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Trump: 'Maybe the Children Will Have Two Dolls Instead of 30'; The Difficulties of Dating in Today's Political Environment. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired May 01, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:05]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: That's going to do it for us here on EARLY START. Thank you for being with us. I'm Rahel Solomon here in New York. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now. I'll see you tomorrow.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, May 1. Here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. You know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Let them buy fewer dolls. President Trump plays defense and casts blame amid new signs that the economy is feeling the impact of his trade war.

Plus, signed, sealed and delivered. The United States and Ukraine reach an agreement to trade minerals for money. But will it help end Russia's war?

Also, was it a prank or was it a crime? Eleven members of a high school lacrosse team surrender to police after an incident that prosecutors say went, quote, "way beyond hazing."

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, CEO OF TESLA/ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP: You know, they say I wear a lot of hats.

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CORNISH: Elon Musk sounds like maybe he's done with DOGE, but could Tesla be done with him? The car company now denying reports it's started a search for a new CEO.

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a beautiful look at the Statue of Liberty. It's a brisk 50 degrees in New York. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for

joining us. And thank you for waking up with me.

President Trump's promise of an economic golden age is upon us, but it appears to be getting off to a slow start. And it's just a few months in.

New GDP numbers show the U.S. economy actually shrank to start the year by about 0.3 percent. And the stock market this week recorded its worst first hundred days of any presidential term since Gerald Ford took office in 1974.

The S&P 500 is down more than 7 percent since inauguration day.

Now, looming over all of this is the president's massive tariffs and his trade war with China. Some CEOs recently warned the president about the potential for empty shelves because of supply chain disruptions. Here's what he had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, somebody said, oh, the shelves are going to be open. Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. But we're not talking about something that we have to go out of our way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, we're going to take all this to the group chat. Joining us today, Jackie Kucinich, CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Boston Globe"; Stephen Collinson, CNN politics senior reporter; and Brittany Gibson, politics reporter at Axios.

OK, there's a couple things that were going on in terms of messaging. One, it was Biden's fault. And two, this kind of conversation about what Americans should get used to.

So, first, let's tackle that dolls thing, because it reminded me of something that the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said at this Economic Club of New York. I keep talking about it just even over and over again, where he was talking about sort of how he wants the economy to shift.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Access to cheap goods is not the asset, is not the essence of the American dream.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Stephen.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

CORNISH: Do we just need to get used to the fact that, yes, you're not going to have 30 of something. You'll have fewer of something. Maybe it's better quality.

COLLINSON: So, the president, with his remark about dolls, which is perhaps a little politically discordant, and Bessent with those comments there, they're making a fair point. And it's should we wean ourselves off of all these cheap Chinese goods that we've had for the last 20 or 30 years?

Is that very, you know, negative towards American industry and manufacturing? And the answer is probably yes.

But the problem with this, it's not just dolls. It's T-shirts. It's, like, the shoes that your kids always grow out of. And it costs so much money to replace them.

The whole middle-class life in the United States is reliant on these goods. And if you suddenly take them away without preparing the country, you're imposing a great financial cost on every American family.

So, yes, you can have this argument about rejigging the economy, but suddenly to do it just like that, it's a massive shock to everybody. And --

CORNISH: I know you've got littles. That's why you're nodding about the shoes?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, oh, my God, the struggle is real. And why are they so expensive? They're so small.

But -- but I mean, Steve's right. It goes beyond.

[06:05:04]

Also, small businesses, Etsy businesses, things that -- things that are -- that they get parts made in China. These are -- these are real people. These are real parts of the economy.

CORNISH: Yes. And they weren't ready for a full-on adjustment. After years of what people were concerned about with the Biden economy.

And so, to that point, Trump has been trying to say, oh, no, no, no, this is just a hangover from the Biden years. And in fact, maybe even the next couple of reports might be his fault, too. So, here's how he tried to explain that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This is Biden's economy, because we took over on January 20th, and I think you have to give us a little bit of time to get moving. But this is the Biden economy.

This is a quarter that we looked at today. And I took -- we took, all of us together. He came in on January 20th. So, this is Biden. And you could even say the next quarter is sort of Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: OK. So, this is not, like, exactly mapped. This is a little them having a little satire here. But I do think this is the defining image of the Trump economy so far that people know, which is like it's a red line, and it's down when he shows up.

So, Brittany, what is this conversation that he's trying to have with the American people saying, no, no, no, this is all tied to your previous concerns about high prices?

