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CNN International: Trump Pauses Tariffs On Mexican Imports Covered By USMCA; Europe Shifts Focus To Defense, Looks To Fill U.S. Void; Trump Prepares To Sign Order To Dismantle Education Department; Shares In Tesla Continue To Fall As Global Sales Slump; Trump Speaks At White House As Some Tariffs Delayed. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired March 06, 2025 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:36]
MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.
Donald Trump's threat of tariffs on the United States neighbors seems to have taken a sudden turn tonight, just the latest twist rattling markets, businesses and of course, consumers. The president has announced a nearly one month tariff delay on all products covered from Mexico, covered by the U.S., Mexico, Canada agreement, the deal he negotiated during his first term. And the U.S. commerce secretary says Trump will likely announce a one month delay on all Canadian tariffs, but negotiations are ongoing.
Meanwhile, Trump is also expected to sign executive orders soon, possibly just minutes from now. We'll have to wait to see what they are.
Kevin is watching all of this.
We'll talk about what we expect tonight, but in terms of the tariffs -- I mean, just explain this and what is actually changed here.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And I should just mention, Max, Trump has signed this order just now exempting both Mexico and Canada from these tariffs for one month, at least all of the products that are covered by the USMCA, the new NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement that he signed when he was in office first time round.
This is essentially the president responding to various forces that were sort of pressing on him after he had imposed these new 25 percent tariffs. One was the automakers. We talked about that yesterday. They were talking to Trump, saying that this essentially was unfair, that it would put them at a disadvantage. The other was the stock market, you know, tumbling 600 points earlier this week. Also just sort of generally the president has taken this as a barometer of his own performance in office.
And so you see all of this kind of piling up to today just in the last few minutes, the president signing this one month reprieve. But they are being firm that this will only last a month and that the big tariffs, the reciprocal tariffs that the president has been teasing for a while now, will still go into effect on April 2nd. Of course, whether that happens or not, I think remains to be seen, because we are now starting to see a pattern.
The president threatening the tariffs, the president imposing the tariffs, the president pulling the tariffs back, the president delaying the tariffs -- it all seems somewhat haphazard. But when you talk to the presidents aides, they do say there's a strategy here that this in part is meant to bring countries to the negotiating table in the instance of Canada and Mexico, and president looking for concessions on curbing the flow of migrants and drugs across the border.
We do understand that the president had a fairly good call earlier today with the Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. He said that that was a productive call. That's what resulted in the first round of exemptions for Mexico. That's far different than the call he had yesterday with Justin Trudeau that became quite heated, I'm told expletives were flying around.
Certainly, that's a very toxic relationship, but it hasn't prevented the president from putting in place these exemptions on Canadian products as well, at least for one month.
FOSTER: I'm also interested in what Donald Trump said to cabinet colleagues in relation to these massive cuts we've seen sweeping cuts, as we understood it, were being led by Elon Musk, but it seems as though Donald Trump is cutting back on Musk's power a bit if you look at what was said.
LIPTAK: Yeah, this is a fascinating development. It is really the first example we've seen in the entire Trump administration so far of the president apparently trying to rein Musk in. And we know that there had been tensions brewing between some of these cabinet officials and Musk, as he sort of burrowed into each of their agencies and really was cutting with the sledgehammer. He literally held up a chainsaw to reduce the size of the federal government.
Now, Trump is saying that he wants Musk and cabinet officials to use a scalpel rather than a hatchet, and he has convened them today to sort of talk out how exactly they will go about reducing their agency workforces so that they can keep the best and most productive people. And he says this meeting is a standing meeting, every two weeks for the cabinet officials and Musk to discuss exactly how they will cut the government down to size.
But this is just so important because so far, we have seen almost no checks on Musk's power. He has been able and his team has been able to go into each of these departments, really embed themselves and carry out these sort of broad orders to lay people off, you know, all probationary employees.
[15:05:08]
They have laid people off only to ask them to come back to work because they realized that their work was essential. Now there appears to be an attempt to get a handle on that, to make
this all more organized and to make it more in line with what some of these secretaries want to do for their own departments as they come into the job and as they discern exactly how these agencies work.
So this is very important, and it will be a dynamic that will have to just watch to see how it proceeds going forward.
FOSTER: Yeah, its fascinating, isn't it, to see that dynamic change slightly.
Kevin Liptak, thank you.
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum says she gave her thanks to President Trump for what she calls a respectful discussion on tariffs. She also said that Mexico, Canada and the U.S. all need to be involved in the trade agreement.
CNN's Valeria Leon is in Mexico City for us.
So we've just heard that the Mexican that the tariffs are -- are on hold, but it appears to be due to pressure from within America. Some lobbyists asking Trump to calm down on this. But it also follows a call with the Mexican president.
VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Max. And respect was the key word used during Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum morning press conference following today's phone conversation with President Trump, in which an agreement was reached to start a month long pause in tariffs on Mexican goods.
So this was for the second time in this year. She started her conference by sharing Trump's post on Truth Social, in which she thanked Sheinbaum for the work Mexico has done to reduce fentanyl trafficking and also illegal immigration into the U.S.
And these issues have been used as President Trump's main argument for justifying the tariffs on Mexico. So today, Sheinbaum shared figures with the press that show fentanyl seizures on the U.S. border, dropping by 41 percent in the past two months. She lauded the relationship with Trump, referring to it as a friendly one while thanking him for his decision to put a pause on the tariffs on Mexico until April 2nd.
