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Trump Heads To Asia For High-Stakes Diplomatic Talks; Pentagon Gets $130 Million Anonymous Donation To Pay Military; Interview With Rep. James Comer (R-KY); Trump To Hamas: Return Hostage Bodies; Trump Says He Is Ending All Trade Negotiations With Canada; Student Searched After A Mistakes Empty Doritos Bag For Gun. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired October 25, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

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[17:00:37]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

And happening right now, President Trump saying he believes a comprehensive deal with China is possible as he travels to Asia for high stakes diplomatic talks. He's scheduled to stop in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea.

Most notably, though, he is set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first sit-down since President Trump was reelected. The relationship between the two nations, of course, has been fragile, with ongoing trade wars talks causing tensions to escalate.

Trump saying as he departed that China would need to make concessions to get a deal, but that the U.S. would too.

The president then spoke with reporters just a short time ago. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think a complete deal -- I want our farmers to be taken care of, and he wants things also.

We're going to be talking about fentanyl, of course. You know, fentanyl is killing a lot of people. A lot of people. It comes from China. And we'll be talking about that.

We'll be talking about a lot of things. I think we have -- I think we have a really good chance of making a very comprehensive deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Also, just within the last several minutes, President Trump announcing he's increasing tariffs on Canada by 10 percent over current levels after that controversial ad using Ronald Reagan clips. We are going to continue to follow that and try to learn more about when that might go into effect. But again, that was just being announced on social media, 10 percent

over current levels on Canada.

Back here at home, the government still shut down. A $130 million anonymous donation to the Pentagon is raising some eyebrows. "The New York Times" reporting that that money is coming from billionaire Trump ally Timothy Mellon, grandson of former Treasury secretary at the start of the Great Depression Andrew Mellon.

It's supposed to go toward paying the military while this government remains closed, but it's unlikely to have a meaningful impact with roughly 1.3 (SIC) active-duty service members. And some are questioning the legality of the donation and also how it will actually functionally work.

"New York Times" White House correspondent Tyler Pager broke this story. He's joining us now.

Tyler, thanks so much for being here with us. This is -- we haven't heard this one before. What more are you hearing from your sources about this donation?

TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, we don't know a lot of the backstory here about exactly how this came to be. But we know that Trump has been committed to trying to pay people during this government shutdown, that he's worried about the military, law enforcement officials, immigration agents. And he's trying to remove some of those political pain points that presidents often feel during a government shutdown.

And we know that he then announced on Thursday that a close friend, a very wealthy man, as he described, had given $130 million to the U.S. government to help cover the salaries of some of the troops.

The president repeated that on Air Force One last night after departing for Asia. But again would not identify this individual.

And as you said, Jessica, we broke the news about who this person was today. Someone that has given hundreds of millions of dollars to the president over the last several years to support his political campaigns.

DEAN: And what more do we know about Mellon?

PAGER: Yes. What's really interesting about him, Jessica, is he is a very reclusive billionaire. He's someone that was not a prolific Republican or even political donor for much of his life. Really, only in the last few years or so has he really stepped up as someone who has poured millions, hundreds of millions of dollars into Republican campaigns.

He gave a lot of money in the 2018 midterms to Republican groups. And then really stepped up as a prolific donor to the president in recent years, he was one of the largest donors to a pro-Trump super PAC in the 2024 race. But beyond that, we don't know a whole lot about him, in part by

design. He's someone that doesn't make public appearances. We know he lives in Wyoming based on a self-published autobiography of his life.

[17:04:47]

PAGER: Obviously, as you mentioned, he's the grandson of the former Treasury secretary who has immense wealth and has in recent years distributed a lot of it to President Trump and Republican causes.

DEAN: How unique is something like this? A donation from a private citizen to pay military members?

PAGER: Yes. It's without comparison and it's something that we have not seen before. And the ethics and legality of it is very much in question here.

The Department of Defense put out a statement yesterday saying that they accepted the money under a specific provision. But in terms of how it's actually being implemented remains unclear.

And Jessica, as you said in your introduction here, it doesn't even cover the vast majority of -- or you know, a significant majority of what the Defense Department's budget is, right? There are more than a million troops. So this is not going to cover their salaries.

