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Donald Trump Signs Ban On Travel To U.S. From Several Countries; Videos, Expert Analysis And Witnesses Reveal New Details Of Deadly Gaza Aid Incident; Impact Of U.S. Tariffs And Foreign Retaliation. Businesses Holding Back on Investing and Hiring Due to the Uncertainty Caused by Tariffs; White House Says Trump-Xi Phone Call Likely This Week; U.S. Tells Trading Partners to Submit Best Trade Proposals; Caretakers Dress in Bear Costumes to Raise Orphaned Cub. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired June 05, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:38]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, Donald Trump's new travel ban, the president is barring citizens from several countries from entering the United States. We will tell you who is affected and why.

And Vladimir Putin tells Donald Trump he will respond to Ukraine's recent drone strikes deep inside Russia, how Ukrainian officials are reacting to the phone call between the two leaders.

Plus, what a new CNN analysis of video, audio and ballistics evidence reveals about a deadly shooting over the weekend near a food distribution site in Gaza. According to the Palestinian health ministry and hospital officials, 31 people are dead.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Appreciate you joining us. President Donald Trump has signed a new travel ban that will block people from several countries from traveling to the United States. It will fully restrict entry by nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Eritrea, Iran and Yemen. And people from seven other countries, including Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone and Venezuela will be partly restricted.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don't want them.

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CHURCH: The administration cites a number of reasons countries were chosen for the ban, including a large scale terrorist presence, failure to cooperate on visa security, and a persistently high rate of visa overstays. President Trump says more countries could be added to the travel ban list as new threats emerge, the ban is set to take effect this Monday. We get more now from CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We had been hearing this was going to happen. This is the proclamation that we just got from the White House with President Trump saying essentially that part of why this is happening is they were looking at the vetting processes that these countries have in order for people to come in and enter the United States. They don't believe that they are sufficient enough.

So, he is signing this proclamation banning into the United States from 12 countries fully. He's restricting it from several others, and basically cites those vetting processes as part of the reason here, and also saying that it is underscored and emphasized by what happened in Boulder, Colorado in that attack by the Egyptian national suspect on Sunday there.

And the president in several points, as I was just reading through this saying that certain countries have people who are more likely to overstay their visas if they come from a certain country to the United States. Often, we know we see that and people coming to apply for asylum.

So, the president is taking this step, restricting this travel. It remains to be seen what the impact of this looks like, as we're hearing from the White House.

And one line that I should point out from this proclamation is it says it does include exceptions for lawful permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories and individuals whose entry serves U.S. national interests.

So, there do appear to be some cat carve outs here. It remains to be seen what that actually looks like, though, because, of course, everyone will hear this and remember the travel ban from President Trump's first term that he enacted within days of taking office and caused quite a bit of chaos at airports and ports of entry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The Trump administration is making another attempt to prevent Harvard University from enrolling more international students. The president signed a proclamation on Wednesday that suspends visas of new international students at Harvard. The proclamation is valid for six months, but it can be extended. This comes after a district court ordered the Trump administration not

to make any changes to Harvard's international student visa program indefinitely. Harvard called the move another illegal retaliation by the White House and pledged to protect its international students.

Donald Trump says he had a good conversation with Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, but it would not lead to an immediate end to the fighting. The call comes as peace talks remain stalled. The U.S. president offered little evidence of attempts to end the war. Instead, Mr. Trump says that Putin vowed to retaliate against Kyiv for its drone attacks on Russian airfield over the weekend.

[02:05:21]

Meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning world leaders not to show weakness toward Putin, writing, if the world reacts weakly to Putin's threats, he interprets it as a readiness to turn a blind eye to his actions. When he does not feel strength and pressure, but instead senses weakness, he always commits new crimes.

A member of Ukraine's parliament slammed Trump's statement after his call with the Russian leader.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRA RUDIK, UKRAINIAN MP: Is it not clear by this moment who is an aggressor and that Ukraine is defending itself? It's -- does president of the United States want to ally with Russia? Because it just doesn't seem right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Meanwhile, Mr. Putin ruled out meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy for peace talks. He accused Ukraine of terrorist acts, referring to two bridges collapsing in Russia over the weekend, which killed seven people and injured dozens.

We go live now to CNN Sebastian Shukla following developments from Berlin. Good morning to Sebastian. So, what more can you tell us about Donald Trump's call with Vladimir Putin and also President Zelenskyy's reaction to it?

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Yes. Good morning, Rosemary. The call that took place yesterday between the U.S. president and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy -- and Vladimir Putin, excuse me, is the fourth such phone call that the two men have had since Donald Trump took the oath of office for the beginning of his second -- in his second term in the White House.

