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Deadly Storms Tear Through Central U.S. Causing Widespread Damage; Tariff Whiplash Leads To Rocky Week For Wall Street; Source: Witkoff To Debrief Trump About Meeting With Putin, Sudiksha Konanki Last Seen On Dominican Republic Beach March 6; DOGE Takeover Causing Havoc At The IRS Ahead Of Tax Day; IRS Staffers Describe Atmosphere Of Intimidation Created By DOGE; New Prime Minister: Canada "Will Never, Ever" Be Part Of The U.S.; Trade War Fears in U.S.-Canadian Border Towns. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired March 15, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:41]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York and right now, a wave of severe storms tearing apart -- tearing across parts of the Central and Southeast United States. A second round of this really harsh weather following a deadly tornado outbreak overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it is here. It's here.

Look at all of that debris. Oh my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in a tornado.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in a tornado.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: At least 12 people have been killed in Missouri connected to this severe weather from the storm, as well as three deaths in Arkansas and three deaths in Texas.

Meteorologist, Derek Van Dam is joining us now live.

Derek, you have been monitoring this band of storms all evening and it continues to make its way eastward. What are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Jessica, as anticipated, this is a particularly dangerous tornado outbreak that is ongoing across the southern portions of the U.S. We have been tracking simultaneous eight to 12 different tornado warnings that have been ongoing with this system.

We have multiple ongoing tornado warnings, and I want to focus in on the southeastern sections of Mississippi, particularly this area known as Taylorsville, Mississippi. It is in Smith County. What you're looking at right now is video of a funnel cloud, and my producer, Gene Norman, is going to put up a special, what is called a velocity scan.

So right now, you're looking at rainfall. And now were going to take an -ray into the eye of the storm basically and I want to show you Taylorsville, the area that you're looking at video of a confirmed tornado and what you're looking at here is actually wind.

So this scope that we've put on is no longer rain. We are looking at winds moving away from the radar and winds moving towards the radar, and that gives us an indication of where tornadoes have developed.

So here is Taylorsville where you see the funnel cloud. Watch that one, two, three confirmed tornadoes move over the same location in the period of an hour.

So that just gives you an idea of the type of chaotic nature that we are dealing with, with this tornado outbreak that is ongoing as we speak.

Now, the same storm system that brought the tornado to Taylorsville is now moving through Meridian, a beautiful city located near the border of Mississippi and Alabama, and it continues to move north and east. You can see some of the cities in its direct path, and then there was a tornado warned storm that has been on the ground for at least a hundred miles for the past several hours, racing across northwestern sections of Alabama.

There were tornado warned storms just east of Nashville. Again, this is part of a broader storm that is bringing the tornadic outbreak across this area. And now, we have to focus our attention this evening on the potential of nocturnal tornadoes, which, of course, are some of the most dangerous tornadoes because it catches people off guard. People go to bed.

It is critical if you live in and around the Atlanta Metro region, that you have multiple ways to receive weather emergency alerts. Do not rely on a tornado siren to wake you up in the middle of the night. You need to have that. Notification setting ticked to "on" on your, perhaps your iPhone or your Samsung phone because it is so incredibly crucial that you get that information when you are in your deep sleep tonight.

On top of that, to make the situation more complex is the ongoing flood threat that is ongoing. Look at Nashville. You're in a flash flood warning as we speak. These storms are training over the same locations, one to two-inch rainfall rates per hour and that is causing localized urban flash flooding. You can see the greatest risk for that. And then, of course, our severe threat moves eastward tomorrow to the eastern seaboard.

So a very complex dynamic storm system, multiple tornado warned storms and Taylorsville, we are trying to get more information out of that region in Southeastern Mississippi. It was hit hard and we saw it there on the radar just a moment ago -- Jessica.

[18:05:00] DEAN: So scary. And Derek, a good reminder for everyone, anyone that could possibly be in that storm's path tonight. Make sure that you can get those alerts.

Thank you so much for all of that.

A volatile week for Wall Street, ending with a relief rally, but still deeply in the red. After a three-week slide. Wall Street is now considering much higher chances of a recession in the United States amid President Trump's escalating trade wars and tariff threats. And now we have evidence, it is also making Americans more worried about their economic future.