The president and his administration have moved money around, particularly when it comes to the Pentagon in other ways. But this is not a long-term solution to paying the troops. And it's also incredibly unusual to see something like this unfold.

DEAN: Yes, I think everyone can agree the troops should absolutely be paid, and they certainly want to be paid. It's -- and there are questions around exactly how this will work. And to your point exactly, just how much of a difference it might make.

Tyler Pager, thank you so much. Good to see you.

PAGER: Thanks so much for having me.

DEAN: And we're joined now by Republican Representative James Comer from Kentucky. He's the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Congressman, thank you so much for being here with us on a Saturday evening. We really do appreciate it.

There are -- I want to just start where we left off there with Tyler about this private donation to pay the military. There are some questions tonight about whether it violates the Anti-Deficiency Act, as well as questions over legality, the donor's motivations.

As someone who oversees oversight of the federal government, what do you think about this?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): Well, I hate that we're at this point. I wish that, number one, the government wasn't shut down.

And number two, I wish that the Democrats in the Senate had voted for Ron Johnson's bill to go ahead and at least pay the military troops while the government was shut down. The Democrats rejected both offers and we're in a desperate situation.

I think that transparency is the most important thing. The fact that they've disclosed this and we don't read about it after it happened. I think that's a positive.

Obviously we all have questions about it, but the -- but the most disturbing thing of the whole situation here is the fact that -- that we're having to do this because the Democrats in the Senate refused to at the very least, pay the troops.

DEAN: And they -- their concern, my understanding is, they believe it's too narrow. They want to make sure everybody gets paid in the federal government. What do you think about that?

COMER: Well, I think you have to prioritize. First of all, again, they could vote for the continuing resolution, which is what the compromise is.

I know that a lot of people are frustrated in America. They say, why can't Congress compromise? The continuing resolution is a compromise because there are a lot of Republicans like myself that would like to significantly reduce spending. There are a lot of Democrats, obviously, that want to significantly increase spending.

What is the compromise? If you have members of Congress who want to cut spending and members of Congress who increased spending, then the compromise is a continuing resolution where you keep spending at the same levels. And that's what we've had to do, for better or worse, over the past decade.

When Obama was president, when Trump was president, and when Joe Biden was president. But now all of a sudden, you know, you've got the Democrats in the Senate all with the exception of Fetterman and the two from Georgia are saying, no, no, no, no, we have all this list of demands. And at the -- through the -- through the course of this whole thing, our troops aren't getting paid.

I think the number one priority is to at least pay our troops. We have to pay the essential workers. That's our TSA workers and our air traffic controllers.

So there's a crisis here, obviously. It's never good to shut down the government. I said that when Republicans wanted to do it. Now that the Democrats are doing it, I'm saying the same thing. It's never good.

But we've got to pay the federal workers, the essential federal workers. And, you know, it's frustrating because there's a -- there have been bills in the Senate by Ron Johnson to do that.

DEAN: I want to get to those to those tax credits in a second, because I do want -- I have a couple questions for you on that. COMER: Ok.

DEAN: But back to making sure that government employees are paid. There is a law in place that all federal employees should get back pay. That's from 2019.

COMER: Right.

DEAN: The president and his administration have signaled that maybe they don't agree with that. They don't think that that is how it should be. What do you think?

COMER: Well, I think they're going to get paid. I think there are presidents -- there have been court rulings in the past. They're going to get paid. That's why I've always been a critic of shutting the government down.

[17:09:47]

COMER: Again Republicans used to be the ones that wanted to shut the government down and would call for shutting the government down.

And I would go on TV and I would say, you can shut it down, but you're still going to have to pay these employees even if they don't go to work. You're going to have to pay them. The courts have already settled that. So they're going to get paid.

What I think we need to be concerned about right now is our essential government workers. Obviously, the military is essential. Anyone pertaining to law enforcement is essential. But our air traffic controllers and TSA agents are essential.

Now, the post office, those -- that's essential, they're going to get paid. They're set up differently. So they're going to get paid.

But our military personnel and anyone that pertains to air traffic, travel, this is where we've got a crisis. And I don't blame the federal employees if they get frustrated and don't come to work because, you know, this is a tough time. We have we've had inflation for 4 or 5 years now.