And what we're seeing out of this conversation is a much more toned down rhetoric and words as towards achieving a peace agreement than we have previously seen from Donald Trump.

We remember that the last time that the two men spoke, there was this promise of a memorandum of understanding that would be presented by the Russians as to what they viewed the -- their steps to Ukrainian peace would be.

That memorandum has since been delivered, but there were no such promises out of this particular meeting, or concrete steps really, on what the next process or phase of these talks and discussions would lead to.

In fact, there was even a -- it was -- it was harder to say exactly what the outcome of this would be. But what the president did say is that President Putin did say, and very strongly, that we will have to respond to recent attacks on the airfields. That's a reference to that weekend Ukrainian intelligence services mission which targeted various Russian air bases deep inside Russia, some thousands of kilometers away from the borders of Ukraine, and was launched from inside.

That message wasn't roundly welcomed by President Zelenskyy, and as you alluded to, the president warned essentially leaders against showing any weakness towards Trump. And as we heard from that Ukrainian MP just before me, that there was a -- there is a feeling in Ukraine that President Trump is still pandering to President Putin and so, that there is still this groundswell of sort of fear that the U.S. may be taking the side of the Russians more than the Ukrainians, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And Sebastian, what's expected to come out of the NATO defense ministers meeting?

SHUKLA: Yes, this is the defense -- this is the NATO defense ministers meeting, which is the prelude to the big leaders' summit, which will happen in The Hague in a couple of weeks' time, the 24th, 25th of June. The main discussions, as we've just seen U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth arriving for these meetings is around the increase in defense spending, which NATO nations have to abide to under the Constitution, and which is that, at the moment, is set at two percent of GDP must go towards defense spending.

The U.S. and Donald Trump has long maintained that he would like to see that number increase to five percent. so, the discussions, the prelude to the -- to that leaders' summit today will focus on, how do countries agree to reach that spending limit.

Don't forget that five percent is quite a jump from two percent and one of the suggestions proposed by Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General, is that there should be 3.5 percent is spent on defense spending, but 1.5 percent should go towards border related security spending.

[02:10:08]

So, what the -- what the different countries of NATO, though view is, is how long this will take to come about. The date targeted to do this is the -- is 2032, but other European leaders and nations are saying that's going to be just too long. And we can't wait that long to get to this point, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Sebastian Shukla joining us live from Berlin with that report. Many thanks. Still to come, Gaza and the question of what happened in the shooting

that killed at least 31 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry officials and doctors, what 17 eyewitnesses told us, and what video, audio and ballistics evidence reveals.

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[02:15:18]

CHURCH: The Trump administration is defending its veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a cease fire in Gaza. The U.S. was the only country to vote against the measure, which also called for the release of all hostages in Gaza.

A U.S. State Department official called the measure shameful and non- serious, saying it draws a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas.

Israel's Foreign Minister thanked the Trump administration for standing shoulder to shoulder with his country and vetoing what he called a one sided resolution.

A controversial aid operation in southern Gaza is expected to resume after a 24 hour hiatus. The pause followed three straight days of Palestinians coming under deadly gunfire on their way to a food distribution site. The U.S. and Israel backed Gaza humanitarian foundation said it would take Wednesday to focus on logistical work to better handle the massive number of Palestinians seeking food.

Also, the foundation said to give Israeli forces the opportunity to make preparations on the access routes to the centers.

The first shooting was on Sunday. Palestinian health ministry and Hospital officials say at least 31 people were killed. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has new expert analysis of the sound video and eye witness accounts of what happened.

First, though, a warning what you're about to see is graphic. Here's his exclusive report.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Palestinians take cover as pulses of automatic gunfire crackle overhead. Others try and crawl to safety as explosions ring out.

For several hours on Sunday, this was the terrifying reality Hungary Gazans face as they tried to reach an American backed humanitarian aid site in southern Gaza. We are bringing our food drenched in blood, we are dying to get food. Ameen Khalifa (ph) says, amid a hail of gunfire.

The aftermath is grisly. Bullet riddled bodies lie scattered on the beach as others emerge carrying sacks of aid these men died trying to get. Health officials and doctors report at least 31 were killed.

17 eyewitnesses told CNN it was the Israeli military that opened fire on the crowd. A CNN analysis of video from the scene, audio of gunfire and ballistics evidence all point to the Israeli military.

In Gaza, more families made to mourn. They lure us in just to kill us there, this man says, what's happening is wrong, wrong. Why? Why are they doing this? We go there just to get our daily bread, and they kill us.