BRITTANY GIBSON, POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: I think it makes sense, and it lines up with what the president said on the campaign trail. And I think another piece of what he said to explain this is he told

everyone at almost every rally last year, I'm going to implement these tariffs. I'm going to do it against our biggest trading partners. Our three biggest trading partners are Mexico, Canada and China.

CORNISH: So, people shouldn't be shocked?

GIBSON: That's what his argument is. I think if you talk to Republican senators that support this on Capitol Hill, they'll say things like, well, should we be subsidizing this low-cost labor in China? You know, making an argument of it's not good for workers.

But senators that do oppose it -- and there are several Republican senators that do -- say that this is not within the president's power to impose this on people. It's not, you know, within his power to use these emergency authorities to ultimately raise prices.

CORNISH: Well, also --

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: Yes, exactly.

COLLINSON: You know, normally, a president would have that argument, because it takes time to turn around the economy.

But the president, Trump, stood up there in the Rose Garden with that big board, with all the tariffs on. And the day he did that, he claimed ownership of the economy.

And all of the factors that are playing into this growth report, which is slightly disappointing, they have been unleashed by his policies.

So, if he had just done nothing, the economy probably would have carried on --

CORNISH: Right.

COLLINSON: -- trundling on at 2.4 percent. But the reason it didn't was because of all these constant shocks and the blows to confidence --

CORNISH: And Truth Social posts.

COLLINSON: -- and the uncertainty that he's actually imposed on the economy.

CORNISH: OK. Which I'm going to leave with one more Truth Social post. It's actually from a year ago, when there had been, like, a good day on Wall Street.

And the president [SIC] was like, you know, feeling himself. And here's what he said then. Right? This is his stock market versus what he's saying now.

So, we'll see what this messaging continues to be.

Group chat, stay with me. We've got lots more to talk about, including the fact that there's going to be a new interview. CNN's Erin Burnett is going to interview Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors. How is Detroit responding to the president's on again, off again trade war?

That's going to be 8 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And also up ahead, the Supreme Court might be ready to rule in a way that could rock Americas school systems. Why the court's conservatives seem to be open to backing religious charter schools.

Plus, dating in the age of divided politics. Will a right-wing profile get you a quick left swipe or a partner for life?

And then hate to say I told you so. Kamala Harris steps back onto the stage with a message for voters.

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KAMALA HARRIS, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And straight talk. Things are probably going to get worse before they get better. But we are ready for it.

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

First, the Trump administration shipped off migrants to El Salvador. Now, sources tell CNN the administration is weighing options to send migrants with criminal records to Libya and Rwanda.

Those talks come as some detained Venezuelan migrants spelled out S.O.S. at a detention center in Texas. They're currently accused by the government of being gang members, and the Trump administration wants to send them to El Salvador. But the Supreme Court blocked that move.

Heavy flooding, severe storms for people in Oklahoma. That's triggering power outages and road closures. So, I want you to take a look at this, because the streets and

vehicles are submerged as first responders are trying to conduct water rescues.

At least two people were confirmed dead in the storms there. And Iowa students will be required to put away their cell phones in the classroom starting this fall.

A new state law orders public schools to come up with rules that limit phone use during instruction time. At least a dozen other states already ban or limit cell phones in class.

Still to come after the break, there's been a lot of talk about a recession, but are we actually in one? We're going to do a vibe check.

Plus, did you ever look at these two and wonder how'd they get together? Well, we're going to talk politics, dating and sometimes strange bedfellows.

Good morning, Chicago. It's 5:15 in the Windy City.

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[06:19:43]

CORNISH: OK. Today's assignment, I'm digging into the politics of dating because, you know, it's springtime and we're thinking about love.

But on OKCupid, more than a million people have, like, a "I'm pro- choice" badge on their profiles, right? Not just their regular bio information, about liking sunsets or whatever.

But if you live in a blue state, for example, being on the right could get you a quick left swipe on the apps. In fact, more than 70 percent of college-educated single women say they're less likely to date someone who supports President Trump. And that's from a report called "The Romantic Recession."

So, on this week's episode of "The Assignment," I was talking with Dr. Orna Guralnik. She's a psychoanalyst. She's also the star of Showtime's "Couples Therapy." And we talked about political polarization in the dating scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. ORNA GURALNIK, PSYCHOANALYST: The fabric of society has changed. I mean, it's -- we're -- we're in such a -- the last decade has been so fragmented in terms of society and like, what can you trust? Like whether you can trust the reality?

We're not sharing the same reality. Whether you can trust the government, that it's going to protect you, whether -- there's a way in which people have become a lot more fearful and suspicious.

