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Trump Pauses Tariffs for Canada and Mexico for 30 Days; China Launches Retaliatory Tariffs; DOGE to Target Department of Education Next?; Heavy Rain Expected in California. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 04, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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


KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, February 4. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[05:59:56]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of people don't like to play the game, because they don't have a threshold of pain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A tit-for-tat trade war. New overnight, China fighting back, hitting the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: No country has ever made an offer of friendship such as this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: An unprecedented offer. El Salvador willing to house U.S. deportees in its jails, including American citizens.

And then --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Elon can't do, and won't do, anything without our approval.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The DOGE takeover. Elon Musk's blitz to remake Washington at breakneck speed.

And later --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I believe she's committed to strengthening our national security. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Critical support. Tulsi Gabbard getting a boost from a key senator ahead of today's committee vote.

All right. It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Capitol Hill on this Tuesday morning.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

New overnight, China announces tariffs on American goods just minutes after President Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports went into effect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: China, we'll be speaking to China probably over the next 24 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On fentanyl in China, President Trump?

TRUMP: We don't want fentanyl coming into our country. Now we had another big thing, speaking of China. China is involved with the Panama Canal. They won't be for long.

But that was just an opening salvo. If we can't make a deal with China, then the tariffs will be very, very substantial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: China's retaliatory tariffs on American coal, natural gas, cars, and pickup trucks are set to take effect on Monday.

As for the tariffs that President Trump threatened to impose on America's neighbors, those are now on hold after deals were struck with the nations' leaders. Mexico sending thousands of troops to its Northern border to cut down on the fentanyl trade in exchange for an American effort to combat the flow of weapons into Mexico.

Canada implementing a previously announced border security plan and agreeing to appoint a fentanyl czar.

The White House calling those compromises a win. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling CNN on Monday, quote, "Canada is bending the knee, just like Mexico."

And late last night, the Trump administration claiming victory on another front: the president's push for mass deportations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: The president, in an act of extraordinary friendship to our country, knowing the challenges we face in the U.S., has agreed to the most unprecedented and extraordinary -- extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing that El Salvador has agreed to accept deportees from America regardless of their nationality. That deal, accompanied by an unprecedented offer.

El Salvador's president saying that his country is willing to imprison American citizens convicted of crimes in the U.S. in exchange for money.

The president writing -- of El Salvador, writing on Twitter, quote, "We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system. The fee would be relatively low for the U.S., but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable."

All right. Our panel is here: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, CNN political analyst, White House correspondent for "The New York Times"; Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters; Jonathan Kott, former senior adviser to senators Joe Manchin and Chris Coons; and Brad Todd, Republican strategist and a CNN political commentator.

Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here.

Another hectic day, Jeff --

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: Yes.

HUNT: -- in the life of a White House reporter such as yourself.

MASON: Yes.

HUNT: You've seen a lot. We've all seen quite a bit in the last two weeks.

Can you just kind of take us behind the scenes and in terms of how this played out yesterday, as the markets -- obviously, there was incredible volatility in the morning. Futures were down through the weekend. We know that's something that President Trump pays close attention to.

Ultimately, these two deals are cut. It makes it feel like it is the Trump show, right? As opposed to the actual enaction of policy, which is kind of where we've ended up.

And yet, these tariffs are going into effect on China. I mean, what do you know? What can you tell us about how this all plays out and what happens next?

MASON: Well, I think, No. 1, you're right to say it's a little bit of a Trump show. And using the markets as a prism is a good way of looking at it, because that -- that volatility that you saw yesterday absolutely mirrored what was going on behind the scenes.

It started off with the 5 or 600-point drop on the Dow when they were concerned -- investors were concerned about the impact of these tariffs and a trade war. And then a lot of those gains came back. A lot of those losses were -- were brought back at the end of the day after these two deals.

I walked into a White House official's office yesterday afternoon. He said something along the lines of everyone was so concerned about tariffs. Now look what President Trump has done.

They see it as a sign of success that he used these tariffs as sort of a cudgel to bring people to the table. I think it's important that you mentioned in your intro that some of the things that both Mexico and Canada have agreed to do were things they were already going to do, but --

[06:05:08]

HUNT: Is it a success or is it a cave, I guess? Right? Like --

MASON: Exactly.

HUNT: They want to position it one way, clearly.

MASON: But the White House can and is presenting it as bending the knee, as you said.

HUNT: Right. A win for them, right? A show of strength, an American show of strength.

