accords and deals that he secured in his first term, which normalized relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE.

He called that one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements in generations, saying that he wants to build on that foundation. Now, President Trump has made no secret of the fact he would like to see normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has said that will only happen when there is the creation of a Palestinian state, something which the Israeli prime minister has repeatedly rejected.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: All right, just about 4:30 a.m. here in New York, about 10:30 a.m. in Vatican City. That's where Pope Francis will be notably absent for the Ash Wednesday observance as he continues to fight double pneumonia in the hospital. The Vatican releasing an update earlier saying that he slept well through the night.

The pope's longest hospital stay since being elected, has been plagued by a series of breathing issues as he recovers. His condition is being described as complex, with the Vatican saying that he is not yet out of danger. And this will be just the second time in his papacy that he will not lead the Ash Wednesday service. A cardinal is expected to lead the service instead.

Torrential rain in Indonesia's capital has caused catastrophic flooding, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. And the forecast won't be offering much relief anytime soon. Derek Van Dam has the details.

[04:30:00]