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Trump's Tariffs Spark Chaos, Confusion And Uncertainty; 17 Dead As Tornadoes, Widespread Flooding Pound Central U.S.; Tornado Watch In Effect For Parts Of Alabama, Florida And Georgia; Coffee Importers Bracing For Increase In Costs; American Wine Industry Faces Sweeping Tariffs; Mexico Bolsters Some Domestic Production After Trump Tariffs. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired April 06, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Trump used at the White House to announce a list of reciprocal tariffs against foreign countries. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES AUSTIN JOHNSON, AS DONALD TRUMP: Now it's time for the really big piece of cardboard.

Howard, you want to bring that up, please? This is Howard, my commerce secretary. Howard Lutnick, everybody. Look at him. Let me get that giant cardboard. I love this. Here we go.

Howard, this is a Cheesecake Factory menu, Howard. This is for the luncheon after, OK? I'm getting bang-bang tacos. Give me this. Thank you.

Look at it. It's beautiful. We spent so much time and frankly, millions of dollars on this piece of cardboard. And we listed the countries in an order that's neither alphabetical nor numerical for maximum confusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. The Trump administration and damage control with the president's blanket 10 percent tax now in effect and steeper tariffs coming this week. Top Trump economic officials and Cabinet members fanning out today across the Sunday talk shows to try to allay fears.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE ROLLINS, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: I think we'll see in short order really positive outcome from this.

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC COUNCIL: It is not a strategy for the markets to crash. It's a strategy to create a golden age in America for the American worker. That's his strategy.

PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR COUNSELOR: Because we are going to have the biggest boom in the stock market we've ever seen under the Trump policies.

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: This is the moment that the United States of America takes hold of itself. And Donald Trump has been talking about this his whole life. This is Donald Trump's agenda. And we are all here to help him execute it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Despite that messaging of optimism, mass protests erupted in the U.S. and across the world yesterday in response to Trump's policies. As of Friday, financial markets lost trillions of dollars in value, leaving the question of what markets will look like this week as Trump slaps additional taxes of up to 50 percent on dozens of countries on Wednesday.

CNN's Betsy Klein is joining us now from West Palm Beach, Florida, near Mar-a-Lago, where the president is spending the weekend.

Betsy, so what is the Trump administration saying about this week?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, I think the mixed messages coming out of the Trump administration would confuse economists, investors and observers of the Trump administration alike. It's really unclear whether these tariffs they are putting in place are permanent, or if there is room for negotiation. But President Trump really views himself as a deal maker. He's used tariffs and the threat of tariffs in the past as a negotiation tactic.

But the reality is we are witnessing a reconfiguration of the global economic order. Markets are spiraling. The Dow losing more than 10 percent from its most recent high. The Nasdaq more than 20 percent. When the market closed on Friday, the Dow had posted its biggest back to back losses since March of 2020, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Economists are ratcheting up concerns about the possibility of a recession, and Goldman Sachs analysts say that even with the president's policies in place, it will not be enough to offset the damage from these tariffs.

I want you to listen to what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in defense of the administration this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: I can tell you that as only he can do at this moment, he's created maximum leverage for himself and more than 50 countries have approached, they have approached the administration about lowering their non-tariff trade barriers, lowering their tariffs, stopping currency manipulation. And they've been bad actors for a long time. And it's not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KLEIN: And on the topic of those mixed messages, CNN has learned that the White House is having active discussions with Vietnam, India and Israel on the possibility of striking bespoke trade deals. But asked specifically about the possibility of a Vietnam deal, the president's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, said, quote, "This is not a negotiation."

Notably, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins did indicate some openness to providing relief for the American farmers who have been hit so hard, really borne the brunt of these tariff policies, she said the administration could work with Congress to provide some sort of support for those farmers -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Betsy Klein, thanks so much.

All right. Let's talk more about all this now with Margaret Talev. She is a senior contributor for Axios and the director of the Institute for Democracy and Journalism at Syracuse University.

Great to see you. So what do you make of this media blitz, you know, by top Trump officials today to try to influence how people might be, might feel and what they should see in these tariffs? Do you think this messaging will ease concerns at all?