And again, I can't say this enough. We passed a bill out of the house that will fund the government, that will pay our government employees the bills in the Senate, where it takes 60 votes.

And even with the government shutdown, there have been efforts by members of the Senate to pay these military personnel. And again, the Democrats continue to look for an excuse and then -- and then cry foul, because our military is not getting paid.

That's the one entity that I think there's 100 percent support in America, whether you're liberal or conservative, you got to pay our military because I represent Fort Campbell. Those guys barely make ends meet, and they put their lives on the line. We've got to get them paid. It's just frustrating that the Senate can't get to 60 on that. DEAN: Would -- do you think if -- do you think Republicans in the

Senate should be open to negotiating, widen that out on who's going to get paid right now if that was something that would allow those workers you just listed to get paid?

COMER: Well, I think that if you pay every government employee, even the bureaucrats in Washington, that I think a lot of us could live without, then you're never going to reopen the government. I mean, you've got to -- you've got to fund the government.

If you want to take it piece by piece, then Congress should have passed the 12 individual appropriations bills but Congress can't do it.

I wish Congress could. I yell and scream at the top of my lungs, we've got to get to regular order. But the truth of the matter is, you can't get to 218 and you can't get to 60 in the Senate with the with the way Congress was set up. And it breaks my heart to say that.

So what we have to do is keep the government open. We need to have dialog about which agencies can be cut. Look, we just ran up $1 trillion in deficit spending in about two and a half months. The spending is out of control in Washington, D.C.

But at the very least, you've got to pay the essential government workers. And that's where the problem is here. And I think the Democrats are doing this, pointing the finger at the Republicans, trying to create as much chaos as possible to score political points.

And it's very unfortunate because, again there have been efforts, sincere efforts in the Senate, to pay the essential government workers. When we're talking about essential, we're talking about, again, air traffic control. We're talking about military. We're talking about people that that protect our lives, that oversee things of concern for national security.

And the Democrats will -- well, what about the bureaucrats in Washington that have worked from home for the last five years? I mean, that's not going to be a priority for the Republicans. But to answer your question, everyone, in my opinion, will get paid. They will get back pay whenever this is finally settled.

DEAN: Ok, so there was a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week on these tax credits, which is what Democrats are holding out on. That's why they do not want to -- that's why they are not voting for the CR.

These subsidies are going to lapse. And some people's premiums are going to go up by, not just a little, but thousands and thousands of dollars.

This poll found 72 percent of all adults, 51 percent of Republicans are in support of extending those tax credits. So why not just have that conversation with Democrats right now and come to some sort of agreement and reopen the government?

COMER: That's a great question. Look, Republicans all voted against Obamacare. That was before I came to Congress. But if I'd been in Congress, I would have voted against Obamacare as well.

Here, they've been propped up by subsidies. If you're on Obamacare, if you -- if you got the expanded Medicaid, that's free health care, that's a great deal for you. If you have health care and you don't pay for it. If you get the subsidies, that's a good deal.

But the other half of America is having to pay for those subsidies. When you talk about the people that have received the Obamacare subsidies, their premiums are going to skyrocket. Well, the people that have been paying full price, their premiums have skyrocketed for the last decade? So --

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: This is -- this is specific to this.

COMER: -- we've been trying to have this conversation for a long time. And I think the Democrats have intentionally waited until the subsidies expire.

[17:14:50]

COMER: We need to have a health care plan for every American, for the small business owners, because we've got to get people in Kentucky, my home state, off Medicaid, that are able-bodied and into private health care. But private health care goes up twice as much as people on the Obamacare subsidies, because somebody's got to pay for those subsidies.

So it's a terrible situation. I think we've got to reopen the government and then have public hearings on how to fix a broken health care system.

DEAN: All right. Congressman James Comer, we do appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

COMER: Thank you.

DEAN: President Trump is headed to Asia right now. He is planning to hold key meetings with several leaders, including China's leader. What's at stake ahead of those consequential trade talks with Xi Jinping? The first of Trump's second term.

Plus, President Trump has a strong new warning for Hamas, giving them 48 hours now to return the final hostage remains, saying countries in the region will take action if that doesn't happen.