MASON: For -- for the U.S.

HUNT: Brad Todd, I want to play a moment that President Trump had in the Oval Office yesterday along these lines, because "The Wall Street Journal," traditionally conservative paper, their editorial board has not been pleased by this -- the tariffs that have been -- and the tariff war that Donald Trump has kicked off, especially with our neighbors.

Here was what Donald Trump had to say. That was the editorial board headline, "The Dumbest Trade War In History." And then they had another editorial at the top of the editorial page yesterday, as well.

But Donald Trump was in the Oval Office with Rupert Murdoch, whose company owns "The Wall Street Journal." And this is what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The criticism from Mr. Murdoch's own newspaper. He called it the dumbest trade war on the -- on the editorial page on Saturday.

TRUMP: I'm going to have to talk to him about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This market reaction or concern about --

TRUMP: I've been right over "The Wall Street Journal" many times, I will tell you that. I don't agree with him on some things.

"The Wall Street Journal" is wrong, because very simply, every single country that you're writing about right now is dying to make a deal. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Brad Todd, how do you look at all of this?

BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, get used to this. Get used to tariffs being a key part of Donald Trump's foreign policy agenda.

And the truth is, for most of our history, they've been a key part of our foreign policy agenda.

I put all these three tariffs in three very separate buckets. The China tariffs are part of a long-term disentanglement. And you'll remember in his first term Donald Trump put tariffs on Chinese aluminum and steel. Democrats and many people in the news media freaked out. And then Joe Biden kept those tariffs in place.

This is part of we -- PNTR was a mistake. We all know it. We all realize it. And it's going to take a long time to undo it. This is just one more step in it.

The tariffs on Mexico, I think, are a legitimate negotiating tactic. We cannot secure our border without Mexico's help. We have to get their attention. Tariffs and economic threats are the best way to do it. It will be a key part of how we bring Mexico into full compliance on immigration.

The Canadian tariffs, I think, are a little bit more of a head scratcher. I don't think Donald Trump likes Justin Trudeau much. I think there are problems with him. They're putting up a lot of non- tariff trade barriers to our goods that we do need to negotiate away.

Twenty-five percent tariff was probably a little bit of an over-punch the first time for that.

But this is how Donald Trump is going to do business with our -- with -- with allies and enemies alike. And I think most of the people who elected him want to see an American president who carries a big stick.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The threat of tariffs have been consistent. They were forecasted throughout the campaign. I think you can expect that to continue.

But what also is consistent is the ambiguity over the terms of which the president lays out. You know, he often has this threat of terrorists, but then keeps his actual demands that he wants countries to meet quite vague. And -- and what that allows is him to also declare victory at really any point.

So, you mentioned this context before. Many of the actions that the White House celebrated yesterday, that he got these countries to -- to take, not only were they planning on taking them before, but in some cases, they were already doing them before.

Mexico did agree to ramp up enforcement in the final year of the Biden administration, without the threat of tariffs, actually.

HUNT: And they had sent troops to the border --

KANNO-YOUNGS: And they had sent --

HUNT: -- in 2021 when they were asked to.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- agreed to send troops to the border in 2021, agreed to do it again years later, as well as take other enforcement actions, as well, which led to illegal border crossings plummeting as well.

Now, you might not hear that in the conversation, because it's not like the president was actually outlining -- "I want crossings to decrease by this much in order to lift tariffs."

He kept it ambiguous. He kept it vague, kept it broad, and thus he's able to declare victory.

TODD: He's setting a precedent that he's going to be confrontational, and that -- that's what -- that's what's going on here. And I think most of the people who voted for him like it.

HUNT: Jonathan Kott, you worked for Joe Manchin for many years, right. Interesting. You know, cut -- cuts his own -- his own figure, but also represented a state that really exemplifies the way our politics has changed right in the last 30 years, where it went from voting consistently for Democrats for years and years and then ultimately became, essentially, the Trumpiest state in the union.

What of what Donald Trump has been doing here is kind of resonating not with MAGA and the -- the far right of the party that's very online and very politically engaged, but with regular people who are unhappy with their -- their economic prospects and their lives? I mean, what's he doing that's good, and what is he doing that is politically risky for him?

JONATHAN KOTT, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO SEN. MANCHIN AND SEN. COONS: All of it right now is good because they love action. And Donald Trump is very good at making voters and people believe he's doing something.