[16:05:06]

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: Well, Fred, the messaging is clearly to try to project confidence in the hopes that that confidence can be contagious. You've got the president golfing, which you either do, if you're trying to drive everybody crazy or if you're trying to say this is not a big deal, I can manage the economy and relax at the same time. And maybe he's trying to do all of the above.

But this is, you know, it is sort of a response on all fronts to a very chaotic week. And like time will tell whether what the president is doing now can lead to negotiations, but certainly there is going to be an immediate pain and pain that has some duration. And the American taxpayers, voters and consumers are going to feel it in the near term. So the question is, how long and can the people who are going to feel it, you know handle it? And I brought some data for you if I can.

WHITFIELD: OK.

TALEV: One in four Americans has less than $1,000 in savings. 54 percent of Americans say they have three months of emergency expenses saved up. And six out of 10 Americans own stock. And that includes about a third of America's lowest earners. So, you know, the question is, yes, can President Trump withstand much higher prices on goods because he believes that this is the way to reset the global order?

Yes, he can, but there are millions of Americans who can't. And the question is, will the political system, you know, cooperate with his plans or is he going to hit some really early pushback in his administration?

WHITFIELD: Yes. And those are all really valuable statistics to really kind of hit home just how tenuous things are for most households. And while you did have the president today golfing and as you, you know, mentioned, maybe the psychology is everything is OK. I'm relaxed. You should be relaxed, or listen to what Senator Adam Schiff had to say about, you know, his evaluation of things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Unfortunately, he's wrecking our economy. I think people have seen their retirement savings on fire. And there he is out on the golf course. That may end up being the most enduring image of the Trump presidency. That is the president out on a golf cart while people's retirement is in flames.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, so, you wonder if, you know, that imagery from the president will in any way backfire or if it will be just as his economic, you know, advisers and secretaries said today, they were trying to justify that ultimately all of these tariffs will benefit everyone because the idea is to have more manufacturing in America and more ingenuity and people will feel it later.

How patient will people be to see if there are better days ahead economically?

TALEV: Well, we know that this idea of tariffs is something that President Trump has embraced since the 1980s. And I just think, you know, we're talking about 40 years of free trade agreements, globalization and real changes to the way goods are manufactured and what it means for a product to be made in America or to have a U.S. job.

A lot of stuff happened in the 1980s, like Atari or shoulder pads, that we wouldn't go back to now. And so I think it's a real question, is he trying to get -- is the ultimate goal to get no tariffs anywhere, which is what Elon Musk is talking about, or is the ultimate goal to reshore American jobs that have been offshored? Those seem like really different goals.

And what we're talking about now, it's really hard to tell. Like what would be a negotiation, a negotiated settlement that this president would consider a victory? I think we just don't know that. And this is going to be an experiment that for like that happens on Americans, right? That happens on American voters. So I think in the immediate term, we've already seen there's going to be a lot of pain.

How long will it last? What will other countries do? How will this president respond to pressure now from not just, you know, the public, but from some of his --

WHITFIELD: Ordinary folks.

TALEV: -- top business supporters also who are saying, hey, you know, maybe not.

WHITFIELD: Right. You know, the president does like to make himself available, right? Whether it's on Air Force One or, you know, on the press room or in, you know, from the Oval Office to kind of explain things while his economic, you know, team leaders came out today and still offer even more questions. You've got Lutnick who says, yes, there will be, you know, factories to be built that are here in America. But we're talking about A.I. generated factories.

[16:10:04]

Well, that does not mean jobs. That does not mean people are going to help lead the manufacturing. It means a lot of machines are, maybe the ingenuity behind some people to help bring that. But -- and then he justified it further by saying there will be a lot of electricians who are helping, you know, to get those factories going. And it means more trade schools.

So does the president owe it to the public this week to bring more specificity to his vision? And how long before Americans are feeling the benefits of this plan?