In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, masses of Palestinians began trekking down Al-Rasheed Street, hoping to be among the first to reach the Gaza humanitarian foundation site in Tel al-Sultan before limited aid supplies run dry.

But as they reach the Al-Alam roundabout, a hail of gunfire forces people to the ground. Eyewitnesses say much of the gunfire came from tank mounted machine guns.

DIAMOND: We asked the forensic audio expert to analyze the gunfire in that video, and this analysis shows bursts of gunfire at a rate of 15 rounds per second. Weapons experts say that's consistent with the FN MAG, a machine gun used by the Israeli military and commonly mounted on Israeli tanks.

Those experts say that rate of fire also appears to rule out weapons used commonly by Hamas. And then you have bullets like this one, which doctors at Nasser hospital pulled from the bodies of the dead and the wounded. Weapons experts also say this bullet is consistent with the FN MAG.

DIAMOND (voice over): The Israeli military said they did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the aid site. But that statement is misleading. An Israeli military official acknowledged Israeli troops did fire toward people about one kilometer away from the aid site. The Al-Alam roundabout where people were killed is also about one kilometer away from the site.

This entire area, with an Israeli military base right here, is under Israeli control. This post warns the Israeli military would be active in the area at the time of the shooting. It's from the Gaza humanitarian Foundation, which operates the aid site and closely coordinates with the IDF alerting Palestinians that using the passage before 5:00 a.m. is prohibited, but they posted it at 4:00 a.m. as people were already being fired upon.

[02:20:15]

Eyewitnesses described volleys of Israeli military gunfire. From snipers, tanks and drones, beginning as early as 3:00 a.m. on Sunday. More were shot at 4:30 a.m. Others described being shot as late as 6:30 in the morning.

They were shooting directly at us everywhere, this man says, from the sea, from snipers and from all directions.

Four people were injured and one was immediately killed. I tried to stand up and escape or go back, but I was hit in my left side. I have seen a lot of soldiers in this war when they want to clear an area or warn you, they shoot around you, but yesterday, they were shooting to kill us.

At Nasser hospital, fear and pain are still etched across the face of 13-year-old Yazid Musleh (ph) who was wounded by gunfire from a tank his father and brother say was stationed near the aid site.

I saw the tank from afar, Ihab says, he was standing, waving his hands to the tank, and within seconds, gunfire was directed at him, and he was lying on the ground.

Two days later, despite the dangers, tens of thousands of Palestinians continued to stream towards that same aid site, a testament to the hunger and desperation still gripping so many.

And once again, in the early hours of Tuesday, dozens were killed en route. This time the Israeli military, acknowledging it fired warning shots and then opened fire, claiming suspects advanced towards troops in a threatening manner.

The military said it was looking into reports of casualties. It need look no further than this boy crying out over his mother's body, begging her to wake up.

Today, she went to get aid. She went to get aid to feed us, he cries, and this is what they do to us. The Americans said, come to the safe area to get your aid. Who should trust them?

As for Amin Khalifa (ph), the man who documented Sunday's gunfire, his quest for survival ended abruptly on Tuesday, he was killed while trying to reach that aid site once again, he was 30 years old.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (on camera): The Israeli military declined to answer questions related to our findings, but as recently as Tuesday, the Israeli military's top spokesman, General Effie Defrin, categorically denied that the Israeli military opened fire on Sunday, saying it, "Simply didn't happen."

But after a week during which more than 60 people were killed while trying to make it to that aid site, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation now says it is having conversations with the Israeli military to, "Support civilian safety."

Among them, a spokesman tells me that they are asking the Israeli military to, "Enhance force training and refine internal IDF procedures."

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

CHURCH: Still to come, steep new U.S. tariffs are now in effect. I will ask an economist from Yale University what impact this will have on consumers. That and more just ahead.

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[02:28:15]

CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, as expected, the Trump administration's newly imposed 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are not going over well with the United States neighbors. The Canadian Prime Minister says his government is preparing reprisals if negotiations fail to remove the double tariffs. Mark Carney also said Canada would take some time to respond, but not much.

And the Mexican president said on Wednesday that there is no legal basis for the tariff increase. Claudia Sheinbaum also promised to announce counter measures next week if the import taxes are still in place. She said it's not a matter of revenge, but protection.

Joining us now from Silver Spring Maryland is Ernie Tedeschi. He is the director of economics at the budget lab at Yale. Appreciate you joining us.

ERNIE TEDESCHI, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMICS, THE BUDGET LAB AT YALE: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: So, you and your budget lab have estimated the effects of all U.S. tariffs and foreign retaliation implemented this year up to June 1st, including the impact of those 50 percent steel and aluminum tariffs just announced. What did you find?