And she went on to explain that if the U.S. puts the tariffs back into effect in April, Mexico will immediately react with its own set of retaliatory levies.
However, if the U.S. holds the tariffs off by the date, Mexico will refrain from taking any retaliatory actions and continue trading with the U.S. under the terms of the free trade agreement put in place during the first Trump presidency, where practically all trade is free of tariffs. So using as a centerpiece her -- Sheinbaum administration's success at drastically reducing fentanyl trafficking and immigration. So for the moment, let's say both parties seem to have come out ahead.
Trump gets to look tough on Mexico, and President Sheinbaum shows off her skills as her negotiator. Trump was at first reluctant to impose tariffs on Mexico, but after Sheinbaum outlined Mexico's achievements, saying that in just two months her government has extradited 29 of the FBI's most wanted drug lords, Trump finally agreed to temporarily suspend this tariffs, emphasizing this tone of mutual respect between the two countries.
And Sheinbaum also said negotiations will continue to the -- with the U.S. government, Max.
FOSTER: Yeah, it's interesting she's shown she understands the way he negotiates. She moved on things that she he wanted her to move on, like the border security. I mean, how -- how much has the border been secured increasingly have these tens of thousands of troops been sent to the border like Donald Trump said they were?
LEON: Well, according to figures, Max, illegal crossings have dropped for half of what compared to the past year. And President Sheinbaum also has said that his government is still working on this border security issue. It's one of the top priorities. It's not only for the U.S. government for, but also for Mexico.
So President Sheinbaum has said that these 10,000 troops on the border are also working to detain arms trafficking, and else on illegal immigrants on the border, Max.
So this is showing good results according to Mexico's president.
FOSTER: Valeria, thank you so much for joining us from Mexico City on that one. A big day for Mexico and for Canada.
E.U. leaders in Brussels, meanwhile, have just wrapped up an emergency summit. Their message: it's time for Europe to step up defense spending after the U.S. decided to step back on Ukraine. The E.U., not just reaffirming their support for Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but drilling down on just how much members are willing to spend on defense in order to replace the billions of dollars of U.S. aid now in limbo.
[15:10:12]
After last week's White House meeting that led to seismic shifts across the Atlantic, many European leaders say it's time to chart a new course and have Europe take responsibility for its own security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTA METSOLA, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT: It is about damn time. This is something that we have been asking for a long time that the European Union, that Europe is capable of standing up on its own two feet. For Europe to say that we are ready to put finally our money where our mouth is.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is in Brussels tonight.
I mean, it does feel like they really do feel the sense of urgency there now. But as ever with the E.U., it's the heads of government that control things. There are many of them that have to approve any European deal. It's not just one country. And that's always going to be the challenge.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: And it was the challenge today. And frankly, it's not quite done yet. And I think everyone in the room recognizes it. It did look as if they might have gone later into the evening.
But broadly speaking, the E.U. commissioner, Ursula von der Leyen, came forward with a suggestion of how to raise the money for the really big increased defense spend, which pretty much unanimity on agreeing that needs to happen. And what she's been told by the leaders, by the council of leaders here of the E.U., 27 nations, is yeah, just go ahead and get on with it and accelerate your work on -- on figuring out how we get that money.
A caveat in that is that what they've told her, the 150 billion euros worth of loans that she wants to get, which kind of emulates, simulates what the E.U. did during COVID, which is go to big banks and say, we're a big, trustworthy, generating a lot of money, set of 27 countries. We're good for the loan. They've asked her to go back and do a little bit more homework on that.
But in essence, big picture, yes, go ahead and figure out how you get the money for this defense spent. On your point, there were some of the other sort of sub-conclusions, some of the details in the weeds, if you will, of this meeting.
Viktor Orban appears to be, I say, appears to be the only holdout, 26 of 27 nations agreed about how they should push forward and continue support for Ukraine going forward. Orban, not the first time its been a holdout on -- on a sort of wrinkling how the E.U. wants to give aid, wants to give immediate military support as it has been to Ukraine. So that's also something that requires work.
This is the E.U. working at speed though, Max, even though it just looks like its mired in diplomatic talk and not going anywhere, it's going faster, way faster, with more urgency, as you said, than previous.
FOSTER: Okay, Nic, we'll keep watching for any more updates tonight.
Still to come, with all that's happening from Elon Musk's presidential input and the cuts carried out by DOGE, Tesla is being affected, too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:16:25]
FOSTER: The future of education in America hangs in the balance, as President Donald Trump prepares to sign an executive order to dismantle the department that oversees it. Sources say Mr. Trump could shut down the Department of Education as early as this week.
Tom Foreman joins us now from Washington.
Just to clarify, this isn't the school suddenly closing?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, this is not. In fact, the role of the federal Department of Education is largely misunderstood, I would argue, even in the United States, the federal Department of Education helps administer a total of about 8 percent of the school's budgets around the country, basically federal money, 8 percent, which comes from a combination of the Department of Education and some other federal departments.
What does the department actually do with that? Well, they administer some programs for kids who come from poorer families, for some kids who have some disabilities. They oversee federal financial aid. They investigate discrimination complaints, and they come up with a yearly report card that says how well American students are doing on math and on reading and on writing and things like that.