And that, of course, affects their willingness to love and their willingness to be vulnerable and open themselves up to each other.

So, all of this creates a very different environment, let's say, than the environment I grew up in when I was like younger and starting to, like, get involved in romance. It's -- it's -- it's a complicated time for people.

CORNISH: Are they -- are they right to be?

GURALNIK: How can you separate your romantic relationships from the political context you're living in? If you're living in a political context in which you can't trust that your government is there to protect you, it's like living in a family in which the parents are not worrying about the well-being of their kids. You grow to be paranoid and self-protective.

It's harder. It's harder to extend vulnerability and care and love to each other.

So, are they right to be? Yes. It's -- it's tricky out there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: So, I had been hoping that she'd say love conquers all. And spoiler alert: that's not what happened.

I know during the break, I asked -- a lot of y'all are partnered, but how do you think about this moment? Because I also grew up with, like, James Carville and Mary Matalin. Like, the idea that there could be inter-political couples and opposites attract. And it was, like, not considered, I don't know, an elimination.

KUCINICH: It still -- I mean, I think we've all probably gone to weddings where the bride is Democrat, the groom is a Republican or vice versa.

CORNISH: Or someone's uncle is, at least.

KUCINICH: But even -- it was kind of a novelty. You know, even coming up when I did in D.C.

That said, I think this is a byproduct of just how siloed society has become. So, when people are growing up in areas where you're not meeting a lot of people who have different political views than you. And then all of a sudden, you go to college, you move to a new city, that -- that probably would be a culture shock.

I haven't been in the dating world for a really long time. I mean. But --

CORNISH: Yes. Brittany.

GIBSON: Yes, I was going to say I'm not actively dating, but you see it in D.C. right now, even just socially. There are bars in D.C. that are known as the Republican places to hang out. So, even if it's -- you're just meeting friends or you're dating and, you know, looking to chat someone up at the bar after work, there are certain neighborhoods or certain places you go where you know, this place. You know, Dirty Water leans Republican, or you know, this place in Columbia Heights leans Democrat. And it's kind of a -- just a known part of Washington, dc.

CORNISH: Speaking of which, it's not just Washington, because there's actually a conservative dating platform called Date Right Stuff. And here's what the executive had to say about this. She was talking about what it's like to date nowadays in general, how politics can come up in the first date.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAQUEL DEBONO, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, DATE RIGHT STUFF: Everything is different now. Now it's politics on the first date. Now before the first date, you have to ask sort of, like, lead-up questions. You know, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? You know, it's -- it's kind of like a soft launch towards the big, Did you vote for Trump?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Just to be clear, we also have the reviews from the app store for the first one. It has many stars, but more importantly, the top review, it says, "All real people and no libs," which is like, you know, you won't get catfished and you won't have to deal with a liberal.

Stephen, startlingly, you said that conceptually, you like the idea of apps.

COLLINSON: Yes, it would have been a lot easier when I was young. Yes.

CORNISH: So, you think. So you think. Why do you think that is?

COLLINSON: But I do think that this is something that, like, almost everything has become more extreme in the Trump era.

CORNISH: But shouldn't it be, like, looks or values or -- I don't even know? Just --

COLLINSON: I just tell my kids that don't condition your friendship circle just by looking for people who have the same political views as you, because then you miss out on a great deal of things in life.

I think that generally we don't talk to people who don't agree with us enough or read things or watch shows that don't --

CORNISH: The flip side is one of my producers said, if we don't share fundamental values --

COLLINSON: Right.

CORNISH: -- and if you think who you vote for is a reflection of your personal values -- that is going to make it harder.

[06:25:11] COLLINSON: Yes, I think it does. And everything is so tribal now that, you know, I guess there's always been, if you live in a Democratic city or a Republican town, you're more likely to end up with somebody that shares your political views.

But there used to be, I think, a lot more, you know, mixing.

CORNISH: It wasn't conditional, yes.

COLLINSON: And -- and everything now, in TV and culture, in -- I think sports is almost the only arena where people of different ideologies actually come together. If you go to an NFL game, for example, you get a real slice of society in a way that you don't if you go to some other pursuits.

CORNISH: Yes, apparently a bar in D.C.

You guys, if you want to talk more about this, if you want to hear more about this episode, "The Assignment" is out now. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

And group chat, stay with me. We've got a lot more to talk about.

Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, nearly a dozen high school lacrosse players surrendering to police over hazing allegations. Why the D.A. says this goes way beyond hazing.

Plus, what does Tesla have to say about reports that a search was on for a new CEO?

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