A new survey shows consumer sentiment falling nearly 11 percent this month to its lowest mark in more than two years, and Americans are starting to point fingers. New CNN polling showing more than half of U.S. adults disapprove of President Trump's handling of the economy.

Joining us now is Gillian Tett. She is a columnist for "The Financial Times."

Gillian, thank you so much for being here with us. Obviously, the economy, a huge issue, a defining issue in the election. It is a huge part of why Trump was elected and the trump administration is sticking to this economic policy, despite the pressures that we are seeing from Wall Street.

What is your sense of their game plan here? And do you think it could pay off?

GILLIAN TETT, EDITORIAL BOARD CHAIR AND US EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "THE FINANCIAL TIMES": Well, one way to explain this crazy volatility that's hurting so many Americans in the stock market right now is that there is growing concern that the tariffs are going to spark a wild- scale recession. So that's certainly one very big issue hanging on the markets.

The other factor though is that last week was a week when investors realized that the so-called Trump putt, which people thought was working in the first administration, and by the word Trump putt, I mean that basically if the stock market fell too much, Trump would reverse his policies to push the market back up again.

So there was a putt. There was a floor for the stock prices and that that doesn't work anymore, because it appears that some of Trump's advisers have taken the view that there needs to be a so-called detox the economy to quote the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a sense that they need to go through some kind of purging period of pain to re-orientate the entire structure of the economy away from the kind of financialized froth that we've seen on Wall Street, back to things like industry and manufacturing.

So as investors have digested that, they've begun to get concerned that even if stock prices keep falling, President Trump may not actually act. DEAN: Right. And that is quite, as you note, different than what we have experienced previously with President Trump, who did keep an eye, a very close eye on the markets.

I am curious your thoughts on Scott Bessent's term that we need to detox the economy, detox the markets. Do you see any evidence to support that? What do you make of those comments?

TETT: Well, here is the thing. A lot of people right now are focusing on all the dramatic announcements around tariffs and the threats against other countries and they think that that is kind of the end in itself. And the reality is that that's really a tactic or a set of tactics to support a bigger vision about a strategy of trying to re- orientate America's economy and America's place in the world.

And people like Scott Bessent and Stephen Miran, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, laid this out last year in interviews and a big essay where they basically said that they hate the fact that America has been running huge trade deficits with countries like China. They think that it is not just about the trade deficit, it is also about the fact that non-Americans have put a lot of money into America to buy American assets.

There has been a big inflow of capital into America that they think has been very distorting, because it has pumped up the value of the dollar, it has created this very financialized economy, and it has really hurt a lot of industry.

So you put that all together and they want to basically re-orientate very fundamentally the way the American economy works. And the problem is you can't engage on that kind of -- or embark on that kind of dramatic reformation and transformation without a lot of upheaval.

And that is one of the key things that is weighing on a lot of investors' minds right now.

DEAN: And so what is it like then to be both an investor, somebody trying to do business in that environment and also, you know, an average American trying to plan for the next month and budget things out.

TETT: Well, if you are an investor right now, you're facing incredible uncertainty. In fact, there are people who put out economic policy uncertainty indicators in the markets, which judge the level of economic uncertainty and what is completely shocking is that these have exploded upwards in the last few weeks, and they're now a lot higher than they were during the great financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID panic in 2020 and that is extraordinary.

[18:10:10]

So investors are facing huge uncertainty about tariffs, but they are also facing huge uncertainty about the fundamental economic philosophy that's driving the administration, because it does seem quite different from what we've been used to in the last 40 years. And if you're an ordinary American, well, we can just see what is happening in terms of the consumer confidence indicators and what is really important right now is not only is confidence falling quite fast, but concern about inflation has jumped up dramatically, primarily because of tariffs and that's quite a nasty cocktail.

So the question now is really who is going to blink first? Will it be President Trump who sees this data and says we have to change course. We can't afford to keep riding this wave of negativity? Or will the markets eventually get used to the idea that President Trump does want to embark on significant reforms that he believes are going to be good for the economy in the long term, but in the short term could actually mean quite a lot of pain.