That's really the bulk of what they do. Most of education in this country is managed by state and local school districts. They fund it, they decide what it's all about.
So the Department of Education at the federal level does not set the curriculum for K through 12. It does not tell schools what to teach. It doesn't certify teachers and it doesn't establish graduation requirements.
Why the right wants to get rid of it? Well, it's been around for a long time, Max. They complain about the degree to which they do lean on schools, to be fair to people to recognize civil rights. And they're saying, well, well just get rid of this whole department.
But important to note, that doesn't necessarily mean they're getting rid of the spending, because all of that can be allocated to different departments. Much of it existed in different departments before Jimmy Carter formed the current iteration of this department back in 1979.
So unless if you want to get at that $28 billion a year, that is part of the federal funding, you're going to have to get rid of these programs. That's what the Congressional Budget Office says in a survey of this whole matter.
And if you get rid of these programs, that means you are actually going to take programs away from working class Americans and their children out there. There's almost no other way to afford it, because just wiping out the department, no real savings there, some money, but nothing like what DOGE is allegedly after here, Max.
FOSTER: Yeah, it's going to affect a lot of people. Thank you, Tom, for bringing us that.
And now some tariffs now officially on hold. The White House says automakers should take the month-long reprieve to work towards bringing auto production back to the U.S.
CNN's Jason Carroll spoke with autoworkers in Detroit or the area, and they face a pretty uncertain future, too.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When it comes to the auto industry, Sterling Heights just might be the economic engine driving the motor city. There are three major automakers in this Detroit suburb alone, and city officials say some 40 percent of residents here have jobs in or related to the auto industry.
So no surprise, the topic on the minds of many here are the what ifs when it comes to tariffs.
LORENZO CASTELLANO, AUTO WORKER: I think the tariffs will hurt.
CARROLL: Oh, you think they're going to hurt.
CASTELLANO: Yeah, I do. I personally do, because if it's too high, then we're not -- they're not going to want to deal with us, right?
NIKKI JONES, AUTO WORKER: We might not see it maybe right away, but it's going to hurt down the line.
CARROLL: Nikki Jones has been an autoworker for more than a decade.
[15:20:01]
She worries about what tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico would mean for consumers and jobs.
Are there any concerns that that eventually those in your industry could lose jobs?
JONES: Possibly because if no one is buying cars, we're going to get laid off. It's a trickle effect.
JORDAN WLADISCHKIN, AUTO PARTS SELLER: It might get worse at first.
CARROLL: But that's where the agreement ends for Jordan Wladischkin. He says tariffs might trigger what he called short term economic struggles for consumers. In the long run, he's betting it will help U.S. auto workers and the economy.
WLADISCHKIN: It's definitely going to help. I feel like, you know, it's just going to bring jobs. I feel like to the American people.
CARROLL: Workers here are divided on how potential tariffs would impact their lives. Much of that division, drawn on political lines, so says recently retired autoworker Chris Vitale, who also supports the tariffs.
CHRIS VITALE, "AUTO WORKERS FOR TRUMP 2024": Trust me. Other countries, the reason they fear tariffs is because they know what tariffs do to their competitors. They destroy them because they've been using them against us for 40 years.
CARROLL: Sterling Heights Mayor Michael Taylor says he hears it all, and despite his own political leanings, years before Trump became president, he called himself a Republican, though now aligns more with Democrats. He worries what would happen if tariffs are imposed and last.
MICHAEL TAYLOR, STERLING HEIGHTS, MICHIGAN MAYOR: Even when I tell folks, you know, this is what it's going to -- this is what's going to happen to the auto industry in Sterling Heights. They still say, no, it'll be fine, believe me. President Trump has our best interests at heart. He's going to get -- he's going to make it work. So it's -- it's frustrating because the facts and the reality are different than -- than what they're saying.
CARROLL: Politics aside, an advocacy group representing the auto industry warned this on again, off again with tariffs could be damaging.
GLENN STEVENS JR., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MICHIGAN AUTO: The industry thrives on stability and instability or disruption or short term, you know, problems like this is not something that the industry does well.
CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, Detroit, Michigan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now, an interesting update here. An audio message from Pope Francis thanking well-wishers has been played out in St. Peter's Square, where worshipers have been gathering to -- to pray for his health. This is the first time we've heard the pope's voice since he was hospitalized three weeks ago with pneumonia.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
POPE FRANCIS, CATHOLIC CHURCH: I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health from the Square, I accompany you from here. May God bless you and the Virgin protect you. Thank you.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
FOSTER: He's obviously been having trouble breathing with the illnesses that he's had recently, but a real message there that he's still, you know, well in himself well enough to read that out. And so it's reassuring to a lot of people.
The Vatican says the pope's condition is stable. Doctors maintain his prognosis is reserved, though. Earlier this week, he suffered several episodes of respiratory failure.
We're going to go back to the auto sector now. And one car company we haven't mentioned yet is Tesla. And while Elon Musk is still close with President Donald Trump, he's starting to feel pressure from Wall Street. Tesla shares are down again today, whilst investors have piled into Tesla stock -- stock after Musk helped President Trump win the last election, nearly all of those gains are gone now. And this is why car buyers outside the U.S. are turning their backs on
Tesla. Look at those numbers. European sales down 50 percent in January. This is January and February. Sales in China much bigger market as well. Some would argue down 29 percent.