[17:15:48]

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DEAN: A wave of Russian drones and missiles hit Ukraine overnight killing at least four people and injuring at least 20 others. Ukrainian forces say the attack involved at least nine Russian missiles and more than five dozen drones.

That deadly attack prompting president Volodymyr Zelensky to renew calls for U.S.-made Patriot missile defense systems.

Also new tonight, Israel carried out a strike in Gaza, saying it was targeting a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant who was planning an imminent attack. Four people were injured in that strike.

And it came just hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with families of deceased Israeli-American hostages.

One family member telling CNN he hopes Rubio will urge the president to prioritize the recovery of those remaining bodies.

And in Tel Aviv, large crowds of people are gathering in Hostages Square tonight to also call for the return of the deceased hostages. So far, Hamas has returned 15 of 28 bodies under that U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal.

And we are joined now by CNN political and global affairs analyst and Axios correspondent Barak Ravid.

Barak, thank you so much for joining us.

To that end, the president posting just a little bit ago, really demanding that Hamas return these remains of these deceased hostages.

He said, Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action. And he said he's going to watch it very closely over the next 48 hours.

What did you take away from that?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hi, Jessica.

I think what's interesting here and this post matters because the Trump administration wants to make sure that this agreement to end the war in Gaza, which is very fragile, does not collapse and that it continues to the next phases of implementation.

In order for that to happen, phase one needs to be implemented fully. Or at least you need to see that Hamas is making every effort to implement it, meaning the last part of this first phase is the return of the remains of the bodies of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

There are still 13 bodies of hostages in Gaza and Hamas says for several days now that it cannot find them. And I think the president's post today was a signal to Hamas saying, we know you have them and we know that you can deliver them in short order at least, maybe not all of them, but at least a number of them.

And I think that's what the president was trying to tell Hamas, because until that is not finished, or at least you don't get to almost fully implementing this phase, you cannot move forward.

And I think that this is why it's very important for the Trump administration that those remains will be returned.

DEAN: And how serious do you think this threat of action by the other countries, as he said, the other countries involved in the peace deal, how do -- how serious of a threat do you think that is?

RAVID: So I think a, I don't see it as a threat. I sort of see it as a sort of description of reality, meaning when he talks about other countries involved, I'm translating here. I think he means Israel because the Israelis for several days have been very nervous about Hamas not delivering any bodies for four days now, after delivering several of them.

And the Israelis want to retaliate this way or another. It doesn't mean that they're going to resume the war, but they want, for example, to maybe cut aid. They want, for example, maybe arrest Hamas people in the West Bank. Those are just two examples.

And for now, the U.S. is telling the Israelis calm down, don't do anything unilateral, we're on this. We're taking care of this.

And I think this is why the president put out this post to basically tell Hamas you need to deliver your side of the deal, or I won't be able to hold Israelis for much longer.

DEAN: Trump also said, just in the last 24 hours that a stabilization force would be ready to deploy in Gaza, in his words, pretty quickly.

[17:24:50]

DEAN: What do you know about who -- what do you know about that?

RAVID: So I think, you know, "quickly" is -- it's a relative term.

DEAN: Subjective, yes.

RAVID: Yes. No. But I mean, I think he's not wrong. Meaning there are at least four countries that are ready to send troops to such a stabilization force. It's Indonesia, it's Azerbaijan, it's Egypt, it's Turkey.

I think with Turkey, the Israelis have quite a lot of reservations. But those countries already agreed. What they need is a mandate from the U.N. Security Council and what the Trump administration is doing these days is its working on how to draft a mandate that, on the one hand, will give this international legal umbrella for this force so that those countries can send troops because in their constitution or in their laws, there's need -- there needs to be a U.N. Security Council mandate.

But on the other hand, that it's not going to be just another U.N. peacekeeping force that will not take action if it needed to, you know, prevent Hamas from re-arming or launching attacks again.

I think that's where the work is focused right now. And it could take another week or two, or it could take more. It depends. There's going to be a lot of negotiations around this in the Security Council. DEAN: Yes. And just quickly, before we let you go, the president also

warned this week that Israel is going to lose its support of the United States if it moves forward with annexing the West Bank.

