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Trump Administration Deports Alleged Gang Members Despite Court Order; Today: Trump to Visit Kennedy Center. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired March 17, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Monday, March 17. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Is these were bad people. That was a bad group of, as I say, hombres.
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CORNISH: Hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants are deported. The White House denies that it defied a judge's order to turn the plane around.
Plus, this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm talking about busses upside down, poles split in half, trees scattered.
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CORNISH: Violent tornadoes turned deadly across the Midwest and South. We're going to take you to the hardest hit areas.
Then later --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're doing everything in our power to make sure that we get to the bottom of this.
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CORNISH: A college student vanishes from a beach. What the man last seen with her is telling police about their final encounter.
And can you fill out the perfect bracket? March Madness is here. The big teams heading to the big dance.
It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Pittsburgh, lit up in green for St. Patrick's Day. Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you so much for
waking up with us.
We're going to talk today about the showdown between the president and the courts. Is the White House ignoring a judge's ruling?
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TRUMP: That was a bad group of, as I say, hombres.
They invaded our country. So, this isn't -- in that sense, this is war. In many respects, it's more dangerous than war because, you know, in war, they have uniforms. You know who you're shooting at. You know who you're going after. These are people that came out. They're walking our streets.
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CORNISH: That's President Trump, of course, defending a flight which sent hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.
In a made-for-TV moment, they were unloaded under heavy guard and taken to the country's notorious super prison.
The problem? A federal judge had actually issued a restraining order and instructed the Trump administration to turn around any flights that had already left. That didn't happen.
In a statement, the White House claimed the judge's ruling, quote, "had no lawful basis."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio even shared a post from El Salvador's president, saying, "Oopsie, too late."
Joining me now to talk about all this: Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst and national political correspondent at Axios; Lulu Garcia- Navarro, CNN contributor and "New York Times" journalist; and Doug Heye, Republican strategist.
Good morning to the group chat. How are you guys doing?
DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Great.
CORNISH: Alex, I want to start with you, because you've actually done some reporting about the Trump sort of legal approach and legal challenges, both in the White House and also outside of it.
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, and this is very intentional that, essentially, in some ways, it's an imperial presidency. And they've spent the last four years identifying every single potential obscure statute that they can potentially use to challenge.
The fact is that, you know, yesterday, my colleague Marc Caputo basically reported that after the judge's order, they -- Stephen Miller basically went and said, like, is there a way we can potentially challenge this?
And that's why they essentially ignored it and just let the flight go on, because they want this. And they said -- you know, a senior White House official told my colleague, Marc Caputo, that they want this to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
The fact that they are defying or ignoring these challenges is intentional.
CORNISH: Right.
THOMPSON: They want these things to ascend up to the Supreme Court.
CORNISH: And this is one of those things that people end up talking about Constitutional crisis. I will try not to kick off Monday with that term, but I want to play for you the White House press secretary, and how she talks about the judiciary.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Clearly, there are left-wing activists who sit behind a bench in a courthouse who don't like this president and his policies.
But the fact is, everything President Trump is doing is within his executive authority to do it. He is acting within the bounds of the law. All of his actions are Constitutional. And our White House and the entire administration are prepared to fight back against this resistance.
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CORNISH: Doug, I want to start with you, because I always come to you about messaging. So, the message here, in a way, it sounds like the bench is the new enemy.
HEYE: Yes.
CORNISH: The bench is the new target. The bench is the resistance. That's how they're being portrayed. Am I misreading that?
HEYE: No, look, when Alex said imperial presidency, I had flashbacks to the Republican campaign committees, which I worked at in the Obama administration, where we would talk about the Obama imperial presidency constantly, the rash of -- of executive orders.
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Clearly, we're seeing a lot of that now. And this doesn't happen in a vacuum. You know --
CORNISH: Well, presidents for, I mean, the last, I think, 2 or 3 decades -- we were talking about this during Carter's funeral.
HEYE: Yes.
CORNISH: Say, I need more power. You shouldn't be able to -- but this is.
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: This is something completely different.
HEYE: Sure.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, just -- I mean, just the amount of executive orders --
HEYE: Sure --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- that Trump has done in this short period, I think, now matches what maybe had been done in the entire Obama presidency.
HEYE: Yes. And that's by -- that's by design. And that happens for two reasons.
One, I think, as you very correctly identified, any time a court says stop, this administration is going to keep going until it gets to the Supreme Court. We're going to hear a whole lot about that.
The other -- and it's not very sexy to talk about, you know, processes and the Constitution and Article I -- Congress, Democrat Congress, Republican Congress have not done their job in keeping the executive branch in check. They've ceded power over generations now, and it's enabled Donald Trump.
You know, we talk about climate change making waters warmer for hurricanes. Well, here we are.
CORNISH: The water is getting warmer. I mean, some -- I think some things are easy to talk about. "New York Post," "So Long, Gang." Right? Talking about these gang members being deported.
