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CNN This Morning

Today: Trump Heads to Michigan to Mark 100 Days in Office; Unlikely Allies Rally Together in a Push for More Babies. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:37]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Tuesday, April 29. Here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I think every foreign leader approached me and said, hello.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: It's day 100. President Trump marking a milestone in his second term. So, how are you feeling about it? New polling out this morning.

Plus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): It's been 100 days of hell for American families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Democrats still struggling to find their footing in a Republican controlled Washington. Can they gain any ground?

Also, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: President Trump is trying to break us, so that America can own us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Canada's prime minister is taking a victory lap and sending a warning to his neighbors to the South.

And the MAGA push for a new baby boom. Could things like cash bonuses help make motherhood in America great again?

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at the White House, President Trump waking up on his 100th day in office.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for waking up with me.

And we're going to begin with this 100th day, right? President Trump's wide-reaching and controversial attempts to reshape the government as he's pushed his agenda. Those are changes that have been met with some resistance by some, by applause from others.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Now, they said the most successful hundred days in the history of our country, and I believe that's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: It's been a roller coaster. We're going to look at a few of the big issues so far.

So, you have President Trump's immigration crackdown, including the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a mega prison in El Salvador. And that's set up a high-stakes showdown with the courts.

Then there's the on again, off again, on again. In the latest turn, just last night, the administration indicated that a deal had been reached on car tariffs. But all the uncertainty is taking a toll.

In a brand-new CNN poll released in the last hour, more than half said that they are pessimistic or afraid when it comes to the rest of Trump's presidency. And the number of Americans who say they are afraid is up 12 points since December.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a small business owner, my main concern is the instability, that -- just not knowing the, you know, there's tariffs today. There's a 90-day hold. What we would like to see is everything level off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've already started to see a downturn in the restaurants. Like, it's going to affect day-to-day working people. These tariffs are hurting everyday Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Isaac Dovere, CNN senior reporter; Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Bernie Sanders's presidential campaigns; and Ashley Davis, former White House official under President George W. Bush.

I'm glad you guys are all here in this mix of people, because you've done a lot of congressional campaigns. You have -- know what people are saying out there.

And Ashley, I think their -- your specialty, with security in your background is really important in the context of how Trump has been behaving.

I want to start with you, Isaac, because what are you hearing from the White House? Is this a day where they're going to be like, everything's great, everything's great. We've got more to come.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president is headed to Michigan today, and he is doing that, because Michigan has always held a special place in his heart since he won in 2016. That rally that he did right after midnight on election night 2016. And then he won Michigan, broke the blue wall.

CORNISH: Yes.

DOVERE: He, of course, lost Michigan in 2020, but came back and won Michigan again in 2024. And he really associates a lot of his political power with what he's been able to do there: connect with the people there, the Rust Belt, the working-class Americans.

CORNISH: Also, the politics of tariffs are scrambled a bit there.

DOVERE: Totally.

CORNISH: Because you had the Detroit Three auto workers, some of them, like a Shawn Fain, being like, Listen, it's about time someone did something for us. Globalism was trash. Globalization was trash.

So, they're excited.

I'm kind of wondering how, in your world, how people are thinking of this 100 days? Is it the start of something, the end of something?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think the -- on the political side, it's folks who are, like, we're willing to give this a shot.

There was a lot of folks that were Democrats or independents who didn't like Joe Biden, because they thought he was old and weak. That's coming from a Democrat. That was real talk in focus groups.

They're like, let's try this. We'll try it again. We remember how we liked the prices back then.

[06:05:04]

CORNISH: Yes. It wasn't that bad.

ROCHA: But those are the people, I think, in this poll that are moving. If you've got a Donald Trump poster on your wall in your bedroom, you ain't going nowhere.

But if you're a middle-of-the-road voter, I think that right now, you're feeling the anxiousness that you see in this polling number.

CORNISH: Just showing by party in our polling about whether people think, basic. Are things going well in America today? Republicans, of course, are enjoying this moment. They're enjoying Trump.

Independents is like, honestly, the only number I ever look at these days, because they're the ones who helped Trump get power.

And you also have some numbers here, a big shift about how people are feeling about the rest of his -- his term. And the thing that struck me was the "feeling afraid" number. Afraid is a very specific word.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH: Afraid of what? I don't know. I mean, I --

CORNISH: Well, what we know now is 41 percent of people feel that way.

DAVIS: I mean, I -- I think maybe what I would think that they may be afraid of is the uncertainty of the market. I mean, that's the No. 1 issue that they -- that they have to get a grasp on after these first 100 days.

Obviously, he's trying to have some stability.

I'm a big believer that tariffs needed to happen. However, the uncertainty of it all and what's happening in the stock market and whether it's actually -- I was listening to the people that you had on right beforehand in regards to interviewing.

I'm not sure tariffs has really hit the numbers yet in regards to people's everyday products, but they're hearing that they're going to, so they're anticipating they are. And that narrative is just concerning.

But listen, I think he's done what he needed to do on the border. Obviously, there's some controversies around it.