Let's go to Matt Egan who's in New York.
What's the issue here? Tesla or the global economy?
MATT EGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Max, there's a few factors here, right? Some of this is Tesla specific. The company faces a lot more competition from other automakers, notably ones in China.
Some of this is also about the overall economy, some softness in the U.S. economy, the market pulling back. And then there's also the Elon Musk factor here, right? Because after the election, we saw this stock go straight up. I think you can see it on that chart.
There was just so much excitement over Musk's role in helping to elect President Trump. And a lot of people are betting that Tesla was going to benefit from his close relationship here with -- with Trump.
That really has faded in a big way, right? The stock is down another 6 percent today, 35 percent in the red on the year. 95 percent of the post-election gains have really vanished.
And I think there is a sense of concern and surprise on Wall Street at just how visible of a role Musk has played in the Trump administration. I mean, he has not been a behind the scenes player, right? He's been front and center, leading DOGE and the efforts to slash federal spending and to lay off tens or even hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
[15:25:07]
We've seen Elon Musk popularity in the United States take a big hit. And some analysts are worried that this is going to do damage to the Tesla brand.
I mean, we have seen some hints of this. S&P Global Mobility found that in blue states, Tesla's repeat buyers and market share took a bit of a hit between the end of 2023 and the end of 2024. Here's -- the Tesla's numbers in red states pretty much held steady, but that's something that we need to watch as we start to get 2025 numbers.
More recently in Europe, as you mentioned, we saw that Tesla's sales plunge in Europe, even though overall EV sales were up very significantly. This coming, of course, as Musk has backed some hard right candidates.
So listen, I do think there are still plenty of Tesla bulls out there who believe in Elon Musk, and they're betting that the company is going to benefit from Musk's close relationship with the federal government, particularly around regulation and maybe getting some of his key initiatives like robotaxis approved.
But clearly, this Tesla boom has really slowed down in a dramatic way in just the past few weeks -- Max.
FOSTER: Yeah, interesting. Matt, thank you.
It's not just Tesla having a tough day on the markets, though. It's been a rough day for stocks all day on the eve of the crucial U.S. jobs report. So, down more than 1 percent. The Nasdaq has been down as much as 3 percent, though. "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" will have all of the updates for you and the look ahead to that report as well in the next hour.
Still to come this hour, can Donald Trump's special envoy mend the divide with Ukraine? Details ahead on the plans to form a peace framework between the U.S. and Ukrainian officials.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:30:14]
FOSTER: America and Ukraine's relationship is still on rocky ground. But efforts are being made to get peace talks back on track. Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, says he'll travel to Saudi Arabia to speak to Ukrainian officials about a ceasefire with Russia. Witkoff also says Ukrainian President Zelenskyy may be invited back to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE WITKOFF, UNITED STATES SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST: President Zelenskyy sent a letter to the president. I think the president thought that it was a really good, positive first step. And from that we have now -- we're now in discussions to coordinate a meeting with the Ukrainians. And I think the idea is to get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire -- ceasefire as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Nick Paton Walsh is in Kyiv for us tonight.
I'm sure. Zelenskyy never wants to see another meeting like that again. But he's got to go back with something, hasn't he, where they can announce something in front of the world media and give something more positive. So that's what this framework is about.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, the details of this framework are obviously key. In terms of Zelenskyy moving towards placating the Trump administration, we've seen over the last 48 hours him twice express how that Oval Office meeting, which many Ukrainians think was a public drubbing of their wartime commander. He's called it regrettable. That's to cede to one Trump administration, demand that he publicly apologize.
He's also said, as they always were, that they're willing to sign up to rare earth minerals deal. So maybe that will occur in this Riyadh meeting between the Trump and Zelenskyy teams, and also to commit to peace has been something else Zelenskyy repeatedly said. The issue for Kyiv is exactly what kind of peace they're being asked to sign up to, and this March 10th meeting is something that Zelenskyy said he would do after delaying an earlier plan to go to Riyadh that he canceled because the United States was meeting the Russian team in Riyadh at that particular time and apparently leaving him out of the picture at that moment.
So a lot of tension, frankly, leading up to this meeting, and it will be key to see what exactly the United States demand of Ukraine. They've cast themselves in the last 24 hours, no longer really, as United States -- sorry, Ukraine's specific ally, but more an intermediary between the two sides of this war here, despite the fact that Russia is an aggressor, according to all of the America's European allies, Ukraine itself and the previous Biden administration.
So I think the Trump administration are trying to be sure they don't offend the Russians to get them to agree to a deal. But exactly what they're asking of Ukraine at this stage isn't clear to Ukrainians. What is clear is that they urgently need that U.S. military assistance and intelligence sharing to resume pretty much immediately, or they'll start seeing significant losses in their civilian areas without U.S. air defense on their side and on the front line, without the intelligence they require to know what the Russians are up to.
So it's constantly changing. There is possibly a positive sign in this Saudi Arabia meeting, but until we actually see the United States essentially put Ukraine back to where it was 45, 46 days ago, prior to the Trump administration taking office, Ukrainians will consider themselves to be at a loss and be nervous as to exactly what Moscow might be persuading Washington to ask of them in terms of a peace deal, Max.