Do you think Netanyahu and his government will heed that warning?

RAVID: Yes, I think annexation of the West Bank is off the table for now. For some reason, Netanyahu and his coalition partners were not really connected to reality for a few months now.

They thought that President Trump is on board with annexation of the West Bank. They were dead wrong. I can tell you, because I heard it directly from the president. He spoke about it publicly also.

And President Trump and the Trump administration writ large understands that annexation of parts of the Occupied West Bank by Israel is basically a death blow to any ambition to expand the Abraham Accords to get peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel. And therefore, they're not going to allow it.

And I think that after a few weeks of living in la-la-land, Netanyahu also understands it.

DEAN: All right. Barak, good to see you. Thanks so much.

RAVID: Thank you.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

[17:27:50]

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[17:32:14]

DEAN: New tonight, President Trump saying he is putting a new 10 percent tariff on Canada, above what already exists. The president just scrapping trade talks with the country over a controversial T.V. ad. That announcement coming from Trump on Truth Social, as he travels to Asia for high stakes diplomatic talks, where he's set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

That will be the first time the two leaders have met face to face since Trump won re-election. Let's bring in CNN's Julia Benbrook, who is joining us now.

Julia, the president has said, in the last -- on his way to Asia, he believes a comprehensive deal with China is possible. What else is he saying and what's at stake here?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is obviously a long trip, and we have heard from him periodically as he's traveled all day. He is still hours away from touching down in Asia, where he will make this diplomatic visit. But we have outlined some of the highlights of his schedule. He'll be making stops in Malaysia, in Japan, and then in South Korea. And that is where we expect Trump to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

This is the first time these two leaders have sat down during Trump's second term, and the meeting comes at a precarious time for relations between the two countries, as both recently slapped sweeping measures on each other.

Trump, though, as you mentioned, has been using an optimistic tone in recent days. He has said that he believes this will be a good meeting, maybe even a great meeting, and that he hopes to come out of it with a comprehensive deal.

Now, he did say earlier in the trip, another time, when he spoke with reporters on Air Force One, that he believes China will have to make some concessions here in order to come to an agreement. He also suggested that he was willing to do some of that as well. The exact quote was, I guess we would too.

Now, officials from both countries are expected to meet in the days ahead of this sit down to flesh out what some of those trade negotiations would look like, and hopefully, ease some of the tensions as well.

DEAN: And Julia, what else did we hear? As you mentioned, the president has spoken several times since he is -- he is left. But what else did we hear from him on Air Force One just a short time ago?

BENBROOK: Well, he is also been taking meetings. He actually stopped to refuel in Qatar and spoke with the Amir and the prime minister there. He thanked both of them for the role that they played in helping broker the cease fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. And later, told reporters that at least part of those meetings were about the Gaza peace plan.

Notably, shortly after they spoke, he went to social media to post this. I want to read it to you in full. He said, "We have a very strong peace in the Middle East, and I believe it has a good chance of being everlasting. Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly, or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action.

[17:35:06]

Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others can return now, and for some reason they are not. Perhaps it has to do with their disarming. But when I said both sides would be treated fairly, that only applies if they comply with their obligations. Let's see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely."

So, a very clear warning for Hamas to take certain steps in the coming days. Jessica?

DEAN: Yes. Julia, thank you so much for that. We're going to continue to follow the president as he continues his travels. We're also going to talk more about the president's announcement to increase the tariffs on Canada when we come back.

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[17:40:21]

DEAN: Tonight, President Trump says he is increasing tariffs on Canada by an additional 10 percent. That move coming just days after he announced he was ending all trade negotiations with America's neighbors to the north, following Ontario -- Ontario's government releasing an anti-tariff advertisement that included sound from a speech by former President Ronald Reagan.

Here is a little bit of that ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD REAGAN, 40TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Someone says, let's impose tariffs on foreign imports. It looks like they are doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while, it works, but only for a short time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: President Trump argued the ad misrepresented what Reagan said. Trump, as we have mentioned, currently en route to Asia for diplomatic talks, saying he does not plan to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney while he's there, even though Carney will also be in Asia next week.