TALEV: I think it's a really interesting question because what he's talking about here really is a yearslong reshaping of how manufacturing works and how American jobs and things that are made in America could actually happen. We haven't seen him spell that out. It would have an awful lot of nuance and detail. And don't forget, it's coming at the same time as his new administration has been in the midst of a massive series of layoffs and cuts to federal employees.

And as we see some new strains on the way, Social Security, the Social Security system is operated and administered. So there are already a number of pressure points on Americans who kind of are paycheck to paycheck and live pretty close to the wire every month. I would be fascinated to listen to that very detailed discussion of what the short, medium and long term plan is. I think it remains to be seen how much granularity we're going to get, but right now, he's underwater with public opinion on these tariffs. So he may feel pressure, real pressure to explain what he's trying to do here.

WHITFIELD: All right, Margaret Talev, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.

TALEV: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Right now states across the southeast of this country are getting battered by a string of violent storms after pounding the central U.S. with deadly tornadoes and generational flooding since Wednesday. Over a foot of rain fell across the mid southern states, which is almost unheard of outside of hurricane season. Tennessee was especially hard hit as deadly tornadoes ripped through that state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT VANDEVANDER, TORNADO VICTIM: So I'm like, oh crap. Better hop in the tub. So I jump in the tub. It probably only took five seconds from that point before I could just hear my house ripping apart. And then I was instantly in the neighbor's backyard, it felt like. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: I want to bring in now Kristin Coulter with the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

Great to see you. So, you know, your state endured so much this week, flooding, tornadoes. You know what's the latest that you're hearing about outages, road closures, how people are doing?

KRISTIN COULTER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TENNESSEE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Yes. So over the last several days, as you indicated since Wednesday the state of Tennessee has seen significant severe weather in the form of tornadoes, flooding, heavy rainfall, high winds, we're thankful and fortunate that the severe weather at this point has seemed to move through the state. But we're concerned about flooding at this point.

The rivers are continuing to rise. Those areas that have been impacted by flood waters are continuing to see higher levels of water into their communities. Road closures. There's a lot of secondary roads that are closed right now. T-DOT has been working to get signs up and power outages seem to have gone down. They did peak last night at 5:00 p.m. with around 70,000 power outages across the state.

But we're out in the areas that are impacted right now. District coordinators are continuing to assist local counties especially in areas like the town of Reeves and Obion County and the Woodstock subdivision in Montgomery County, which is in middle region. Both of those areas just saw flooding this past February, and they are seeing those same impacts again.

We know that the flooding, the water levels are continuing to rise. I know from my district coordinators they've indicated that those levels are higher than last time. And in Obion and in the town of Rives specifically, we know that they're record breaking, we don't know quite yet how high they've reached. And we probably won't really have a good idea until that water has started to recede a little bit.

In Montgomery County, the waters at least waist high in some areas. And I know our district coordinators are working now to make sure that all of the residents are out of the area to make sure that life safety needs are being met.

[16:15:00]

WHITFIELD: My goodness, in some places, waist high water. So then how are you? You said, you know, you do have crews out trying to get to people. By what means are they able to do that?

COULTER: Well, most of our counties were incredibly proactive at the beginning of this storm system. and had asked many of the residents in these areas that are flood prone because they are flood prone to go ahead and voluntarily evacuate. And many of the residents did heed that advice. We know in Montgomery County specifically, I was talking to my district coordinators there, we had some residents go back to check on their pets, and I think that they may have gotten stuck a little bit.

We did have some kayaks out there moving people around, getting them out of that area. But we're making sure that anybody that needs assistance has the assistance that they need.

WHITFIELD: We know that reportedly 10 people were killed this week in your state from these storms. It's very difficult to, you know, assess the damage and the loss. What are you hearing from people in various communities about, you know, looking for loved ones or friends or their worries?

COULTER: Sure. So we've been working with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Earlier in the severe weather that we were facing because of the tornadoes, we did have some missing persons, but all of those people have been accounted for. We have had 10 fatalities, weather related fatalities, as reported and confirmed by the Tennessee Department of Health. At this point, we're navigating that loss and trying to assess damages in these impacted communities with our local jurisdictions as well as our federal partners.