FOSTER: In terms of the meetings we've seen in Europe, there's so many different elements to tie up together here. In terms of defense intelligence sharing, we've talked about how U.S. might be cutting it off to Ukraine, but do you really see a situation where Europe has got enough to offer Ukraine to defend it without the support from the U.S.?
WALSH: I mean, I think it's less a question of whether they have enough to offer Ukraine. The Ukrainians are very much going to take whatever they possibly can get in terms of assistance. The European plan, whoever you speak to is, I think, desperately trying to shore itself up and act as though it could function without U.S. assistance and spending money on European defense, on assisting Ukraine and trying to imagine the concept of a world without American backing.
FOSTER: I'm sorry to interrupt. Sorry about that.
We were just getting the most recent pictures in from the White House. President Trump signing executive orders.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We help them out with the problem they were having, having to do with the tariffs, short term tariffs. And we had a very good conversation. Also, we discussed drugs and they were working much harder lately. Do
you notice that on people coming in and drugs. And we've made tremendous progress on both.
REPORTER: President Trump, what's your thought about why the markets are so spooked? Do you think they don't like the tariffs or do they not like the uncertainty with some of the changes that have been -- the carve-outs?
[15:35:06]
TRUMP: Well, a lot of them are globalist countries and companies that won't be doing as well because we're taking back things that have been taken from us many years ago. We've been treated very unfairly as a country.
We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries, and a lot of these are globalist in nature. You know, they have if you're outside of the United States, you know, it's going to be a little bit different.
We just weren't treated right. We were ripped off as a country. I've been saying it for a long time, and I did it to a certain extent in the first administration. But with COVID coming in, we had a focus on that toward the end.
But we had the greatest economy in history in the first administration, and I think we'll do even better now. But this is something that we have to do. There'll always be a little short term interruption. I don't think it's going to be big, but, the countries and companies that have been ripping us aren't particularly happy with what I'm doing.
But the United States will be very happy. And, you know, our farmers are going to be very happy. And again, there'll be disruption.
But in the end, I said it before with China. We signed an unbelievable deal with China, $50 billion in purchases, and we're doing great. Biden, however, when he came in, he never -- they never enforced that deal.
So -- so that's the only thing that basically you have globalist companies that have been ripping us off that wont be able to rip us off any longer. I think that's what the big charge is.
REPORTER: Have you been influenced -- some of these exemptions that have been announced and some of these temporary delays, have you been influenced in those decisions because of the market reaction?
TRUMP: Well, there are no delays at all. No, nothing to do with the market. I'm not even looking at the market because long term, the United States will be very strong with what's happening here.
Now, these are countries and companies, foreign companies that have been ripping us off. And no president did anything about it until I came along. And then I did a lot about it. You know, we took in in tariffs from China, $600 billion. Nobody else took in 10 cents from China. They never did.
But when COVID came along, we had a focus on COVID. We did a great job. We got rid of that.
We ended up handing over with a market that was higher than it was previous to COVID coming in, but this is very much about companies and countries that have ripped off this country, our country, our beloved USA. And they're not going to be ripping us off anymore. So, you know, I think that has an impact on the market.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, this is a -- this is a slate of nominees that's been prepared by the Presidential Personnel Office. It includes a number of subcabinet level appointments, a number of your ambassadors that have been previously announced. And also, crucially, given the administration's concerted effort to focus on violent crime, it includes a number of U.S. attorneys in major cities that have real crime problems.
TRUMP: Okay, some very good people, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir.
And then we have a number of ceremonial proclamations that Lindsey Halligan is going to --
LINDSEY HALLIGAN, ATTORNEY: Thank you.
TRUMP: All right.
HALLIGAN: So, two very special proclamations, the first of which is a proclamation that proclaims March 2025 as Women's History Month in honor of all the wonderful women in your administration, all the wonderful women in America, and in -- in honor of everything you've done for women in this administration, has done for women, and just what, a month and a half. So --
TRUMP: Yeah, we've done a lot and women have done a lot for us, right? This is an honor.
We have a wonderful woman here, Maria Bartiromo.
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS HOST: Thank you so much.
TRUMP: Nice to have you, Maria.
BARTIROMO: Thank you very much, Mr. President, and thanks for all that you're doing for women.
TRUMP: Thank you. She's going to do an interview of me later. Maybe I shouldn't do this interview. I should be like Biden not doing the interviews.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: That's great. Women, we love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, too, sir.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Lindsey.
HALLIGAN: So the second one is a proclamation proclaiming March 2025 as Irish American Heritage Month in honor of -- to commemorate our amazing friendship between America and Ireland and to -- just honor all of the Irish Americans. And I'm a little bit biased because I'm American and Irish, but --
TRUMP: Good. Well, a great people. A great people.
HALLIGAN: St. Patrick's Day is coming up as well.
TRUMP: And they voted for me in heavy numbers, so I like them even more. You have to like it. You know, you're not supposed to, but you have to like that.
[15:40:05]
All right. So for the Irish American people, proclamation.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Lindsey.
REPORTER: Mr. President, your envoy, Steve Witkoff, told us a little while ago that if Hamas does not release hostages, that the U.S. and Israel could take some action. What does that mean in your eyes? Is that military action? Would you join strikes with Israel?