In the meantime, there's also reporting about a 34-year-old doctor at Brown University who was deported to Lebanon, despite a judge issuing an order which had blocked her removal. That reporting coming from Reuters.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, this is the thing. What Donald Trump and his administration are trying to do is really push the bar so far along into what's acceptable, how we view immigration, who is actually protected and who is not.
You know, do you have a green card? Is that actually before that, you know, you had been processed. You had gone through vetting. You had done so much to actually get on the pathway to legalization.
Now, that is actually saying no one is safe. No one is protected. We can kick you out, no matter what.
CORNISH: This --
THOMPSON: I can tell you, like, you know, they spent the last four years, when they were not in power, studying every single obscure statute. I mean, it's not a -- GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's the problem with having old laws on the books, let me also just say.
THOMPSON: I mean, over the weekend they used a law from the 1700s that John Adams signed.
They also, in order to try to deport the -- the pro-Palestine campus protester, they're using an obscure statute that's never really been used in this way. That requires the secretary of state himself to intervene. They are going line by line to try to justify all of these things.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And let me just put this into context, which is to say that we have seen this done in other countries: in Hungary, et cetera. This is the model that has been adopted elsewhere.
CORNISH: Which is what? Flood the zone, get to the courts?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's not just flood the zone. It's -- it's that everyone who opposes me is the enemy.
It's the media who might be a check. We saw at Donald Trump's speech last week, talking about the media being a check on his power.
We are now seeing the courts. The idea that -- that someone who is going against what Donald Trump wants is somehow an enemy; they're activist judges. They don't have legal authority, et cetera, et cetera.
It is -- Slowly but surely, it is equally --
CORNISH: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You know, we're looking at institutions like -- like universities also.
CORNISH: Doug, I want to give you the last word, because here, Lulu is bringing in her international reporting past to bear. But for you, I mean, this is a message that possibly could resonate with voters, right? Which is like, if everyone is the enemy, what am I next?
HEYE: Well, I was overseas in three countries last month, and every question I got, including from Tories in London, were very negative.
But Donald Trump is trying to set up a conversation here. Are we going to talk about the doctor who was unjustly removed from the country, or are we going to talk about Venezuelan gangs? He wants us to focus on the latter, and he wins on that.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But we don't know that these are Venezuelan gang members, and I think that is the point. No, no. Because you've seen --
HEYE: You're using logic and facts where they don't necessarily exist. Right?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, well, but I -- yes. HEYE: So, that's what Donald Trump wants the conversation to be.
CORNISH: Well, group chat, stay with us, because we're actually going to have an expert on this gang coming on later. We're going to talk more with you guys about the politics around this.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to turn to the economy for a bit. Can the stock market recover after a brutal week on Wall Street?
We're going to have a check on where things stand in the hours before the opening bell.
Plus, the frantic search for a missing college student. What police are now saying about the last known person to see her.
And a cross-country storm killing dozens and leaving behind a large swath of damage.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disaster. A disaster. I've seen nothing like this since I was a kid. I've seen a few tornadoes in my lifetime and a couple of hurricanes, but other than that, this -- this -- this is pretty bad.
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CORNISH: It is 13 minutes past the hour here on the East Coast. Here's your morning roundup. Some of the stories you need to get your day going.
President Trump confirms he'll be speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
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TRUMP: A lot of work has been done over the weekend. We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can't. But I think we have a very good chance.
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CORNISH: The president says he plans to discuss land and power plants with Putin.
Ukraine has already agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan.
The last known person seen with a missing University of Pittsburgh student seems to have been forthright which -- with detectives. That's according to a Virginia sheriff helping in the case. The man was seen with the 20-year-old on a beach in the Dominican
Republic more than a week ago. He told investigators they were swept into the water late at night by an intense wave. He is not considered a suspect in this case.
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And astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are one step closer to coming home.
Four new crew members boarded the International Space Station on Sunday. After a brief handover, Wilmore and Williams could return to Earth as soon as Wednesday.
And you've got to see this. A man in Alabama caught the moment an apparent tornado destroyed several chicken coops. You can see the winds swirling, this bright flash, debris flying through the air.
The winds were so strong, he said, they knocked him off his feet. He is OK.
This was just one of dozens of storm reports across the country. And we're going to be live on the ground in Alabama later this hour, with more.
Still to come on CNN THIS MORNING, will President Trump get a warm reception at the Kennedy Center? We've got a preview of his trip later today as the list of artists refusing to perform there only grows.
Plus, more on federal cuts, like what happens if the people who monitor major storms are laid off?
And good morning, Savannah, Georgia. Fun fact: home of one of the largest St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the U.S. It's going to be in the lower 60s there for today's parade. 4
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CORNISH: Will President Trump get that same not-so-warm welcome at the Kennedy Center that his V.P. did? Because he's actually going to be there today.