We're making sure that we're capturing all of the information that we can to see if we are reaching thresholds that would allow us to make a request with the federal government for a major disaster declaration.

WHITFIELD: And how much are you counting on that, especially when this administration has talked about, you know, getting rid of FEMA, which is an agency that many states rely on in cases like this? When you're making a request for some sort of declaration or assistance, in what form do you believe it might come?

COULTER: Sure. We've already -- we're thankful for President Trump and his swift approval of the request that Governor Bill Lee made earlier this week for an emergency declaration. That allowed us to go ahead and pre-position assets like urban search and rescue teams, swift water teams, had we have needed them. We're fortunate that we didn't in this particular case. But we will, you know, assess the damages to see if we meet the statutory requirements.

And, if we do meet them, I know my team works as efficiently as possible and as fast as possible so that we can get these survivors as much assistance as we can as quickly as we can. We would hope that we would, you know, get some assistance for the survivors and families that have been impacted the most.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kristin Coulter, thank you so much for your time. All the best in your continued efforts and to all of your colleagues.

COULTER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right.

Still ahead, small businesses are preparing for sticker shock as President Trump's tariffs slam imports from every country in the world. What this could mean for the price of your cup of coffee.

And the Trump administration's DEI purge hitting the Naval Academy. Details from the hundreds of books now banned from its library.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:23:34]

WHITFIELD: All right, breaking news. 17 people are confirmed dead across six states as violent storms tear across the southeast. I want to get back to CNN senior national correspondent Ryan Young in Hardy, Arkansas. And a lot of damage already.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fred, a lot of damage. I had to call the control room to show what we've been able to find, as it's very hard to get around here. You can see this truck behind me. This is the fire truck that was used to rescue someone yesterday. I'll get back to this in a second and tell you that story. What I want to show you is the utter damage that we see here.

Look, we drove down here, and you can just see almost every single RV in this area has been destroyed by the rushing water that came through here. And that was also compounded with the extending wind that just blew through here. This was a scene where they told people to get out, and they told them to get out very quickly, and a lot of people did that.

But, Fred, as I turned this corner here, look at this fire truck. This fire truck was used to try to rescue some people. It's a heavy piece of machinery. It stands more than seven feet high. They thought they could bring this down in here. And as we were talking to the mayor and some of the firefighters, they were on this truck and then all of a sudden the water started taking the truck away.

The rescuers had to be rescued. So first, they got the person who was in medical pain out of the situation. And then the firefighters were on this truck as the water kept rising and rising and eventually swept this away.

[16:25:01]

And the fire chief was telling me they were lucky the sheriff's department was able to use a boat to get them out of this. But when you see this piece of machinery and know how heavy it is and see how it's been wiped out, it just stands out. As we turn back this direction, so many people now are showing up to see if they can find anything. Their homes have been moved. I mean, if you look back this direction, some of this stuff has just been wiped off the map.

Folks are coming back and just trying to figure out where their RV is, because sometimes it's been taken down river. We wanted to show you this even as communication still remains spotty in this area -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: My goodness. So, Ryan, is this the case where this is near a river and the river rose and expanded and, you know, roads became, I mean, it became like a giant lake. Is that what we're looking at here? And then now a lot of it has receded. And --

YOUNG: Yes.

WHITFIELD: OK. Wow.

YOUNG: Right. So there's three parts to this. I want to walk you that -- I'm glad you asked that question. There's three parts of this. You see that bridge right there?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

YOUNG: Part of that bridge has been wiped out. So the water came from this direction and flooded out this entire basin. And how is it explained to me just in the last 10 minutes or so that the water was above my head, it was above this truck at one point. This is all just sort of going away in the last few hours, and now you have people who are coming to do an assessment just to figure out what's left.

If you can imagine, folks here have dealt with water before, but they said they have never seen the water rise as fast. It's never been this dangerous and it's never taken so much. The National Guard has been out here, but obviously with a small community like this, they're going to need a lot of help.