TRUMP: Well, you're going to find out? I had the honor of spending a lot of time yesterday with quite a few of the people that we got out, and I can't believe how badly treated they were, really badly treated. The stories that you wouldn't even believe. Some of it was documented, some of it was so bad you couldn't really -- I don't think you could put it on. And it's a shame.
And -- and they said one thing. They have 59 hostages, of which many of them are killed. They want to know if we could just continue. They said, without us -- look, Biden wasn't able to get anybody out. We came along and they started releasing.
But we have 59 left, of which 24 are living. The rest are dead.
And we -- I put out a statement. It's sort of self-explanatory, I think, but somebody's going to have to get a lot rougher than they're getting. It's a shame. And those 24 that are living because they were with them just two weeks ago or three weeks ago, depending on when they got out. But they said they're in very bad shape.
REPORTER: You spoke today with your cabinet members and Elon Musk.
TRUMP: I did.
REPORTER: What did you tell them in regards to Elon Musk and his authorities to carry out actions?
TRUMP: We had a great meeting. We had Elon and we had some of the representatives for, you know, the business reps. We also had most of the cabinet members, not all of them. It doesn't really pertain to all of them, but many of them.
And I thought it was a really good meeting. It was about cutting because we have everybody knows the country is way out of control in terms of the number of people. We have many people that don't work. We have many people probably that aren't even living, that are getting checks.
And we're finding all of that out and it's being reported. We're going to save hundreds of billions of dollars. We've already saved a lot, and parts of it are contracts that are expired, that we're paying on many crazy things that, you know, you can see it happening, it shouldn't happen, but you can see it happening.
You see a lot of it being put out. But the other thing I think most important for today, I want the cabinet members to keep good people. I don't want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut. I want the cabinet members to keep the good people and the people that aren't doing a good job, that are unreliable, don't show up to work, et cetera. Those people can be cut.
So I had a meeting and I said, I want the cabinet members go first. Keep all the people you want, everybody that you need, and it would be better if they were there for two years instead of two weeks, because in two years they'll know the people better.
But I want them to do the best job they can, when we have good people, those -- that's precious, that's very important. And we want them to keep the good people. And so we're going to be watching them. And Elon and the group are going to be watching them. And if they can cut, it's better. And if they don't cut, then Elon will do the cutting.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: So, Mr. President, is that a reflection that you think DOGE and Elon Musk have been moving too quickly?
TRUMP: No, no, I think they've done an amazing job. They've done an amazing job. And look at what they found. I read it the other night in the speech. I mean, they found these things where billions of dollars has been poured down the drain to things.
That's not about people, that's about contracts where billions and billions of dollars was just thrown out the window. It probably got kickbacks. I'm sure there were tremendous kickbacks for the people that authorized those contracts.
But no, Elon has been really teaching everybody about the numbers that you can do. But what I want is I want the numbers, but I also want to keep the good people. We want to get rid of the people that aren't working, that aren't showing up and have a lot of problems. And so, they're working together with Elon. And I think we're doing a really great job.
We're cutting it down. We have to for the sake of our country, we have -- you can't have that kind of fat. It's bloat and -- like nobody's ever seen before where you need 20,000 and they have 120,000 people and you just don't need that many.
And it happens with companies and it happens with governments. I guess you could go to a lot of governments. You'd see the same thing. But we're trying to get it down.
We want to be able -- next year, if we could balance the budget, I think there's a good chance we could balance the budget next year. We have a lot of good things happening.
Plus, we have a lot of revenue things happening, like today with the shipbuilding and this gentleman behind me is going to create a lot of jobs.
[15:45:05]
And he's about the biggest there is in the world. We had the biggest chip maker in the world here a few days ago. He's going to be spending $200 billion on building plants.
We're not giving them any money to build it either. You know, it's not that chip act is ridiculous where the Biden thing, where they give billions of dollars to people that have nothing but money, they're not going to spend that money. They're just taking that money.
We're giving nothing. They're coming in because of the tariffs, because they don't want to pay the tariffs and they're opening up big.
So -- but with respect to people, I said, I want to cut the people, but I want to keep the good people.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: President Trump, on tariffs, sir, can you walk us through the next steps on this? Steel and aluminum tariffs are due to kick in next week on Canada, Mexico and every other country.
TRUMP: Right.
REPORTER: Are those going to be modified as well?
TRUMP: No, those are modified. Those are happening next week. And the big one will be on April 2nd when reciprocal tariffs. So if India or China or any of the countries that really -- India is a very high tariff nation, I'll tell you what's a high tariff nation is Canada. Canada charges us 250 percent for our milk product and other product, and a tremendous tariff on lumber and things as such.
And yet we don't need their lumber. We have more lumber than they do. We don't need Canada's lumber. So what I'm doing is I'll be signing an executive order, freeing up our forests so that were allowed to take down trees and make a lot of money, and then re-harvest trees. Also, we're cutting fire divides. A fire divide is a 50-yard to a 70-
yard swath where the trees can't, you know, it's long enough. So, trees don't burn forever until you can get them out. And those trees can be sold and made a lot of money with. So -- but we'll be doing that.
We don't need trees from Canada. We don't need cars from Canada. We don't need energy from Canada. We don't need anything from Canada.
So, where we can be self-sustaining, which is in most things. Look, we have more oil and gas than anybody. Our forests are massive, massive forests. We're just not allowed to use them because of the environmental lunatics that stopped us.