DEAN: Yes, and you mentioned something I think is so interesting, the changing of what has been a long held economic philosophy here in the United States and with our economy both domestically, but also our place globally and it strikes me as interesting because the Trump administration, President Trump is wholesale reorienting America's place abroad, how our government works at home.

You can put the economy kind of in that as well, based on kind of what you're explaining, which is a change, a shift in a long held philosophy.

TETT: I think you're absolutely right, because anyone who is watching, who is old enough to remember the 1950s and 1960s will know that back then, in the decades after World War II, there was a dominant philosophy, which was very much around John Maynard Keynes, Keynesianism. I am also Provost of Kings College in Cambridge, where John Maynard Keynes came from and that very much shaped the way that economists imagined what government should do, which was to intervene pretty heavily.

Then, of course, in the 1980s, we had Ronald Reagan and the whole liberal free market economics revolution, and that really changed the philosophy and that has been in many ways the dominant theory for the last four decades.

What we have now is potentially, and I stress potentially, because these are ideas that are bubbling amongst some of Donald Trump's advisers, but not everybody and they could end up being kicked to the curb. So I say potentially, but what we have is a set of ideas amongst some of those advisers, which is potentially very different to do with the idea that first and foremost, there are issues like National Security that matter, it is all about power and politics and dominance of the global financial and economic system.

It is not about free trade in the way that most people who have done Economics 101 would have learned about it.

So there is really a big shift underway in how they imagine the world. And if these advisers continue to shape policy in spite of these market reactions, we could be embarking on a massive economic experiment in America. There are people, mainstream economists, who would say that this experiment is completely mad. It is going to end up being very damaging. There are concerns about the debt crisis, about inflation skyrocketing et cetera et cetera.

However, there are people around President Donald Trump right now who say that this is the only way to create a leaner, meaner, and more vibrant American economy in the long term. And the reality is, if this continues, we will be embarking on a huge experiment, and I am not sure that most voters, when they voted for President Donald Trump last year, actually understood the scale of potential shift, because most people assume that Donald Trump 2.0 would be roughly the same as the first administration, Trump 1.0 or maybe 1.5.

However, if they continue on this path and I stress the word if, that's very important, if they continue on this path, using things like tariffs as tactics to go for a bigger strategy of reorientating the American economy and its place in the world, then we are indeed going to see some pretty extraordinary moments that I can guarantee you will be in future economic history books.

DEAN: Well, it is really fascinating and I really appreciate all of that context because it is important to kind of zoom out for a minute and understand what we are seeing and what might unfold.

Gillian Tett, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.

TETT: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, Trump's top negotiators, who spent the last several days in Moscow, will give President Trump a face-to-face report on the meeting with Putin. What we know about the ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

Plus, we have new details about the man last known to be seen with a missing American college student who vanished while on spring break in the Dominican Republic.

[18:15:06]

We will talk with an investigator who worked on the Natalee Holloway case about what we know.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to make an appearance at Mar-a-Lago this weekend. A source telling CNN Witkoff will brief President Trump and his National Security team on his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

[18:20:07]

The two men meeting on Thursday in Moscow after Putin set out a series of tough conditions for peace with Ukraine.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is in West Palm Beach.

Kevin, what more are you hearing about all of this?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, officials have been taking a somewhat cautiously optimistic tone following this meeting that stretched late into the evening in Moscow on Thursday between Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin. And in fact, we heard from President Trump earlier today saying that all signs seem to be hopefully very good.

So you do get sort of positive noises coming out of the White House when it comes to the fate of this ceasefire, but at the end of the day, the position that Putin has taken is very different than the American position on this.

He has said that there must be some conditions for this 30-day pause in the fighting, including a pause on American weapons shipments to Ukraine, making sure that the Ukrainians aren't able to regroup on the battlefield.

He has also said that he has some questions about how this ceasefire will be verified, so it is clear that he was not an immediate yes, and that is a different position that Trump is taking at the end of the day. Trump wants the fighting to end immediately and in the interim, be able to come up with a broader, bigger pause to end the war completely.

What Putin seems to be advocating for is a greater pause right now, including with some of the concessions that he wants from the Ukrainians. So it remains to be seen how the two sides will bridge that gap.