WHITFIELD: Wow. I mean, you're describing what, you know, happens in like a flash flooding, but I don't even know -- that is so unique. I don't know if that's what that would be called in this day and age, but amazing. Absolutely stunning. And sad. Yes.

YOUNG: And then you compound this with the fact there's been 10 straight days of just waterlogged situation.

WHITFIELD: Right.

YOUNG: The rain has really just left up in the last 25 minutes or so. So we're happy not to be wet. I feel like we're all waterlogged. But on top of that, people are now driving out, trying to find gas, trying to find food. And even that's hard because a lot of the gas stations in town have been impacted by this. And as the mayor joined us, he's happy all the first responders survived. But at the same time, they also have to do an assessment for their own places in the midst of all of this.

WHITFIELD: My goodness, it's really incredible. Very sad and tragic. And it's also just the beginning of a whole new phase.

Ryan Young in Arkansas, thank you so much there in Hardy. And well be right back.

YOUNG: Absolutely. Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:56]

WHITFIELD: President Trump's global trade war means coffee lovers will likely start paying higher prices as the tariffs kick in. Cafe Imports, a major U.S. coffee importer, is rushing to move its products from ports overseas as Trump's tariffs on coffee producing countries go into effect. The company expects a 15 percent increase in costs across the board.

Let me bring in now CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones.

So, Julia, you're at a coffee shop, right? And it's not really just about the coffee importers, but there's a trickle down. I mean, lots of small businesses are going to get a hit.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred. That's because small businesses like this one, Cafe de Leche in Los Angeles, they bring in their beans to roast here from all over the world. We followed along as they went to pick up those beans coming in from a big warehouse, but they're coming from Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, Indonesia. About 80 percent of all the coffee that's had -- ingested in the United States comes from South America, Brazil and Colombia are going to be hit with 10 percent tariffs increase, 18 percent for Nicaragua, 32 percent for Indonesia.

That's where, you know, the term java comes from. And that is coming on top of an already difficult time for coffee importers and resellers. Resellers like this one because coffee prices have been on the rise consistently due to weather and other different kinds of reasons from Latin America. Drought in Brazil, for example. Colombia rains. Take a listen to what this coffee shop owner had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW SCHODORF, OWNER, CAFE DE LECHE: I mean, it's already expensive. It's doubled in price in the past year, year and a half. And then now there's -- I'm not exactly sure what the tariffs are supposed to be on Brazil, but I'm assuming it's like 10 percent, another 10 percent on top of that. So, you know, we haven't actually raised our prices in the past year. We've been just absorbing the costs because I hate raising prices. You know, we hate doing that. But at some point in time, we have to make a living to, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And, Fred, you know, this is a mom-and-pop shop. And they say they understand the impetus from the administration to try and foster U.S. businesses to support U.S. product. But in the case of coffee, there just isn't a domestic alternative. You have to buy it from international markets. There's a small little production in Hawaii, but other than that, they're kind of seeing, you know, between a rock and a hard place.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much.

So from coffee to now the prices of wines imported from European companies, countries, rather, will likely go up when President Trump's 20 percent tariffs on the E.U. go into effect this week. But many American wine companies are not celebrating this tax on their European competition.

[16:35:02]

CNN's Natasha Chen explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It takes years from planting a vine.

GREGORY GONZALEZ, DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURE, THORNHILL COMPANIES: Boom, the buds start to burst.

CHEN: To turning grapes into a drinkable wine. But those years of planning are being uprooted by tariff wars.

NICHOLAS MILLER, 5TH GENERATION OWNER OF MILLER FAMILY WINE COMPANY: We understand they're trying to make the best decisions possible, but without guidance it's sure hard to have a business plan.

CHEN: These are muddy waters for Nicholas Miller, a fifth generation owner of Miller Family Wines on the central coast of California.

MILLER: This is our Pastoralist Cab Franc.

CHEN: The company makes wines under different labels.

MILLER: It tends to be a lot more kind of that chocolate, that mocha.

CHEN: From very high end to more affordable ones. Miller says 10 percent of their wines are typically exported to Canada, including some custom blends.