TEDESCHI: So, this is an equivalent of an increase in the average U.S. tariff rate of 12 percent. So, that raises it to the highest U.S. tariff rate since 1938, since before World War II.

But to put that more practically, it's going to lead to an increase in prices of about 1.5 percent, which doesn't sound like a lot, but on a per family basis, that's like every family in America losing on average about $2,500 per year in purchasing power.

[02:30:00]

So, it's a meaningful hit. I would add too that tariffs are a regressive tax and that means that they hit lower and working families more than they hit upper-income families. So, families at the bottom of the income ladder are going to do worse than the average.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": Right. So, and I was going to ask you about the effect on consumers. You've answered that. What about small businesses?

TEDESCHI: So for small businesses, I think the main effect of tariffs so far is creating uncertainty for them, in addition to obviously raising costs. So, yes, tariffs have a direct effect on business costs, but I think that the bigger factor right now and the bigger factor in the market turmoil that we've seen is just the sheer uncertainty. It's the fact that businesses don't know what the final tariff rate is going to be an hour from now, a week from now, a year from now.

And, so there -- a lot of businesses are sitting on their hands and not investing in capital expenditures or hiring because they don't know what the economy is going to look like a year from now. And the court cases that are working their way through the United States are only heightening that uncertainty because, now, it's not clear how long businesses and consumers will have to wait to get that clarity.

CHURCH: And we are hearing that President Donald Trump's highly anticipated call with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, could happen in the coming hours. Now, we don't have any specifics on the time yet. What are you expecting to come out of that call in the midst of rising trade tensions between the two countries?

TEDESCHI: So, it'll be interesting to see. I thought that the Chinese response so far has been consistent with the country that very much wants to stick to formal, long-dated discussions with the United States. So, they're not looking for quick wins or quick headlines with the United States. They want to an established process for coming to a durable trade agreement with the United States. That takes a lot of time, but that might reduce that uncertainty I was talking about, in the longer run, because you have an agreement that's going to stand the test of time.

So, it'll be interesting to see what China says to all of this. I will say that, before this year, just based on what then candidate Trump was saying when he was running for election last year, he was talking about a 60 percent tariff on China. We're already at 30 percent as a result of this pause. So, I actually think that there's some room for optimism that, if not eliminating tariffs with China entirely, this administration might show some flexibility on certain tariffs.

CHURCH: Right. And of course, any agreement with China, that's the big one that the markets are waiting for. But also, the deadline has just passed for all countries that want to trade with the United States to submit their best trade deals to the administration. What do you make of this method of making trade agreements, given the Trump administration was touting back in late April, that there would be 90 deals in 90 days, and that July 8th deadline is fast approaching with little more than the U.K. deal on the table? And there aren't many specifics attached to that, are there?

TEDESCHI: Right. Yeah, I was going to say, I think it's a chaotic mess that the way -- the way that they're going about it, the way that they've rolled out the tariffs and the way that they're approaching these deals on an individual country basis. And as you said, it's only the U.K. where we've reached a deal, which is interesting because the U.K. is one of the few countries where the United States has a trade surplus at the moment. And yet, the administration insisted on keeping the 10 percent reciprocal tariff in place with the U.K., which just raises the question, what is the policy goal here of having a tariff like that if we already have a trade surplus with a particular country.

So I think that other countries, in particular China and the E.U., Japan, Vietnam, have all taken note of that. They've taken note of the court cases and the legal threats to President Trump's tariffs. And I think that we will ultimately come to deals with these countries, but I think that the last couple of weeks have bolstered the negotiating position of a lot of other countries in the process.

CHURCH: Ernie Tedeschi, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

TEDESCHI: Thanks so much for having me.

CHURCH: And we'll be right back.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. An orphan black bear cub in California is being raised by caretakers dressed in bear costumes. It's being done to prevent the young bear from bonding with humans and to allow him to return to the wild someday. CNN's Henry Zeris has more.

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HENRY ZERIS, CNN ASSOCIATE PRODUCER (voice-over): A wildlife team in California is caring for a two-month-old black bear cub by dressing up in bear costumes. In April, campers at Los Padres National Forest found the cub weak, underweight, and alone. After biologists were unable to locate the cub's mother, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife transported the young bear to the San Diego Humane Society. The cub is now receiving enrichment and feeding sessions from staff wearing bear costumes to mimic maternal behaviors and prevent the bear from bonding with humans.

[02:40:00]

The cub will remain in the Humane Society's care for a year with the goal of, ultimately, returning him to the wild.

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CHURCH: Very cute. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next. Then, I will be back at the top of the hour with more "CNN Newsroom." Do stay with us.

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