You have heard some criticism from the Ukrainians towards Putin's position, saying essentially that he is trying to delay that this could be a tactic of his to continue the war. You've also heard from the Europeans, including from the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said that Putin's position was just not enough. And so you do hear some differences in all of the sides here.

One thing that Putin has made clear is that he wants to speak directly with President Trump on this very issue, and that phone call could potentially happen in the coming days, and that could be something that the President discusses with Witkoff down here in Florida.

He will be joined by the American National Security adviser, Mike Waltz, as well as the Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Now, Rubio just returned from a meeting of the G7 Foreign Ministers in Canada. One notable thing that emerged from that meeting in their final communique, was threatening new sanctions on Russia if it doesn't agree to this ceasefire, and President Trump has kept the possibility of new sanctions open, so that could also be a discussion as well, as he looks to pressure Putin to agree to this pause in fighting -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Kevin Liptak with the latest. Thank you very much for that.

And while the U.S. pursues talks with Russia, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is beginning a military plan to protect Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire deal.

Today, Starmer held a virtual summit of 25 countries of what he called the "Coalition of the Willing." CNN's Nic Robertson is following this angle for us -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Jessica, this virtual meeting lasted about two hours and one of the points the Prime Minister making was that it was bigger than the in-face gathering held in London two weeks ago, not just European partners, the "Coalition of the Willing" is what he talks about, not just European partners, not just European Union leaders, not just the NATO Secretary General, but the Prime Ministers of Japan, of New Zealand, of Australia, of Canada, so a broadening of the meeting.

And he said a lot had happened in those two weeks, specifically President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine signing up to President Trump's peace deal. This 30-day cessation, 30-day ceasefire that's been proposed, and he said as far as he can see, President Putin of Russia is not doing enough.

He said, let's look at actions. Let's not take his words. Let's see some actions, and for that point, he said they were going to apply this coalition of the willing, going to apply pressure on Russia to get Putin to the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We won't sit back and wait for Putin to act. Instead, we will keep pushing forward.

We agreed we will keep increasing the pressure on Russia, keep the military aid flowing to Ukraine and keep tightening the restrictions on Russia's economy to weaken Putin's war machine and bring him to the table.

And we agreed to accelerate our practical work to support a potential deal. So we will now move into an operational phase. Our militaries will meet on Thursday this week, here in the United Kingdom, to put strong and robust plans in place to swing in behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine's future security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:25:00]

ROBERTSON: Starmer didn't get into specifics about which country was going to give which contribution. He said more countries there, that there were more contributions put forward during the meeting. He was asked in the press conference about support from the United States. He said absolutely, President Trump, he said, absolutely committed to getting peace in Ukraine and all the support that comes with that. Now, President Zelenskyy, who was also on that virtual call, thanked the various leaders who were on it, also pointing out that there were more than previous saying it was important that these meetings were happening frequently.

But he said very clearly this was going to put more pressure on President Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Everybody understands that Ukraine needs help as never before. Everybody greeted that Ukraine with the real victory in Jeddah, the diplomatic victory, everybody considers that this is a serious progress.

And now Russia will -- it will be hard for Russia to get out of this situation. It has to show if it agrees to ceasefire, that it supports the end of the war, or it wants to go on with the war. And this is what everybody is expecting, and everybody will give signals both to the United States of America --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: President Zelenskyy also thanking President Trump again for his support, but also pointing out that Putin may not be telling the whole truth on the area of Kursk where Putin has said that Ukrainian troops are surrounded and President Trump had asked President Putin to spare the lives of those Ukrainian troops, and President Putin had come back and said he was offering them the opportunity to surrender.

But Zelenskyy is saying that actually, those Ukrainian troops are not surrounded and what he appears to be implying here is that Putin is trying to scam Trump -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Nic Robertson with the latest. Thank you very much.

Right now, Cuba is suffering a nationwide power outage that's left up to 10 million people in the dark. That blackout began last night after the country's power grid suddenly collapsed.

Officials are racing to restore service, but this weekend's outage marks the latest in a series of infrastructure failures on that island.

You may remember back in October, most of Cuba was in the dark for nearly an entire week.