MILLER: We became the official wine partners for the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers.

CHEN: Wait, so what happens to that wine like we're in hockey season?

MILLER: Right, that's what we're trying to face right now is what happens to that wine.

CHEN (voice-over): Canada is typically America's biggest wine customer, importing $435 million worth of U.S. wine per year. But province controlled liquor boards there have largely stopped stocking American wine in retaliation for President Trump's tariffs on aluminum and steel. About 12,000 Miller Family Wine bottles or $90,000 worth of their wine is stuck in a California warehouse. They're already packaged with Canada specific labeling requirements, but going nowhere. And what about slapping on the required American label to sell it domestically instead?

MILLER: It may sound like an easy fix of just putting a label on, but it really is tantamount to going through a second bottling.

CHEN: That's not a cheap process to do that.

MILLER: It's not.

CHEN (voice-over): So they continue to sit in storage at a cost while Miller waits for more information.

MILLER: The politics of all that's happening right now is costing everyone something, right?

CHEN: Even Trump's idea of imposing a 200 percent tariff on European wine imports.

MILLER: It feels a little bit like fighting fire with fire, which doesn't seem like that's the right solution.

CHEN: Miller says there has to be a conversation about the real problem, an unfair fight where American wines, often highly regulated and costly to produce, are up against heavily subsidized European ones. And while there are clues about the future harvest if you read the grape leaves.

GONZALEZ: This tells us a lot about how the season is going to be for us when we start seeing clusters and or tendrils.

CHEN: There's no clarity for the makers of the wine these grapes will become.

Natasha Chen, CNN, Santa Barbara, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:03]

WHITFIELD: Right now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to Washington. President Trump invited him to the White House for talks tomorrow. The two are expected to discuss the war in Gaza and the return of remaining hostages, as well as tensions with Iran, among other topics. Israel's government has expressed its support for Trump's plan to move the Palestinian population out of Gaza.

Netanyahu last visited the White House in February. The topic of trade is also expected to come up after President Trump imposed a 17 percent tariff on imports from Israel.

All right. The Pentagon has removed nearly 400 books, including Maya Angelou's autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" from the Naval Academy's library. Other works written by people of color were also removed from the Nimitz Library, including a book written by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

The Department of Defense recently drew criticism for removing stories of Jackie Robinson, a World War II veteran, and the Navajo Code Talkers from Pentagon Web sites. The pages were later restored following public outcry.

The Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency are making dramatic, often controversial cuts to government. Tonight on CNN, Fareed Zakaria takes a deep dive into how this is the latest chapter in the conservative movement's long running war on government. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: November 8th, 1994.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to get our country back.

ZAKARIA: A day for the history books.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Clinton Congress is taking a pounding tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you.

ZAKARIA: A watershed moment for Republicans who captured both chambers of Congress for the first time since the Eisenhower administration. Leading the party was congressman and soon to be speaker, Newt Gingrich.

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER REPUBLICAN SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is truly a wildly historic night. I mean, this is just --

ZAKARIA: And Gingrich intended to parlay that historic night into a historic turn. His goal? Nothing short of ending Lyndon Johnson's great society programs like Medicare once and for all, and achieving what Ronald Reagan had hoped for but failed to do. Gingrich believed that the federal safety net was a threat to Western civilization.

GINGRICH: I have no interest in running a cheap welfare state that destroys lives.

ZAKARIA: But Newt's war on government would be foiled by perhaps the most talented politician of his generation, who bet his ailing presidency on his belief that Americans did not want their government dismantled. He won.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:45:04]

WHITFIELD: "THE WAR ON GOVERNMENT, A FAREED ZAKARIA SPECIAL." That's tonight, 8:00 p.m.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: President Trump says he is preparing another round of tariffs this week, but some countries like Mexico are already coming up with ways to strengthen their own domestic production.

CNN correspondent Gustavo Valdes takes us inside a Mexican auto parts factory.

[16:50:03]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what it looks like inside a Mexican factory that's been making and sending car parts to the United States for more than 70 years. But that's changing. At MegaFlux in Mexico City, they produce water pumps, hydroelectric turbines, motors and generators.