So I'm going to be freeing that up very shortly, so that we don't have to go to other countries to buy lumber. You know, why should we be buying lumber from other countries, paying tariffs, paying big prices, extraordinary prices? And we have lumber. We have the best lumber.
Go ahead.
REPORTER: And this USMCA exemption, they're essentially announcing today for this one month.
TRUMP: Just -- it's just a modification short term because I didn't want to hurt the American -- it would have hurt the American car companies if I did that.
REPORTER: Would you consider the same sort of exemption or pause for the auto tariffs you're talking about next month?
TRUMP: We're not looking at that, no.
REPORTER: Not --
TRUMP: No, we're not looking at that. No, no.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: TPS for the Ukrainians who live here in the U.S.
TRUMP: What about it?
REPORTER: Are you considering revoking the TPS status for the more than 200,000 Ukrainians who live here in the U.S.?
TRUMP: Oh, what? What are you saying? I don't --
REPORTER: Yeah, the Ukrainians that are here in the U.S., they're under a TPS status.
TRUMP: On GPS?
REPORTER: TPS, temporary.
TRUMP: Oh, I thought you said GPS. Yeah. REPORTER: There were some news saying that they were going to be revoked and they were going to be deported from the country. Are you considering that?
TRUMP: Well, we're not looking to hurt anybody, and we're certainly not looking to hurt them. And I'm looking at that. And there were some people that think that's appropriate and some people don't. And I'll be making a decision pretty soon, okay?
REPORTER: President Trump --
TRUMP: But we're not -- we're not looking to hurt them. President Trump, especially Ukrainians, they've gone through a lot.
Yeah, Peter?
REPORTER: The clocks are going to spring forward on Sunday. When are you going to get rid of daylight savings time?
TRUMP: Okay. Are you ready? So this should be the easiest one of all. But it's a 50-50 issue. And if something's a 50-50 issue, it's hard to get excited about it.
I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don't want to take their kids to school in the dark, and it's very much -- it's a little bit one way, but it's very much a 50-50 issue and it's something I can do. But a lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way.
It's very even. And usually I find when that's the case, what else do we have to do?
REPORTER: And I got to ask, because you were talking about this in your joint address. You were talking about Butler. It's been seven months. Why do you think we don't know more about the guy who shot you in the ear?
TRUMP: Yeah, well, and the second one with all of his cell phones. So I want to find the answers I've told them. In fact, today I said, I want to find -- we can no longer blame Biden for that one. She -- he should have released that a long time ago.
So they are giving me a report next week sometime.
[15:50:02]
And I do believe I'll be releasing. I want to release the report.
A lot of people have asked that question. You had one who had three apps, two of which were foreign, supposedly, and who has the biggest white shoe law firm in Pennsylvania, even though they don't live in necessarily a white shoe area? What's that all about? Is law -- you know, the law firm.
The other one had seven or six cell phones, and I don't have six cell phones. And why would somebody have six cell phones? So we're going to be releasing a report on that soon, Peter.
REPORTER: But based on what you're saying right there, the lack of information and the data points that you just gave, does that make you think that there's some part of -- that there's some bigger --
TRUMP: It could be. Well, it makes other people think that. It makes me think it a little bit too. I say when you have three apps and two of them are foreign. And you had an FBI that wouldn't report on it, they didn't want to say why. I would say that could be suspicious.
And then on the second assassin, you had, you know, and by the way, I have to tell you, Secret Service did a great job on that by spotting them. But on the second one, he had six cell phones. That's a lot of cell phones. And a couple of them had some strange markings on them.
So yeah, I want to find out and I would be willing to release it. I mean, maybe there's a reason that we shouldn't. So I don't want to get too far ahead of my skis. But yeah, I wouldn't be very willing to release that. I'd like to see it. I want to see it myself.
REPORTER: Mr. President --
TRUMP: Not only you, I want to see that one myself.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: Mr. President --
REPORTER: May I?
TRUMP: Yes.
REPORTER: President Macron yesterday said that France was ready to offer its nuclear protection to other European countries. What do you make of it? And in this case, would the U.S. also maintain a nuclear umbrella for European countries?
TRUMP: Well, France is also willing to put soldiers into Ukraine for safety reasons if we can get it. I will say that we've made a lot of progress with Ukraine and a lot of progress with Russia over the last couple of days, and it would be great to bring that to an end. So we don't have to talk that way about nuclear.
It'd be great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons. You know, we have Russia and us have by far the most. China will have an equal amount within four or five years. And it would be great if we could all denuclearize, because the power of nuclear weapons is crazy, is crazy.
And, you know, I was very far along a process with Russia despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, which didn't make it easy. It was a total hoax, a total rigged hoax by some bad people. But despite that, I was very close to having a program with Russia, a denuclearization, and we were going to get China -- I spoke to President Xi about it, and he would have been very happy to have gone along with it. But bad things happened, like an election that was rigged happened.
And so we had to come back four years later. But I would very much like to start those talks. The opposite of what you say the denuclearization would be incredible.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: Mr. President, auto tariffs that you were talking about. I know yesterday you spoke with the Big Three. Did you tell them that no more exemptions were on the way and what was their reaction?
TRUMP: I told them that's it. This was a short term deal. And they came back to me yesterday. They said, could we have some help on the tariffs because of the speed?