The tax bill and making the tax cuts permanent is going to be very important, which is a whole other issue.

CORNISH: Yes, but that's a "going to be." It feels like he can say he has accomplished in the first 100 days.

DAVIS: Well --

CORNISH: Meaning there are things that were accomplished, whether you like them or not.

DAVIS: First of all, we're all tired, and it's only 100 days. Yes.

CORNISH: Yes.

DOVERE: There was an earlier CNN poll. I think it had 87 percent of people seeing Donald Trump as an agent of change.

CORNISH: Yes.

DOVERE: The question is whether --

CORNISH: Yes.

DOVERE: -- that's good change or bad change. I don't think it's just the tariffs that people are responding to when

they're saying that they're anxious or fearful. There are all these other things going on with immigration, with -- with policies that are affecting their lives.

CORNISH: Yes. That are unnerving at best.

DOVERE: School funding. You had a segment in the last hour about that.

There's just a lot of -- it's not clear where things are going to go. Now, that's Donald Trump's point here, that he wants it to be a very different place that we get to in the country than where we are. But --

CORNISH: Yes.

DOVERE: -- a lot of people are responding to that and saying, I'd like to have some sense of what that is.

CORNISH: Who, for your money, is the most consequential person other than Trump in the first 100 days?

DAVIS: Well, Musk by far.

CORNISH: OK.

ROCHA: I think Speaker Johnson. They came back last night; and this is only going to get worse, because they're going to start negotiating budget cuts.

CORNISH: OK.

ROCHA: And that's never good.

CORNISH: Person of consequence. You say Speaker Johnson. You say Elon Musk. You?

DOVERE: I -- you might say Susie Wiles, in continuing to keep the --

CORNISH: The chief of staff.

DOVERE: -- the White House on the track that it is. Look, there has been --

CORNISH: Few chances for (ph) --

DOVERE: -- obviously -- there's been a lot of soap-opera drama around Pete Hegseth, other people in the administration.

But the White House itself -- you remember what the first 100 days of the first Trump term looked like?

CORNISH: Yes.

DOVERE: And it was just --

CORNISH: It was basically a turnstile.

DOVERE: It was "Days of Our Lives" every -- every day. And it hasn't been that.

CORNISH: OK. For my money, it's actually Russell Vought at OMB.

DAVIS: Yes.

CORNISH: I think that the reshaping of the government per Project 2025 and all the work they have done is coming to fruition.

Group chat, stay with us. We've got a lot to talk about today.

And we're going to continue our conversation about President Trump's first 100 days in office. We're going to dig into his foreign policy. Is "America first" actually working?

Also, how does the U.S. Navy lose a $60 million jet?

And what do Cyndi Lauper, the White Stripes, and Outkast have in common this morning?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC: OUTKAST, "HEY YA!")

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:13:27]

CORNISH: It's almost 15 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup.

Canadians have spoken. Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberal Party will stay in power after yesterday's elections. The vote was overshadowed by President Trump's tariffs and his calls to make Canada the 51st state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARNEY: We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Before President Trump started taking jabs at Canada, their Conservative Party had actually been leading in the polls. All that changed pretty quickly.

And a car crash through an after-school camp in Illinois. This killed four people, including children. The youngest is believed to be just four years old.

The state police say the driver was not injured but went to a hospital for evaluation.

In the meantime, the U.S. Navy has lost a $60 million jet. And you might be asking how. Well, it fell off an aircraft carrier and into the Red Sea.

It happened when the carrier made a hard turn to avoid fire from Houthi rebels. And that was according to a U.S. official.

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC: CYNDI LAUPER, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun")

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Girls are having fun this morning, because Cyndi Lauper is one of the 13 artists who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.

Others include the White Stripes, Outkast, and Chubby Checker. They will be formally honored in November.

Left off the list: nominees Mariah Carey and Oasis. I'm sure that's to come.

[06:15:02]

Still to come on CNN THIS MORNING, what to expect when you're not expecting. As birth rates fall all over the world, some governments are getting desperate to change that.

Plus, yet another escalation in President Trump's push for mass deportations. Ahead, how his latest executive order could lead to more local officials facing federal charges.

And good morning, Seattle, one of the cities that the White House could be targeting with that new executive order.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:19:47]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MYERS, HOST, NBC'S "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MYERS": The White House is reportedly considering ideas to boost the country's birth rate, including a $5,000 baby bonus for women. Five thousand dollars.

Do you know what it costs to raise a child? Five thousand dollars. That's like taking $1 off coupon to a Mercedes dealership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I want to go off script to talk about this growing movement. It's called pro-natalism, and it's the reason you hear about policies like a baby bonus.

I mean, the premise is simple. They want Americans to have more babies. The solution, of course, is not so simple.

Now, people from all walks of life, including the religious right, Silicon Valley, are involved in this movement to try and find ways to reverse the trend of declining birth rates.

And to be clear, it is not just the U.S. that is grappling with this.