The executive orders he's signing, 90 percent of them mean absolutely nothing. They don't do anything. But he's showing them that he's doing something. And that's where Democrats faulted in the last four years.

[06:10:10]

So, people in West Virginia see the action, and they love it.

I think what's going to happen is when they start realizing their prices aren't going down, the government programs that a state like West Virginia relies on desperately are going away, you're going to see a turn from him.

And they're going to say, wait, you promised us all of these things, and now we're just getting this.

And I would point out not only tariffs were promised as a threat. Donald Trump told us they would lead us to this new gilded age of an economic boom.

If they're so good, why aren't we implementing them? Why are we accepting that these sort of concessions that mean nothing and were already happening, are good for the American economy?

We were told throughout tariff was the best word in the English language, which is what he told his voters. And a lot of them believed, if Donald Trump got in there, he was going to impose tariffs. And there was going to be all this money flowing into our bank accounts.

HUNT: Right.

KOTT: They're going to wait for that to happen. They'll give him 6 to 8 months, but they'll turn quickly.

HUNT: The spending freeze, I almost feel like kind of because of the way the news cycles played out, the continued actions also, of course, the devastating plane crash last week, that seemed like something to me that was potentially very bad for Donald Trump's political prospects.

Do you agree with that? Like, that seems like the most -- If he's done anything to damage himself in these two weeks, that would be at the top of the list.

KOTT: Yes. And you can see how quickly they flipped on it, how quickly they moved to say, no, that's not what they were doing. No, the media lied about it. No, we weren't doing this.

HUNT: No, you shouldn't cancel your WIC appointment, right?

KOTT: You shouldn't do all these things. Because the states that benefit most from those programs aren't purple states. They're dark- red states with two Republican senators and almost an entire Republican delegation. It was going to be hard to go home and explain that.

HUNT: Let me give you the last word.

TODD: Well, I think that there -- the president has a right to empower his agency heads to try to find efficiencies, save money and cut waste. That -- it was an attempt to do that.

I think it was an attempt to hit the easy button, though. The executive order was too broad, too vague, and a lot of agencies didn't know what to do with it.

But that just tells you the culture of saving money is so foreign to federal bureaucracy that when you tell them to do it, they don't quite know how to.

HUNT: It was a rather blunt instrument to, you know -- I mean, Head Start programs in, you know, I --

TODD: I don't think you can do it. HUNT: -- Michigan or like, I don't know if I can send my kid to preschool. The teachers aren't going to get paid.

TODD: We're not going to cut spending with a three-page memo. And that's essentially what it was.

But we also have a culture of bureaucracy that does not look to do that. And like, so therefore, it's very hard for them to take those cues. Probably going to have to involve the appropriations process.

KOTT: We're also not going to cut spending focused only on poor people.

TODD: No, we're not going to cut spending that -- on programs that work. We're going to end up cutting spending on programs that don't work. And there are plenty of them.

KOTT: Voters may not remember who gave you the program. They're sure as hell going to remember who took it away from you.

HUNT: Indeed.

All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, a warning for federal workers. Why some attorneys general are urging them not to take the offered buyouts.

Democratic Congressman Johnny Olszewski joins me live to discuss that and more.

Plus, two of President Trump's most controversial cabinet picks facing committee votes today. More on the Republicans we're watching.

And Democrats issuing warnings about Elon Musk's apparently unchecked power as DOGE turns its attention to the Department of Education.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): To give DOGE a chokehold on treasury payments is outlandishly dangerous. It's like putting a tiger into a petting zoo and then hoping for the best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:18:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval. And we'll give him the approval where appropriate. Where not appropriate, we won't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Trump there talking about who else? The head of DOGE, Elon Musk. The world's wealthiest man now tasked with making massive cuts to the federal government.

His first target has been the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID. Musk yesterday called it a, quote, "ball of worms." And his DOGE department now is effectively dismantling it, despite questions over whether that is constitutional or legal.

And now we know where Musk may be looking next: the Department of Education.

Exclusive reporting from "The Wall Street Journal," sources telling "The Journal" that Trump administration officials, quote, "have discussed an executive order that would shut down all functions of the agency that aren't written explicitly into statute or move certain functions to other departments, according to people familiar with the matter."

Quote, "The order would call for developing a legislative proposal to abolish the department, the people said. Trump's advisers are debating specifics of the order and the timing, the people said," end quote.