Still ahead, large, long lived tornadoes are tearing across the south. We are live in Alabama ahead of the storms.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:31:59] DEAN: Breaking news this hour, as a powerful system of violent weather moves across the southern United States, states of emergency are now in effect from Mississippi to Georgia as forecasters warn of possible and probable tornadoes in the coming hours. Now, this outbreak is part of a massive storm system that's killed at least 18 people from Texas to Missouri. More than 236,000 homes and businesses in the region are without power now. We're going to continue to monitor this. We'll have an update for you at the top of the hour.

Meantime, University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki was last seen in the early morning hours of March 6th on the beach outside a hotel in the Dominican Republic. And now, the man who says he was with her just before she disappeared has spoken with police. Twenty-two- year-old Joshua Riibe told authorities that they were dragged out to sea by a powerful wave. He says he pulled the 20-year-old to safety but had to stop when he got back to shore because he was sick from swallowing so much seawater. Riibe says that he - when he looked up, Konanki was gone. He says he thought she just got her things and left the beach.

T.J. Ward is a private investigator who helped with the search for Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old who went missing in Aruba 20 years ago.

T.J., thanks so much for being here with us. I first just want to get your reaction to this story.

T.J. WARD, PRESIDENT & CEO, T.J. WARD AND ASSOCIATES: Thank you very much for having me. This - apparently he's interviewed again with law enforcement and his story has changed a little bit. Now, he said he's - had her by the arm, was pulling her out of the water just shortly before he got sick and had to throw up and passed out. And then, further law enforcement asked him why did you wait so long to tell law enforcement or somebody that she was missing 12 hours I believe it was about four o'clock. He's now lawyered up and said my lawyer said don't answer any more questions.

So, that's a kind of a real issue. This is somebody that wants to help find this young woman and now he's lawyered up and he's only a person of interest. He hasn't been charged with anything, so I don't understand why he's got to that level already but anyway he has.

This is a very - this reminds me so much of Aruba but it's not even funny. I mean, it's just like what happened there. And not only that, I called the mother twice and offered to come to the - come there to help her and I said I'll help you raise money through a GoFundMe to pay for me to come there. And because I think so - I have some of the tools of the trade and I know how to deal with law enforcement. I have a system called layered voice analysis and I can take any voice transmission of any interview that he had and I can tell you whether he's lying or hiding something. It's 95 percent accurate. I used it in Aruba and that's how I knew Van der Sloot was not telling the truth and (INAUDIBLE) ...

[18:35:03] DEAN: So, I do want to ask you, but as you know police have talked with Joshua Riibe several times since she went missing. They say he's not considered a suspect in her disappearance at this time. What more can they learn from him? What more would they like to know from him?

WARD: Well, again, he needs to cooperate with them. If he's not involved in any way shape or form then why did he wait 12 hours to tell somebody that she was missing? That's a long time. Even though if he got sick and passed out on the beach he got up and then later you saw him walking down the sidewalk with no shirt and no shoes.

So there - he needs to deal with law enforcement if he's not involved and stop changing the story. He needs to stick to a story of what he is, but now he's lawyered up and his lawyers don't want him to deal apparently with law enforcement anymore. But then, again, they're searching - I don't think - my personal opinion - that she didn't drown, because there was two other people apparently that drowned about six months ago and they found them in a very short period of time. And I think they know the area that he claims that they were in the water, so they would be able to find her body. There is a great deal of searching going on with boats, aircraft, now they're using drones and everything else.

So I believe that - I don't believe that she drowned. I really don't.

DEAN: And so ...

WARD: I don't know what else has happened.

DEAN: Yes. So, I do want to ask you - I mean, look, they are still trying to find her.

WARD: Exactly.

DEAN: What kind of challenges are they up against in trying to find her?

WARD: There - well, it's already been what - she left - she was went missing on the 6th, so it's been, what, nine days now that she's gone missing. So, I mean, this that's a little - that's challenging. And I can recall - you know, I spent almost 18 years trying to find Natalee Holloway and we finally got a somewhat of an admission, you know, last year from Joran van der Sloot about what transpired on the beach.