And I said, look, I'm going to do it, but that's it. Don't come back to me after the 2nd -- April 2nd. I don't want to hear from you after April 2nd. We're not going to be doing it anymore. I want to help them.
REPORTER: What was their response?
TRUMP: They didn't complain, but I helped him short term, during this short term transition. April 2nd is going to be a very big day for America.
REPORTER: Mr. President, Mr. President --
REPORTER: My understanding is that the long standing U.S. policy is that we do not negotiate with terrorists. So how did you come to the decision to send somebody from your team to negotiate with Hamas?
TRUMP: We are having discussions with Hamas. We are helping Israel in those discussions because were talking about Israeli hostages and we're not doing anything in terms of Hamas. We're not giving cash. We're not giving 6 billion, like you hear other administrations give.
And in fact, I got 59 hostages out and we gave nothing. In 59, we gave nothing, not including what's going on with Hamas. I mean, I consider that something where we're helping Israel for the most part. We had a couple of hostages, as you know. We got a couple of hostages out, American hostages.
REPORTER: Mr. President --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: But certainly, Peter, you know, I do have to negotiate. There's a difference between negotiating and paying. We want to get these people out.
[16:55:01]
If you would have seen the people yesterday, maybe you did, I don't know, but if you would have seen them the way they spoke about their captivity, it was unbelievable. It's terrible. REPORTER: Are you thinking about making any changes to NATO where a
NATO country gets attacked, but they're not paying enough dues, so the United States doesn't defend them?
TRUMP: Well, I've said that to them. I said, if you're not going to pay, were not going to defend. I said that seven years ago. And because of that, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars.
I said, if you're not going to pay your bills, we're not going to defend you. And it also went for the attack.
But if they got attacked, they said, well, does that mean you won't defend us? I said, are you current or are you delinquent? They said, if we were delinquent, would you? I said, nope, I would not.
And because of that, as you know, hundreds of billions of dollars came into, you wouldn't have NATO right now if I weren't there. And your previous secretary general has said that. He said he's never seen anything like it.
When I came to NATO, when I first had my first meeting, I noticed that people weren't paying their bills at all. And I said I should wait until my second meeting. And I did, and I brought that up and I said, if you don't pay your bills, we're not going to participate. We're not going to protect you.
And when I said that, as soon as I said that, it was amazing how the money came in, the money came in and now they have money. But even now, it's not enough. It's really not enough. They should be paying more.
REPORTER: Mr. President, a question on the investment, sir. You've overseen. About $2 trillion worth of domestic private sector investments come in, in just about two months. This is the newest one. It comes after your announcement of a new shipbuilding office at the White House during your joint session to Congress.
Can you talk about why this is important, not only for national security, but to continue the renaissance of domestic manufacturing?
TRUMP: Well, we have to maintain a strong country. We have to maintain and we want to pay off debt. We have a lot of debt, but that'll start coming off quickly when this all comes around.
Look, we've been supporting the whole world. You mentioned NATO and you mentioned other things. We've been supporting the whole world.
When I first came in, we were paying almost 100 percent of NATO. NATO was -- it was crazy. We were supporting NATO. We were paying the bills for other countries. And yet those same countries, mostly European, you know, the European countries were ripping us off in trade.
They won't take our cars. They wouldn't take our agricultural products. They wouldn't take anything. We were taking their cars by the millions, Mercedes and BMW, and Volkswagen, all of them.
We were taking their cars. They weren't taking it. We were taking their farm products. They weren't taking ours. It was a total rip off.
And yet we were protecting them by giving them the money. And, you know, that adds up to a bad -- a bad number at the end of a lot of years. And that's what happened. And now it's time for this country to stop being ripped off.
I had that done very much in the first administration, but then we had to focus on other things at the very end with COVID and -- but we had the greatest economy in history. We had the greatest economy in history. I think we're going to redo it here.
But even better, and I wanted to do what were doing now in the first term, but we had so many other things to do. We had to fix the border, which we did. We had to fix our military. We rebuilt our military.
We completely rebuilt the military, only to watch Biden give so much of it away to Afghanistan. If you can believe it, it's not even believable. It's not even believable. What he did, the damage that that man did or that administration did to this country is -- is frankly not even believable.
REPORTER: President Trump --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: And in particular -- and in particular, allowing millions and millions of people to come into our country, many of them were murderers and drug dealers and gang members and people from prison for very heinous crimes, for him to allow those people into our country. And now were spending tremendous amounts of time and effort. Nikki and Tom Homan, who's doing an unbelievable job.
But we shouldn't -- we shouldn't have to be spending anything on that. We had the safest border ever. Now we have actually, as you saw, the numbers just came out where we have actually the lowest numbers in the history of our country, but we shouldn't have had to do that.
What we -- what we're doing now is were looking for murderers. Can you believe it? We're looking for murderers because thousands of murderers, some -- some about 50 percent -- killed more than one person. One killed 5 or 7. And we're looking for those people right now. We shouldn't have to be looking for.
REPORTER: President Trump, on Peter's question, are you going to make that policy, U.S. policy that the U.S. wouldn't defend NATO countries that don't pay?
TRUMP: Well, I think it's common sense, right? If they don't pay, I'm not going to defend them. No, I'm not going to defend them. I got into a lot of heat when I said that.
You said, oh, he's violating NATO. And you know, the biggest problem I have with --