And some of the president's allies in Congress say they're all in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): To my friends who are upset, I would say with respect, you know, call somebody who cares. They better get used to this. It's USAID today. It's going to be Department of Education tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Zolan, "USA Today" [SIC] -- USAID today, the Education Department tomorrow. Clearly, we have -- this ball is rolling, right? Elon's activities here.

The Department of Education, there is plenty of political opposition. People fight about teachers' unions, for example. But they also do critical things like fund impoverished schools and administer programs for students with disabilities, which shows up across the board for people, no matter your socioeconomic status. Anybody can end up in that kind of a situation.

[06:20:05]

What would it mean to go after this particular piece of -- I mean, it's a cabinet agency. I mean, they're not allowed to do it. Doesn't mean they're not going to try.

KANNO-YOUNGS: I go back to a time period in the campaign when we were all focusing on Project 2025, a blueprint developed by conservatives including former Trump administration officials. And this was one of the sections of that -- of that plan at that point: to shutter the Department of Education.

And yes, you -- you know, this is a cabinet agency, multiple scholars would say that you need congressional -- you actually need Congress in order to completely shut down.

But even in Project 2025, what they were saying is you could still almost divest, defund it, shutter different programs in the agency to whittle it down at this point.

I do think one thing -- and I might add, too, during the campaign, the president-elect at that point tried to distance himself from that platform. And we're seeing many of those same proposals come to fruition now, all part of an effort to try and remake the federal government in, basically, Trump's image at this point.

I do think that it also has resulted in Democrats finally having sort of a consistent message against the Trump administration here. Both Elon and -- and Elon bringing some of his engineers and involving himself in government matters.

But also, this effort to completely upend federal government and really wage an assault on the federal workforce, as well, when it comes to the memos issued last week, as well as this action.

HUNT: Well, right. And "The Washington Post" reports that the draft order acknowledges only Congress can shut down the department and instead directs the agency to begin to diminish itself. Brad Todd.

TODD: Well, we've only had the Department of Education since 1979, and our schools are worse now than they were in 1979, according to performance data.

It's the smallest department in the federal government. We can continue to send the money for Title I reading and funds for disability -- disabled students. Send that money as a block grant to the states and let the states administer it without having 10,000 bureaucrats in Washington in the Department of Education.

HUNT: Right. I guess we'll see.

Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, an offer of friendship. Secretary of State Marco Rubio praising El Salvador for offering to jail American prisoners for a fee.

Plus, President Trump suggesting a new avenue to sell TikTok and put it under U.S. control.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:01]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

California dealing with heavy rainfall as the Midwest prepares for freezing rain. Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, with your forecast this morning.

Allison, good morning.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And good morning. Yes, we're going to start to see a shift in all of this rain that's

been coming into the West Coast. So far, it's been focused in Northern California, Washington and Oregon. But now, we're going to start to see that slide Southward into places like Los Angeles and San Diego.

But it's still up North for now. San Francisco, Sacramento getting some pretty moderate to even heavy bands of rain right now, high snow or heavy snow in the higher elevations.

This is where the concern is for the flooding for today. Yes, it's still in Northern and central California, but notice it does start to slide a little bit farther South.

Overall, most of these areas still looking at an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain on top of what they've already had. But a couple of spots could even pick up a little bit more than that.

Snow still coming down in feet, and some of these areas could pick up an extra 1 to 3 feet.

Now we're looking at some more rain, as well. But on the Eastern half of the country, this starts tomorrow. You can see Wednesday we get this new low that develops. That starts to spread some rain across portions of the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic.

But then overnight Wednesday night into early Thursday, those colder temperatures start to slide in. And now you're looking at the potential for some ice, especially in places like Chicago over towards Indianapolis and Cleveland. That spreads over into portions of the Northeast as we get into late Thursday.

So, here's a look at where we're talking about in terms of that ice. Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and even spreading into portions of Pennsylvania and upstate New York as we finish out the rest of the week.

HUNT: And I'm seeing Washington under that ice, as well, which is -- really, really unhappy to see that.

All right, Allison Chinchar, thank you. I really appreciate it.

All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, confirmation votes for two of President Trump's more controversial cabinet picks. Can Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. run the table with Republican senators?

Plus, tariff wars. China not hesitating to hit back at the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MYERS, HOST, NBC'S "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": President Trump posted on Truth Social over the weekend, quote: "Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe. (And maybe not."

Well, I'm reassured. Are you?

Are you president or a strip mall dentist? (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]