So, there's things that - they need to keep looking. They need to look at other things. The FBI is there. I'm gracious that they're there to try to help them. They have different caliber of searching for people and then probably this place is - they're just probably not trained to do this. And the FBI is there, and they are trained to do this. So, hopefully something will come up, something will change, something will break loose.

We have to look and see also - and I hate to bring this up - but if she's - if somebody's taken her, she's been kidnapped. I mean, this country's already been put on notice by the United States with people traveling there that there's crime and need to be careful going there. The problem with these young kids are going there, they think they can party and drink and have a good time, they're not thinking about the challenges of security issues that may come up.

So, there's still a lot of things that need to be looked at and I would hope that the family would take my consideration and come - let me come there and help them. I've been out of the country in four different locations to help people that locate individuals and find out what's happened with them substantially.

DEAN: All right. T.J. Ward, more to come on this. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

WARD: Thank you very much for having me.

DEAN: Yes. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:43:13]

DEAN: The Trump administration's mission to slash the size of government is causing havoc at the IRS. Since DOGE staffers set up shop inside the agency last month, thousands of workers have been fired. There are also plans to lay off nearly 20 percent of all IRS employees by mid-May. The IRS is also shutting down taxpayer assistance offices across the country, making it more difficult for people to get help with their taxes. CNN's Julia Benbrook is joining us now.

Julia, tax day is now a month away. This is crazy timing for all of this.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Awful timing for the uncertainty that these IRS workers are feeling right now as they prepare to see more cuts. Because as you detailed, we've already seen thousands of workers laid off and then they are expecting those massive layoffs May 15th - by May 15th. And that is expected to be nearly 20 percent of the entire workforce.

And new CNN reporting is really giving us a glimpse into how these IRS workers are feeling right now as they prepare to see more cuts. In interviews with CNN, multiple current and former IRS workers described the atmosphere there right now as one of intimidation. And one IRS worker who spoke with our team anonymously had this to say about how they see DOGE's recent actions.

They said, quote, "They just randomly drop by people's offices, demanding access to systems; they're bullying us and there's no discipline in what they're doing, which really worries me."

Another current IRS employee who works outside of Washington and is a local union leader has said that they are concerned about morale as they have seen workers in the office crying and managers going around and apologizing for firings that they didn't have anything to do with.

[18:45:01] Now, in response to some of that CNN reporting that I've just detailed, here's what White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. She said, quote, "This story is based on anonymous sources and the fraudsters always scream the loudest. The vast majority of Americans support President Trump rooting out waste, fraud and abuse."

What's taking place at the IRS is a part of the Trump administration's broad effort to shrink the size of the federal government. And recent CNN polling shows that the majority of Americans are concerned, with 62 percent saying that they think that these cuts could go too far and that important programs could be shut down, and just 37 percent saying that they're worried that the cuts don't go far enough in weeding out the waste, fraud and abuse that the Trump administration regularly references.

DEAN: All right. Julia Benbrook, thank you so much for that.

Still ahead, we're going to take you to a town near the U.S.-Canadian border trying to navigate how President Trump's new tariffs may hurt or impact their businesses. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:42]

DEAN: Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney was sworn in Friday in a ceremony overshadowed by the growing trade war with the United States and questions about Canada's very sovereignty after comments from President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: We will never, ever in any way, shape or form be part of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Those fears and questions are also hitting border towns on the American side. M.J. Lee has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVER MANNING, MANNING DAIRY FARM: So, we have 600 total cows in here, and they're all making over 85 pounds of milk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Fifteen miles south of the Canadian border, the Manning Dairy Farm has been in St. Albans for four generations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANNING: When the cows press against that brush, it's kind of a socializing thing ...

LEE (on camera): Oh, my gosh.

MANNING: ... .that they do and it keeps them clean, keeps them happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (voice over): Oliver and his friends are buzzing lately about their Canadian neighbors. From President Trump's threat of tariffs ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANNING: I have a couple friends with dual citizenship that aren't really pleased about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (voice over): ... to the suggestion that Canada become America's 51st state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANNING: Foolish. It's never going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (voice over): The Manning farm relies heavily on Canadian goods.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANNING: This feed right here, about 40 percent of that total mix right there is from Canada. Sawdust in the stalls, that's all out of Canada.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (voice over): And it, too, is stuck in the middle of the escalating trade war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANNING: It would be about $20,000 a month increase for a farm this size.