So, I'm bringing in a guest from "The New Yorker," where they're diving into this in an article called "The End of Children." Gideon Lewis-Kraus, welcome to CNN THIS MORNING.

GIDEON LEWIS-KRAUS, "NEW YORKER": Thank you so much for having me, Audie.

CORNISH: So, I was shocked in your article to read that it's like Nepal, Albania. Like, there is no country that isn't dealing with a falling birth rate.

And just to be clear: is there a real decision or consensus about the cause?

LEWIS-KRAUS: No. Actually, not at all.

For a long time, people thought of this as an affliction of affluent countries: that people made more money, and they wanted to spend their money on consumption goods, and that there was less of an incentive to have children.

That may have been true until perhaps 20 years ago. But for the last two decades, that has no longer been true. It really is a universal phenomenon.

And you can find ways to, you know, give elaborate descriptions of these phenomena, in particular places.

CORNISH: Right.

LEWIS-KRAUS: But almost none of these descriptions generalize to other places. So --

CORNISH: The reason why --

LEWIS-KRAUS: You can always find some part of --

CORNISH: Oh, sorry.

LEWIS-KRAUS: -- of the cross-section that will fall.

CORNISH: The reason why --

LEWIS-KRAUS: You can always find a way to classify it.

CORNISH: OK. The reason why I'm asking is because several of these countries, whether it be Italy, whether it be Russia, they have given baby bonuses.

LEWIS-KRAUS: Yes.

CORNISH: They have, frankly, more paid leave. The U.S. does not have a mandated federal paid leave. Are there policies that work? And are you hearing any of those policies being raised by the Trump administration?

LEWIS-KRAUS: So, the general consensus among demographers seemed to be that, if you spend a truly staggering amount of money, you can raise the birth rate by perhaps a fifth of a baby per woman.

So, a place like France spends something like 5 percent of its GDP, and they're certainly higher than the OECD average, but they're lower than the replacement rate that you would need to keep a stable population.

But then again, Hungary spends 5 percent of their GDP, and their birth rate continues to fall.

So, so far -- and there are all sorts of different things that people have tried. People have tried matchmaking services. People have tried, you know, more normal-sounding things like subsidies and or extended parental leave, and attempts to change social norms around parenting, especially egalitarian parenting.

You know, it's become very common in Sweden for men to leave work at 2:30 to pick up their kids.

But no matter what you do, nothing seems to be reversing the trend.

CORNISH: Right.

LEWIS-KRAUS: There is not a single example of a company [SIC] that -- of a country that has fallen to ultra-low fertility and then managed to get back up to replacement.

CORNISH: So, people do consider this a problem. It's not just something, like, that on the right or population people are obsessed with.

In America, when we looked at polling, the reasons why Americans weren't having kids, top of the list was just "don't want children," right? It wasn't, like, "focus on career" and frankly, "state of the world."

"Can't afford it" was the fourth reason. It actually wasn't the first reason.

The reason why I bring this up is because people talk about this being it's either intrinsic -- you want to; it's cultural. Some of the leading pronatalist voices in this country have talked about this.

And here's what one of them had to say. She's somebody who has been kind of at the forefront of this movement. She's the founder of Pronatalist.org, Simone Collins. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMONE COLLINS, FOUNDER, PRONATALIST.ORG: Really, pronatalism is something that's endogenous. It comes from within. And if people don't feel internally and intrinsically motivated to have families, they're not going to do it. So don't force people. It doesn't work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, I want to hear your response to that, that like, there's not much you can do to make people want them. Is there anything you can do to make it easier when they do?

LEWIS-KRAUS: Well, I mean, I'm not sure she's -- she's totally true or correct about that. I mean, there there's a lot of research that shows that, like many other things, reproduction is a matter of social cues.

[06:25:06]

And that it's not that someone has a, you know, native desire to have a certain number of children; that the number of -- that the desire to have children does reflect the community that you're in, the number of children you see, the extent to which your neighborhood and your community feel child-friendly.

But getting back to your question about how everyone considers this a problem, that's not really true. I mean, it's very, very difficult to find a credible demographer who believes that the U.S. birthrate, around 1.6, represents anything close to a real problem.

I mean, these -- these are things that are, you know, America has historically been a high immigration country. That has helped keep our keep our population more or less stable. I mean, our fertility rate ranks, still, among the highest of OECD nations.

And that's not to say that it never can be a problem. I mean, I spent time reporting in South Korea, which has the lowest birth fertility rate in the world. And that's at the point where pretty much everyone across the political spectrum will say like, yes, this, this really is a problem.

And they've tried almost everything you can possibly imagine over the last 10 or 15 years. The government has spent a total of something like $250 billion on various initiatives, and it has done absolutely nothing.

CORNISH: All right. Gideon Lewis-Kraus, thank you so much for this context. He's a staff writer at "The New Yorker."

And coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, oh, Canada, rise and shine. It was one of the most consequential elections in decades for Canadians. What the prime minister is now saying about the growing pressure from President Trump.

Plus, it's been 100 days since the president took office. But why is that milestone so important? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]