The president has remade the board of trustees, become chairman, and called for an end to what he considers anti-American propaganda.
Several artists have backed off performing there, but not everyone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEVE BANNON, PODCASTER/FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: And the J. Sixers are here at CPAC!
And let me tell you something else. I talked to Ambassador Ric Grenell last night, and the J. Sixers, I think, the J. Six choir is going to play the Kennedy Center for a night in honor of their families.
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CORNISH: The group chat is back to talk about this, because obviously, the arts have long been a way to comment, reflect on politics. But this was a bipartisan institution. Is it still that?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: No. No. This is, I think, something that is --
CORNISH: You're very definitive. Yes?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And, you know, we're going to have a bust of Donald Trump now, and they might rename it. I'm joking, of course.
But like, this is the -- the impulse here is, again, to take control of all these institutions.
CORNISH: But the argument is -- let me jump in. The argument is that culture has been a carrier for progressive ideas and progressive ideology.
That's what I hear from right-wing Christian friends. That has been the conversation. Doug, I feel like you're on the edge --
HEYE: Yes.
CORNISH: -- of jumping in. You're not sure?
HEYE: Well, look, the last time I went to the Kennedy Center was in the fall. I saw Sarah Silverman. Not really a big fan of the Trump administration. I'd hope she wouldn't be barred from that because of that.
But what we've seen, talk about, like, the politicization of the Department of Justice. My politics -- my politicizing something isn't any better than you politicizing something or somebody else doing that. I would like this to be as nonpolitical as --
CORNISH: Would you say that again? It is -- it doesn't -- say that again.
HEYE: My -- my politicizing something, I don't think, is any better than anybody else doing that, whether that's right-wing or left-wing, conservative or liberal.
But that's what -- that's where we are right now is your politics are awful, so I'm going to replace it with mine. And we see that everywhere.
CORNISH: Let me play -- Hold on, I want to play for you comedian W. Kamau Bell, who said this, because he's still performing. So, I just want to hear another point of view.
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W. KAMAU BELL, COMEDIAN & TV HOST: There's different ways to sort of handle these situations. There's protest. There's boycott. There's also just showing up and doing what you were going to do.
And I know I'm the exact kind of performer Trump doesn't want in there.
I got to show up the way Marian Anderson showed up on the steps when she was not allowed in Constitution Hall. I got to show up the way Sweet Honey in the Rock showed up when North Carolina was doing the bathroom bills, and they said, we're going to go and unite that community. I'm going to show up.
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THOMPSON: I mean, Republicans and particularly the Trump administration believes to their core that they felt that, you know, high culture, which the Kennedy Center represents very much, is a liberal enterprise and was not welcoming. And so, they are going to change it.
CORNISH: And had rejected him during his first term.
THOMPSON: Absolutely. And -- but what you're going to see, to both of your points, is that you're going to see this, you know, basically, you know, retaliate the next time the Democrats are in power.
And they're going to also replace the entire Kennedy -- Kennedy Center board. And you're basically going to go back and forth between, like, basically Republican culture versus Democratic culture and the Kennedy Center.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But there's also a real difference between saying, I'm going to put people who understand culture, who might have a different point of view, and put them at this institution for balance and, and -- and making the president the chairman, you know, of the board. Those are two very different things.
And that, I think, is what is worrying about that -- this move. Again, it's trying to take all these different things and -- and wrest them under the control of the executive.
One more thing. Can they make the tickets cheaper. Then, I'm all in.
CORNISH: That's a personal request. I'm going to leave you guys with this one thought.
HEYE: I mentioned North Carolina, the bathroom bill.
CORNISH: Yes.
HEYE: So, I had tickets to see Bruce Springsteen in North Carolina when that all came, and he canceled. And, you know, OK, he spoke truth to power, or didn't because he wasn't there.
The reality is, that's a lot of jobs, if you're selling beer or hot dogs or concert tickets. And people who made hotel room reservations, as I did, we were all left out, you know, sort of left out in the dark on that.
And our politics on that issue have changed drastically since then.
CORNISH: OK. I want to leave you guys with this one thought from "Rolling Stone." They said, "The battle for America's future will be won or lost, not just on the ballot box, but on TV and phone screens, stages, concert venues, and cultural institutions across the nation."
Everybody stay with me.
Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, tornadoes left a trail of destruction for millions of people.
[06:25:02]
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To be honest, you wouldn't think just a wind and tornadoes would do this much devastation.
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CORNISH: CNN live on the ground in Alabama as families begin to grieve and communities try to rebuild.
Plus, it was his biggest strength in his first term. Will the economy wind up being President Trump's biggest weakness in term two?
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TRUMP: They charge us, and we charge them. That in addition to that, on autos and steel and aluminum, we're going to have some additional things.
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CORNISH: President Trump teases his next round of tariffs overnight.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish.