ROBERTO GOTTFRIED, CEO, MEGAFLUX (through translation): We make them upon request. We export more than half of our production to the United States and Canada.

VALDES: Now, this assembly line is also manufacturing electric cars and buses, which will mostly be used in Mexico amid fears that U.S. President Donald Trump's new tariffs could trigger a global trade war.

FELIPE GALLEGO, OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, MEGAFLUX (through translation): The best way to deal with tariffs is to buy locally. If you have an automotive industry and want to manufacture electric vehicles, sell them domestically or look at South America.

VALDES: The company makes this bus called Taruk, which means roadrunner in the local Yaki language. It's the first electric bus manufactured in Mexico and is expected to run in Baja, California.

It's part of Plant Mexico, a program launched by Mexican President Claudio Sheinbaum, giving companies incentives to invest in domestic production and generate jobs.

GOTTFRIED (through translation): I think we're experiencing a situation that could also become dramatic. But having our own technology allows you to better manage your next steps as a country.

VALDES: Mexican companies now thinking of ways to expand domestically rather than across the border.

Gustavo Valdes, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, blockbuster "Minecraft" goes from video game to movie phenomenon blowing past box office expectations. The utterly unbelievable ticket sales are on the way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:56:42]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my gosh. I'm so sorry --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This place makes no sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: "A Minecraft Movie" smashed box office expectations during the weekend opening. The film adapted from a 2011 video game Minecraft raked in $157 million, making it the biggest opening weekend this year. The blockbuster was produced by Warner Brothers, which is owned by the same parent company of CNN. All right, after an epic Final Four, the national championship game is

set for the NCAA Men's Tournament.

CNN's Coy Wire is live for us in San Antonio. Getting ready for the tipoff tomorrow.

So, Coy, both teams putting on quite a show to make it to this title game.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: There were tears. There were cheers. This is a roller coaster. Only one other time in the history of the Final Four, where all four teams won seeds. That was in 2008. It was right here in San Antonio. This one was a doozy.

Let's see how it all went down. The Duke Blue Devils, the favorites to win it all, led almost the entire game over Houston. Freshman phenom Cooper Flag was everywhere, had a game high 27 points, but Kelvin Sampson's Cougars were built for one of the greatest Final Four finishes we've ever seen. They steal the inbound pass. They miss a three, but Joseph Tugler slams home the rebound to get it within one with 30 seconds left.

Then Houston hit two free throws after a Duke foul to take the lead. And with 19 seconds left, Duke star Cooper Flag sees his final shot come up short. They miss another two and the Cougs and this stadium erupted. The team full of upperclassmen who stuck with their coach Sampson, pull off the 70-67 upset winning.

Coach told me just minutes ago, Fredricka, these young men mean so much to him. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELVIN SAMPSON, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON HEAD COACH: Had we lost last night or lost prior to last night, I would have been more sad that I don't get to coach this team because that's how special they've been to me. I would have been more sad about that than losing the game, because you don't get a group like this that comes together for one common goal very often. This is a special group.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: In the early game, Florida's coach Todd Golden and his mentor Bruce Pearl of Auburn also in a slugfest. But with about five minutes to go, Florida's Elijah Martin brought a thunderous dunk and all kinds of juice to the Gators. And Walter Clayton Jr. had his moment. Started his career at Iona, which has about 4,000 students, and now on the sports' biggest stage he scored 34 points in a 79-73 win. Chomp, chomp.

I talked to Coach Todd Golden just a bit ago here in this room and asked him about how much Walter Clayton means to his team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD GOLDEN, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA HEAD COACH: You have to have some really special players to still be alive. You know, one of the last two teams standing and Walter has been an elite leader for us all year and really showing the world, you know, what he's capable of over these last five games in the NCAA tournament, really dating back to the SEC tournament as well. Just a great leader and a great player and someone that his teammates have a lot of respect and belief in, and he's answered the bell every step along the way for the Florida Gators this year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: The stage is set, Fredricka, tomorrow night right here.