Let's bring in CNN global economic analyst Rana Foroohar. Rana, thanks for being here with us.

The 10 percent tariffs on Canada that just coming in the last hour or so. What does that mean for consumers?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Well, you know, it really hurts Canada, I think, more than the U.S. At this stage, Canada is much more reliant on the U.S. than vice versa, and I think we've already seen the big hits in lumber, energy, et cetera. So, I don't think it's going to mean a whole lot for consumers.

But what I do think it's indicative of is the fact that the president and Carney do not have good relations. They are about as different as two people could be. Carney is a very strong character. You know, I thought this when he was elected that they would wrangle, and they are wrangling.

It's unfortunate, because the U.S.-Canada relationship is actually a very important one right now, not just because the U.S. gets important imports like energy or lumber, timber, certain kinds of minerals from Canada. But also, because the Arctic is becoming more important as a geopolitical theater. It's a place that Russians and Chinese even are staking claims, and so, having Canada on board on the U.S. side is important. It's unfortunate. This is a fight that I think shouldn't be happening.

DEAN: Yes, and we also know that the president is going to meet with Xi Jinping this week. We heard the president saying he thinks a comprehensive deal can be made, even acknowledging that while China is going to need to make a concessions that, in his words, we can't -- we will probably have to too.

What do you expect to come out of this? What will you be watching for?

FOROOHAR: Yes, a couple of things. First of all, I don't think we're going to see a comprehensive deal in the sense that there is no way that this summit is going to resolve the U.S.-China trade conflict, which is fundamental. The Chinese economy is a state-run economy. It runs on very different rules than the free market, sort of economies that the U.S. has traditionally held to, although, of course, the U.S. is becoming much more involved in industrial strategy. And, you know, the use of tariffs is in part, a reaction to the state-run capitalism by China.

One thing I am going to be watching for is what we see, if anything around rare earth minerals. That has been the big choke point that China has had. The big card to play with the U.S. Do you see any kind of concession there? Do you see any softening of that position?

I would also be looking for any kind of talk about strategic sectors, any other, you know, discussion about compromises that could be made, even industry by industry. But I don't think we're going to see anything that makes the U.S.-China trade relationship fundamentally different.

I think that this is a problem that's with us through this administration, and probably for many more years beyond.

DEAN: And to that point, we know when the president talks, the markets move up and down depending on what he is doing and what he is trying to achieve.

Do you anticipate seeing movement like that as he is -- as he is talking this week with these leaders?

FOROOHAR: Well, I have wondered if we might see a market correction, particularly, if Trump ends up looking not as strong as people think at the summit. I think that you're more likely to see a downward correction than you are to see some kind of upward surge, because, frankly, the markets are already really, really frothy, and there is very little that I can imagine Trump saying that's going to make them more buoyant than they already are.

However, if the Chinese, you know, pull something strong out of their hats, or really make it clear that they are not going to budge, then, I think you could see a dip.

[17:45:03]

DEAN: All right. Rana, good to -- good to see you. Thanks so much for that. We appreciate it.

Still ahead --

(CROSSTALK) FOROOHAR: Thank you.

DEAN: Yes. Armed police handcuff a high school student after an A.I. security system flagged him for having a gun.

However, it was only a bag of chips. How that happened? Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:49:58]

DEAN: It was a frightening week for one Baltimore high school student. Police ambushed and handcuffed him after an A.I. security system mistook his bag of Doritos for a gun. County officials are now calling for a review of how Kenwood High School uses that A.I. system. The student says eight cop cars pulled up to the school while he was waiting for -- with friends for a ride home after football practice.

Here is the responding officer explaining the false alarm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, basically, the cameras around the system, they pick up on things that look like guns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess just the way you guys were eating chips, Doritos, whatever. It picked it up as a gun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones joins us now. Julia, it seems hard to think about how a Dorito or a bag of Doritos could look like a gun. What more have you learned about all of this?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN NEWSOURCE CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly, Jessica, this was a breakdown in the communication in the system that the school is using. It wasn't necessarily a failure of that A.I., like, what we do know is that, that image is then supposed to be evaluated by humans, and that is kind of where things went south here.