LEE (on camera): Wow.

MANNING: Yes, a lot.

LEE: And that's a lot, right?

MANNING: Yep. Yep, that's a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (voice over): One specific idea Trump has floated, slapping tariffs on Canadian dairy coming into the U.S. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANNING: Obviously, expanding our market would be great for U.S. dairy farmers, but if the cost of business is increased so much by doing that, then it would have to outweigh it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) for you today?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (voice over): Down the road at the Maple City Diner, Don Rucki is a regular.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON RUCKI, RETIREE LIVING IN VERMONT: It's my second time here today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (voice over): Here in St. Albans, where proximity to Canada is simply a way of life, there are some signs of the economic tensions spilling over into everyday life.

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LEE (on camera): Just - in your day-to-day life, you must come across Canadians all the time here, right?

RUCKI: I love Canadians. I've been going to the same camp since I'm six years old. Same camp in Ontario. I'm not sure I'm going to go this year. If there's a level of anger coming from both sides ...

LEE: Yes.

RUCKI: ... that makes me not feel that I would maybe feel safe or feel comfortable or - as an American being there. I don't want people to give me grief, because I'm an American in their country.

LEE: Yes.

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LEE (voice over): Don also says it's about time that the U.S. rethinks its approach.

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RUCKI: If they're not going to lower their tariffs, then we're going to apply the tariffs to them. I want things fair.

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LEE (voice over): At Mill River Brewing a few minutes away, owners Joyce and David Fitzgerald fully embrace St. Albans and their own Canadian connection.

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JOYCE FITZGERALD, CO-OWNER, MILL RIVER BREWING BBQ & SMOKEHOUSE: All my grandparents, all my great-aunts and uncles all came from Canada.

LEE (on camera): The proximity to Canada ...

J FITZGERALD: Yes.

LEE: ... like you're all used to it.

J FITZGERALD: It's a great little community. Everybody kind of supports each other.

LEE: Yes.

J FITZGERALD: Everybody kind of knows each other in a way.

LEE: Yes.

DAVID FITZGERALD, CO-OWNER, MILL RIVER BREWING BBQ & SMOKEHOUSE: This is where the magic happens.

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LEE (voice over): Their brew house in the back is filled with Canadian supplies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

D FITZGERALD: All of that malt is from Canada.

About 95 percent of everything coming in, our cans are made from aluminum from Canada.

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LEE (voice over): David and Joyce are bracing for the impact of the tariffs both on their business.

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LEE (on camera): When you heard the possibility of 50 percent tariffs on aluminum and steel coming from Canada, what was your reaction?

D FITZGERALD: I thought it was a nightmare. Potentially, it could be a game breaker for some breweries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (voice over): And their close-knit community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

D FITZGERALD: We love Canadians. I don't believe this has anything to do on a personal level ...

LEE (on camera): Mm-hmm.

D FITZGERALD: ... you know, between Americans and Canadians at all, if anything. I'm hoping this is going to strengthen our bond with each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE (voice over): M.J. Lee, CNN, St. Albans, Vermont.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: M.J., thank you.

Tomorrow, a new episode of "United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper" follows the story of Enron. Once revered as one of the most successful companies in America until large-scale fraud was revealed. Here's a preview.

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL WITH JAKE TAPPER": Americans love a visionary, someone bold and maybe kind of quirky, unafraid to challenge the status quo and launch us into the future.

[18:55:02]

But over the past few decades, we've learned that just because someone appears prescient, doesn't mean you should give them all your trust and all of your money. In the '90s, Enron brought us the ultimate visionary, Jeffrey Skilling.

Before 2001, the energy company stock seemed unstoppable until the company went bust, and the world learned that its top executives were as crooked as Enron's logo.

But when I was covering this story, what made my jaw drop was how hardly anyone understood how the company actually made money. Enron was only able to implode because so few people publicly questioned the sky-high financial returns, even when the math clearly didn't add up. At what point does our faith in a visionary devolve into group think and cost us everything?

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DEAN: You can tune in. A new episode of "United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper" airs tomorrow night at 9 Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.

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