We did hear that the school's district security department had reviewed that footage and already said this is not a threat. But another one of those alerts continued to go and escalate until the police came to that student -- that group of students, that was hanging out outside the high school.

But I want you to listen from that student what that moment was like for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAKI ALLEN, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: At first, I didn't know where he was going. Until he started walking towards me with guns, talking about, get on the ground. I was like, what? Let me begin on my knees and put my hands behind my back and cuffed me. And they searched me, and he figured out I had nothing. Then, they went over there to where I was standing, throw the bag of chips on the floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Understandably, a lot of anger and questions coming from this community, Jessica. But Omnilert, a company that provides that A.I. security system. They have been using -- they have been used by that school since 2023, and they have been used in other schools across the country.

In the statement to CNN, they said that although this software is relatively new and doesn't always work perfectly, they did emphasize that he needs that human, person to look at it before any action is taken. They said, "While the object was later determined not to be a firearm, the process functioned as intended: to prioritize safety and awareness through rapid human verification."

Well, this really points to, and what any gun safety and surveillance expert will say, like the ones that CNN spoke to, is that while most of the time, there is no harm in having these systems in place, although, they can cost, like, millions of dollars to implement in these school systems, there is also no guarantee that they can help actually prevent school shootings, Jessica.

So, clearly, a lot of work to be done in this space to see if this is actually worth it.

DEAN: Yes. Julia Vargas Jones for us. Thank you so much for that.

On Chicago's South Side, decades of economic decline have resulted in empty buildings, which often get torn down, leaving vacant lots behind in the Englewood neighborhood.

But where many only see decay. This week's CNN Hero sees potential. Quilen Blackwell is bringing life to these empty spaces and creating much needed jobs for young people in that community. And as a result, hope and opportunity are starting to blossom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUILEN BLACKWELL, FOUNDER, SOUTHSIDE BLOOMS: Most people want to expect to see a full flower farm here on the south side of Chicago. It's really cool to be able to bring that beauty to places where people least expect it.

I've been living in Englewood since 2015. It's one of the more dangerous neighborhoods, high poverty, high urban blight. So, you know, you kind of see like, storefronts that are boarded up, the building gets condemned. They will knock the building down, and not the vacant lot.

Yes, these are not parks. Most people will see the trash, the vacant lots. But for me, I see potential. We're here to try to bring life. Southside Blooms is a farm to vase florist. We'll take over vacant lots, grow our own flowers, design them in our flower shop, and then we do retail bouquets, weddings, corporate events, and everything in between.

This is about creating opportunity in a place that desperately needs it.

Try to get some good stem length, you know the drill. A big part of what we do is creating jobs in the floral industry for at risk youth.

What's your favorite flower?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lilies, cosmos.

BLACKWELL: My favorite, it would be the red roses.

Growing up, I was very fortunate. I had a bevy of opportunities. I came to Chicago, started tutoring at a high school in Englewood, and I started to just realize I could be any one of these kids.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to do them tiger lilies again.

BLACKWELL: There are people who want a chance at something better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to grow up fast around here. I lost a lot of friends, end up in jail. I was looking for a job. One of my friends, he was like, hey, bro, I got a job. I'm like, bro, flowers, what?

Working here, I seen myself changing, calmer, into nature. This was just an empty parking lot. We did this. We started all this. We cleaned it up. It's our community, I'm proud.

[17:55:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready for the event?

HANNAH BLACKWELL, QUILEN BLACKWELL'S WIFE: Getting there.

BLACKWELL: My wife, Hannah, trained as a florist, figured out the youth training program.

H. BLACKWELL: It's a feel, so, teaching kind of the basic concept and then kind of letting their creativity go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I learned. I paid close attention, I asked questions, and I fell in love with it. I'm an exemplar.

I purchased my first apartment. I purchased a car. I try to tell everybody it's an opportunity. Every place you step in, you take advantage of it.

BLACKWELL: Our young people are blossoming and blooming every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: For the full story about Quilen and his important and beautiful work, you can go to CNNHEROES.COM.

Right now, President Trump is hours away from landing in Malaysia, the first leg of a critical trip to Asia. What he is saying tonight about the Gaza cease fire and Russia's war on Ukraine when we come back.

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